10.15 Catalina....bricked my Mid 2014 13" Macbook Pro? Blinking file icon

hey kk_id,

Do you have some links indicating the same problem when moving to Mojave?

I haven't any and it would be really helpful

Thank you!

Was anybody able to replace the SMC chip on the motherboard?

My MBP 15 2017 is affected. Same problem.

The crayon comment was unnecessary.

I’m sorry. I didn’t know what level you were at. I was just trying to relate. I hope you have a great weekend and thank you for the help.

Curious, was this issue ever fixed with latest Catalina updates or is this still happening when folks try to update older machines to Catalina? Do the latest builds still cause bricking?

This issue was extremely rare, and may have been caused by defective control store or other Hardware problems that was unable to hold the new patterns required.

Thanks. Is there a method that would limit likelihood of this happening? Something like full wipe first then internet restore to do full new install?

Ok. Thanks. Hope I don’t have to buy a new laptop after trying :)

Well... Apple deleted my response. Here's a try at language that won't get me deleted again....

"Given the complexity and possible mainboard damage that could be done by a lay-person, I would suggest reading the post by Jaygrow. If you don't feel competent enough to attach the device, I suggest you find someone local to you that can do this, it is very simple so shouldn't cost a lot."

With everything that you just listen as not working, it sounds like your Mac has developed a hardware problem. My suggestion it to call your local Apple Store and make an appointment for them to examine it. Afterwards they will will tell you what your alternatives are.

DPJ, again I just want to state facts in my final replay please note following:

1) Same models differ at the elementary components level, some individual parts (and there is plenty of them in any computer device) are manufactured differently during production cycle, sometimes even manufactured by different providers. Final configuration even identical on the paper can be different at the low hardware level between Day 1 and Day 1+1. Testing never covers 100% population. So based on that, yes I even considered myself partially lucky - because this failure caused by faulty (not enough tested) Catalina update happened on my secondary system, and my primary one is fine.

2) Testing is as good as it gets (never covers 100% as noted above). If you believe that everything is always tested for macOS before going public please note quite meaningful example quite recent from Mac world: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/11/macos-bug-lets-you-log-in-as-admin-with-no-password-required/ This means nothing more than the test were not sufficient (maybe not designed to cover as much as possible) to give sufficient confidence that nothing major will come out (because at some point you always need to stop testing). EFI corruption caused by software update is bricking hardware - so again yes, I think it is major as requires sophisticated service intervention to fix and I definitely would say not enough was sufficiently tested here (or testing stopped to soon).

End-users (no matter how experienced or not) cannot be blamed at any of the above. If not them than what else if not this particular OS update?