Level 1

34 points

catalina killed my MacBook pro

Hi all I have a 2014 MacBook Pro. Was running perfect with Mojave last night. I started the upgrade to Catalina and it’s now dead.

install process started ok and it got to the point of reboot. Now all I does is show the flashing folder with a question mark.

there are no boot chimes. I’ve tried to boot to recovery and that doesn’t work. Today I created a usb stick to boot from. Come home tonight and tried to boot with option key held down and it still doesn’t boot.

my MacBook is toast...

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Oct 8, 2019 9:27 AM

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SMJP160

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Dec 20, 2019 6:02 PM

Hey Paulfromuc,

Don't know if you got it figured out but had the same thing happen to me today with my 2015 MacBook Pro. Just didn't work. So I created Mojave boot on thumb and rebooted option+command+R to get into internet recovery and through Disk Utility erased both Macintosh HD and Macintosh Data and deleted the data volume (both volumes a construct of Catalina) and rebooted off thumb and was prompted to installed Mojave. Catalina currently seems pretty buggy but works well enough on my 2018 MacBook Air. I'm happily running off Mojave now (on the Pro) with no problem.

Steve

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145 replies

paulfromuc Author

Level 1

34 points

Oct 8, 2019 9:36 AM in response to rreinhardt93

Hi. Thanks for your reply. My mac is not booting to recovery at all. I can’t even get a startup menu to show so that I can boot from usb to reinstall.

paulfromuc Author

Level 1

34 points

Oct 9, 2019 7:43 AM in response to rreinhardt93

It powers on because I can see the flashing folder symbol :-/

rkcomp

Level 1

51 points

Oct 9, 2019 9:22 AM in response to rreinhardt93

Why?

My laptop has been working fine for the last couple of years with Mojave.

Never had a problem updating Mojave as necessary.

It was working fine before the “upgrade”.

paulfromuc Author

Level 1

34 points

Oct 10, 2019 12:54 PM in response to Nekromant

No boot menu unfortunately. No Apple logo on power up no chimes. Apple tech could not get any life out of my mac other than the flashing folder after 15/20 seconds.

Vancouver22

Level 8

37,622 points

Oct 13, 2019 8:44 PM in response to guzzy92fs

I think you missed a few hundred!

Oct 16, 2019 1:03 PM in response to rkcomp

Check youtube for more information on this - video by Louis Rossmann on the 15th October.

Oct 16, 2019 1:50 PM in response to paulfromuc

Exactly the same happened to my Mac mini 2012. Just died during Catalina upgrade.

Oct 18, 2019 9:57 PM in response to tom18vette

Good for you - well said.

Oct 19, 2019 1:26 AM in response to rreinhardt93

Right ...but if there were firmware/bios/cmc updates with Catalina?

barsbek

Level 1

8 points

Oct 20, 2019 3:19 PM in response to tom18vette

@tom18vette can you share the name and location of the store that fixed your mbp?

Oct 21, 2019 10:54 AM in response to tom18vette

why was my reply edited? I did not mention the shop/ and the hints of the search were not offensive...

tonko289

Level 1

13 points

Oct 24, 2019 7:25 AM in response to avdho

Finally it started! There are several reports over the web about EFI issue! I hope Apple will act and solve problem!

paulfromuc Author

Level 1

34 points

Oct 24, 2019 7:27 AM in response to tonko289

Please tell me more. any links you can share?

tonko289

Level 1

13 points

Oct 24, 2019 7:30 AM in response to paulfromuc

https://9to5mac.com/2019/10/24/efi-firmware/

https://www.cultofmac.com/661068/some-unlucky-macs-are-being-bricked-by-catalina/

barsbek

Level 1

8 points

Oct 24, 2019 4:30 PM in response to tom18vette

Thank you!

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catalina killed my MacBook pro