A1708 SSD upgrade - 3rd time???

[gkinsella1]

I have a MacBook Pro A1708 (no Touch Bar) w/ 128GB ssd. In 2021 I upgraded to Sabrent 1TB w/ NFHK adapter. This worked fine except for the battery drain issue. Battery would be drained every day or two even if not used. I finally couldn't take it anymore and in 2023 bought a used genuine apple 512GB drive. This worked perfectly for about a year and then I started getting the Kernel panic NVME. Disk Utility didn't find any issues with the drive. I tried resetting NVM, reinstalling OS, getting rid of bootcamp, etc. but nothing helped. Finally reinstalled my 128GB and everything is fine except I have no disk space. :-(

So now I have 3 options
1) buy another 3rd party SSD
2) buy another used Apple SSD
3) buy another laptop

My preference is #1 but not sure if the battery drain issue has been solved and haven't been able to find any clear answers.
Has anyone installed a 3rd party 512GB+ SSD and NOT experienced battery drain or other issues?

 

[Fishrrman]

At 7 years old, might be time to start thinking "replacement".
Right now, there are very good prices on the MacBook Pro m3 and m3pro models...

 

[gkinsella1]

I know, right!
But then I also think, it’s still such a good device if the disk drive just worked. If there aren’t any good aftermarket alternatives that’s probably what I’ll do.

 

[rb2112]

I know you got rid of bootcamp. Did you completely erase the drive? I had done something similar (sorry no battery issues) on A1286 but on OS X 10.15 it would occasionally crash with Windows blue screen!....after I had removed bootcamp and reinstalled OS numerous times. Recently I removed that drive (860 Pro) and completely wiped it (took a few hours), then new install, no issues in the past coupla months. You may try to wipe that 512GB completely / securely, then fresh install. Good luck. No need to get rid of a good device, hopefully.

 

[gkinsella1]

Yes, I did completely erase drive using Disk Utility, repartition and reinstall OS. ☹️

 

[shadowboi]

My preference is #1 but not sure if the battery drain issue has been solved and haven't been able to find any clear answers.

This. Maybe shoot for 256GB instead? Those are dirt cheap nowadays.

I am myself running old iMac off usb3.0 connected Samsung SSD.

Btw SSD brand matters a lot too. My recommendations: Goodram (Wilk Electronik, a quality Polish brand), Samsung and Apacer.

I am not sure what can cause battery drain, maybe battery isn’t so good itself? Batteries can be very tricky, I have Sony Ericsson phone lying around with 16 years old battery that is so very slightly pillowed but still holds charge for more than two days on standby and I have a 6s with totally dead battery in just 4 years, battery manufacturer, brand and build quality matters a lot.

Also, do not forget about the fact that installing macOS updates can cause battery drain too. People report going from one large update to another and having 2hrs less battery life. After all, all the new “Intelligence” features suck up a lot of resources

 

[rb2112]

Yes, I did completely erase drive using Disk Utility, repartition and reinstall OS. ☹️

I had done this in the past, keeping the drive inside the laptop. But this last time, I took the drive out and used another computer to do the reformat via USB. I'm not saying that is 100% why it has worked perfectly since. But the fact is (in the few months since I have done that) I have NOT experienced those crashes showing BSOD from some ghost bootcamp install. (fingers crossed). It may be worth a try to remove your drive and use another computer to wipe it. Good luck!