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Comment by thesquib | Hacker News Reader

The latest update bricked many laptops at work. Like no boot, no sad Mac, get a new laptop situation. We are at the point where people joke they are flipping a coin on whether the next update from Apple will brick their laptop or not.

For me, the macOS ecosystem is no longer reliable enough as a daily driver.

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I remember helping a friend a few years ago who thought he had truly bricked his MacBook. There is a restore process that reinstalls the OS when an update goes wrong. I don’t recall the process now as I’ve never needed it since but it is somewhere on Apples site. I seriously doubt these laptops are truly bricked. Obviously something cause the installer to fail but there are recovery options built in that are not part of the OS.

this is probably a good place to start https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/macos-recovery-a-ma...

(this recovery process is also available for Apple T2 x86 Macs)

Unfortunately they won't even turn on so this won't work.

The recovery process is bootROM (non-erasable) based, it works even if they cannot be turned on.

For T2: https://support.apple.com/guide/apple-configurator-2/revive-...

For M1: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-configurator-2/a...

Because of unstable security crap your company's IT installs on them? You can't seriously blame Apple for problems that only happen on your work laptops.

How do you know, do you work there? What in the parent post indicated your assertion?

I think it's a reasonable inference, given that this is not a widespread problem outside of this person's office. Since that's the case but it is frequent enough in that office for it to be notable, it'd indicate that some software that the company is installing is the culprit.

To what do you attribute your company's unusual experience?

Good question. I can only guess at maybe usb-c devices being connected? That would be external monitors via a USB-C dock, and so on. Otherwise I have no idea why.

That makes sense. USB-C docks are in a weird place, to the point where the few with a good reputation can command what to me are preventably high premiums. And even then there are gremlins.

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