Late 2013 Retina 13" MBP won't recognize any SSD

[Vuhoo]

I'm attempting to fix a late 2013 retina 13" MBP for a coworker. They brought it to me because on boot it wasn't recognizing the internal drive. In recovery, disk utility cannot find the drive either. I opened the case, reseated the SSD, turned it on and it booted up to their login screen. I didn't have their password to login, so I just shut it down and when I brought it back to them the next day it was unable to boot again. I've reset the NVRAM and SMC and no luck. I haven't been able to get it to boot since.

I was hoping for a quick fix using an M.2 NVMe SSD, but they have never updated their OS from Mavericks, so that's out of the picture. The SSD in the MBP is a Sandisk, but I bought an original 12+16 SSD on ebay that is a Samsung. That is not showing up in disk utility either. I took the original SSD and put it in an early 2015 MBP, and it boots up fine to their login, so the SSD is not the issue. The 2015 MBP recognizes both drives just fine. I was able to use recovery to install Mavericks to a USB drive and boot from it, but otherwise, no luck in recognizing the internal drive. I also put the Catalina installer on a USB and disk utility there also does not recognize the drive.

Is there a chance that specifically the SSD connector in the 2013 MBP is faulty? If so are there any options other than replacing the logic board? I haven't been able to find anything online related to this specific problem, as I thought most logic board problems won't allow booting from anything at all.

 

[Vuhoo]

Bumping this, still in the same boat currently. Does anyone have and ideas?

 

[Audit13]

Since the SSD is recognised in another MacBook, it's possible that there's an issue with the logic board.

Has the MacBook been dropped or exposed to moisture?

 

[Vuhoo]

Since the SSD is recognised in another MacBook, it's possible that there's an issue with the logic board.

Has the MacBook been dropped or exposed to moisture?

Can't be sure on that. From what they have told me, the MacBook hasn't been used for a couple of years and has sat around. Upon opening the bottom case I did see a lot more dust inside than usual. I may try taking it apart totally and reseating everything.

 

[Audit13]

If you do take it apart, be sure to have some pure isopropyl alcohol on hand to remove any dried residue.

I hope you are able to revive the MacBook. I have the same unit and it's working fine with Big Sur for email, Internet, and office apps.