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Some Older Macs Reportedly Bricked After Installing macOS Monterey

arildd said:
Yes, assuming you have the original Flash Drive/SSD installed. It seems like the firmware update only goes through if the original Apple-disk is installed.

For me, using the OWC Aurora X2, the workaround (thanks to this post by akro) was to update with the original disk then go through the same process one more time with the OWC disk. My guess is that the firmware update then will be skipped as it's already finished. Ridiculous but works, and so far without further issues.
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Did anyone with a third-party SSD participate in the Monterey Public Beta at any point? Curious as to why my Early 2015 MBA with 1TB OWC Aurora Pro X2 had zero issue upgrading to Monterey Public Beta from Big Sur, then eventually to the Monterey GM.

Performance is normal, boot is normal (faster, actually), no perceived data loss or software issues. ?‍

Anyone else with an Early 2015 MBA (i7 2.2) have a similar or newer firmware or boot ROM version? Seeing some posts suggesting that a required firmware update is not going in, potentially causing some machines to end up non-bootable.

EFI Version: MBA71.88Z.F000.B00.2109250556 (Boot ROM Version: 428.40.10.0.0)

OWC Aurora Pro X2 Revision: S0121C
 
This happened to me, took it to the “Genius Bar”, they did all the reset sRAM stuff I’d tried at home and used a different power adapter (genius!), then said there was no way it would’ve been bricked by the OS and was a hardware problem, $578 flat repair fee, except they then offered to keep it for three days and try a free of charge “software fix”.. which worked. My eyes rolled up, back, and all the way around again. But sounds like it’s the firmware issue.
 
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acrakes said:
This happened to me, took it to the “Genius Bar”, they did all the reset sRAM stuff I’d tried at home and used a different power adapter (genius!), then said there was no way it would’ve been bricked by the OS and was a hardware problem, $578 flat repair fee, except they then offered to keep it for three days and try a free of charge “software fix”.. which worked. My eyes rolled up, back, and all the way around again. But sounds like it’s the firmware issue.
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Didn’t lose any hard drive data either.
 
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Yeah, during the update my MBP 13” 2019 flickered back to the wallpaper from the update screen and then died and now it won’t turn on. Took it to the Apple Store and they’ve said it will be a logic board replacement at a cost of £650 gbp. o_O:eek:
 
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ChrisA said:
And you don't have a hot backup or two? Just the one computer? That's nuts.
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Agreed. I have at least two other Macs I could fall back on. My old machines become developer test machines running different OS versions for testing our software.
 
I have a 2019 iMac i5 with 64 GB of RAM running Big Sur 11.6. Have tried twice to install the Monterey upgrade, it runs excruciatingly slowly (about 6 hours) and then crashes hard at the end. Exactly the same both times. Luckily the machine will still boot back to Big Sur, although it takes a long time for the Finder to appear after the reboot, maybe checking the disk or something.
 
seadragon said:
LOL. So, because you don’t want to, nobody else should or can? ?
WFH doesn’t equate to low quality work, so nice try also. If you really think that, then you are either a poor manager or being managed by one. Love my job too.

Anyway, this isn’t the thread to debate that. My point still stands that software “bricking” devices occurred long before COVID and WFH as evidenced right here in this forum.
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So I’m a poor manager or work for one. Lol. So silly
 
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xWhiplash said:
I just love these comments. Work from home is not to be blamed for EVERYTHING. I had major issues with Catalina. That was before work from home was a thing. Plus Apple has always had work from home, I applied for one and I’m not even in California.
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You work for apple? Cool.
 
heystu said:
This should never be allowed to happen, and saying “it’s typically a safe bet to wait until several updates have been released” doesn’t offer any comfort or assurance - Apple should be stress testing releases to the extreme before letting them out into the wild. I’d be really screwed if my MBP got bricked being self-employed and relying on it for my sole source of income.
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Yep, so wait several updates. Apple dropped "It just works" years ago, that's all you need to know.
 
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MJaP said:
Indeed. Microsoft has to write an operating system that is stable on literally millions of different hardware combinations from hundreds of different vendors, whereas Apple only has a small device portfolio all of which is under their tight control and yet they still manage to mess things up. OK they're not going to catch everything, and nobody's perfect (Microsoft have caused the odd bricking event as well), but I think the order of the day is more beta testing, Apple's biggest problem is that heir new OSes are often tied to a new hardware release which means upgrades are forced to release before they are properly tested and stable.
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Beta testing? These issues shouldn't even make it past the dev team to the testing team.
 
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My mate called me about this the other day, honestly by the end of it I felt like Roy from the IT crowd…

Stupid idiot thought it’d be a good idea to hold the power key down during installation and ‘finish it later’ because he was in a rush…

I’m sure there are more than a few genuine issues that users are facing but stupid moves like this are depressingly common.

For my two cents, on a MacBook Pro 2015 DG, from Mojave to Big Sure, I’ve not had a single issue upgrading, this includes swapping out the blade ssd for a 2tb m.2

That said I’ve also never upgrade OS on release, usually don’t touch it before:

A. Software vendors (Native Instruments, Steinberg, Allen & Heath, Ableton etc) have updated for compatibility

B. OS is at least at .1-.2 and major bugs that will definitely show up have been at least partially addressed

I’ll never understand why people rush to update to new OS, conventional wisdom has always been don’t rush into first gen-1.00, it’s new, there’ll be issues
 
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Will Co said:
Generally I'd agree with this. But it wouldn't take much to "soft brick" one of these machines. By that I mean not actually stone-dead forever, but effectively unusable, which to most amounts to the same thing.

Lots of users are reporting that the update to Monterey seems to cause problems with their USB ports, preventing them from charging the battery. Eventually, that has only one outcome. This sort of thing often ends up at the Genius Bar, with specialist tools required to bring up power rails to allow a bug fix to be installed.

I'm not one to start sounding off about "a big issue" so soon, but there seems to be a lot of noise about this. And if it does prove to be a thing, then really it can only come down to poor testing on the part of Apple. Very concerning.
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As long as we factor in user error, which is rife. Sure there’ll be some oversights and big bugs but it’s amazing what people try to do during an update or omit to do before starting it.
 
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WJB88 said:
Yeah, during the updated my MBP 13” 2019 flickered back to the wallpaper from the update screen 2019 and then died and now won’t turn on. Took it to the Apple Store and they’ve said it will be a logic board replacement at a cost of £650 gbp. o_O:eek:
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That gives me rage. Seriously. If they released a software update capable of screwing your machine up so badly it needs a whole new motherboard then

- lots of people should be fired
- they should ? well pay for it, along with expedited service and shipping
 
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Mockletoy said:
That gives me rage. Seriously. If they released a software update capable of screwing your machine up so badly it needs a whole new motherboard then

- lots of people should be fired
- they should ? well pay for it, along with expedited service and shipping
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SO VERY MUCH THIS!

If a software update messed up my machine, I would be livid. I recently had service on a vehicle which resulted in my NAV, remote start, and a few other things not working. They tried telling me the on-board computer needed replaced --- well it was working just fine before being serviced, so, uhh.
 
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Luckily my MBP is too old to even install it.

But every minor update to Catalina causes my MBP to reinstall the OS over the top of the existing install. Don’t know why it does that, and makes me nervous one day bricking is gonna happen…
 
Since High Sierra I started taking the cautious approach and waiting as far as the .5 or .6 updates before I attempt to upgrade. It’s not like your previous version is all of sudden gonna stop working.

Apple also should also consider a two year cadence with interim feature packs push features through software update when they are ready. The rapid releases between 10.0 and 10.3 were necessary because of the lack essentials features, functionality and maturity.

Both Tiger and Leopard were two year gaps and no one suffered for it. So, I think Apple should consider it for a change. It’s not like they have to press DVDs and ship boxes.
 
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ikramerica said:
Luckily my MBP is too old to even install it.

But every minor update to Catalina causes my MBP to reinstall the OS over the top of the existing install. Don’t know why it does that, and makes me nervous one day bricking is gonna happen…
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With Catalina on my 2013 13” MBP the point updates would always boot to a screen that said something like, sorry, the update could not be installed on your computer.

Then I’d reboot and find it installed just fine. Every time.
 
TrevorR90 said:
This is unfortunately an annoying quirk amongst the general population. A few instances of an issue out of millions means that there's an issue.

For everyone else. Let's assume that there were a million installs last week.

There are like 10 tweets with issues. So thats:

10 / 1,000,000 * 100 = 0.001


A GRAND TOTAL OF 0.001 % OF USERS WHO UPDATED THE OS AND HAD ISSUES. This is likely NOT the result of faulty software or else we would have thousands more people flooding twitter.


THIS IS A NON ISSUE
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Just take a look into this thread alone and you'll see plenty of people having this same issue. Also, something similar has happened with previous releases too and it took quite a while for Apple to completely fix it. You can downplay this all you like, but IMO it's better for Apple and their customers if these things are fixed ASAP instead of telling people that this is non issue and should be completely ignored.
 
seadragon said:
What’s silly is your automatic assumption that these issues are due to WFH. It’s comical in fact. Thanks for the laugh and enjoy your commute! ?

Please explain all the software issues that date before March 2020.
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The last couple of years apple software has be rough at times. Apple is stretching itself thin.

I believe that in person collaboration is helpful to productivity. Wfh inhibits many helpful aspects of doing your job.

Enjoy you wfh I guess
 
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