Late 2016 Macbook Pro 15" SSD disappearance & macOS Sierra startup failure.

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Level 1

12 points

Late 2016 Macbook Pro 15" SSD disappearance & macOS Sierra startup failure.

Hello,

I got the late 2016 macbook pro 15" with touch bar just 6 months ago and now I'm facing severe issues with the internal SSD & macOS Sierra's startup.

Would greatly appreciate it if someone can please provide me a solution or why is this kind of a problem happening.

1st Incident:

I was just browsing a few websites in Safari and all of a sudden the laptop freezes.

No keyboard / mouse / trackpad response works. I force boot with the power button.

Restart and see a black screen which has an icon containing a white folder with a black Question mark.

None of the manual alternative startup options work. I take it to the Apple service center. They do a so called "internal reset" and everything is back fine. Even those previously unsaved / closed apps & Safari tabs which were closed, opened up. They said they checked the internal SSD and said it's fine without any hardware problems. They said it's a macOS Sierra software corruption possibly in some startup files.

2nd Incident

The laptop worked fine since the visit to the Apple service center for 2-3 weeks.

And again, one morning, just powered the laptop on to work and I see a "Prohibited" white icon like a "No Entry" sign of a circle with a slash on a black background. This happens after macOS Sierra loads till 70% or so.

All alternate keyboard startup commands function but cannot get me through to the desktop. After restarting a couple of times with experimenting with these other startup techniques, Disk Utility does not show the internal SSD which has both my macOS & Windows 10 partitions. It only shows the 2 GB OSX Base Station partition.

But, on pressing "Option" i can see both partitions of macOS & Windows 10.

Clicking on the macOS partition to select to load, it loads 70% and then displays the Prohibited icon.

Alternatively, if Windows 10 partition is selected, it displays the Blue Windows logo on a black background with white text stating - Automatic repair is trying to fix the problem and it could take several minutes. It goes on for a couple of minutes and nothing changes onscreen.

I created an alternative macOS startup disk on an external USB 3.0 hard drive and connected it. the laptop boots from that external macOS Sierra 10.12.5 installer and goes to the desktop of a new user account, but does not show the internal SSD of the laptop as yet.

Q1. Is there a SSD hardware failure?

Q2. Is there a motherboard / logic board failure?

Q3. Is this just a software failure on macOS Sierra and can it be fixed?

Q4. What does the "prohibited" icon mean in this context after 6 months?

Q5. The laptop was working fine for 6 months. How can a issue like this happen suddenly?

I faced the 1st incident on macOS Sierra 10.12.4.

I faced the 2nd incident on macOS Sierra 10.12.5.

Anyone's expert advice is welcome. Thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2016), macOS Sierra (10.12.5), null

Posted on May 26, 2017 11:41 AM

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Answer 1

tjk

Level 9

51,116 points

May 26, 2017 12:04 PM in response to intellogo

Hi,

Personally, I'd go back to Apple and let them figure it out and repair as necessary.

If you want to try some things before you go:

1. There could be an issue with your hard drive or the directory structure on it. Open Utilities > Disk Utility > select your HD on the left (top item) > click on “First Aid” > (depending on your OS, you may have to click on Repair Disk or Verify Disk) > click on “Run” > allow it to finish running > click on “Show Details” > look at the last few lines and see if it says something like "Appears to be OK" and/or “Operation successful;” if so, click on “Done,” go to the Disk Utility menu and select “Quit Disk Utility.”

If it says “Cannot be repaired” or something like it anytime during the run, run it a few more times to see if Disk Utility can repair it. If not, click on “Done,” go to the Disk Utility menu, select “Quit Disk Utility.”

1 & 2. Run Apple Hardware Diagnostics and see if it catches anything: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731

3. Almost any software issue should be able to be fixed (as long as it isn't a "bug" in the software itself), it just depends on how far you want to go. If you don't get to the bottom of this, and you want to use the “ultimate” fix, I would backup (as you always should) boot from Recovery or Internet Recover Mode (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314) > open Disk Utility > select HD on the left > click on Erase > select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID > quite Disk Utility > follow prompts to install the OS but don't restore from Time Machine backup > boot normally > try out everything you can without restoring any data or apps and see if the issue is gone (it sure should be; if it’s not, then the issue is hardware related).

After this, reinstall only mainstream apps, one at a time, and see if the issue returns. If so, you'll know what caused the issue. If you get all apps reinstalled without issue, then restore your data, and if the issue appears, there is something in your data which is causing the issue. Unlikely, but maybe possible.

4. When you see a circle with a slash symbol instead of the Apple logo, it means your Mac couldn't find a valid System Folder to start up from.

5. Any software can become corrupted. Any hardware can die at any time.

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Answer 2

tjk

Level 9

51,116 points

May 27, 2017 1:39 AM in response to intellogo

1 and 2: sorry, I see in this post, and went back and re-read OP, can't see SSD.

1: It seems likely. It's time to bring your Mac to an Apple Store “genius” bar for a free diagnosis: https://support.apple.com/contact

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Answer 3

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

May 27, 2017 2:35 AM in response to intellogo

A safe boot is performed using the SHIFT key:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

COMMAND S is single user mode which will result in a display with error codes.

See if you can run Apple Diagnostics:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731

Ciao.

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Answer 4

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

May 26, 2017 11:48 AM in response to intellogo

1. possibly.

2. not likely.

3. I would reinstall the OSX.

4. It means is cannot find an operable OSX.

5. I do not know.

Your Mac is in the warranty period. The best option is to bring it back to Apple and have them correct the problem.

Ciao.

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Answer 5

intellogo Author

Level 1

12 points

May 27, 2017 12:47 AM in response to tjk

@tjk

Thanks for your advise!

I can't try out your suggested solution for Items #1 & #2 because my internal 1TB SSD is not appearing within Disk Utility even when I load the inbuilt Disk Utility app at boot. I only see a 2GB OSX Base Station partition.

For item #3, I tried the Internet Recovery partition, that shows the spinning Globe for a long time and then gives a -2003F error.

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Answer 6

intellogo Author

Level 1

12 points

May 27, 2017 12:50 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

@OGELTHORPE

I tried the Internet Recovery partition, that shows the spinning Globe for a long time and then gives a -2003F error.

Even the "Command S" safe mode boot process shows full errors and never ends. It's like an infinite loop of errors.

I really wonder where is the source of the problem. Is it the internal SSD or macOS Sierra or the Logic Board?

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Answer 7

intellogo Author

Level 1

12 points

May 27, 2017 1:06 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

@ OGELTHORPE

Thanks for the info!

I didn't know about the Apple Diagnostics technique though and didn't read about it online. I have already given the unit to the service center for a checkup, so couldn't try out the Apple Diagnostics technique.

Had tried the other 6 or 7 techniques for a startup solution but neither of these was able to solve the issue.

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Answer 8

intellogo Author

Level 1

12 points

May 28, 2017 12:25 AM in response to tjk

@tjk

Apple's service center has checked the unit and said that they will replace the Logic Board, which contains the soldiered Graphics Card, CPU, Memory, IO Chip & SSD. They said that they tried the " quick internal reset" technique as I mentioned in my original post but that did not solve the issue of an undetectable SSD. They also tried the force format option, but couldn't do so as the SSD is not detectable. They said that their trained technician has done the necessary checks and has now decided to request for the replacement Logic Board. 🙂

5 days waiting time for that now!

What surprised me is that the service center said that my issue is very strange as it's showing both the macOS & Windows partitions on bootup but, the SSD is not appearing in Disk Utility.

I asked them if their technician performed the "D" key technique of the Apple Hardware diagnostics, and they said that their techie did whatever was possible before requesting for a replacement part

Gotta wait now! 😝

What I'm thinking of is, what do I do if this kind of a incident occurs after the warranty period? 😕

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Answer 9

tjk

Level 9

51,116 points

May 28, 2017 7:12 AM in response to intellogo

intellogo wrote:

What surprised me is that the service center said that my issue is very strange as it's showing both the macOS & Windows partitions on bootup but, the SSD is not appearing in Disk Utility.

Agreed.

intellogo wrote:

What I'm thinking of is, what do I do if this kind of a incident occurs after the warranty period? 😕

Pray it doesn't, as if you're not under warranty, you're not under warranty.

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Answer 10

intellogo Author

Level 1

12 points

May 29, 2017 10:26 PM in response to intellogo

Update:

I got my Mac back after 7 days from the local Apple Premium Service Center.

They've replaced the logic board which had everything. The part was not in stock in my town, so it had to be shipped from another town which took about 5 days.

Fortunately I had backed up my data as individual files, folders & app installer files, etc on my USB hard drive about 2 weeks ago, so I've not lost crucial data as such. Except for the 1 week for which I didn't backup.

The systems is working fine now. I'll be re-installing all my 3rd party apps on macOS Sierra 10.12.5 and Windows 10 to load some of my favorite games to test the replaced hardware's heating, cooling and performance, to ensure things are working fine.

Definitely a lot of time waste to manually do all this.

I think if I had used Time Machine's backup feature, I wouldn't need to manually install the macOS apps with configuring their individual settings, resetting up features, re-arranging things & re-activating them and all.

But, the service center still had no answer as to what was the source of the issue for the "Prohibitory" or "No Entry" circle icon and couldn't provide an immediate software solution for it either if the scenario ever happens again.

As you folks had suggested above, I also ran the "D" key technique of Apple's Hardware Diagnostics to check the new hardware. The boot screen showed that no problems were found.

Only, the message AFP00 was shown which I think means everything is fine.

Thanks all anyways for your pointers above earlier!

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