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MBP won't boot from SSD?

W

williemyers

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 1, 2009
18
0
hi again, all!
I'm really frustrated with this one. My old Macbook Pro died last week, but I was able to save the new SSD (PNY 240GB) out of it. I found what appears to be a nice refurb, which is a MBP 15" late 2011, with a 500 GB HD. My thinking was that I would simply switch out my SSD with the internal HD and I would be flying!

Didn't happen - - when I try to boot from the SSD, I get about 30% progress, then it hangs, then the Apple changes to a slashed circle and it all stops right there. And I've reset PRAM and SMC...no difference.

I would've assumed that the SSD had a problem, *but* I've plugged the SSD in to a MacPro and mini and both boot & run just fine.
*And*, if I put the SSD in to a USB caddy and plug it in to the new MBP, *that* boots & runs just fine! It's only when the SSD is installed in the MBP that things fail.

The vendor is saying, back it up, wipe it out, reinstall all, try it again.
But. c'mon, isn't that a "solution" that we've all heard a 1000 times, when someone really has no idea what's really causing the problem?

So, before I send this MBP back to the vendor, it would be great if any/all of you could offer suggestions on what might be causing this MBP to not accept this SSD?

many thanks in advance
 
williemyers said:
hi again, all!
I'm really frustrated with this one. My old Macbook Pro died last week, but I was able to save the new SSD (PNY 240GB) out of it. I found what appears to be a nice refurb, which is a MBP 15" late 2011, with a 500 GB HD. My thinking was that I would simply switch out my SSD with the internal HD and I would be flying!

Didn't happen - - when I try to boot from the SSD, I get about 30% progress, then it hangs, then the Apple changes to a slashed circle and it all stops right there. And I've reset PRAM and SMC...no difference.

I would've assumed that the SSD had a problem, *but* I've plugged the SSD in to a MacPro and mini and both boot & run just fine.
*And*, if I put the SSD in to a USB caddy and plug it in to the new MBP, *that* boots & runs just fine! It's only when the SSD is installed in the MBP that things fail.

The vendor is saying, back it up, wipe it out, reinstall all, try it again.
But. c'mon, isn't that a "solution" that we've all heard a 1000 times, when someone really has no idea what's really causing the problem?

So, before I send this MBP back to the vendor, it would be great if any/all of you could offer suggestions on what might be causing this MBP to not accept this SSD?

many thanks in advance
Click to expand...

MBP's have a dodgy SATA cable. It happens more often on the 13" but I wouldn't rule that out in your case.

It's a cheap and easy fix. ifixit.com should have the part you need.
 
snaky69 said:
MBP's have a dodgy SATA cable. It happens more often on the 13" but I wouldn't rule that out in your case.

It's a cheap and easy fix. ifixit.com should have the part you need.
Click to expand...
man, thanks for that really quick answer! greatly appreciated!

but one further question, though.... If the SATA cable was having a problem allowing the SSD not to boot, wouldn't it also have a problem with the 500 GB HD? (which it doesn't).
 
williemyers said:
man, thanks for that really quick answer! greatly appreciated!

but one further question, though.... If the SATA cable was having a problem allowing the SSD not to boot, wouldn't it also have a problem with the 500 GB HD? (which it doesn't).
Click to expand...
That's actually pretty typical of the problem. You can do a quick search of the forums for it you're going to find a lot of reports similar to yours.
 
hey man,many thanks again!
I solved it!! It was Trim Enabler that I had turned on - and needed to be turned off, at least until I learn a bit more about it. Anyway, I turned it off and the MBP booted from teh SSD on the 1st try!
thanks again for your assistance
 
williemyers said:
hey man,many thanks again!
I solved it!! It was Trim Enabler that I had turned on - and needed to be turned off, at least until I learn a bit more about it. Anyway, I turned it off and the MBP booted from teh SSD on the 1st try!
thanks again for your assistance
Click to expand...

That's odd, I'm using it and it never gave me trouble, wouldn't have thought this was a possibility.

Nice to know!
 
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