Help! Macbook Pro 8,1 doesn't accept (OWC) SSD anymore

[Andretti]

Hi, My Macbook Pro 8,1 (early 2011) El Capitan 10.11.3 all updates done, worked fine for 9 months, with an OWC Electra 6GB (240 GB), then it sort of stopped working, testing very slow speeds.

At first I thougt it was the Mac that needed replacing, but meanwhile my thoughts about that have changed,
but I am in the dark about whats going on.

I was send a new 6 GB SSD and got the following results:

After intallation in the Macbook Pro:

Internet recovery not possible
Clean OS via USB stick not possible
Connected as Hard drive via Thunderbolt to my iMac => very slow speed (Black Magic)

After placing it in an external dock, connected via Firewire:

Clean OS via USB stick succeeds, Macbook Pro will run via external SSD

Installing the SSD with the clean OS in the Macbook => Macbook Pro doesn't run (very slow and gets stuck)

I was send an Electra 3GB because the idea was that this Mac is the first to be able to have 6GB disk and that might be the problem (although it worked fine for 9 months..)

The Electra 3 GB has the exact same behaviour in my Macbook Pro.

All disks tested fine in Drive DX

So why do I think my Macbook Pro isn't broken?

My Mac still works fine with the original 320 GB SSD!

BTW; I have done SMC and VRAMM (PRAMM?) resets.

Only thing noticeably wrong with the Macbook Pro is that USB port farthest away doesn't work any more (for over a year)

I'm really stuck, so help is appriciated!

 

[JTToft]

You have a faulty internal SATA cable which is causing the unreliable behaviour.

Get a new one from here: https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/Ma...y-2011-Late-2011-Hard-Drive-Cable/IF163-026-1

 

[Andretti]

You have a faulty internal SATA cable which is causing the unreliable behaviour.

Get a new one from here: https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/Ma...y-2011-Late-2011-Hard-Drive-Cable/IF163-026-1

Thanks for your reply! before spending the money.. Doen't it seem odd that the original SSD works fine?

 

[DeltaMac]

Didn't you say in your first post that the original SSD stopped working properly?
Or, did you mean to say the original hard drive still works internally?
The SATA cable will sometimes fail partly, and a spinning hard drive will be OK, but an SSD will give problems (probably can't handle the higher data flow of the SSD, but an HDD may still work OK)
The SATA cable is, by far, the cheapest thing to try for now.

 

[Andretti]

Didn't you say in your first post that the original SSD stopped working properly?
Or, did you mean to say the original hard drive still works internally?
The SATA cable will sometimes fail partly, and a spinning hard drive will be OK, but an SSD will give problems (probably can't handle the higher data flow of the SSD, but an HDD may still work OK)
The SATA cable is, by far, the cheapest thing to try for now.

Short answers for a long question Yes it came with an HDD and that one still works fine. The SSD that replaced the original HDD worked for 9 months. So nothing to do but follow the advice from you both I guess..!

Edit: I wish I posted sooner :-( A lot of Amazon buyer reviews with this issue resolved with a new cable. Thanks!

 

[JTToft]

Short answers for a long question Yes it came with an HDD and that one still works fine. The SSD that replaced the original HDD worked for 9 months. So nothing to do but follow the advice from you both I guess..!

Edit: I wish I posted sooner :-( A lot of Amazon buyer reviews with this issue resolved with a new cable. Thanks!

- So you meant to say that it still works fine with the original 320 GB hard drive, not an original 320 GB SSD?

If so, that makes the SATA cable an even likelier culprit, since, as mentioned, it's very common that faulty ones work fine with old-fashioned hard drives but don't with SSDs.

 

[throAU]

Never mind, mis-read and didn't see you got a new SSD.

 

[Andretti]

- So you meant to say that it still works fine with the original 320 GB hard drive, not an original 320 GB SSD?

If so, that makes the SATA cable an even likelier culprit, since, as mentioned, it's very common that faulty ones work fine with old-fashioned hard drives but don't with SSDs.

Thanks just ordered a cable, new screws (been screwing and unscrewing a lot..) and new happy feet

Just keeps me wondering if the first SSD was still allright and all I needed was the new cable..

 

[JTToft]

Thanks just ordered a cable, new screws (been screwing and unscrewing a lot..) and new happy feet

Just keeps me wondering if the first SSD was still allright and all I needed was the new cable..

- I'd say the first SSD was probably perfectly fine, yes.
Let us know how it goes.

 

[XboxMySocks]

Yep, especially if you have taken that SSD out a number of times, the SATA cable is SUPER finicky and likes to stop working after pretty minor manhandling in my experience.

 

[Andretti]

Thanks! I have placed a new SATA cable and issues are resolved! Im stuck wit a 3GB SSD in stead of 6GB but at least my Macbook Pro is good to go again, standing glorious on 4 new rubber feet!

 

[JTToft]

Thanks! I have placed a new SATA cable and issues are resolved! Im stuck wit a 3GB SSD in stead of 6GB but at least my Macbook Pro is good to go again, standing glorious on 4 new rubber feet!

- Good to hear. I'm quite sure OWC would exchange it back to a 6G drive if you ask them.