Macbook Pro 2012 SOMETIMES Detects SSD, Sometimes Does Not, Always Beach Balling after waking from sleep

Hmmm. For whatever reason Etrecheck is reporting it as 3GB, and the speeds are consistent with an SATA 3GB drive in that computer model.

Maybe it's part of the potential cable issue, but System Information > SATA/SATA Express pane should be definitive.

Replacing the cable is good; reinstalling macOX before doing another Etrecheck can make some issues worse. I highly recommend waiting.

What did System Information show?

I 'd like to see how EtreCheck IDs your drive and speeds before any wiping.

I did not snap on this until this morning but the other data in Drive Performance that has, in the past, been the only data-type indication of drive cable issues is File System. Yours:

Performance:

System Load: 3.92 (1 min ago) 14.81 (5 min ago) 10.24 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O usage: 0.96 MB/s

File system: 32.09 seconds 👈🏻

Write speed: 257 MB/s

Read speed: 270 MB/s

I've worked several cases where the drive speeds were absolutely on the nominals for the drive model but File System took over 120 seconds and timed out, suggesting sporadic data flow. Replacing the cable fixed that.

Your File System score is in what I consider the normal range of values.

Although this has nothing to do with your current issue, you left a lot of performance on the table when you selected that SSD model:

Drives:

disk0 - Lexar SSD NS100 256GB 256.06 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA

The base 2012 Macbook Pro 13 shipped with an SATA 3GB hard drive, but the internal HD bus is SATA 6GB. ANY drive replacement should be with and SATA 6GB drive.

Your drive scores:

Performance:

System Load: 3.92 (1 min ago) 14.81 (5 min ago) 10.24 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O usage: 0.96 MB/s

File system: 32.09 seconds

Write speed: 257 MB/s

Read speed: 270 MB/s

My 2012 13-inch also has an SSD conversion, an SATA 6GB drive from OWC. My drive:

Drives:

    disk0 - Mercury Electra 6G SSD 500.11 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

    Internal SATA 6 Gigabit Serial ATA

My scores from EtreCheck:

Performance:

    System Load: 1.61 (1 min ago) 0.99 (5 min ago) 0.81 (15 min ago)

    Nominal I/O usage: 0.00 MB/s

    File system: 24.17 seconds

    Write speed: 485 MB/s

    Read speed: 476 MB/s

You can confirm the bus speed from System Information > SATA/SATA Express

I agree with HWTech that, in that Macbook Pro model, the DH cable is the first thing to suspect in the face of odd symptoms. Visual inspection is relatively useless. For under US$15, just replace it.

Any time I service or upgrade the internal drive in those Macbook Pro models, I replace the cable as well.

Thanks for providing the EtreCheck report which shows you have a MBPro 13" (mid-2012) model with a Lexar NS100 256GB SSD installed and 16GB of RAM (2x8GB). It also shows you are using OpenCore Legacy Patcher to install an unsupported copy of macOS 12.7.3 Monterey. I don't see any typical software issues in the report as you don't have very much installed.

The Kernel Panic summary shows:

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff8004c29711): AppleAHCIDiskQueueManager::set PowerState(0xffffff9b99ce8240 : 0xffffff8006b98cf0, 0 -> 3) timed out after 101774 ms @IOServicePM.cpp:5524

This confirms the issue is related to the SSD (AHCI indicates a SATA Controller). With this particular model laptop, the internal hard drive SATA Cable has an extremely high rate of failure especially when using an SSD. Most likely this cable is bad and needs to be replaced. OWC sells a replacement cable.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/8211480/

You can try removing the SSD and boot it externally to see how it works. If booting the SSD externally has no problems, then most likely you have confirmed the internal SATA Cable is bad....the other possibility is a compatibility issue with the SSD, an SSD failure, or an issue with the Open Core Legacy Patcher (I'm assuming the Logic Board is fine here).

Allan Jones wrote:

I agree with HWTech that, in that Macbook Pro model, the DH cable is the first thing to suspect in the face of odd symptoms. Visual inspection is relatively useless. For under US$15, just replace it.

Any time I service or upgrade the internal drive in those Macbook Pro models, I replace the cable as well.

Even Apple was replacing those cables for free whenever any type of repair was being performed on the 13" model even if the part being replaced had nothing to do with storage or performance. That has been the only time in twenty years that I had ever seen Apple proactively replacing a part even if there were no symptoms.....the cable failure was that severe & that common.