Old 12-03-2020, 02:25 PM   #1
serr
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Default Catalina warning! DON'T!

The update from 10.15.6 to 10.15.7 can brick the firmware. Probably only on Jobs era Macs (not positive though). I just bricked two logic boards here. I see the complaints rolling in online too.

Consider 10.13.6 High Sierra the last MacOS.

Don't fuck with this!
This has been a public service announcement.

I have a customer who swears they didn't initiate an update. Their system preferences settings backed that up. (Updates not enabled.) The rumor is Apple is pushing some stuff without permission. I believe it now. Don't even install 10.15.6. Don't mess with Catalina at all.

10.14 was one of their "in between" releases...
I can't say if that one is safe or not but I'd consider 10.13.6 to be the end of the line to be safe right now.
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Old 12-03-2020, 02:57 PM   #2
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Last week I finally decided to upgrade my 2014 Macbook Pro to Catalina... and within two days I downgraded. Every single AU plugin was considered insecure when opening Logic, it took forever just to get the project to open. I had a few VST issues with Reaper too. But the kicker for me was that I couldn't use my Firewire Duet anymore. So thankfully, no issues with bricking but that took me offline for a couple days (I did this over our Thanksgiving holiday anyway, so there was no pressing work to be done for clients). Back to Mojave for me...
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Old 12-03-2020, 03:01 PM   #3
serr
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After more googling it looks like this is restricted to Catalina.
But I'm not interested in qualifying 10.14 right now.
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Old 12-03-2020, 03:39 PM   #4
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Mojave is the best version IMO 10.14.6. Still has 32 bit support and dark mode.
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Old 12-03-2020, 05:18 PM   #5
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I have a friend who had a not so old macbook and high sierra on it and when he upgraded to mojave his graphics started going all glitchy - the funny thing: he uses Logic. He had to reset his system to default and re-install everything and recommended me to never attempt upgrading. And as long as High Sierra works fine and is supported I won’t.
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Old 12-04-2020, 12:14 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Phazma View Post
I have a friend who had a not so old macbook and high sierra on it and when he upgraded to mojave his graphics started going all glitchy - the funny thing: he uses Logic. He had to reset his system to default and re-install everything and recommended me to never attempt upgrading. And as long as High Sierra works fine and is supported I won’t.
That's odd, a backup is essential. I guess you don't know until you try it but no need if everything works ok. I use Mojave on my main production machine which is actually a hackintosh. I still have high sierra on my 2012 MacBook Pro since it has an Nvidia Dgpu and also an Intel one. There are no Nvidia drivers for Mojave and up hence why I'd not upgrade that. Although if I did would just mean I could only use the Intel gpu.
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Old 12-04-2020, 12:42 AM   #7
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I wish I could use Mojave only for the dark mode but that is not a sufficient reason to go through the trouble and risk of installing it.
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Old 12-11-2020, 05:21 PM   #8
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https://support.apple.com/kb/SP777?v...S&locale=en_US
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Old 12-12-2020, 04:47 AM   #9
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A friend just bricked his 2015 Mini by updating to Mojave. So I doubt it is limited to Catalina...
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Old 12-12-2020, 10:06 AM   #10
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how the fuck does anyone make an operating system that BRICKS MOTHERBOARDS
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Old 12-12-2020, 12:53 PM   #11
serr
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cyrano View Post
A friend just bricked his 2015 Mini by updating to Mojave. So I doubt it is limited to Catalina...
That's disturbing.

Just to be clear, I'm talking about the bricked firmware that leaves you with a solid dim sleep light and unpowered screen. No chime. No response to boot key commands. This is not recoverable short of reprogramming the EFI chip manually. I thought this was first attributed to 10.15.7.

There's also the T2 issue (only with the recent T2 having models) that boots but doesn't recognize the (soldered in) SSD and flashed the question mark. This is recoverable. I thought this was first attributed to 10.15.4.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jae.Thomas View Post
how the fuck does anyone make an operating system that BRICKS MOTHERBOARDS
Think differently?
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Old 12-13-2020, 04:09 AM   #12
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There's a reset procedure for it.

Only, Big Sur changed that, so some are running around like headless chickens.

Before BS, this would require a trip to Apple service. Now there's a tool to prepare any media for LOCAL boot. It's able to reset the T2 OS usually. Only, it's new. Like being beta tested right now

It's firmware. Any device with firmware can be bricked if an update fails. And seeing Apple wants to do this online, I'm amazed it's not far worse. There are some M1's going back to Apple, but compared to sales numbers, it's not a lot...

There's a thorough lack of documentation for Apple's firmware.

My impression is that the chance for a bricked Mac goes up for Macs that have skipped major OS upgrades. It is possible that on some models the skipped system came with a firmware update that isn't in the installed system. That's probably never been debugged by Apple or anyone else.

I've just updated this Mac from EC to HS
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