I feel particularly awful about the company where 11 of their 18 machines have to go in. We had 40 MacBook Pros that fit the description of the warranty program, and something like 22 of them have to go to Apple in the coming months. But that takes us to the problem’s mere existence. The machine that succeeded is now deemed cured and shouldn’t have this problem again. The machines that failed the upgrade weren’t erased and can go gingerly into the hands of their users until we can identify sufficient loaners. The process here was, thankfully, fairly painless. Once that was completed, the OS was reloaded, and twenty minutes later we had a working machine again. In order for the OS to be reinstalled, a volume had to be created first. After the firmware update, there was nothing on the disk, not even an empty volume. It was then booted into Internet Recovery, and we used Disk Utility to create a new APFS volume on the otherwise-vacant SSD. There was, we proceeded.Īfter a short period - three to five minutes by my recollection - the firmware was updated and we could proceed. This is the fourth time I was asked if there was a backup of the volume. If the mechanism does pass muster, you will get one last confirmation before everything is wiped from the drive. In short, the machine’s ready to go back to use for the time being, and you’ve got a good backup. There was a silver lining here: the existing volume was preserved with its information. This allowed us to take the machine back and do a direct transfer of data to an alternate loaner machine and schedule the depot repair at our convenience. This is not something Apple was ready to do on the spot, and said it would need to go to depot for repairs. If the mechanism doesn’t pass muster, a failure dialog is displayed, and it advises that the machine’s SSD needs to be replaced. I clocked it at well less than three minutes. The actual process of running the SSD Firmware Update is quick. The appearance of this tool was very similar to booting into recovery, where a standard window appears and offered a single tool, the SSD Firmware Update. A specifically-created NBI was used by the Genius to boot the machine to a single-use tool. The firmware update process was handled in a NetBoot environment, as these machines are not T2 machines, and thus can be NetBooted. Now the machine was ready for the next step. Our friendly Genius also reminded us for the third time that all data should be backed up at this point, or forever hold your peace. After a brief check to determine OS level and functioning status, the machine was restarted, its PRAM zapped, and then it was run through standard onboard diagnostics (ie, hold Shift-D at boot). The Basics of the Solid-State Service Programīefore the process began, each of our machines was inspected and made sure to be in operating condition. Two of the machines failed the diagnostic portion of the firmware fix, and one was successful, which gave me a look at both cases of the SSD Firmware Update. In this case, I had three affected machines, and a Genius Bar appointment. Today, I got to watch as a technician completed this process on a client computer, and I wanted to catalog what happened, as there’s not a step-by-step guide available for admins. Where one does not exist, we will use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup to a disk image. In our case, where Time Machine backups exist, we will perform a final update to the backup before the machine goes in. Apple states: “Prior to service, it’s important to do a full back up of your data because your drive will be erased as part of the service process.” This means that you must backup the data before you take the machine to Apple. The Apple documentation for this repair is clear: the machine will have all of its data wiped during the firmware fix. Think of a service program a lot like a car’s technical service bulletin program: designed to identify a potential failing of a given make and model of machine, and resolve that defect before it turns serious. This Fall, Apple announced a service program for the non-Touch Bar MacBook Pros (also known as the MacBook Escape, for the hardware Esc key that they still have), specifically around the solid state drive that stores the operating system and user data.
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