MacBook Pro Gen 5 SSD not mounting, Monterey OS unstable

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MacBook Pro Gen 5 SSD not mounting, Monterey OS unstable

Late 2016 13" MacBook Pro i5 2-port (13,1)

Symptoms similar to a previous post: MacBook Pro SSD not mounting; OS unstable - Apple Community

Startup produces intermittent failure (folder with blinking question mark), or login screen. Seems associated with power connected or not (battery is charged), has intermittent fan issue, various other usability issues. Using online Recovery, attempted to replace OS Monterey overnight. This morning machine found off and completely unresponsive.

After trying all the usually tricks, removing and reseating the Gen 5 drive brought machine back to life with 25 minutes remaining for OS download. Worth a try if your Gen 5 drive is missing (non-touchbar notebook).

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Sep 4, 2024 1:19 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

245,477 points

Sep 4, 2024 8:32 PM in response to Motorcycle Michael

Does the Gen 5 Drive show up in Disk Utility, & if so what format does it say?

Have you done a PRAM reset, ...

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

In fact, do 3 in a row, takes a bit of time.

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)...

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Sep 4, 2024 6:03 PM in response to BDAqua

Appreciate the thumbs up, but alas....

This machine has a weird fan issue (rpm = 0 unless fan control app is present), which I suspect caused shutdown while downloading new OS all night. After getting it up and running per above, ran a new backup and machine operates perfectly fine - until shutdown. Boot w/OptionKey shows external drive, internal drive is missing. Startup is hit-or-miss, but once it boots it will run all day (with fan management), no problem. New proprietary Gen 5 drive is unavailable, near as I can tell.

Thanks, BDAqua!

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Answer 3

Sep 5, 2024 11:15 AM in response to BDAqua

Drive was a no-show in Disk Utility from another Monterey Mac. resets were no help. Format is APFS. If I can coax it to boot, it will run flawlessly all day - when shutdown, odds of starting up again seem to be diminishing.

Recovery (Cmd+R) went to online Recovery where OS offered was 10.12 Sierra, machine's original OS version.

Spent a lot of time deleting garbage and obsolete apps, and next time I managed to get into online Recovery it went to Monterey and successfully replaced the OS (overnight, after a shutdown/restart from fan issue). Pretty sure drive is kaput, taking this 2016 machine with it.

BTW, found new (no-name) Gen 5 drives that are most likely counterfeit, like all the fake flash drives and AC-adapters out there. If it's too good to be true....

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

245,477 points

Sep 4, 2024 5:19 PM in response to Motorcycle Michael

👍

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