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M1 Max black screen at boot after updating Ventura 13.6

Renderwarrior

Renderwarrior

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 20, 2020
18
1
Hello! I just updated Ventura to the latest release and now my Mac M1 Max is bricked...
I see the apple at boot, then black screen. No luck for the boot options: keeping the power on key pressed, I see the apple, then nothing...
Any hint for fix that? I tried to call Apple but no answers...
 
Got into DFU. Started refresh. Then landed on this
1695914955203.png


... :mad:

Which device ... ? the one being revived? Or the host ... c'mon apple!
 
Tried the "revive" route, since I need the files. (Yet another life lesson in backing up regularly) Got into DFU but around step 3 got presented with "A software update is required for this device." Not immediately clear which one the modal is talking about (DFU host vs bricked). Options are "Quit and Update", "Restore Anyway", "Stop". Selected "Restore Anyway" since I didn't want to risk bricking host (M1 13.5.2) as the brick (M2 13.5.2 -> 13.6) updating is what precipitated this snafu. DFU revive completed on host. Problem machine rebooted, requested authentication (user login password), got authenticated, rebooted, presented with disk select (and options) boot menu, selected HD (only the one "Macintosh HD"), rebooted, and back to black screen. No exclamation point, no nothing.
 
Trying the ipws drag and drop revive route now. Bricked machine looks to be restoring. Mac boot with logo loader doing something. We shall see.
1695918911847.png
 
I solved!
I used an old mba 2015, a usbA-usbC cable and the apple configurator. I had the update required popup so i updated and started again.
I’ll try to write a tutorial on my blog later… are you with a bricked mac too?
 
Renderwarrior said:
I solved!
I used an old mba 2015, a usbA-usbC cable and the apple configurator. I had the update required popup so i updated and started again.
I’ll try to write a tutorial on my blog later… are you with a bricked mac too?
Click to expand...
And of course, no files lost
 
bencodesall said:
Tried the "revive" route, since I need the files. (Yet another life lesson in backing up regularly) Got into DFU but around step 3 got presented with "A software update is required for this device." Not immediately clear which one the modal is talking about (DFU host vs bricked). Options are "Quit and Update", "Restore Anyway", "Stop". Selected "Restore Anyway" since I didn't want to risk bricking host (M1 13.5.2) as the brick (M2 13.5.2 -> 13.6) updating is what precipitated this snafu. DFU revive completed on host. Problem machine rebooted, requested authentication (user login password), got authenticated, rebooted, presented with disk select (and options) boot menu, selected HD (only the one "Macintosh HD"), rebooted, and back to black screen. No exclamation point, no nothing.
Click to expand...
You don’t have to select the main disk. I did the same! You have to go into options and install sonoma (the only chance i had… i think it tried to install both sonoma and ventura, wiping the fw)
 
Will try again and update after I grab all my files off. Able to get to recovery mode using DFU and jumpin terminal to cp to external, so at least there's that.

Will post update after. Wish me luck. Thanks for the clarification. Looking forward to the post. Be well.
 
Well, i just installed Sonoma and everything was safe, no lost files. But of course, if you do a backup is surely better. Good luck!
 
Finished getting files off, couldn't get the brick to boot in DFU mode so I restarted it from the recovery mode. Then decided to shut it down to pack it up for genius bar appointment tomorrow. I hit a key by accident and it booted, right back up. Everything seems fine, but I'm still taking it in for diagnostics. Too random and flakey for me to feel uber comfortable moving forward. Never had such flakiness in the 15+ years of my main machine being a mac. ¯l_(ツ)_l¯

On that note, any good experiences with cloud backup providers? I ditched Time Machine for local backup years ago, but now I'm thinking about finding a cloud option. Lot's of horror stories out there from my reading.
 
bencodesall said:
any good experiences with cloud backup providers
Click to expand...

Among the three I use (Carbonite, Crashplan and Backblaze) Backblaze has had the least number of problems as well as having the fastest upload speed of the 3. Given that I far exceed their design limits (except Backblaze) problems which I have encountered have been self inflicted. I would recommend any of them.
 
Had the exact same issue on my M1 Max MacBook Pro. Tried to update to 13.6. No power outages, nothing weird that would have interrupted the update. It went to a black screen, no progress bar or logo and remained there for a long time. I reboot the machine, get the Apple logo, then a black screen again. I have tried reviving the machine, but after reviving completes, I am greeted with the message "there are no users on this volume to recover." I have tried to revive using ipsw files for 13.6, 13.5.2, and 13.5.1. I get the same message every time. Any recommendations that don't involve wiping the disk would be greatly appreciated.
 
Had this same issue, and reviving then updating to Sonoma fixed it (without data loss). For the revival process rumor is that success is better if done from a t2 machine over usb-c, and machine with apple configurator should be running os13 or os14.

I ran into the same "software update is required" error message above in the thread, and hit "restore anyway" and it seemed to work to boot into recovery. From there I'd recommend backing up things as needed via terminal, then proceeding to upgrade to Sonoma. (Unfortunately I don't think there's a way to stay on Ventura without wiping data).
 
Same happend to me M1 MAX 16", updated from 12.6.7 to 12.7 and Mac is bricked (apple logo than black, can't go into recovery/startup options). Only DFU helpped but it downloads Sonoma firmware when you press Revive. Ok Managed to install Sonoma but I would like to stay with Monterey or Ventura. Tried installing 12.6 downloaded in Apple store and create bootable drive. All gut it is working. Than I tried also 13.6 downloaded from Apple store, create bootable drive and install it: Guess what ? THE SAME AS 12.7 !!!! Went into DFU and now I downloaded 13.6 IPWS for Apple configurator restore, install it and is working ! I assume that problem is with both 12.7 and 13.6 when installing/downloading them in Macos/Apple store since 13.6 IPSW is working, 12.6 is working .... I have reported that to Apple support and they will investigate they said ! I can feel 12.7.1 and 13.6.1 soon :)
 
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Same trouble here (M1 Macbook Pro 16"), got back in the machine using Apple configurator. Wiped the disk, and installed Sonoma (As Apple leaves no other option), internal and on a seperate hd, and I can boot from both, but I cant get Ventura working. After a fresh installation (on a clean internal drive) using an external bootable Ventura installer, the machine bricks again in the same fashion. I tried the tips from Mr Macintosh, but no luck so far. Geniusbar has an open spot in 7 days . . .
 
Last edited:
Cookie Monstah said:
Same trouble here, got back in the machine using Apple configurator. Wiped the disk, and installed Sonoma (As Apple leaves no other option), internal and on a seperate hd, and I can boot from both, but I cant get Ventura working. After a fresh installation (on a clean internal drive) using an external bootable Ventura installer, the machine bricks again in the same fashion. I tried the tips from Mr Macintosh, but no luck so far. Geniusbar has an open spot in 7 days . . .
Click to expand...
Try downloading 13.6 ipsw and fresh install (erase Macintosh HD) it from Apple configurator via restore, it should work, I think only Apple store/MacOS update images (13.6 and 12.7) are corrupted ! Why ? Because if you use 13.5 via bootable drive install it is working and as soon you update to 13.6 in MacOS it bricks....
 
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Lazyass0 said:
Try downloading 13.6 ipsw and fresh install (erase Macintosh HD) it from Apple configurator via restore, it should work, I think only Apple store/MacOS update images (13.6 and 12.7) are corrupted ! Why ? Because if you use 13.5 via bootable drive install it is working and as soon you update to 13.6 in MacOS it bricks....
Click to expand...
That worked, just dragged the ipsw file on the Apple configurator, and it booted in Ventura =)
 
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Same update bug killed my M1 Max 16".
Lazyass0 said:
Same happend to me M1 MAX 16", updated from 12.6.7 to 12.7 and Mac is bricked (apple logo than black, can't go into recovery/startup options). Only DFU helpped but it downloads Sonoma firmware when you press Revive. Tried installing 12.6 downloaded in Apple store and create bootable drive. All good it is working.
Click to expand...
People, there is hope. When I was finally able to get DFU to work properly (booted into the wrong kind of DFU which didn't work, until I timed finger press exactly), the IPSW files from here allowed me to reinstall Monterrey 12.6, which is what I'd

Time Machine did work, restoring most of my install perfectly, apart from all the security alerts (time consuming stuff, particularly with KEXTs involved).

No more security updates for my Macs unfortunately. After losing more than a day to working to get my M1 Max working again, I can't afford to play Apple's games any more.

Christ, whatever happened to the good old days of working SuperDuper bootable backups, made in half an hour and resilient.
 
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After two weeks with a bricked computer, I finally figured out to get it up and running without losing (almost) any data. In case anyone else finds it useful, here's what I did:

1. Using a USB 4.0 cable, I attached my 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro (bricked) to a functional M2 MacBook Air 13" running macOS 14.0 Sonoma (this did not work until I upgraded to Sonoma). For some reason the cable needs to be plugged into the leftmost port on the left side of both machines.
2. Opened Apple Configurator on MBA. Booted bricked machine into DFU mode by holding power, right shift, left option, and left control combo for 10 seconds (took several tries to get the timing perfect).
3. On the MBA, right-clicked my machine and chose Advanced > Revive.
4. Waited for the Revive process to finish, bricked machine booted up, showed my username. Asked me to type in my password. I did that, it blacked out and rebooted.
5. After the reboot, it asked me to log in again. Did that, it gave me two options: On the left, the name of my drive, on the right "Options". Clicked "Options".
6. Got the option to install Sonoma. Tried, but not enough disk space available.
7. Quit Sonoma Installer and opened Terminal. Navigated to my Downloads folder and deleted it, which gave me enough space to install Sonoma.
8. Quit Terminal and opened Sonoma installer, ran that, finally got in.

Prior to this, I tried reviving the machine several times to no avail. Clicking "Options" (as in step 5 above) only caused the machine to reboot, show the Apple logo, and black out. I tried reviving using ipsw files for 13.4, 13.5, 13.6, and 14.0 via Apple Configurator, but nothing worked until I upgraded the M2 MacBook Air to Sonoma.

Hope someone finds this useful, and I hope Apple vets their updates more thoroughly so they don't waste so much of their users' time. The number of hours I lost taking the laptop in to the Apple Store, buying a new laptop to use for pressing work projects for two weeks, returning that laptop, and attempting to revive the bricked machine is ridiculous.
 
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