MacOS 12.1 (Monterey) internal third party Samsung SSD 970 EVO - very slow boot progress

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Level 1

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MacOS 12.1 (Monterey) internal third party Samsung SSD 970 EVO - very slow boot progress

Dear Gents,

I'm using MacBookPro 12.1 (early 2015). I'm utilizing a third party Samsung SSD 970 EVO and have several problems with my internal Samsung SSD with MacOS 12.1 (Monterey).

Actually it starts with the update from Big Sure to Monterey. The installation was not possible because the MacBookPro has not the proper EFI-Version for the installation. I helped myself and fixed it with the installation of original SSD. Made the update to Monterey with the original Apple SSD. And achieved the update to latest EFI-Version.
After that procedure I assembled the old configuration back with Samsung SSD and made update to Monterey with Samsung SSD - so far so good. Actually a new problem appeared: The boot process is very slow. To help myself I made several trails to reset of nvram and smc. Nothing helped. The boot process is still very slow.

I hope that problem will fixed with the upcoming release 12.2. otherwise I've to do a downgrade to Big Sure again.

Has anybody a different idea to fix that problem?

Many thanks in advance.

Dirk

Posted on Jan 22, 2022 9:23 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

John Galt

Level 10

156,416 points

Jan 22, 2022 11:14 AM in response to dsundi

You probably don't want to hear this, but the Samsung "EVO" series SSDs do not enjoy a good reputation among Mac users. Replace it with one that does.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-air/2013-2014-2015

Nearly every macOS upgrade and some updates incorporate firmware updates. Apple engineers Apple firmware for exclusive use on Apple products. Non-Apple hardware product manufacturers need to keep up, and they can only do that after the fact. OWC has historically provided Apple-specific firmware updates when needed, whereas Samsung has been notoriously disinterested in the market. I suspect that is the reason for poor performance and slow boot times.

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Answer 2

dsundi Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 17, 2022 8:32 AM in response to ARKTIKMANN

Thanks, I've disabled TRIM function on Samsung SSD - no difference. Meanwhile I've substituted Samsung SSD EVO 970 against a cheap Crucial P2 No it works well. Boot Time in normal range etc. I use Samsung SSD no as an external SSD drive.

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Answer 3

Feb 17, 2022 8:24 AM in response to dsundi

We need Apple and Samsung to work better to provide the firmware and patches to let us run these SSDs on the older Macbooks pre touchbar. I heard it is something to do with the TRIM function with Monterey that slows it up.

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Answer 4

dsundi Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 18, 2022 1:17 AM in response to ARKTIKMANN

Yes, boot speed is proper again and comparable with boot speed before with Big Sure. Even after booting i.e. normal operation speed of Crucial is same as Samsung SSD. The problem was only visible during boot process. Actually, after booting and normal operation there is no speed difference between Samsung 970 EVO or Crucial P2. Both SSD have an average R/W Speed of 1.200 Mbit/s.

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Answer 5

cdzero

Level 1

13 points

Feb 20, 2022 4:26 PM in response to John Galt

They enjoy a very good reputation with me and my friends that back in 2018 upgraded our 2015 MacBook Pros to 1TB EVO 970. Even if I can't upgrade to Monterey, I am very happy that I have enjoyed twice the speed that Apple default drive provided for the last 3 ½ years.

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Answer 6

Feb 18, 2022 12:04 AM in response to dsundi

Good to hear, so is the boot time much faster now with the replacement SSD, and is the disk speed good?

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MacOS 12.1 (Monterey) internal third party Samsung SSD 970 EVO - very slow boot progress

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