Late 2015 Retina 13" MBP resets after hard drive upgrade

[MBP*]

My factory SSD (256GB) started to give me booting issues last year and after much investigation I singled it out to the SSD at fault and replaced it with the following:

Transcend 960GB JetDrive 850 SSD (without Enclosure) for MacBook Air 11" and 13" (Mid 2013 – 2017), MacBook Pro Retina 13" and 15" (Late 2013 – Mid 2015) Up to 1600/1400 MB/s TS960GJDM850

This one has the same interface as the laptop so no adapter was needed like the M.2 interface, it was also a lot more expensive than the traditional SSDs, but as it was Mac advertised and decent brand I went for it.

Since installing it, I've constantly been finding that overnight or during long periods of time when I put the laptop to sleep after use by simply closing the lid, the laptop restarts randomly. When I log back in the OS tells me that an error occurred etc.

From my research I've found that this appears to be a common issue with the M.2 interface, but didn't realise that this SSD would have the same issue. I'm wondering whether there's anything I can do to resolve this, as the sleep function is quite important to how to interact with my laptop (I usually have lots of things open and thus can't shut it down each time after use).

 

[Audit13]

Which OS are you running on the MacBook?

Is the OS running hibernatemode=25?

All non-Apple SSDs are NVMe and the Transcend is not different. The advantage with the Transcend is that it has the right physical connect for the MacBook. The disadvantage is that it can't be re-purposed easily except in another MacBook.

 

[MBP*]

I am running Big Sur.

How do I find out about the hibernatemode=25?

 

[Audit13]

How to Sleep a Mac and Check Sleep Settings

Mac supports multiple methods of sleep. Some can extend battery life, while others can make entering and leaving sleep faster.

www.lifewire.com

 

[powaking]

Have you thought about using one of these adapters?

Edit: There is another adapter which someone had better success than the one mentioned above in this post.

 

[MBP*]

How to Sleep a Mac and Check Sleep Settings

Mac supports multiple methods of sleep. Some can extend battery life, while others can make entering and leaving sleep faster.

www.lifewire.com

mine is showing hibernatemode 3

 

[MBP*]

Have you thought about using one of these adapters?

Edit: There is another adapter which someone had better success than the one mentioned above in this post.

Not really looking to buy an adapter (one of the reasons I didn't go for the M2 interface which was much cheaper than the above SSD Transcend drive)

 

[Audit13]

mine is showing hibernatemode 3

What you've described in your original post is something that happens when the MacBook tries to enter safe sleep where the ram contents are worn to a page file when the battery level drops too low and is unable to read the page file when opening the lid.

Is there a firmware update for the SSD?

2015 MacBook Pros and Air work properly with sleep modes when using the adapter and NVMe drives since their firmware has the necessary NVMe drive in the bootrom.

 

[MBP*]

What you've described in your original post is something that happens when the MacBook tries to enter safe sleep where the ram contents are worn to a page file when the battery level drops too low and is unable to read the page file when opening the lid.

Is there a firmware update for the SSD?

2015 MacBook Pros and Air work properly with sleep modes when using the adapter and NVMe drives since their firmware has the necessary NVMe drive in the bootrom.

The battery is always charged when this occurs. I have noticed that this doesn't happen when the machine is plugged in and enters sleep mode. I definitely recall it happening far more when not plugged into the wall.

The firmware is up to date. Just installed the app.

Would changing it to hibernation mode 25 help? It also appears that it will converse the battery longer too which is always useful

 

[Audit13]

The battery is always charged when this occurs. I have noticed that this doesn't happen when the machine is plugged in and enters sleep mode. I definitely recall it happening far more when not plugged into the wall.

The firmware is up to date. Just installed the app.

Would changing it to hibernation mode 25 help? It also appears that it will converse the battery longer too which is always useful

You can try hibernate mode 25. With this mode, the ram contents are written to the internal drive and powers off. When the lid is open, the ram contents are restored from the drive's page file. You can tell the MacBook is being restored from a page file when you see the progress bar as the page file content is loaded.

 

[MBP*]

You can try hibernate mode 25. With this mode, the ram contents are written to the internal drive and powers off. When the lid is open, the ram contents are restored from the drive's page file. You can tell the MacBook is being restored from a page file when you see the progress bar as the page file content is loaded.

I switches to mode 25 last night, and it actually behaves the same way as if the machine was in the previous hibernate 3 setting and did its usual mid-sleep crash. When starting the machine whilst in hibernate 25, the Apple bar loads, but then its no different logging into a blank desktop, but this time the laptop recognises it may have crashed (although it technically didn't) and tries to re-open everything again.

I've now switched it to hibernate mode 0 to see if this helps. It seems to be designed for desktop machines, but its description on the website you linked to appears to be similar to 'safe sleep' except there is less chance of recovering data it seems.

 

[Audit13]

I switches to mode 25 last night, and it actually behaves the same way as if the machine was in the previous hibernate 3 setting and did its usual mid-sleep crash. When starting the machine whilst in hibernate 25, the Apple bar loads, but then its no different logging into a blank desktop, but this time the laptop recognises it may have crashed (although it technically didn't) and tries to re-open everything again.

I've now switched it to hibernate mode 0 to see if this helps. It seems to be designed for desktop machines, but its description on the website you linked to appears to be similar to 'safe sleep' except there is less chance of recovering data it seems.

I think it has something to do with the drive. I have used NVMe drives (HP ex900, Intel 600p, Intel 660p, Adata sx8200) in early 2015 13" Airs and none of them suffer from the sleep crash.

Hibernate mode 0 will prevent the laptop from entering standby or safe sleep which will cause higher battery drain.

 

[MBP*]

I may have to compromise, but will see how mode 0 works.

I think its interesting that this doesn't happen when plugged in. The drive is still under warranty, but also wondering whether OS may play a part in this too.

 

[Audit13]

I may have to compromise, but will see how mode 0 works.

I think its interesting that this doesn't happen when plugged in. The drive is still under warranty, but also wondering whether OS may play a part in this too.

Does the drive need a firmware update?

It's really the bootrom that needs to have the necessary driver to enable safe sleep.

 

[Fishrrman]

Why not just "power down" at night?

 

[MBP*]

Does the drive need a firmware update?

It's really the bootrom that needs to have the necessary driver to enable safe sleep.

The software says it doesn't. But I did get asked to allow security access but couldn't easily find the place to allow permissions so will give that a go again.

 

[MBP*]

Why not just "power down" at night?

The way I use my laptop means it'll take too long starting up again to get going. Too many applications and browser tabs open. Plus if the capability is there to instantly get going I would prefer to try and restore that if possible. In fact, 6 years ago when I moved to Mac, one of the deciding factors was how smooth the sleep and start up feature was at the time.

 

[Audit13]

The software says it doesn't. But I did get asked to allow security access but couldn't easily find the place to allow permissions so will give that a go again.

I wonder if it's just a drive issue. There are many users in this forum that have successfully used NVMe drives, adapter, and don't have kernel panics.

 

[MBP*]

I'm updating this for the sake of others who might stumble upon this in years to come.

I updated to mode 0 and left my laptop unplugged overnight, so far it looks like this may have resolved the issue. Had the hibernation setting been changed back, I'm sure it would have crashed in sleep mode by now as it had been doing. Battery usage in this mode appears to be much the same as before too. So for the moment, this is a step up from what I had been experiencing before.

Thanks Audit13, and all for the guidance.