KVR Audio

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Sun Nov 20, 2016 10:09 pm

I'm just going to leave this here because I'm sure there are quite a few folks around here that use this config. DO NOT UPGRADE to Sierra or above if you use a Samsung ssd drive. The late 2012 MacBook Pro I use, and I'm sure others, are no longer supported. You will find that if you do a clean install the boot drive will no longer be found. You will have bricked your Mac. Fortunately, there is a firmware update from Samsung which I just spent the last 6 hours figuring out. This is no easy task! it's not a simple software install. BE WARNED! You will need to install OS X from external usb and then make a bootable flash in fat 32 that you can use to update.

Best wishes.

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 6:40 pm

Welp, the drive died again. It's not dead, it just won't boot. I'm beginning to think this is a firmware issue with Samsung. In the mean time I'm back to my old clunky spinning drive. Hope it holds up for a while longer.

Winstontaneous · Post by **Winstontaneous** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 8:26 pm

Thanks, I'm on El Capitan and considering SSDs for my 2012 MBP. Does this have anything to do with TRIM mode or is it something else entirely?

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 8:54 pm

I don't use any kind of trim that I know of. At least I don't think I do but just learning this stuff as I go. If it's not an auto setting I'm not. Basically I just did an nvram reset and got the drive back temporarily, but after restart a couple of times the drive becomes unrecognizable. Can't tell you how many times I've switched out drives with an old spinner drive and done a complete rebuild hounding out the problem now. It will boot once or twice and then fail to be recognized. I'm beginning to believe this is a firmware problem on Samsung s side TBH.

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 9:15 pm

Of course, it could be that after updated firmware, in the process of restoring from time machine something became corrupted maybe. When I run first aid on the drive it tries to "update bootable partitions" which then fails. The firmware update was to address larger capacity ssds. Sooooo....

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 9:34 pm

In a last ditch I'm doing a complete rebuild by hand from ground zero tonight. This is after the firmware update. Sierra installs on the drive fine. It's only after a couple of restarts that the drive becomes unbootable. There could be a corruption or incompatibility between the time machine back up and the drive firmware at this point. I will probably lose giest, but at this point it's my only option if I want to use ssd over an old spinner. Sadly ssd will win in that choice. Excuse the spelling at such at this point all I got is my iPhone on me.

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 10:06 pm

Yeah, so totally unable to install OS X sierra on the Samsung evo 850 pro. Gives me a system extension error.

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 10:54 pm

Yep, screw sierra. Two days wasted. Some installers don't work from companies like fxpansion. A lot not working. I just put may MacBook Pro through hell and I'm going to have to revert to doing a clean install of El Capitan. Sierra is bull ish.

Spip · Post by **Spip** » Mon Nov 21, 2016 11:30 pm

Samsung 850 EVO and Sierra here. It works fine.

The problems you describe are exactly the same that I had a few weeks ago until the computer died totally (but at this time it was with Crucial SSDs). In fact, it was this problem : https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Chances are that you are also in this case. Hurry up. Apple is changing your motherboard for free until the end of the year.

My computer is back from Apple. It's like a new computer for free. Unbelievable...

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Tue Nov 22, 2016 3:04 pm

Well, buddy, THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION BUT THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY GPU. This is an issue between non supported Samsung flash drives being used as primary boot drives internally with sierra with non brand new macs. If you decide to upgrade to sierra on an older Mac using a Samsung ssd card internally you had better be sure you know what you are doing, have three back ups of everything different locations, and a bootable drive of El Capitan handy. I'm reverting to El Capitan today after 3 days of hacking at it and losing my backups.

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Tue Nov 22, 2016 5:11 pm

shoot. It turns out this is probably a broken internal HD cable. I will order one soon and report back if necessary. It still works with the spinning hard drive but not the ssd drive, which is what all the frustration comes from.

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Wed Nov 23, 2016 3:16 pm

Ok, it was the internal hd cable. Sorry for the dire assumptions about sierra but it really was strange behavior. Only the internal ssd was affected and failed to boot. There is a lot about the failure of internal hd cables on 2012 MacBook pros on the internet and it is a fairly easy fix. My apologies, and now we know!

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Wed Nov 23, 2016 3:18 pm

Spip wrote:Samsung 850 EVO and Sierra here. It works fine.

Thanks for letting me know you had no problems and it was a me problem. Made me rethink what problems it might be.

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Wed Nov 23, 2016 3:19 pm

Dasheesh wrote:Ok, it was the internal hd cable. Sorry for the dire assumptions about sierra but it really was strange behavior. Only the internal ssd was affected and failed to boot. There is a lot about the failure of internal hd cables on 2012 MacBook pros on the internet and it is a fairly easy fix. My apologies, and now we know!

I went through a similar problem last year with one of my external drives - I had paid good money for a Thunderbolt SSD drive interface for sample libraries only to find OS-X kept ejecting it for no apparent reason. I was also blaming it on the OS because it did seem to coincide with upgrading to Yosemite, but in the end it turned out to be a faulty Thunderbolt cable and replacing it fixed that problem (still annoyed such expensive cables can develop such faults but at least it was resolved).

Dasheesh · Post by **Dasheesh** » Wed Nov 23, 2016 7:42 pm

aMUSEd wrote:
Dasheesh wrote:Ok, it was the internal hd cable. Sorry for the dire assumptions about sierra but it really was strange behavior. Only the internal ssd was affected and failed to boot. There is a lot about the failure of internal hd cables on 2012 MacBook pros on the internet and it is a fairly easy fix. My apologies, and now we know!
I went through a similar problem last year with one of my external drives - I had paid good money for a Thunderbolt SSD drive interface for sample libraries only to find OS-X kept ejecting it for no apparent reason. I was also blaming it on the OS because it did seem to coincide with upgrading to Yosemite, but in the end it turned out to be a faulty Thunderbolt cable and replacing it fixed that problem (still annoyed such expensive cables can develop such faults but at least it was resolved).

yep, that's what happened to me. I did a clean install and all of a sudden my ssd wouldn't boot; but only internally, I could boot from usb, and my old spinner booted fine, so you can see why I thought it was a new OS problem. Turns out this is a common problem with older Macs if you know what you are looking for. Happens all the time and it's an easy fix. Only took me a week of rebuilding hard drives and futzing with firmware updates to realize it.

OSX and Samsung ssd drive