Is it possible to brick a Mac?

[Intell]

Open Firmware is only on PPC Macs. There hasn't been an Open Firmware Mac in 6+ years.

Same procedure applies to EFI/Intell Macs. Just remove a ram stick or the drive.

 

[MatthewAMEL]

Same procedure applies to EFI/Intell Macs. Just remove a ram stick or the drive.

Yup. Sorry. Didn't mean to imply the RAM trick didn't work for EFI Macs.

 

[GGJstudios]

Open Firmware is only on PPC Macs. There hasn't been an Open Firmware Mac in 6+ years.

On ANY Intel Mac (iMac, Air, MBP, etc...) you use the OS X Install CD to set a Firmware Password and only that utility can remove or change the password.

In order to avoid user confusion, Apple stopped calling it 'Open Firmware' and just calls it 'Firmware' now.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1352

Setting up firmware password protection in Mac OS X

Computers compatible with Open Firmware Password Protection

All Intel-based Macintosh computers support firmware password protection.

The following Apple computers can use the Open Firmware Password application:

Any Intel-based Mac
MacBook Air: see MacBook Air: Recovering a lost EFI firmware password

Same procedure applies to EFI/Intell Macs. Just remove a ram stick or the drive.

Exactly! Potaytos... Potahtos!

 

[MatthewAMEL]

Setting up firmware password protection in Mac OS X

And please take a minute to read the document.

It's very specific when it says Intel-based Macs support firmware password protection.

If you've ever run the application on an Intel-based Mac, you will see it says 'Firmware Password'.

Also, on PPC Macs, you used to hold 'cmd-opt-o-f' to enter Open Firmware. No such mode exists for Intel Macs since they don't use Open Firmware, but EFI.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2291745?start=0&tstart=0
Sorry but you're reading a very old article. Intel Macs do not support Open Firmware. They use EFI - Extensible Firmware Interface. What you want is now called the Firmware Password. Search for that to learn how it's implemented (you'll need the Firmware Password Utility from the Utilities folder on your OS X installation DVD that came with your computer.)

 

[GGJstudios]

And please take a minute to read the document.

I have read the document. The point is the same: changing the amount of installed RAM will remove the password, no matter what you call it.

 

[WardC]

I plugged a monitor into a Joystick port on a BeBox and bricked it. VERY VERY stupid. That is another story.

Although, the fried part was only on the I/O board which could be replaced, but for a BeBox that is a proprietary part made by Be which is no longer in Business, and those are hard to find.

 

[Phil A.]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

You could put a firmware level password on the computer that the user doesn't know about or if you are the user yourself you could just forget it. To my knowledge, there is no way to reset a password at the firmware level. Combine this with changing some firmware settings on critical components before said password implementation and I'd say you've effectively "bricked" the computer. That being said, it would take someone well beyond the abilities of a normal or even pretty advanced user to do this.

Let me know if I'm wrong please! Although, I'm sure you would anyway =P

On most Macs, you can re-set a firmware password by changing the amount of installed RAM. Obviously, this wouldn't work on a MacBook Air, or newer MacBook Pro systems, which only Apple can re-set.

You are right about the MBA but all MacBook pros have user replaceable RAM

 

[ring]

Apple's support article says devices advertised after the release of lion.


What about iMac 2011? I just tried to do CMD-R on boot and it just launched RecoveryHD?


What if you install a rouge boot loader and render all bootable drives useless? To my understanding it is impossible to erase/ write over RecoveryHD

 

[will3947]

Hi:

I was watching a YT video with a kid showing people how to dual boot ubuntu on osx. He said something along the lines of "if you check this option you will render OSX unbootable".. And that got me thinking

- What if something went terribly wrong and your recoveryHD got overridden? Would you be able to fix your computer and get it to a working OSX state?

- Is it possible to brick a Mac? Make it un restorable via Recovery HD ?


- What would happen if the recoveryHD/Main partition got overridden? Is the computer screwed?

What In God's Name do you mean by brick? of course you can smash your mac with a brick, but that would be a waste.

thanks[/will3947]

 

[ring]

Brick as in render the computer completely useless; requiring a full hardware replacement

 

[balamw]

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(electronics)

You can certainly brick your Mac if you do anything that messes with the firmware. For example the early 2006 Macs require an unofficial firmware update to support 64 bit processors and Lion. Messing that up can certainly brick your Mac.

B

 

[ring]

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(electronics)

You can certainly brick your Mac if you do anything that messes with the firmware. For example the early 2006 Macs require an unofficial firmware update to support 64 bit processors and Lion. Messing that up can certainly brick your Mac.

B

do you know if the "recovery" feature on the iMac 2011 is actually the "lion internet recovery" advertised by apple?