Catalina installation damaged EFI firmware on MBP mid 2012

To those who've experienced this issue: please let Apple know today. These threads are not actively followed and the more users that report to Apple, probably the more likely that there will be some resolution.

I initiated a chat and was then called by a Senior Advisor. I reported the details of the update corrupting my firmware, and sent links to the relevant threads here. Be nice and don't expect a fix over the phone, but they need to be made aware of the number of users affected. For reference, here are the related threads I am following:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250716026

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250745000

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250719221

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250728927

Exactly the same thing happened to my Mac mini 2012 and even posted it here - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250743718 Is there any user available method to fix EFI properly? This should be fixed by Apple to be honest as this is obviously faulty upgrade process of their official system....however warranty is long gone for my computer.

Excellent post, Jaygrow. You are spot-on in your recommendations. We also know this feedback link also works from changes made to other Apple software products:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

For the others: The people at Apple who work on this stuff will NOT see complaints posted here. Use the link or phone support.

All the people having this issue should be report it in a single post, a single thread (and also in the official Apple Feedback Site). There's a lot of threads already about the same, so the complain vanishes among so many threads. Making one big would be a first good step.

There are also communities like Reddit where you might make more noise. The Apple Repair Programs normally just start when there's a lot of noise in the media about the same problem, and this is by now an issue that requieres a Repair Program. Trying to reach big YouTubers might also be a solution. I don't know. But here you won't make it, this is an Apple's users forum.

This is not a poll or petition, it's an opinion that doesn't break any rule.

Hello folks, I'm addressing users with Macs built 2015 or older and especially those with an iMac and the "white screen" problem.

Since, I think, it was macOS 10.12 or higher, only the internal drive was displayed by default when booting with ALT. If you wanted you could activate the Startup Manager by using additional keys or permanently by using a terminal command. See also https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202796 - Check for Option ROM Firmware.

Why do I write this? I picked up my repaired iMac today. Everything was fine, and I wanted to do a clean install using an usb-stick when I noticed that by default only the internal drive was displayed. It occurred to me that this terminal command exists and all available drives are displayed in the Startup Manager.

And now guess what happened... correct: after the restart my iMac showed me the familiar white screen again and reacted to nothing. This was confirmed to me again by the technician.

Now I'd like to know if this is just a coincidence or if you've used this terminal command before, which could have been years ago.

Maybe I found the trigger unintentionally, at least with the iMacs? What about the Macbooks? Did you also activate the permanent Startup Manager?

Fred

I fixed my full time pink screen issue, here is the solution. I think it might apply to your issue as well. For those of you without working screens, I suggest finding a screen that does work temporarily, and installing Teamviewer, or some other free program to remotely log into your machine. After doing so, connect the nonworking screen, start the computer, and log in remotely, then follow the steps 1-5 below. you will have to switch back to the working screen for the steps 6-15

The reason it is having an issue, is after the update, the signal being sent is YCbCr instead of RGB like your monitors are expecting. Some people with panels like mine will get pink, others likely get no signal recognized. This script works by setting up a profile for your specific monitor, and having it be forced to be RGB, if you connect it to another model monitor with the same issue, this process will need to be repeated for that monitor as well.

1. Download this script: https://gist.github.com/adaugherity/7435890
2. Place the patch-edid.rb file into the /Users/ directory
3. Run this command in Terminal: ruby /Users/patch-edid.rb
4. Take note of the DisplayProductID and DisplayVendorID file names. These will vary based on your monitor.
5. Move the output file named "DisplayProductID-XXXX" from /Users/~username/ to the /Users/ directory
6. Reboot your Mac in Recovery Mode by pressing Command+R as soon as you see the Apple logo after rebooting
7. Open Disk Utility in Recover Mode
8. Check to see if "Macintosh HD" is mounted. If it isn't you will need to mount it before proceeding.
9. Exit Disk Utility
10. Open Terminal in Recovery Mode
11. Change to the Overrides directory via "cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/"
12. Create the folder with "mkdir DisplayVendorID-XXXX".
13. Run this command in Terminal (make sure to include spaces):
14. "cp /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/DisplayProductID-XXXX /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-XXXX/"
15. Restart computer and the monitor should now be in RGB mode.
16. Check to make sure it has taken effect by going to your "system preferences" and clicking "displays". If your display name at the top bar does not include "forced RGB mode (EDID override)", it did not take effect.

Hope this helps everyone! if you have issues look in the comments on the script page, the author is active.

My machine is a Mac mini (2018) i7 64GB 1TB. My monitor is a 28 inch Hannspree HF289H monitor

I also have a Mac mini late 2012, I have not tried updating to Catalina with it yet, but I have read others having my same issue with it, and solving it with this solution. I'll let you know when I eventually update mine.

I have a MacBook Air 2012 with MacOS High Sierra. After installing Catalina, my Mac would sometimes boot up but hangs whenever I try to use it. Most of the time, it would just show the infamous folder with a question mark when I try to boot my Mac. I know Catalina has been installed on my internal SSD as I’ve managed to boot it and can see my files, so I was reluctant to reformat my internal SSD. After days of research and trials, I’ve managed to solve the issue. This is what I did:

I prepared two external USB storages:

• Storage 1: Thumb drive 16GB or larger
• Storage 2: External storage HDD/SSD/Thumb drive with greater than 30GB

Step 1:

I made Storage 1 into a bootable Catalina installation drive. I did it myself as I have another Mac. You can either do it yourself on another Mac or Windows machine, OR get a friend to make one for you. There are many sites that can guide you through this process. This is one of them:

https://www.macworld.com/article/3442597/how-to-create-a-bootable-macos-catalina-installer-drive.html

Step 2:

Inserted both Storage 1 & 2 into my problematic Mac. Hold down OPTION and power up my Mac. I chose to boot from my Storage 1 (Installation disk).

Step 3:

Once the Catalina installation has loaded, I ran the Disk Utility. Formatted Storage 2 to APFS using GUID Partition Map scheme. APFS did not appear as an option, so I formatted to Mac OS Extended first, then reformatted to APFS.

Step 4:

I installed Catalina on Storage 2. Followed setup instructions and continued until my Mac booted from Storage 2. Once my Mac has booted with Catalina on Storage 2, I shutdown my Mac.

Step 5:

I reset the SMC. I made sure I’ve connected my Mac with power adapter. I held SHIFT+CTRL+OPTION and the power button for 10 seconds, then release everything together. At this point expect to see the MagSafe charging LED to change colour to indicate that the SMC reset has been completed.

I reset PRAM by pressing the power button then immediately held CMD+OPTION+P+R until I heard the startup sound twice. I released all keys and let my Mac boot.

And my Mac booted directly from my internal SSD! It seems that by reinstalling Catalina on an external USB drive it had also reinstalled my EFI firmware. I believe the previous EFI firmware was causing my Mac not to recognise the internal SSD. As for the question why the new EFI firmware wasn’t installed when I first upgraded to Catalina, well that remains unanswered.

Resetting the SMC was necessary to flush out the previous EFI settings. The PRAM reset was probably unnecessary but I did it anyway! 😊

Give it a try. This problem kept me awake for a few nights as the Mac actually belongs to my wife!  Now you know why I was reluctant to format the internal SSD. I do hope this post will help someone. Good luck!

This is primarily a user-to-user support site in which Apple's participation is very limited. To contact Apple, click the Contact Apple link on their home page.

If those questions are for your fellow users, I doubt anyone will be able to provide a constructive answer, but it seems you were given sort of a runaround at first. No it's not normal, but fixing a seven year old MBP fixed for only $100 seems like a satisfactory outcome.

Thanks Allan Jones for the link - Just posted my experience there as well.

Today I decided to contact official Apple Poland service line first, after quite a lot of explanations and constant telling that I cannot do anything as there is no response to any key combination and that the computer is actually bricked and that this problem is not isolated but quite common while updating to Catalina, they directed my to the Authorised Service (iSpot) as there is no official service from Apple in Poland. The only thing I was able to negotiate for now was free of charge diagnosis of the problem (that might take them up to two weeks....) As this is my secondary machine, so I decided to wait. Obviously I already know the diagnosis - Broken EFI caused by faulty Catalina update - in fact I want to wait and see what is their solution to this problem and will they (or will not) want to charge me anything for this. Will keep you updated.

[Edited by Moderator]

I have the same issue with MacBook Pro 2017 after Catalina update on Friday, the symptoms are as described here - no response whatsoever to any hot key combinations, blinking folder with question mark, cant even get to Utility Disk. Have an appointment in Apple store tomorrow. Smallllik, have you managed to recover your data?

Just come back from the Apple Store.

Apple worker had not come across/ heard of this problem.

After “diagnostic testing” they say I need a new logic board at £465 plus 20% VAT!

£558 for a failed software upgrade and not my fault.

Not happy and declined.

How does one contact senior staff at Apple?

I went to Apple store today, too. They offered a more detailed diagnostic test in the Genius bar, I left my Macbook over there for further examination, although preliminary test indicated that this is EFI failure. From what I understood, unless they find any sign of physical damage or water spill, this will be repair under warranty without any cost to me. Also, from what I read any electronic device with battery sold in UK should work at least 3 years - there is a law for this.

Hi, do you have more infos on how they manage to reprogramed the EFI.. Apple ask me 600€ for a new logic board on my mbrp corrupted after this stupid update.

Also, there was a new release (unversioned) of the update recently this week, does everyone as the same problem with this version ?