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Is my SDD failing me?

M

mortenjensen

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 19, 2012
241
21
Hi all,
I have a nearly 2 year old samsung evo 840 500 gb ssd-drive, which has begun acting weird. Here are the symptoms:
- At times it takes forever to find stuff, the wheel spins.
- This is especially so when I work within my Fusion/windows-setup.
- When I scan my drive with First aid or what it is called in El Cap, I do get a message that something is not located correctly, and it needs repair.

But is there a way that I can check my drive even better before sending it in, which is a bit of a pain to do - and if there is no fault, I get to pay a penalty.

In old days, you could reformat HD-drives and then the location of clusters were good again.
Is there a way to repair SDD-drives?

Thanks for any suggestions as how to check it properly and maybe even to fix it.

Morten
 
mortenjensen said:
In old days, you could reformat HD-drives and then the location of clusters were good again.
Click to expand...
I'd recommend backing up your drive and reformatting/reinstalling. I don't think its a matter of dealing with good or bad clusters but maybe the issue is software or OS related and by reformatting and starting off fresh, you can see if that its that or the drive.

mortenjensen said:
Is there a way to repair SDD-drives?
Click to expand...
Various utilties are out there to repair the data, but there's nothing you can do to correct the physical ssd.
 
Do the above first. If it doesn't resolve it, you ether have a faulty SSD or a faulty SATA cable. To determine which, connect the SSD externally via USB or similar and boot from it there. If that works, it's your SATA cable.
 
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I've seen a number of posts here from folks who solved problems with flaky drive performance in MacBooks by replacing the hard drive ribbon cable.

Just something to consider.

One way to test for this problem would be to take the SSD -OUT OF- the MacBook, and run it for a few days from an external enclosure (USB3 enclosure would do). If the problems aren't there when booting and running externally, it would suggest the ribbon cable...
 
Thx, where do you buy a ribbon cable?

But, is there a way to find out for sure whether or not the actual drive is faulty?
 
thanks for the suggestions. Actually, I have a second hd in the DVD-bay. I guess, I could swop the two to check if the cable is faulty as well, right? I even think the second bay has the same transfer rate.

Would that not work as well?
Morten
 
mortenjensen said:
thanks for the suggestions. Actually, I have a second hd in the DVD-bay. I guess, I could swop the two to check if the cable is faulty as well, right? I even think the second bay has the same transfer rate.

Would that not work as well?
Morten
Click to expand...

It should do yes.
 
Fishrrman said:
with flaky drive performance in MacBooks by replacing the hard drive ribbon cable.
Click to expand...
Good point, now that you mentioned it, there has been a number reports of the cable failing. That's more likely the cause.
 
Did you update the newest Firmware for your Samsung 840 SSD and TrimEnabler ?

aside of the ribbon-cable issue upgrading Fw and TrimEnabler will help you also a lot.

Look at the threads about all this here in the forum.
 
You could run a little test to be certain that it is a ribbon cable failure.

There is an excellent video explaining WHY the cables fail sometimes, how to exchange and how to prevent further issues.


If the issue persists after doing this trick that does NOT prove absence, just in case of resolved problem after taping the ribbon cable proving the presence (!) of ribbon cable failure,. by doing this, it just might confirm the issue in a rapid way within some minutes.

Good luck

edit: I started a Thread with Tags and this video to make it easier to find help. Hope it´s ok for the Mods. So, everyone could add his own tips and experiences with such issues.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/a-very-good-video-about-ribbon-cable-issues….1954697/
 
Last edited:
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MrAverigeUser said:
Did you update the newest Firmware for your Samsung 840 SSD and TrimEnabler ?

aside of the ribbon-cable issue upgrading Fw and TrimEnabler will help you also a lot.

Look at the threads about all this here in the forum.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions:
- My trim enabler is up to date, though I haven't updated it to the Sensei-thing. So just the old trim enabler. That should be fine, right?
- But I have not updated the firmware for the 840. I can see there is new firmware available that is urgently needed: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9196/samsung-releases-second-840-evo-fix.

It seems that there are two 840 evos - the regular and the mSATA. Mine is called:
500 GB Samsung 840 EVO MZ-7TE500BW: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/MZ-7TE500BW

Would this be an mSATA - or what does that stand for (on the sheet, mine is listed as 2.5 SATAIII.

Thanks
Morten
[doublepost=1454743320][/doublepost]
JTToft said:
- Which exact model MacBook Pro do you have?
Click to expand...
MBP late 2011, 15inch, quod-core
[doublepost=1454743713][/doublepost]
MrAverigeUser said:
You could run a little test to be certain that it is a ribbon cable failure.

There is an excellent video explaining WHY the cables fail sometimes, how to exchange and how to prevent further issues.


If the issue persists after doing this trick that does NOT prove absence, just in case of resolved problem after taping the ribbon cable proving the presence (!) of ribbon cable failure,. by doing this, it just might confirm the issue in a rapid way within some minutes.

Good luck

edit: I started a Thread with Tags and this video to make it easier to find help. Hope it´s ok for the Mods. So, everyone could add his own tips and experiences with such issues.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/a-very-good-video-about-ribbon-cable-issues….1954697/
Click to expand...

Wow, this is a good tip!

One thing: I have some regular, plain isolation tape - the colored ones you buy i a hardware store - would that be suitable or is "electrical tape" something else?

Morten
 
mortenjensen said:
Thanks for the suggestions:
- My trim enabler is up to date, though I haven't updated it to the Sensei-thing. So just the old trim enabler. That should be fine, right?
Click to expand...

Look at the Website for TrimEnabler !
The sensei version is only for the later OSX-Versions. It depends what Version of OSX you are using. Look at the website with its clear advices.

mortenjensen said:
- But I have not updated the firmware for the 840. I can see there is new firmware available that is urgently needed: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9196/samsung-releases-second-840-evo-fix.

It seems that there are two 840 evos - the regular and the mSATA. Mine is called:
500 GB Samsung 840 EVO MZ-7TE500BW: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/MZ-7TE500BW

Would this be an mSATA - or what does that stand for (on the sheet, mine is listed as 2.5 SATAIII.
Click to expand...

If you are running a MBP 2011, it is the "normal" 840 EVO, NOT the m-type.
Firmware update on Mac is a little bit tricky, but easy if you follow the good recommendations.
The easiest way is the way I also found out - I linked a good and easy way someone found out by using a DVD-RW, also possible with any normal CD, CD-RW - luckily, you have still the inbuilt optical drive to use this method. Look at my questions about it and the following postings on the last pages of the long and interesting "Samsung 840 Thread" here in this forum. If you follow the "Chavez-Method" (he has published it in his blog) it is easy like eating chips…

IMPORTANT:
If you use other than US/EN or french keyboard, be aware of the fact that you have to tap on the main button which is in the US/EN/F keyboard the "Y" button to respond with "YES" for confirming the ask following step while you follow the running update-program.


mortenjensen said:
One thing: I have some regular, plain isolation tape - the colored ones you buy i a hardware store - would that be suitable or is "electrical tape" something else?
Morten
Click to expand...

Every electrical isolation tape will do the job.
BUT: It is clear, that this is more a sort of "first aid repair" and an excellent way to protect a NEW cable.
I´d recommend to ALWAYS exchange the cable ad mid-term, because a once failing cable can nevertheless fail later on again, depending on the degree of "shortcut" it has. Maybe it will do its job forever after the repair, maybe fail again without any chance of a second repair. If you accept this risk, it´s ok. But be aware of it. The cable costs about 40 EUR.
Make shure that it is the right ribbon cable for your MBP before purchasing it. The video explains perfectly how to exchange the cable.

good luck.
 
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thx for all the advice: now, I have searched the web for the correct ribbon cable without success. I live in Denmark and often sellers on Amazon.com will not ship to Europe. So I need an European shop or eBay. My MBP is:
- late 2011, 2.2 quad, labelled 8.2, MD318xx/A.

Would anyone know of a seller that ships to Europe?

Morten
 
mortenjensen said:
thx for all the advice: now, I have searched the web for the correct ribbon cable without success. I live in Denmark and often sellers on Amazon.com will not ship to Europe. So I need an European shop or eBay. My MBP is:
- late 2011, 2.2 quad, labelled 8.2, MD318xx/A.

Would anyone know of a seller that ships to Europe?

Morten
Click to expand...

Here is a link to SATA cables. https://www.ifixit.com/Search?query=macbook pro sata cable
Not sure if they ship to where you are or not.
 
mortenjensen said:
MBP late 2011, 15inch, quod-core
Click to expand...
- In that case, substituting the SSD for the HDD in your optical bay won't be a good test for whether something is wrong with the SSD. 2011s have a wobbly SATA connection in the optical bay for SATA III drives. So if it doesn't function there (which it likely won't because of this), you haven't really learned anything.

mortenjensen said:
Unfortunately, it is out of stock at ifixit-us and not in the sortiment in the European shop: https://eustore.ifixit.com/en/Parts/MacBook-Parts/Macbook-Pro/15/Unibody/Late-2011/.

Any links to Chinese sellers? miniinthebox e.g.?
Click to expand...
- We needn't even look outside the country. Of course, you'll have to tolerate the steep domestic prices, but here:

New.
Used.
 
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