Andrew Savory: Macbook Pro SSD saga, part three

So previously my Macbook Pro stopped booting and got stuck at the grey boot screen. Then after a week at Apple for repair, they called me to tell me the SSD was stopping the Macbook Pro from booting.

Yesterday I ordered a new Crucial M4 256GB SSD, which Crucial claim to be compatible with my laptop. I also collected my laptop from Apple. This afternoon the new drive arrived (thank you Amazon Prime), so I set about removing the old dubious SSD and replacing it with the new one.

It didn’t go well.

Firstly, the old SSD. It was an OWC 115GB SSD with mount kit. It replaces the optical drive, which means I can have all the benefits of fast boot from SSD, coupled with copious storage from the factory-installed 500gb hard drive. The downside of this approach is Apple don’t provide the service themselves, so it has to be a DIY upgrade.

Unfortunately, it looks like the SSD has failed completely. Plugging it into an SATA docking station had no result. It didn’t show up in the device list, so it’s effectively a chunk of dead plastic. Luckily, this chunk of dead plastic decided to dodo within the warranty: it was only bought last April.

On to the new SSD. Unfortunately, this SSD arrived with a rattle. You can’t make this stuff up. This solid state drive has bits that make noises when you shake it. The PCB that’s mounted inside the plastic case was a loose fit, so with the slightest nudge you can hear it moving around. Holding the SSD by the SATA connector as well as the case stopped the rattle. The drive itself was fine (I used it to confirm the SATA docking station was working and the other SSD was dead), but given my luck I decided it was safest to return it.

Back to the Mac. With no usable SSD, I put the Superdrive back in it for the time being, and powered it on.

Except it wouldn’t turn on.

The battery showed it had a nearly full charge, but just to be sure I plugged the power in. The laptop immediately came to life, showed the boot screen, and then started booting from my old hard drive. So far so good. Unfortunately, when it got to the login screen, it quickly became clear that the keyboard was not working. No input was detected, and the caps lock light failed to light up. So I selected shut down, let the laptop power off, and then tried powering it on again.

Except it wouldn’t turn on.

Plugged in, unplugged, nothing works. It appears to be dead. Not resting. Not stunned. Not pining for the fjords.

I guess I’ll take the laptop back to Apple after Christmas, and see what they can do. Given the keyboard was the first sign of trouble and Apple say they tested with a new logic board, my suspicion is something went awry when they put the old board back in (especially as the Superdrive/SSD shenanigans I performed were nowhere near the keyboard controller). I can’t see anything obvious like a loose connector, so perhaps the logic board blew in all the excitement.

Meanwhile, at least my old laptop continues to work, for now.

Sigh.