Corsair Force LE SSD Incompatible in Some MBP models

[MacInTO]

I have a Corsair Force LE 480GB SSD.

I originally installed it in a 2011 13" MBP i7 2.8 and it works fine. I also tried it in a 2012 13" and 15" MBP and it worked fine in these machines.

I tried it in a 2008 to 2010 MBP - not every model but lots of 13" and some 15" MBP. The Corsair SSD did not work in any of these machines. It would start the boot process and then after some time crash.

Afterwards, I put in a Samsung 850 PRO 1TB SSD in the 2008 to 2012 MBP and it worked in all of these machines. I did this because I wanted to rule out the SATA drive cable which seem to fail.

This leads me to believe that it is the Corsair drive that is at fault here.

I contacted Corsair support and the asked me to reformat the drive as 'MBR'. I've yet to do that.


Has anyone out there had the same experience with Corsair or other drives?

 

[VAGDesign]

I have this exact model on my 15" MBP Early 2011 and works fine.

 

[NathanA]

I contacted Corsair support and the asked me to reformat the drive as 'MBR'. I've yet to do that.

Hahahahaha wait what? OS X cannot boot off of an MBR partition scheme on an Intel Mac. Has to be GPT. And if it is working in other MacBooks, then your partitioning/"formatting" (sic) is fine. In other words, don't waste your time, and Corsair support needs to go back to the drawing board.

IIRC, doesn't 2008-2010 correspond roughly with the period of time where Apple was using nVidia Nforce chipsets in their laptops instead of Intel chipsets? Maybe the Nforce SATA controller doesn't like something about that SSD. Are there any firmware updates available for your SSD?

I have this exact model on my 15" MBP Early 2011 and works fine.

...the original poster ALSO has no problem using his in a 2011. He said so at the start of his post. The problem appears to occur in machines manufactured between 2008-2010.

-- Nathan

 

[tubeexperience]

Well, it is most unfortunate that you are having trouble with a Corsair Force LE 480GB SSD.

Since I don't have one, you need'll to mail it to me so that I can verify the issue.

 

[VAGDesign]

...the original poster ALSO has no problem using his in a 2011. He said so at the start of his post. The problem appears to occur in machines manufactured between 2008-2010.

I can read, thanks. A second assurance isn't bad. If you have problem with that, please report me to the mods or ask OP to report me...

 

[MacInTO]

Hahahahaha wait what? OS X cannot boot off of an MBR partition scheme on an Intel Mac. Has to be GPT. And if it is working in other MacBooks, then your partitioning/"formatting" (sic) is fine. In other words, don't waste your time, and Corsair support needs to go back to the drawing board.

IIRC, doesn't 2008-2010 correspond roughly with the period of time where Apple was using nVidia Nforce chipsets in their laptops instead of Intel chipsets? Maybe the Nforce SATA controller doesn't like something about that SSD. Are there any firmware updates available for your SSD?

Thanks. I had no idea what MBR was. I've formatted all of my drives as GUID and they all work fine. If there were any firmware updates, I assume tech support would have suggested it. This drive was release at the start of this year so I imagine it is up to date.

I'm not familiar with the specifics of the SATA chipset, but you're probably correct and this may be the root of the problem.

 

[NathanA]

I can read, thanks. A second assurance isn't bad. If you have problem with that, please report me to the mods or ask OP to report me...

My apologies; it's hard to tell who can and cannot read these days. Since you did not say that "I have this exact model...and it also works fine," to me your post read more as "well, the same drive works for me, sooo...don't know what to tell you."

I'm not familiar with the specifics of the SATA chipset, but you're probably correct and this may be the root of the problem.

I did some Googling, and found both an interesting thread as well as an interesting blog post about this topic, though with that discussion thread, it becomes hard to sort out who is actually having problems due to host chipset + driver controller incompatibilities, and who is suffering from some other unrelated problem(s). In any case, there does appear to be some smoke surrounding the possibility of SSD problems with nVidia SATA host controllers, at least in Macs of that vintage, with most symptoms being merely that the drive and the host will not negotiate anything faster than SATA-I, but apparently others have experienced more severe issues, such as failure to boot (for unexplained reasons).

-- Nathan

 

[JTToft]

I can attest to the fact that the Kingston V300 negotiates at SATA I in a SATA II MCP79 machine. I believe this is also the case with the SanDisk Ultra II.

To me, it's another reason not to venture outside Samsung and Crucial.

 

[MacInTO]

I did some Googling, and found both an interesting thread as well as an interesting blog post about this topic, though with that discussion thread, it becomes hard to sort out who is actually having problems due to host chipset + driver controller incompatibilities, and who is suffering from some other unrelated problem(s). In any case, there does appear to be some smoke surrounding the possibility of SSD problems with nVidia SATA host controllers, at least in Macs of that vintage, with most symptoms being merely that the drive and the host will not negotiate anything faster than SATA-I, but apparently others have experienced more severe issues, such as failure to boot (for unexplained reasons).

-- Nathan

Thanks for the links! I found some other links about some drives not working, but not the cause. These are great!

I can attest to the fact that the Kingston V300 negotiates at SATA I in a SATA II MCP79 machine. I believe this is also the case with the SanDisk Ultra II.

To me, it's another reason not to venture outside Samsung and Crucial.

I have a SanDisk Ultra II but haven't used it yet, but will likely use it in my 2012 so it won't be an issue.

It's all a PITA because I want to use an older/slower machine and can't. It should be compatible, but isn't.

 

[MacInTO]

Hahahahaha wait what? OS X cannot boot off of an MBR partition scheme on an Intel Mac. Has to be GPT. And if it is working in other MacBooks, then your partitioning/"formatting" (sic) is fine. In other words, don't waste your time, and Corsair support needs to go back to the drawing board.

Here's what they wrote back with,

We have tried it various ways. If you're having any issues with the drive not starting in a GUID PM then I would recommend you do switch to MBR.

 

[Weaselboy]

Here's what they wrote back with,

Nathan is spot on and the Corsair tech support people are mistaken. An Intel Mac is not going to boot from a MBR partition. It needs to be GPT (GUID).

 

[NathanA]

...the Corsair tech support people are mistaken.

It's almost like they don't know anything about Macs!

-- Nathan