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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

Feb 26, 2020 9:17 AM in response to Smallllk

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!

Apr 15, 2020 2:42 AM in response to Smallllk

I had same issue on MACBOOK PRO (RETINA, 13-INCH, MID 2014).  

I tried a repair in Apple Store in November '19, but only solution is paying for a new motherboard! 

I agree with Smallllk when he say "flashing EFI too complicated" doing it in Store, but why not create a quality program sending affect Mac to a specific assistance to solve it??  

I understand that is very expensive think to a quality program to substitute every motherboard on all affected previous 2015 Mac  occupying hours and hours of work at Genius Bar, but this motherboard are not corrupted!!! 

In the meantime I hope that a solution flashing EFI firmware is considered by Apple, but however I want solve this issue:


Have someone fixed DIY EFI firmware? Can suggest some procedure, some link?


Thanks in advance 

Catalina installation damaged EFI firmware on MBP mid 2012

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