Installed Maverick and asked for four digit code

You might face the same problem as a friend of mine... A while back he wanted to try the new locking feature of iOS7 and tried to lock his computer. At the time the feature was not supported by mac OS and it did nothing. He forgot about it. Trying to install Mavericks made this request active... and bricked his macbook pro rétina as he could not remember the code he used 😟

Last update : my friend was able to retrieve his mac after an Apple technician re-installed the firmware on his macbook pro... (Apple's help is needed for that as changing the firmware involves some ... codes).

Happy ending for him.

akira44 wrote:

You might face the same problem as a friend of mine... A while back he wanted to try the new locking feature of iOS7 and tried to lock his computer. At the time the feature was not supported by mac OS and it did nothing. He forgot about it. Trying to install Mavericks made this request active... and bricked his macbook pro rétina as he could not remember the code he used 😟

That indeed sounds like a possibility.

I too am having this problem after downloading mavericks. It is also worth mentioning the Genius Bar could not help me. I have gotten apple support to send the problem to the engineers. I would encourage anyone else that has this problem to call apple and voice it and make sure it gets reported to the engineers.

I still have this problem after upgrading from Lion to Mavericks, my machine asking me for system lock PIN code.

But unfortunately, i dont know the system lock code, i even dont remember if i had one.

Ive brought my macbook pro to techinican and he said that he need to change the BIOS? ive pulled my macbook pro from him because i think he dont know what he is doing.

Probably i will bring my macbook pro to apple service center. but im afraid because i bought the macbook pro second hand and the store is already closed and ive lost the proof of purchase.

do you have any suggestion what to do?

Thanks

The technician was on the right track, reinstalling the bios/firmware seems to be the only solution to remove the code. Apple care wasn't able to help my friend.

Thorfox, what was the reasoning they weren't able to help you at the apple store? I'm set to head there next week when I have the time. I've also reported this up the chain via a claim through customer care, a message through www.apple.com/feedback. I have yet to hear a response from any of the aforementioned, but hope to hear something soon, as the more i look at this $1600 brick on my desk, the more upset I get.

odang3, as I understand it from the customer service reps, the lock is a firmware lock as akira44 has stated, something senior specialists have said, that should be able to be resolved through a visit to the Apple Store.

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When I went to the apple store they said the only options were to wipe the hd and re install mavericks, and even then I would most likely be locked back out.

Or

Contact the person I bought the computer from and ask him to unlock my computer (assuming he accidentally locked it)

They couldn't wipe and reinstall. So I am left with option 2. Unfortunately I haven't found his number yet, as all of his info was saved on my currently bricked computer. Even more unfortunately I very highly doubt the previous owner did this, it seems very unlikely that the original owners all locked us out of our macs all after downloading mavericks. There seems to be a problem with mavericks and apple currently doesn't have a solution for it or will even acknowledge the problem exists as of yesterday(10/28/13).

I have the same problem only it's a company computer and the origional owner no longer works for us. I am the administrator and have my own admin account on the machine. How can Apple allow one user to lock out another! Not all computers are owned by an indivisual. This is crazy and a really big problem for my entire company!!!

thorfox,

there is a local apple seller here near to my place, i brought my machine to them and weve tried to replaced the HD, but not a single change.. the problem exist. they did everything but they can not fix it. they are trying to get the has code. they said this code is all they needed to send to apple just to unblock my machine.

nbleak21,

yes you are right to visit the apple store, but i can not because i dont have any proof of purchase.. now my option is to bring my machine to 3rd party technician just to fix the BIOS. its 200 US dollars 😟

I too, don't have proof of purchase... I contacted my credit card company to see if they could pull up the transaction, but unfortunately they don't keep records over 1 year old, and I purchased it new in Nov 2011. Hopefully there will be some way of tracking it through apple... If not, Apple may have a 2012 British T-Mobile situation on their hands! (Just Kidding!... I hope?)

I had the same issue too, seems a lot of people have https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5468388?answerId=23641556022#23641556022&ac_cid=tw123456#23641556

I'm having the same issue. Bought the 27" iMac second hand and it locked itself after I upgraded to Marverick yesterday. I didn't even turn on the "Find My Mac" feature. Called Apple and spoke to senior specialist. He advised to use "cmd+R" when starting the Mac to wipe the harddrive, but even that require the passcode. So the only option left is a trip to Apple store and ask their support to wipe the hardrive, which is the least preferred option because not all the files were backed up and I will be ended up losing some of the them 😟.

I believe this is a bug so hope to voice it here. Unfortunatley I don't think we will be compensated by Apple as the first bunch of victims 😟 .

I been to apple a couple of days ago, i brought my machine to them, ive stated my stuation..

Then after a day, ive received a phone call from them, saying that they need to reset my EFI passcode and it will erase all of my data in my machine. ive gave them go signal and after 2 days my machine is ok and ready for pick up.

and ive asked them what went wrong, they told me that they need to reset the EFI passcode, and they said ive probably put a password but ive maybe forgot so they have to reset the EFI passcode.

they charge me 133 USD.

bring to them your machines. it will be ok.

regarding proof of purchase, ive found my receipt, so i have the courage to bring my machine to them. but they dont bother to look at it.. that was my experience.

Cheers 🙂

the firmware reset for my friend did not lead to any data loss (his fear since his backups were a bit old...). It was made free of charge since he was an Apple Care member.

T.