As far as firmware while your system may need an update for other reasons, thats not your issue here. Your system is limited to OS-X El Capitan (10.11.6). It’s been awhile, I do believe the OS installer will check and download the needed firmware updates if required.
***Your issue is strictly hardware based!***
Your drive list is not encouraging! Most of these drives are fixes speed SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) ADATA drives (early versions) had issues with their controller chip. I would review the drive space sheets to see if they have SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) listed as being compatible.
The fact your drive/s work via a SATA to USB cable tells me the OS is properly setup which is a good sign! So the issue is strictly the cable or the drives I/O spec.
Kingston had a mix of Fixed Speed and Auto Sense drives, Crucial is strictly SATA III, ADATA new ones only and you still need to check the spec sheet if its compatible.
As a reference here is [link|https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/global.semi.static/Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_Data_Sheet_Rev1.pdf|Samsung 860 EVO spec sheet] Note the Interface Line ''SATA 6 Gbps Interface, compatible with ***SATA 3 Gbps*** & 1.5 Gbps interfaces'' Make sure your spec sheet lists it if not move on!
The Standards group did a dumb thing dropping the Roman number to ID the I/O speed spec the issue is the spec level is also using the same number ***Three!*** [link|https://sata-io.org/sites/default/files/documents/SATA-Revision-3.0-FAQ-FINAL.pdf|SATA Revision 3.0 Specification] And as you can see we have a I/O speed of 3.0 Gb/s so which ***Three*** are we talking about? The USB group is currently facing the same confusion today!
So for clarity I stick with the Roman numbers with the speed to ID the I/O speed spec: SATA I (1.5 Gb/s) SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) and SATA III (6.0 Gb/s). But we also have some drives which are fixed speed only one of these I/O speeds (we call them Fixed Speed) and some offer support for muliple speeds (either a jumper or Auto Sense) Sometimes its only two speeds and other times its three! Without reviewing the spec sheets it can be confusing! If its not stated clearly I would move on to a different drive.
***OK, what about the cable?***
Sadly, these are delicate! You can’t bend them by creasing them! This damages the foil wires inside so make sure you don’t do that. I use a old BIC pen ink straw as a forming brake to curl the cable for the bends it needs. I don’t want the bend to exceed the radius of the straw. Also don’t over do the tape! As we don’t want to have a sizable build up a single strip that is placed under the wider SATA side is all that’s needed.
The SATA III versions are more sensitive! And the given data flow HDD vs HDD also is a factor as a SDD will push the cable harder than a HDD so its common for people to scratch their heads jumping between the two drives seeing the HDD work and the SSD not! To make this even more confusing Apples cables needed an upgrade the cables when they started using SATA III drives and even then they needed a few updates [link|https://beetstech.com/blog/prevent-a1278-mid-2012-hard-drive-cable-failure|Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb] so do be careful on what you are using.
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=== Update (11/09/2021) ===
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@thomhemler - I promise you, your firmware wouldn't cause this. For the sake of argument lets say it did, then every boot up would be the same. Not working!
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Sporadic conditions like you are encountering is data flow issues! Bad cable drive which won't run properly in a slower SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) system like yours.
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Are we sure we are going down the right path?
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Maybe you are hitting a logic board issue within the NVIDIA Intergraded GPU chip. This was a common issue in this series.
As far as firmware while your system may need an update for other reasons, thats not your issue here. Your system is limited to OS-X El Capitan (10.11.6) its been awhile, I do believe the OS installer will check and download the needed firmware updates if required.
+
As far as firmware while your system may need an update for other reasons, thats not your issue here. Your system is limited to OS-X El Capitan (10.11.6). It’s been awhile, I do believe the OS installer will check and download the needed firmware updates if required.
***Your issue is strictly hardware based!***
Your drive list is not encouraging! Most of these drives are fixes speed SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) ADATA drives (early versions) had issues with their controller chip. I would review the drive space sheets to see if they have SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) listed as being compatible.
The fact your drive/s work via a SATA to USB cable tells me the OS is properly setup which is a good sign! So the issue is strictly the cable or the drives I/O spec.
Kingston had a mix of Fixed Speed and Auto Sense drives, Crucial is strictly SATA III, ADATA new ones only and you still need to check the spec sheet if its compatible.
As a reference here is [link|https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/global.semi.static/Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_Data_Sheet_Rev1.pdf|Samsung 860 EVO spec sheet] Note the Interface Line ''SATA 6 Gbps Interface, compatible with ***SATA 3 Gbps*** & 1.5 Gbps interfaces'' Make sure your spec sheet lists it if not move on!
The Standards group did a dumb thing dropping the Roman number to ID the I/O speed spec the issue is the spec level is also using the same number ***Three!*** [link|https://sata-io.org/sites/default/files/documents/SATA-Revision-3.0-FAQ-FINAL.pdf|SATA Revision 3.0 Specification] And as you can see we have a I/O speed of 3.0 Gb/s so which ***Three*** are we talking about? The USB group is currently facing the same confusion today!
So for clarity I stick with the Roman numbers with the speed to ID the I/O speed spec: SATA I (1.5 Gb/s) SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) and SATA III (6.0 Gb/s). But we also have some drives which are fixed speed only one of these I/O speeds (we call them Fixed Speed) and some offer support for muliple speeds (either a jumper or Auto Sense) Sometimes its only two speeds and other times its three! Without reviewing the spec sheets it can be confusing! If its not stated clearly I would move on to a different drive.
***OK, what about the cable?***
Sadly, these are delicate! You can’t bend them by creasing them! This damages the foil wires inside so make sure you don’t do that. I use a old BIC pen ink straw as a forming brake to curl the cable for the bends it needs. I don’t want the bend to exceed the radius of the straw. Also don’t over do the tape! As we don’t want to have a sizable build up a single strip that is placed under the wider SATA side is all that’s needed.
The SATA III versions are more sensitive! And the given data flow HDD vs HDD also is a factor as a SDD will push the cable harder than a HDD so its common for people to scratch their heads jumping between the two drives seeing the HDD work and the SSD not! To make this even more confusing Apples cables needed an upgrade the cables when they started using SATA III drives and even then they needed a few updates [link|https://beetstech.com/blog/prevent-a1278-mid-2012-hard-drive-cable-failure|Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb] so do be careful on what you are using.
As far as firmware while your system may need an update for other reasons, thats not your issue here. Your system is limited to OS-X El Capitan (10.11.6) its been awhile, I do believe the OS installer will check and download the needed firmware updates if required.
+
+
***Your issue is strictly hardware based!***
+
+
Your drive list is not encouraging! Most of these drives are fixes speed SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) ADATA drives (early versions) had issues with their controller chip. I would review the drive space sheets to see if they have SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) listed as being compatible.
+
+
The fact your drive/s work via a SATA to USB cable tells me the OS is properly setup which is a good sign! So the issue is strictly the cable or the drives I/O spec.
+
+
Kingston had a mix of Fixed Speed and Auto Sense drives, Crucial is strictly SATA III, ADATA new ones only and you still need to check the spec sheet if its compatible.
+
+
As a reference here is [link|https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/global.semi.static/Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_Data_Sheet_Rev1.pdf|Samsung 860 EVO spec sheet] Note the Interface Line ''SATA 6 Gbps Interface, compatible with ***SATA 3 Gbps*** & 1.5 Gbps interfaces'' Make sure your spec sheet lists it if not move on!
+
+
The Standards group did a dumb thing dropping the Roman number to ID the I/O speed spec the issue is the spec level is also using the same number ***Three!*** [link|https://sata-io.org/sites/default/files/documents/SATA-Revision-3.0-FAQ-FINAL.pdf|SATA Revision 3.0 Specification] And as you can see we have a I/O speed of 3.0 Gb/s so which ***Three*** are we talking about? The USB group is currently facing the same confusion today!
+
+
So for clarity I stick with the Roman numbers with the speed to ID the I/O speed spec: SATA I (1.5 Gb/s) SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) and SATA III (6.0 Gb/s). But we also have some drives which are fixed speed only one of these I/O speeds (we call them Fixed Speed) and some offer support for muliple speeds (either a jumper or Auto Sense) Sometimes its only two speeds and other times its three! Without reviewing the spec sheets it can be confusing! If its not stated clearly I would move on to a different drive.
+
+
***OK, what about the cable?***
+
+
Sadly, these are delicate! You can’t bend them by creasing them! This damages the foil wires inside so make sure you don’t do that. I use a old BIC pen ink straw as a forming brake to curl the cable for the bends it needs. I don’t want the bend to exceed the radius of the straw. Also don’t over do the tape! As we don’t want to have a sizable build up a single strip that is placed under the wider SATA side is all that’s needed.
+
+
The SATA III versions are more sensitive! And the given data flow HDD vs HDD also is a factor as a SDD will push the cable harder than a HDD so its common for people to scratch their heads jumping between the two drives seeing the HDD work and the SSD not! To make this even more confusing Apples cables needed an upgrade the cables when they started using SATA III drives and even then they needed a few updates [link|https://beetstech.com/blog/prevent-a1278-mid-2012-hard-drive-cable-failure|Your Hard Drive Cable Is A Ticking Time Bomb] so do be careful on what you are using.
Did you access the Startup Manager to select the drive? Restart the system and then press the ***Option (⌥)*** key to enter it
***Reference:*** [https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255|Mac startup key combinations]
Also, how did you prep the drive?