Well then, I am at a loss as well.
Hopefully someone else will have an idea of what to try.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The Samsung 840/840 Pro SSD thread
- Thread starter Hexley
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Well then, I am at a loss as well.
Hopefully someone else will have an idea of what to try.
When does the message about "no bootable drive" come up? Are you still at the Mac OS X boot selection screen, or has the screen gone black while displaying the FREEDOS message?
Do you have any peripherals plugged in to your computer, particularly external hard drives? I'd unplug everything and then try it.
Yes, good point! Ultramontanist, do that and also make sure you don't have any secondary drives (SSD or HDD) plugged into the SATA bus; just the 840 only.
I had the same problem when I tried to upgrade my Samsung 840 inside my brand-new MacBook Pro. I just could not perform the upgrade, nothing I did or tried worked. Surprisingly, the same SSD upgraded without any issues when installed inside a 2008 iMac (where it now lives).
I think the Superdrive inside the MacBook Pro might be a little picky about the media that is inserted in it. I suspect that another brand of optical media might have done the trick, but I tried two different brands without luck. I wasn't about to go and buy a third brand.
I think the Superdrive inside the MacBook Pro might be a little picky about the media that is inserted in it. I suspect that another brand of optical media might have done the trick, but I tried two different brands without luck. I wasn't about to go and buy a third brand.
I've been using the Samsung 840 series in my 15" Mid 2010 MBP since Samsung released them. I'm very pleased to report it's been extremely fast, reliable, and free of any annoyances.
It blows away my new late 2012 15" MacBook Pro Retina when talking startup times 3.5 sec. vs. 9.1 sec. And shutdown times of 2.8 sec. vs. 20.2 sec.
I am running 10.8.3 on the MBPr & 10.6.8 on the MBPc. Both SSD's are 512GB, with each running 8GB ram & the same software / app images.
Not a complaint, simply an observation. Rarely are they shut down anyway.
It blows away my new late 2012 15" MacBook Pro Retina when talking startup times 3.5 sec. vs. 9.1 sec. And shutdown times of 2.8 sec. vs. 20.2 sec.
I am running 10.8.3 on the MBPr & 10.6.8 on the MBPc. Both SSD's are 512GB, with each running 8GB ram & the same software / app images.
Not a complaint, simply an observation. Rarely are they shut down anyway.
I have nothing plugged in to the MacBook. Regarding the screen, it comes up after I select the disk to boot to. I select the disk and then it processes for a bit and goes black with the message about no bootable drive. Could it possibly be the brand of cd like was suggested? What brand did those of you who had success use? Thanks again.
Maybe... but one final thought. The Samsung download page has firmware listed for Windows separately from Mac (even the ISOs), and it also lists the 840 separately from the 840 Pro. Did you download the Mac version, and are you certain that you downloaded the firmware for the 840?
That's what I have been using...huh.
Yeah, I had thought of that myself, that maybe I downloaded the wrong firmware by accident, but nope, I was very careful last time to make sure I picked the Mac ISO for the 840 basic. I don't know. I'll try a few more times, maybe with another brand of CD too. There's no setting or something in the burning process that I'm missing is there? If I can't update the firmware are their any real ill effects? Thanks again to everyone for all the help.
One thought...burn the .iso image on a different machine.
I've seen strange synergistic issues with the "SuperDrive" which often defy logic.
chmodme
I take that back; I just looked and the CD-R I was using was a Sony 700MB CD-R.
In addition to what chmodme wrote above, if you can, try putting the SSD into a different computer to update it.
Two 840s (TLC), one in the main bay and one in an Optibay, in a mid-2009 MacBook Pro 5,4 with the 1.7 firmware update, which allows for SATA 2 speeds: and the good news is that it negotiates at 3 Gbps in both bays, also the ex optical one; and also no beachballs, sofar: very good, indeed!
----------
Both SSDs required a firmware update, which worked perfectly with the downloadable ISO CD method, both from the internal optical drive and the same drive moved to the external USB enclosure included with the Optibay: so, the downloadable DOS CD updater works also from a USB connection, which is very good; rather excellent support from Samsung also for (older) Macs, thus.
----------
Both SSDs required a firmware update, which worked perfectly with the downloadable ISO CD method, both from the internal optical drive and the same drive moved to the external USB enclosure included with the Optibay: so, the downloadable DOS CD updater works also from a USB connection, which is very good; rather excellent support from Samsung also for (older) Macs, thus.
FWIW: I used a Memorex CD-R to update the firmware on the 840 Pro installed in a late 2011 MacBook Pro, after reinstalling the optical drive inside the computer again to allow it to boot. Update went without any problems.
I did the same process as described previously to make the CD-R ... so no idea why it isn't working for him.
-howard
I did the same process as described previously to make the CD-R ... so no idea why it isn't working for him.
-howard
Ok, so I tried burning the ISO in my old Thinkpad hoping that might work, but got the same result. So, if I take out the drive can I just put it in an external enclosure and update it from my Thinkpad using the windows update firmware? Do I have to put it in the actual laptop? Will the drive be wiped at all, will I need to reformat, etc. when I reinstall in the cMBP? Sorry for the ignorance, just not very computer savvy. Thanks again for all the help. I really cannot understand why this isn't working.
I don't know about updating it from Windows since I don't have any experience with that (yet). But I think no matter what, in order to update it, it must be on the SATA bus of a computer and not connected externally. So yes you'd have to install it inside the Toshiba.
As with any upgrade or update, you should always have good backups of your data before proceeding. You just never know.
You should be able to swap the SSF between machines without worry for your data, as long as you're using a bootable disc. However if you let the Toshiba boot to the SSD, it will probably give you a disk error because it won't understand OS X on it.
Does the CD you burned (any of them) boot to the standalone update environment on the Thinkpad?
Haven't tried that and I'm not home with the computer, but I will give that a try.
----------
Thanks for the help and info.
Question; if I try to update in my ThinkPad do I download the Windows version or the Mac version of the firmware? Thanks.
I would say the Windows version which probably is geared to use the BIOS of the PC.
Does the "Windows version" simply perform the update in the host Windows environment, as opposed to the "Mac version" which loads and creates a standalone Windows/linux? update environment without regard to the host OS?
So, the Samsung 840 (Pro), working perfectly at 3 Gbps also in the optical bay, contradicts what they say about this problem for some older MacBook Pro's on the OWC site:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB
... at the end of the page:
2008 MacBook Pro 15" (MacBookPro 5,1; 5,2; 5,3; 5,4; 5,5 and MacBook 5,1)
While a 6G SSD does function in a 2008 MacBook Pro 15" and 13" Macbook, it will only do so at SATA Revision 1.0 (1.5Gb/s) speeds rather that the SATA Revision 2.0 (3.0Gb/s) speed the machine can deliver. Should owners of these machines desire another SSD option, the Mercury Electra™ 3G SSD does run at the full SATA Revision 2.0 (3Gb/s) specification.
The Samsung 840 (Pro) is indeed a 6G drive, but negotiates perfectly at 3G also in the optical bay, at least on the MacBook Pro 5,4 (which is a mid-2009, while on their site they say only 2008 for all those models).
The Optibay that I used is from MCE: apparently, the latest one, with the four lateral screws to support the HD/SSD (and, thus, no top/bottom plate: i.e., transparent at the centre, so to speak...).
Just FYI...
Last edited:
Ok, so I have a bit of an update. I have not tried pulling the drive and updating in another computer, it seems like a last resort to me. However, I decided to try getting some other CDs hoping, for some crazy reason, it might work. I bought some Sony's, since Sandboxgeneral indicated that was what he used and it worked. No joy! Same message. However, just for the heck of it, I tried downloading the Windows based version ISO for the 840 and burnt it to a CD. Rebooted and it was recognized as a bootable drive and started to boot. However, as assumed it did not complete the update, I got an error saying; "Error TNT.20033: Can't enable address line 20." So, in my very infantile computer knowledge this would seem to indicate that the problem lies in the Mac ISO, no? Any ideas what that error code means. Is there any way I can use the Windows ISO as a base and make it usable in Mac? Is there another place to try and download the ISO other then the link to Samsung that was posted here? Just can't understand this. Thanks again for the help.
Yes. The Windows updater is simply an application, not a complete boot environment as the Mac version is. Therefore, the Windows updater will run in Bootcamp/Windows, or on any Windows host. I updated my 840 Pro using Bootcamp, then deleted the Bootcamp partition to reclaim the space.
So it doesn't need a true "BIOS" in a typical PC, it works fine with a BootCamp Mac?
Thanks for that info...
-howard