Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

[Rickyandika]

Have you tried the workaround for bootcamp mentioned on the first post?

Cant do it, when im in the middle of editing reg files it goes to blue screen. there is one time where i succesfully changed it, then it immediately went to bluescreen

 

[white7561]

Cant do it, when im in the middle of editing reg files it goes to blue screen. there is one time where i succesfully changed it, then it immediately went to bluescreen

ah i see. i haven't tried it since i don't need bootcamp as of yet. let's see if there are more workarounds from the people here 😀

 

[jrssman]

Hi guys! It is very hard to ho through all posts(again) do you recall if issue with Big Sur installed on 3rd party nvme missing recovery was ever mentioned?

MacOS version: Big Sur 11.5.2 (18G7016)
Mac: MacBookAir6,1 (2013)
Processor: Intel Core i5 1.3 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 431.140.6.0.0
SSD: Cruicial P2 512GB (firmware version: P2CR033) + noName short adapter

 

[J3G]

Hello everyone,

I would like to ask a favor to those who are using Crucial P2 2TB, especially to the lucky ones 😉 like @porg with the "initial model" (performing as expected 👌), it would be to run Phison utility and share the output (can be downloaded from Phison tool, also included as an attachment. Just rename it, changing the extension zip by rar).

A recent related article Unsavory Flash Swap: Re-Testing Crucial’s P2 SSD After QLC Downgrade

Many thanks in advance 🙏🙏🙏

 

[olfo]

Hi guys! It is very hard to ho through all posts(again) do you recall if issue with Big Sur installed on 3rd party nvme missing recovery was ever mentioned?

Hi, I have seen this only when you have cloned to the new drive. Could that have happened to you? A clean install, followed by a migration should give you the recovery partition. Also, the recovery partition is invisible when booting with the alt-key. You need to boot with Cmd-R pressed. Just another guess.

Hello everyone,

I would like to ask a favor to those who are using Crucial P2 2TB, especially to the lucky ones 😉 like @porg with the "initial model" (performing as expected 👌), it would be to run Phison utility and share the output (can be downloaded from Phison tool, also included as an attachment. Just rename it, changing the extension zip by rar).

A recent related article Unsavory Flash Swap: Re-Testing Crucial’s P2 SSD After QLC Downgrade

Many thanks in advance 🙏🙏🙏

Finally, this problem is also confirmed by one of the big review websites.
Unfortunately, I can't run the Phison utility on my drive, because I don't have Windows and I don't want to get it and install it just because of this. Is there a free Windows 10 anyway?

So I can only link to my own tests here.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/post-29941571
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/post-29960587
My 2TB Crucial P2 in the late 2013 MBP 15", does not show a slowdown. Not after a few minutes, nor after 64GB written continously. It has not written UK CA on the label. I have had the chance to do the test on a friend's 2015 MBP 15" with his 2TB model P2 (bought 3 weeks ago on Amazon). The SSD performed close to Crucial's specs, also no slowdown, even after 3x64 GBs written.

However, I have had the opportunity to check on another 2TB Crucial P2 that has dropped write performance only after 32 GBs, sadly as low as described in the new Tom's Hardware review.

 

[mmmgl]

Hello guys. Does anyone have an idea how to correctly enable NvmeFix on a real macbook ? I installed a 2242 Sabrent NVME on my 2017 MBP but my battery is loosing to much power during idle. I tried everything to fix it, but it seems NvmeFix doesn't work, I can't find NVMEpmProxy through IOreg. I found some post online saying that it has to be "properly installed via bootloader", which I guess I can't do on a legit mac. Any ideas ?

Thanks !

 

[jrssman]

Hi, I have seen this only when you have cloned to the new drive. Could that have happened to you? A clean install, followed by a migration should give you the recovery partition. Also, the recovery partition is invisible when booting with the alt-key. You need to boot with Cmd-R pressed. Just another guess.

It was a clean install, the thing is - nothing happens when I press cmd+R, macOS boots as usual

EDIT: Problem solved (partially) I have to go through startup manager and then use cmd+R, I have 200MB fat32 partition, a leftover from bootcamp, I guess it may be causing the issue. Apart from that, previously, with the old BootROM(117.0.0.0) cmd+R was going directly to internet recovery.

 

[J3G]

Hi, I have seen this only when you have cloned to the new drive. Could that have happened to you? A clean install, followed by a migration should give you the recovery partition. Also, the recovery partition is invisible when booting with the alt-key. You need to boot with Cmd-R pressed. Just another guess.

Finally, this problem is also confirmed by one of the big review websites.
Unfortunately, I can't run the Phison utility on my drive, because I don't have Windows and I don't want to get it and install it just because of this. Is there a free Windows 10 anyway?

So I can only link to my own tests here.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/post-29941571
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/post-29960587
My 2TB Crucial P2 in the late 2013 MBP 15", does not show a slowdown. Not after a few minutes, nor after 64GB written continously. It has not written UK CA on the label. I have had the chance to do the test on a friend's 2015 MBP 15" with his 2TB model P2 (bought 3 weeks ago on Amazon). The SSD performed close to Crucial's specs, also no slowdown, even after 3x64 GBs written.

However, I have had the opportunity to check on another 2TB Crucial P2 that has dropped write performance only after 32 GBs, sadly as low as described in the new Tom's Hardware review.

Hi @olfo ,

Thanks a lot. Waiting for your research findings 🔎

Please note that you may install Windows 10, without license (activation) and with full functionality for 1 month, plenty of time for testing 🧐

Phison tool's output confirms which "P2's version" you may have, QLC or TLC. But the level of detail may help to distinguish further details (as the exact model of the NAND installed).

Attached the output of mine. @TiBook550 and @JR2006 yours may be so helpful. Quoting @macpro_mid2014

"But indeed I am interested in the "failure" of the Crucial P2, if I had the opportunity to analyze the problem more precisely e.g. with other variants of the P2, I would invest the time."

Hope this helps!

 

[jrssman]

Hello guys. Does anyone have an idea how to correctly enable NvmeFix on a real macbook ? I installed a 2242 Sabrent NVME on my 2017 MBP but my battery is loosing to much power during idle. I tried everything to fix it, but it seems NvmeFix doesn't work, I can't find NVMEpmProxy through IOreg. I found some post online saying that it has to be "properly installed via bootloader", which I guess I can't do on a legit mac. Any ideas ?

Thanks !

Hi! How did you do it? It can be easily done using Hackingtool, steps are:
1. boot into recovery and disable sip for kexts:

csrutil disable

csrutil enable  --without kext

2. open Hackingtool.app
3. go to utilities
4. choose 'install kext'
5. choose kexts to install - lilu and NVMEfix (you can download them from GitHub or by Hackingtool
6. reboot

Hope it helps, I was using it before updating BootROM to the newest one (I had 117.0.0.0 before)

 

[mmmgl]

Hi! How did you do it? It can be easily done using Hackingtool, steps are:
1. boot into recovery and disable sip for kexts:

csrutil disable

csrutil enable  --without kext

2. open Hackingtool.app
3. go to utilities
4. choose 'install kext'
5. choose kexts to install - lilu and NVMEfix (you can download them from GitHub or by Hackingtool
6. reboot

Hope it helps, I was using it before updating BootROM to the newest one (I had 117.0.0.0 before)

Hello !

I've already did that, I use the hackintool method. But it seems it just doesn't correctly enable it.

On the NVMEFix github page, it says :

"If active power management initialisation is successful, an NVMePMProxy entry will be created in the IOPower IORegistry plane with IOPowerManagement dictionary."

But I can't see it, so the power management initialisation seems to fail.

 

[olfo]

Please note that you may install Windows 10, without license (activation) and with full functionality for 1 month, plenty of time for testing 🧐

Phison tool's output confirms which "P2's version" you may have, QLC or TLC. But the level of detail may help to distinguish further details (as the exact model of the NAND installed).

Hi J3G, I am sorry, but it is to mouch hassle to go through installing Windows only for that reason and only for a month.
As it looks, I would even buy the P2 again, because in Europe the online reseller has to take it back if it is faulty. Maybe that's why we can get some better drives here still. In the end I don't care if it is QLC or TLC as long as it meets the specs, and mine does. And it was cheap, so why should I complain?

I understand that it is painful not to know beforehand what you buy. I would check the number of chips on the PCB, as the Tom's Hardware article says the lower quality drives have less. Even by the weight of the box you could probably tell which drive it is.

 

[jrssman]

Hello !

I've already did that, I use the hackintool method. But it seems it just doesn't correctly enable it.

On the NVMEFix github page, it says :

"If active power management initialisation is successful, an NVMePMProxy entry will be created in the IOPower IORegistry plane with IOPowerManagement dictionary."

But I can't see it, so the power management initialisation seems to fail.

To be honest I do not remember seeing the entry, but the hibernation was working so was not bothered by that fact. You can always try with the debug version and see what it logs. How bad is the power drain?

 

[J3G]

Hi J3G, I am sorry, but it is to mouch hassle to go through installing Windows only for that reason and only for a month.
As it looks, I would even buy the P2 again, because in Europe the online reseller has to take it back if it is faulty. Maybe that's why we can get some better drives here still. In the end I don't care if it is QLC or TLC as long as it meets the specs, and mine does. And it was cheap, so why should I complain?

I understand that it is painful not to know beforehand what you buy. I would check the number of chips on the PCB, as the Tom's Hardware article says the lower quality drives have less. Even by the weight of the box you could probably tell which drive it is.

Hi @olfo

Thanks in any case.

Better to double check if the online retailer would may consider as faulty a "stealth configuration change".
By the way, I can confirm that the "downgraded configurations" also affect Europe.
I guess that you at least may concede that the "divide and conquer" doesn't help us as consumers.

It's not so obvious, since that method is not valid for the 1TB and 2TB models, as you may check in @93770 post #8,767 (Second picture shows a "fully populated" P2 1 TB, so same look and feel and weigh. Just a deeper analysis will unveil the real configuration. Than requires using the Phison tool or physical inspection, that take in mind means voiding the warranty).

 

[J3G]

I must have lucked out and gotten one with TLC (2TB P2 here). I got full speed over 10-15 iterations of the test, no problem. Performance dropping sooner means that the SLC cache size must be much smaller on the QLC models. The QLC performance on its own wouldn't be a huge deal if the SLC cache was large enough. Pretty sure most SSDs have a dynamic SLC cache too, so the performance when the drive isn't anywhere near full should be really good unless you're writing several 100s of gigs of data on a 2TB SSD. Definitely puzzling and it seems like Crucial must have gone pretty cheap on the QLC model.

Hi @Stratus Fear,

Could you by any chance run the Phison tool (and share the output)? All the info in @93770 post #8,767

Thanks in advance

 

[mmmgl]

To be honest I do not remember seeing the entry, but the hibernation was working so was not bothered by that fact. You can always try with the debug version and see what it logs. How bad is the power drain?

Can you tell me how the debug version works ?

I don't really have any problem with hibernation either, but the drain is kind of bad actually. Around 20-30% overnight :/

 

[herb2k]

Hello !

I've already did that, I use the hackintool method. But it seems it just doesn't correctly enable it.

On the NVMEFix github page, it says :

"If active power management initialisation is successful, an NVMePMProxy entry will be created in the IOPower IORegistry plane with IOPowerManagement dictionary."

But I can't see it, so the power management initialisation seems to fail.

You are looking for the wrong entry.

You want to look for 'apst' in IOReg, I had to ask the developer to confirm - NVMePMProxy is only used for Active PM management, and not for APST. This kext enables APST on MacBooks and not Active PM Management.

What you can also do is install istatmenu to read your SSD voltages at idle. Should fall around the 0.10A to 0.14A range for most Phison-based SSDs.

EDIT: Added screenshot to illustrate 🙂

 

[mmmgl]

You are looking for the wrong entry.

You want to look for 'apst' in IOReg, I had to ask the developer to confirm - NVMePMProxy is only used for Active PM management, and not for APST. This kext enables APST on MacBooks and not Active PM Management.

What you can also do is install istatmenu to read your SSD voltages at idle. Should fall around the 0.10A to 0.14A range for most Phison-based SSDs.

EDIT: Added screenshot to illustrate 🙂

View attachment 1821078

Oh okay thanks, I didn't know. But so, how is that I still loose around 30% of battery overnight since I change the ssd ?

 

[white7561]

You are looking for the wrong entry.

You want to look for 'apst' in IOReg, I had to ask the developer to confirm - NVMePMProxy is only used for Active PM management, and not for APST. This kext enables APST on MacBooks and not Active PM Management.

What you can also do is install istatmenu to read your SSD voltages at idle. Should fall around the 0.10A to 0.14A range for most Phison-based SSDs.

EDIT: Added screenshot to illustrate 🙂

View attachment 1821078

What app is this? The one for showing the apst status

 

[herb2k]

What app is this? The one for showing the apst status

IORegistryExplorer: https://github.com/vulgo/IORegistryExplorer

 

[markymarkdenver]

Hey guys,

We switched from the Sabrent Rocket (dark blue) 1TB NVME SSD to using the SK Hynix P31 Gold. A few hundred Macs have been sold with the Sabrent Rocket SSD with 0 issues in the past 12 months. Hoping the SK Hynix P31 Gold can offer the same stability.

You can update the firmware on the P31 Gold using a MacBook Pro. We used a 15" MacBook Pro Mid 2015. We installed the latest version of Big Sur, then downloaded the Windows 10 iso from the Microsoft website. Installed Windows To Go on an external SSD, then copied the Boot Camp drivers onto the drive.

Shut down the Mac. Swapped out the internal SSD with the SK Hynix P31 Gold SSD + Sintech Short adapter and booted it up from the external windows to go SSD.

Downloaded the Hynix firmware update tool and the new update.

Applied and activated the updates and now we're on the latest firmware. So far it's got better write and read speeds than the Sabrent Rocket. (2500 write / 2100 read vs 1800 write / 2200 read).

Looking forward to seeing the nice boost in performance with it.

@sksmMacs do you have a guide you used for how to create a successful windows to go bootable drive? I bought a P31 and it's been a huge pain - I installed boot camp to update the SSD firmware and the external enclosure(s) I've tried don't appear to work with this drive. In the skHynix firmware app the drive is always listed as "Unresponsive".

I've followed at least two different methods for installing Windows to Go thinking I'd follow your lead and install the drive in the Macbook and use Windows to Go to update the firmware and neither Windows to Go disks show up during boot holding "option".

I'd like to keep the drive if I could, but updating the firmware has proven exceptionally tricky.

 

[vince22]

@sksmMacs do you have a guide you used for how to create a successful windows to go bootable drive? I bought a P31 and it's been a huge pain - I installed boot camp to update the SSD firmware and the external enclosure(s) I've tried don't appear to work with this drive. In the skHynix firmware app the drive is always listed as "Unresponsive".

I've followed at least two different methods for installing Windows to Go thinking I'd follow your lead and install the drive in the Macbook and use Windows to Go to update the firmware and neither Windows to Go disks show up during boot holding "option".

I'd like to keep the drive if I could, but updating the firmware has proven exceptionally tricky.

i didn't used bootcamp updating my P31, but i did have similar experience, i have used a cheap Amazon nvme to usb 3.2 gen external enclosure but my son Gaming PC (Gigabyte motherboard) won't recognized it properly, i have to plug in directly to motherboard PCie Nvme slot to work. good luck.

 

[herb2k]

Oh okay thanks, I didn't know. But so, how is that I still loose around 30% of battery overnight since I change the ssd ?

Read the first post - it's to do with the default Mac settings related to sleep/suspend/hibernate (those issues continue to happen regardless of the kexts you load in).

By default (for example on my MacBookPro 12,1) it will stay powered "on" with the lid closed until the battery drains to 50%, this is often made worse when bluetooth is enabled or iCloud "Find My" services are enabled (they constantly ping the Apple servers to report location). Applications running in the background also delay your hibernate settings.

To fix this, you just need to change the intervals as described in the first post.

 

[markymarkdenver]

i didn't used bootcamp updating my P31, but i did have similar experience, i have used a cheap Amazon nvme to usb 3.2 gen external enclosure but my son Gaming PC (Gigabyte motherboard) won't recognized it properly, i have to plug in directly to motherboard PCie Nvme slot to work. good luck.

Sorry, unclear - the generic Amazon NVMe to USB adapter did NOT work when plugged it into the PC? That is the behavior (so far) of two different NVMe adapters I've tried.

 

[vince22]

try not to use external usb adapter enclosures onto any USB ports, yes Windows 10 Pro PC usb 2.0, 3.1, 3.2 ports did not work for me, I don't use bootcamp, only Parallels, so I have it installed the P31 Nvme ssd directly to my Windows 10 PC motherboard PCie Nvme M2 socket, updating firmware was pretty quick.

 

[J3G]

Hi All,

A quick "heads up" WD Blue SN550 SSD Performance Reportedly Cut In Half When SLC Runs Out

😱😱😱