Problem with Samsung SSD 830 in MacBook Pro 5,3

It is, however, working in my 2 year older Black Mac Book...?

How's that possible? 😕

Thanks for the info. I guess the Nvidia AHCI controller doesn't like the new SSD, which isn't surprising. The 2009 mbps were notorious for SSD compatibility issues because of that Nvidia controller.

Your old black MacBook probably uses some Intel based controller, which seems to be ok. My guess is that you're limited to SATA1 speeds.

Follow-up to a couple of my posts on this thread:

My Samsung 830 SSD, with TRIM disabled, worked well enough, occasional long pause/hang (once a day, at most, assumed Samsung's GC running). None of the frequent hangs some people were reporting.

About a month ago, for a different reason, I reset the NVRAM on my Macbook Pro. Since then, no hangs!

Last couple of days, re-enabled TRIM. Machine still running smoothly, no hangs.

So, guessing NVRAM reset is something someone should maybe do when swapping out old drive to a new SSD. IMO.

Do anyone know if this NVIDIA controller thing (AHCI) is still a problem with the SSD?

Rune did you get it to run properly?

I have the "same" old MacbookPro5,3 too - with 8GB RAM, so a SSD would really make it go for another year og two - but I really can't be bothered with all the problems..

I'm looking at Samsung 840 256GB or Intel 530 180GB.. If the problem is specific to some drives and you would mind giving me some advice in that case..?

Thanks a lot for any inputs!

Hi Xirb,

I can tell you what I have:

Macbook Pro 17" mid 2009 (MacBookPro 5,2) with 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

My disk interface:

NVidia MCP79 AHCI:

Vendor: NVidia

Product: MCP79 AHCI

Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

Physical Interconnect: SATA

Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported

My SSD:

Physical Drive:

Media Name: SAMSUNG SSD 830 Series Media

Medium Type: SSD

Protocol: SATA

Internal: Yes

Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)

S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified

I had no problems installing it and making it run. I have had it for a year or so now, and it still runs fine.

My laptop became much more snappy after the replacement.

Even heavy programs like Adobe Photoshop start up in a reasonable time.

It would have been nice to have a 6 GBit/sec interface. Then I could get full benefit from the rapid disk, but 3 Gbit is not so bad either.

I also took out the optical drive and put in a 1 TB Samsung 5400 RPM classical harddisk for all my photos.

I am very pleased with this dual upgrade. Now I am just waiting for a 2 or 3 TB 2.5" disk that is slim enough to fit into my MacBook. I haven't found any yet, but I haven't looked for a while either.

I also hope that Apple will wake up again the 17" "monster" laptop and equip it with a retina display with 5 Mpixel or something like that.

Cheers,

Geir

Hi Geir
Thanks a lot for sharing!
That is good news, since you did not have any problems with what looks to be the excact same controller.
I better get started shoppig for SSD then :-D

Best regards,
Christian