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Catalina installation damaged EFI firmware on MBP mid 2012

Today when i run update of OSX to Catalina, when installation initiated restart of mac, it stuck on black screen. I waited 15min and turned it off. After i turned it on, again - black screen. I called to support, tried all "magic button combinations", changed and tested SSD and memory (on my dad's same notebook), tried to disconnect battery for some time (to reset settings, in case of magic keys didn't helped), tried to start with disconnected SSD\CD-rom\Trackpad\wi-fi\... Tested also monitor on another notebook - it works. But with my motherboard when i press power btn - it just turns on fan, and white led always on, and monitor didn't wake up, not "showing black screen" but just didn't turns it on at all, no backlight, no LCD any activity (checked with flashlight). So i went to official local service and they sad that "it's just too old...". So i get to unofficial service but with normal guys, and they tested all the hardware and it works great, but didn't wake up with this motherboard. And they directly programated EFI with special tool, and it works now. So in result - i'm officially say: "Catalina damaged my EFI and it cost me 2 work days and 100$ of repair cost". Is it normal, Apple? You want me to buy new notebook instead of continue using my old one that still working great, so you just tried to kill my old notebook with software "bug"? Or what? Why official support can't help with this case? Why official local services didn't helped?

Posted on Oct 11, 2019 3:19 AM

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80 replies

Oct 15, 2019 11:42 AM in response to Allan Jones

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]

Oct 16, 2019 1:10 PM in response to rkcomp

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.

Oct 18, 2019 5:38 AM in response to gabriel_favot

Barracuda38, i made backup before update, so didn't lost any data, only couple of days of my time...


gabriel_favot, sorry, no i don't, i just supposed that this is the EFI problem and said to those guys is local unofficial service all that i already had checked: monitor, ssd, memory, turned off almost everything from motherboard and still have no results. And they said, that they programmed EFI directly (don't know exacltly how, and does they removed it first or not, probably should, because all contacts is under the chip). But anyway - logicboard is same (i taked detailed photos of everything before go to service), and now it's working, so they definitely done something right.


About Catalina. After i "unbricked" my macbook, i made USB installer of Catalina and tried again (because OS didn't starts from SSD, so installation wasn't finished previously and didn't wanted to continue). At this time everything was fine and now i have Catalina on my old macbook, "too old and dead" as they said in official service... So i think, it will be cool, if Apple will find out this bug and fix it, and also give some apologies directly to every user faced this bug. And also i think, they should teach official certificated services some good manners (specially in Omsk, Russia, there is only one official services and it s**ks).

Oct 21, 2019 2:37 PM in response to Jaygrow

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.

Oct 23, 2019 1:32 PM in response to Jay Ros

I found this on dedicated German Mac magazine website. At least this problem starts to get traction and wider publicity - https://www.macwelt.de/news/Neue-EFI-als-Ursache-Defekte-Macs-nach-Update-auf-macOS-Catalina-10684104.html (you can use G translate to get the sense but it is exactly what the issue with Catalina is). Hope this will eventually be noticed and addressed by Apple.

Catalina installation damaged EFI firmware on MBP mid 2012

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