I’ve just “upgraded” to Catalina.
My laptop is now bricked.
All I get is the “folder?” logo or nothing at all if I try “option” or “command R” on boot up.
What to do now?
I have had the same problem. I’ have made a telephone call with the apple support and they coached me how to get back mojave. This was a bitcomplicated. First they downgrade me to the first mac os when I bought my laptop. Thereafter they sent me the link to update to mojave. You must do this by that link; [because when you ckick on update (only) the system wil update to catalina.] This works!
After this I used my time machine backup to get back my contents. Now it works fine again. With thanks to apple support.
Alex, read this post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250728927?page=1
My assumptions were right, Catalina is ruining the EFI while upgrading.
I got my mother board replaced for free by Apple. Push and they will do it.
This "Bricking after upgrading Catalina" is spreading like the plague, it happened to my 2014 MacBook Air and I have two other friends with MacBook Pro 2015 that have the same issue. No keys are recognized by the device and 5 minute after turning it on the flashing question mark folder. Everything points to be a BIOS-EFI firmware corruption by the catalina installer.
the exact same happened to my 2015 MBP Retina 13”. I took it into the Apple store where the genius couldn’t diagnose it, so they kept the MB for a week or more. Apparently they claim the logic board to have become faulty during the update, but said I’m liable to pay around £600 for a replacement logic board. It’s evident to me now that this is occurring much more than Apple care to accept. To be absolutely honest, both Apple’s customer service and product refinement have stooped into the dumps.
I read yesterday that under UK consumer law one can claim against faulty goods for up to 6 years after purchase.
A software upgrade should not physically damage a computer.
If it has done, then clearly the item is not fit for purpose.
I shall be taking as much paperwork with me to the Apple Store on Wednesday as I can.
Is it less than six years old? If so, print out a few URLs in this support forum and claim that the defect was either in the product from manufacture or was created by the OS update. The key piece of legislation is the Consumer Rights Act that gives you six years of protection from manufacturing faults. I suspect the logic board will then be replaced for free (as it doesn't cost Apple UK anywhere near that much)
This thing happened in beta testing:
https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/117193
But:
EFI / Boot ROM updates are only done when installing updates on internal drives. If you install catalina on a external drive the Boot ROM is not touched.
I assume many beta testers installed catalina on external drives without updating their Boot ROM.
Sorry to hear that. Quite a coincidence, though it may be that the stress of the upgrade tipped over a previously unknown condition (if the logic board really is trashed).
$625 CAD is reasonable for that repair -- I'm comparing logic boards available on eBay, which seem costly to me, to those available through (I)fixit (more reasonable). I know from experience that disassembling an iMac is not easy the first time you do it. If the Apple Store will repair for that price, I'd say go for it. LOL, and make sure they upgrade to Catalina before they return it to you!
Best of luck!
Just left the Apple Store - same answer as everyone else: $475 SSD replacement.
Supposedly if Apple recognizes it as a widespread issue, I can potentially request a refund, but I won’t be holding my breath.
Really disappointing.
I don’t believe it’s an SSD issue. Everyone who’s had Apple look at their machines confirm that it is in fact a logic board issue. Also going by the assumption that some have got their machines working after reprogramming EFI chip makes it more of a cause.
I know “Apple doesn’t monitor these forums”, but people have made enough noise to be heard. It’s a shame Apple’s not the company it used to be.
I used the same. The seller will wait 3 days after payment before sending, then it was sent by DHL on Friday last week, and delivered at my home in France on Monday the week after. The cable looks nice, the CH341A is cheap and software is old. I used it but it didn't detected my EFI chip correctly (it's a winbond 25Q64FVIQ on my mobo, WSON package), but it worked: read, erase, write. I would recommend to try other software, or possibly Linux and flash rom (I didn't tried it). Very important to read and save the Catalina firmware (for your serial number at least). As well as check each operation: read should be done 2 or 3 times, results compared with some hashing ... write should be verified by reading and comparing to the written image ...
Actually that is not at all the point. You're discussing semantics here what the definition of 'bricked' means.
Like many others, I did a catalina install that seemed to hang, after which the macbook rendered unresponsive. So far the only news that the EFI is actually scrambled came from one user. It is not confirmed yet that in all these cases the EFI is actually scrambled.
My symptoms and that of many as described here, are booting into a black screen and getting almost no feedback from the macbook whatsoever. It did not boot into recovery or respond to any other keyboard actions. The power button worked and apparently, although no visual feedback, the NVRam/PRAM reset seemed to work or it would have to have been pure coincidence that after doing so the mac resumed the install.
I will leave it to the others to actually try my remedy as well, before you actually conclude it does not help anyone else...
I wrote about possible ways to fix MacBook bricked by Catalina, including forcing Apple to do it for free (I succeeded but I pressed really strong), having it done at unofficial shop or doing it yourself. See here: https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/612997/Catalina+Bricked+my+Mac.+Now+What
Maybe a bricked EFI?
Seems like a visit to the Apple Store is in order.
Catalina bricked my 2015 MacBook Pro. What to do now?
