Catalina bricked my 2015 MacBook Pro. What to do now?

So Apple Glasgow Braehead a small surburbian store said my case is the only case they have seen. So they won’t replace the logic board. Let’s all put our official Apple case number here and let apple know that this is not fake!

my case number is 100953645162.

Also Apple technicians said if they replace the board and install Catalina and it should be fine. Ok I asked him. Did you try that?

the answer was no.

so don’t tell me that it wasn’t the Catalina installation with guess work!

called me multiple times to discuss’solution’ but won’t even escalate the issue to the Cupertino. Feedback won’t get notice!

i have exhausted my venue with Apple now. I am just going to non Apple repair shops to see if they will flash the firmware.

this is the first time I am unhappy about an Apple product. The machine did do well for 5 years. Can’t say the same for HP or dell. But still it does not leave a good feeling.

...unless it has a hardware encrypted volume and/or is soldered onto the board without a "Lifeboat" connector... Trust me, the simple way is to connect to the JTAG, dump the current firmware, compare it to what there should be and there will be an 0xFFFFFFFF at some point where there shouldn't be. Flashing firmware on an Intel board without killing the S-state is crazy, as who knows what the user was doing before updating the firmware? On a Dell machine, it is very obvious, the fans go to full speed as all the power saving features are disabled during the firmware update process (often there are more than one device that has their firmware updated, network controller, CPU microcode etc apart from the UEFI) Some earlier machines used the older Intel EFI system, newer machines (should) use UEFI (less chance for problems!)

@landscape_artist, apple support waste a whole of my time plus the 100miles I have wrecked up to travel to the stores! I visited the store 6 times and spoken to 6 different support staff. They just deny it. I am ok with having 5 good years out of the iMac but it worries me, should I ever upgrade from now on without warranty .

This also just happened to my MacBook Pro 2018 AND MacBook Pro 2012. Both computers, both updating, both with now failed logic boards. The tech tried to tell me it was a coincidence— now this thread says otherwise!!

@ PhanHuy_vn

Thank you for your suggestion but, unfortunately, it is irrelevant to our machine. That procedure is for newer MacBook Pros with USB-C.

Also, if you read through my post, you will see that we have tried the Target-Mode (using Thunderbolt-to-Thunderbolt cables) because, obviously, we want to rescue the data that is on the internal SSD. It did not work. The machine is simply in a loop and will not boot into Target-Mode nor into Recovery.

The EFI has been corrupted by the Catalina installer and, so far, there is absolutely no way we can exit the dead loop this catastrophic update has caused.

I'm glad it worked for you, it's true that I didn't provide you with the EFI image of stef and I should make it available if people want it. It's a real shame that a show like Apple doesn't recognize the problem, I find it shameful to have charged more than $500 to people when we could have just flashed their Bios.

Hey, glad to hear it worked for you.

May I know what was your problem? did you see a blinking folder with question mark and you could not install OS on your machine?

If our problems are the same, it is worth I give it a try.

When I try to install any kind of OS on my machine, it gets so hot and restarts in about a minute.

Thanks for the information.

my problem is different(I dont know if it is good or bad:) ) So, now the question is:

if I can install OS on a usb, so the efi version of my device is updated, I can see my internal HD in recovery mode but I cannot see it in internet recovery and whenever I try to install any version of OS on my internal HD(using recovery mode and bootable usb), the top part of my keyboard gets so hot and kernel panic happens,

my problem is not EFI CORRUPTION?

Symptoms in my case was that nothing would be displayed on the screen, no chime, no key combination would work at boot. Hence, no interaction with the computer was possible anymore.

Still, slightly different symptoms were reported here, and given the complexity of the EFI bios, I would expect anything is possible following bios corruption.

No, when computer gets hot, Fans still runs normal.

As I told earlier, I could install a macOS Mojave on a USB attached to my computer, so that it updated my Boot Rom Version to 263.0.0.0.0.

Does reflashing the EFI do the same thing as what I did by Updating the EFI version or it does sth different?

And another question, Since I have access to my Intenal HD through this OS that is installed on USB, if I could format the internal HD as exFAT and then copy some files on it and then cut the files from it and paste them in OS, can we assume that my internal HD works fine?

Thanks for your kind cooperation.

There's nothing new under the sun Rick. They bricked two of my MBP's Mid 2012 with updates that they suggested that I should apply via the App Store! When I went to report these issues at an Apple Store during an appointment with the Genius Bar I was told that my machine had water damage. My machine has never been around water for any water damage to have transpired. I am the only one that utilizes any of my machines. To add insult of injury it happened with more than one MBP Mid 2012 model of the same type/specs! They refuse to acknowledge that this is an ongoing issue and I'm starting to think that this is being done purposely so that we can purchase new hardware. When it came to my MBP the power malfunctioned after a firmware update that was pushed to my PRAM. The computer wouldn't start nor would it charge the battery. I got no chimes or anything indicative of a boot. I refuse to allow them to render my machines inoperable.

*Since this time I have halted installing or updating my MBP's or IMACS in any way. At this time for the health of my machines I cannot trust Apple to perform updates while there's no Apple Technician to witness any issues that may transpire. It's my word against theirs if I do the updating myself. In every instance that these types of issues have transpired I've been told that I caused the damage to my machines. I've been utilizing these machines for years without any issues until it came to updates and upgrades. To be on the safe side bring all of your machines to the Apple Store and allow them to process any upgrades or updates.

I remain on 10.11.6 forever! I have some work arounds for security. My IMAC can only go up to High Sierra; however, the updates are what got me not the actual OS install. I'm afraid that after your computer is out of warranty and the models have reached end of life they can brick machines at random and at will and they don't have to support you or acknowledge their error. This is also transpiring with IPHONES my battery only remains charged on my IPHONE 6s for about 24hrs. When I first got this phone it would remain charged for a minimum of at least 5 days depending on the usage. I'd like to add that I took full advantage of the battery replacement program that was offered. This was due to the fact that this was their excuse for throttling older IPHONES when newer versions hit the market. They're saying that my battery levels are fine when I know better I use the phone everyday.

*They'll attempt to make this your fault no matter how user savvy you may be.

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

Same thing on my mac mini 2012. No keys recognized. Black screen.

Exchange of defective LogicBoard will cost € 450.