SSD Apple late 2017 non Touch Bar 128GB 2 Thunderbolt 3 blinking folder with question mark after start or wake up

happykermit wrote:

<Crash report.log>

My Mac displays some strange behavior since 2-3 weeks.

When I make a fresh start it shows me sometimes a blinking folder with a question mark. I have then to shut down the Mac and restart it.

Sometimes the blinking folder with a question mark appears after the mac wakes up from sleep. Then I have to shut down the mac again. When the blinking folder appears after a wake up I get a crash report once I shut down the Mac and restart it. I added it to the text. "panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800cf3b836): nvme: "AppleS3XController. PCI link down...."

When I do a S.O.S in safe mode I get a message "Problems were found with the partition map".

I tried to partition the disk once when I reinstalled Monterey, because I read on the internet that it could solve the problem. It didn't solve the problem. It showed just a weird behavior again. diskutil showed me two created partitions with 121GB a total of 242GB.

I deleted the partition and reformatted the disk before reinstalling Monterey.

Could it be that this Mac is eligible for the apple service program although when I write my serial number on apple website it tells me that it is not. I wrote to apple. They told me it could cost up to 560€ to repair the SSD.

My Mac is almost always on a table I just use it for writing and surfing on the internet. Last year the battery was repaired through the service program of apple by an apple authorized service provider.

Is there a possibility to send the Mac to apple or to go to a Apple store and ask them just to check if it is eligible for the ssd service program without paying a fee? I am living in Germany.

see if you qualify—

13-inch MacBook Pro (non Touch Bar) Solid-State Drive Service Program - Apple Support

Check your coverage

My Support - Official Apple Support

Learn how to get your Mac fixed and how much it will cost. Mac Repair - Official Apple Support

Get your Mac ready for service - Apple Support Get your Mac ready for service - Apple Support

I will add that in the new Apple APFS file format Volumes can be added or removed and share space with the container without penalty.

Add, delete, or erase APFS volumes in Disk Utility on Mac

Partitions are not needed in most circumstances unless you have a compelling reason.

In Recovery>DiskUtiltiy>Show All Devices> it is the parent drive that gets completely erased/formated/initilized as new to recover all space from all "partitions."

Erase and reinstall macOS - Apple Support - Erase and reinstall macOS - Apple Support

I've never seen that exact Kernel Panic error, but I suspect you have a bad SSD. The SSD always tends to be the weakest link assuming there is no liquid damage to the Logic Board. The SSD's on the 2016 - 2017 MBPro non-touchbar models seem to have a higher rate of failure compared to other Mac models even if the laptop does not qualify for the free SSD repair program.

You can get a third party OWC NVMe based SSD to replace the original Apple SSD.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-pro-13-inch-non-touch-bar/2016-2017

Edit: The best way to confirm the SSD is bad, is by booting from an external macOS boot drive and waiting to see if the internal SSD disappears from the bus. If the internal SSD disappears from the bus, then most likely the SSD is bad. Putting the laptop to sleep and waking it up while booted from the external drive should trigger a failure at some point as it sounds like your SSD may not going ready quickly enough. You can use the Disk Utility GUI to check for the physical SSD, or you can check the Apple System Profiler under "NVMExpress" to see if the physical drive is present (just remember to refresh the profiler window to make sure the information is current -- use Command + R to refresh the status), or you can use the following command in the Terminal app to see if the physical SSD is still there when the internal volume disappears:

diskutil  list  internal  physical

If the physical SSD is not seen using these methods to check when the internal volume disappears, then it indicates the SSD has most likely failed.