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Adapter Melt Down

S

sawpits

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 28, 2014
174
71
So a few months back I successfully installed a mSATA in my 15-inch PowerBook 1.67 GHz DLSD and things are fine. Then I decided that the HDD in my non DLSD 15-inch 1.67GHz needed to be replaced and this time I purchased a NVMe M.2 and adapter. Today I took the PowerBook apart, installed the device. Went to do what had to be done to get things working when a nasty odor emanated from the laptop. That smell of melting plastic from electronics. Took the PowerBook apart and I could see the top of the adapter had a melted spot on top. Took the adapter apart and a chip on the adapter looks like it overheated, there is a melted spot on it, and melted the cover of the adapter above it.


I just hope that everything else including the drive is okay and am looking to order a new adapter.
 
Regardless of what else is going on with your adapters an NVMe drive will NOT work in a PB G4.

M.2 is a physical interface spec, it only defines the size and location of pins etc. Not their electrical spec, as there are SATA and AHCI and NVMe blades that all use the M.2 connector, the later 2 actually communicate via PCIe not SATA hence the incompatibility.


SATA -> IDE bridge adapters exist and work (as you’ve found) but there is no such bridge adapter for NVMe/PCIe that I’m aware of, and the PB will not be able to commune with an NVMe drive natively so would need a bridge of some kind and I think the protocols are too dissimilar for it to ever be done, unlike SATA->IDE which is essentially just a serial to parallel adapter for a very similar underlying protocol.
 
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sawpits said:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/M-2-NGFF-SATA-SSD-to-2-5-IDE-44pin-Converter-Adapter-with-Case-Black/123459365354?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
Click to expand...
Did you put the cover on the adapter or use it without it? NGFF SSDs tend to be veeery hot compared to "regular" SSDs and need airflow, may it even be just a bit. I'd never put such a device inside a cover... combine the heat of the SSD and the onboard controllers of the converter and you get a nuklear thermal meltdown :D
 
amagichnich said:
Did you put the cover on the adapter or use it without it? NGFF SSDs tend to be veeery hot compared to "regular" SSDs and need airflow, may it even be just a bit. I'd never put such a device inside a cover... combine the heat of the SSD and the onboard controllers of the converter and you get a nuklear thermal meltdown :D
Click to expand...

As I said in the OP the cover had a melted spot on it when I took the thing apart again.
 
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