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

On 10/07/2019 I saw the update for 10.15 pop up in system preferences, and downloaded and attempted to install it. I clicked install once it downloaded and then walked away. Like I normally do.

When I return to my Mac, it is sitting there with the blinking file icon. here

WHAT I HAVE TRIED:

reset SMC

reset PRAM

Disconnected battery, held power button for 5 seconds (same as SMC reset I think)

(⌘)-R

(⌘)-R-option

(⌘)-R-option-shift

Removed SSD and tried to boot into internet recovery without it (done on the same machine in the past)

I also tried any and all other key combos I could find, but it seems it just does not want to boot into anything at all. I have a 10.14.5 bootable disk and time machine back ups, but cannot seem to get the machine to a point where I can use them.

The computer was perfectly fine before I pressed install, never had any issues with this machine. Any ideas? To me it seems the Catalina upgrade corrupted the firmware on my logic board. Did the Catalina update brick my logic board?

I also had a call with Apple phone support. They were not able to help me. They suggested it was hardware related and had nothing to do with the software. I disagree. Another user seems to have the exact same issue, linked below on apples website. If you have this issue it is not a hardware failure coincidentally at the time of the Catalina install! There are others with this issue. It is the 10.15 software that has caused this problem!

link

Posted on Oct 9, 2019 5:23 AM

Top-ranking reply

Jaygrow

Level 1

14 points

Posted on Nov 17, 2019 4:15 PM

Fixed my 2014 MBP with the above issue.

My issue was the same as the OP: Flashing ? folder and computer unresponsive- no recovery mode, not bootable from USB.

Genius Bar answer was the same as we've heard- underlying hardware problem exacerbated by the update, only option being $600 logic board and SSD replacement.

Another thread suggested a solderless EFI unlocker chip, which I obtained from macunlocks.com (to which I have no affiliation.)

I was immediately able to boot into recovery mode, so was very encouraged.

I was initially not able to install from a bootable USB installer, getting an error that the hard drive needed a firmware update.

In Disk Utility (accessible from recovery) I erased the HD, then partitioned it from APFS back to MacOS Extended (Journaled).

After that, the bootable USB installer worked perfectly.

I hope this helps others. And for some of us, at least, this certainly is strong evidence that a firmware corruption is possible during the OS update, and not always an underlying hardware defect.

View in context

Similar questions

109 replies

krammman

Level 1

24 points

Oct 16, 2019 5:16 PM in response to alexscheppert

DO NOT UPGRADE TO IOS CATALINA!!!!!!!!

there is a significant bug in the new OS or Filmic pro app that prevents you from transferring more than one file at a time. This has been frustrating to many of us who have upgraded to Catalina, and we're hopeful that Apple and Filmic pro will issue an update to resolve this bug soon.

Please, no finger-pointing...

Just fix it!!!

lundejd

Level 1

19 points

Oct 24, 2019 11:17 AM in response to DPJ

"already had a hardware failure and didn't now it" LOL thats a good one. Some software action is actually triggering something to the point of failing... be it already failing or not cause and effect is clear. Report is an EFI is scrambled and some Apple employees are reprogramming them... (its just hit or miss that someone will actually take the time to help). Doesn't sound like so big a pre-existing condition to me.

This isn't the first time a similar issue happened and eventually Apple relented. Battery's etc.... its always the same. 10 users here and I'm counting dozens elsewhere and quickly growing. Just hours ago tech sites are picking it up. Not everyone complains online, most just believe its their fault until they find out otherwise. (I was in the same camp until I saw 9to5's article)

If its just 10 people then why even hang around here... just move along.

I had already ordered a new iMac... its arriving today. I'm sending it back. Apple pays shipping from China to here and from here to the return center... prob has to sell as refurbished. If I heard they were fixing our Macs I'd have kept it. Time to go shopping for a new Windows box... maybe something that has actually changed its style in the past decade.

kk_id

Level 1

12 points

Oct 29, 2019 3:14 PM in response to lmulim

I found these when I was looking at possible solutions - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8553915

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250072626

but none of these are exactly similar to what is happening with Catalina.

With Catalina, there are stories of units getting bricked since July(the start of the beta program), and a new search tells me that it has only increased after I last looked. There might be something in this after all. @DPJ Your viewpoint please.

DPJ

Level 4

1,374 points

Nov 11, 2019 7:15 AM in response to vitkorbut

" just because I "upgraded" to Catalina... Ridiculous. MBP 15 2017 here."

Often existing hardware failure doesn't show up until you do something major with the system such as an OS upgrade. You'd have to prove that Catalina caused your entire logic board to fail just because you were installing it. If you can't prove that then you'll have to accept that you already had hardware failure and pay for the repair.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

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