820-3435 - Stuck on EFI part of boot with OSX - Boots Linux and Windows just fine

[smiba]

EDIT: If you want to help, read page 2. Lots of additional information

No water damage and the board looks clean

This macbook will not boot from internet recovery, SSD or external drive. All get stuck on the apple logo and when booted with Command+V it never actually leaves the EFI part of the bootup.

I've already replaced the ME region, and that allowed me to at least boot other systems (They would just get stuck between the transition of the BIOS), however it still doesn't boot OSX!!

Ubuntu runs 100% fine after a clean ME region and has been installed to and booted from the SSD. Windows CD boots as well
OSX 10.9.2 CD doesn't work and Internet Recovery doesn't either.

What could this be? Any idea?
I was thinking maybe a bad BIOS

 

[dukefawks]

Where did you get the ME, sounds an awful lot like a bad ME to me. Upload original BIOS.

 

[smiba]

I got the clean ME from here: https://www.win-raid.com/t596f39-Intel-Management-Engine-Drivers-Firmware-amp-System-Tools.html
(1.5MB 9.5)

Copy of the original SPI ROM and Modified one: https://owncloud.bartstuff.eu/index.php/s/fk4taJrLmMp5Ise

 

[dukefawks]

That is not how you clean the ME. You just used an ME with all the default settings, you have to transfer over all the Apple custom settings with FITC.
Here is the original with an original Apple clean ME region:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=19x..._M3u7E2CfLop4P

 

[smiba]

Thanks duke, I had no idea. I guess thats what you get for following shady tutorials online!

The device still doesn't work though, same symptoms.

Pressing Command+V Gives you the whole efiboot log all up until it hits "root device uuid is:", which if I remember correctly is the last line it usually gives

 

[dukefawks]

Here is a complete 3437 BIOS with clean ME, see if that works.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NA-DUm0E7nS7OGRIBguOG-yDO5q2GnrJ

 

[smiba]

Still having the same issues, sadly.

An apple authorized store diagnosed it as "Bad CPU", not sure if that could be the case? I mean it boots Ubuntu just fine with web browsing and all drivers are working as expected so I doubt it

 

[dukefawks]

Will it boot EFI version of ASD?

 

[smiba]

Yes, 3S156 ASD EFI boots and passes with no errors reported

 

[dukefawks]

I have no other ideas and anything it could probably be will suck. Maybe a few verbose mode logs can shed some light as to where it hangs.

I assume you have disconnected everything not needed for boot including a test LCD

 

[smiba]

What kind of verbose logs are you thinking about?

Here I have:
- Booting from a USB CD
- Booting from a USB OS ASD 3S156
- Booted Ubuntu installed on the local SSD (Same for booting a live CD by the way)

EDIT:

Ubuntu kernel log (dmesg): https://pastebin.com/udWY2JNk

I might just take another good look at the motherboard, but it all just doesn't make a lot of sense...

EDIT: Took another look and other then some solder balls around C1031 the board looks amazing. The solder balls were still in the flux of the capacitor and does look like it was like this from the factory. (I can't find any heat marks on the components)

 

[dukefawks]

Oh verbose mode already hangs that early in the boot process? Is everything disconnected including the LCD?

 

[smiba]

I've tried with everything disconnected other then:

- LCD
- Trackpad/Keyboard
- Battery
- Magsafe (Not the ext. cable, only the 5 pin power)

I'll see if anything changes with the LCD disconnected tomorrow. I assume I can verify it by using HDMI?

 

[dukefawks]

battery and trackpad are not needed for boot. Disconnect everything including the original LCD. Use other LCD the see if verbose still hangs.

 

[smiba]

I don't have any 11" LCDs around, will a 13" macbook air 2011 LCD be sufficient?

 

[dukefawks]

Yeah 13" works just fine.

 

[smiba]

Sorry for bumping such an old topic of mine, but I actually do still have this device around and never managed to solve this issue!

Tried a different display assembly as well but it still gets stuck after "Root device uuid is(...)", same for when trying without trackpad and battery connected

Short summery of findings:
- Does always boot Ubuntu live CD or Ubuntu installed on the local SSD
- Does /usually/ boot the OS 10.9 install CD (From USB), but sometimes this also gets stuck at the "Root device uuid is" part. Gets resolved by just letting the device chill for a few minutes while its off or after a couple of tries it suddenly works again.
- It never boots an installed version of OS X, after the installer finishes and reboots it gets stuck, same for ASD OS.
- Internet Recovery gets stuck after downloading its files from the internet (The transition from being in EFI to booting the just downloaded files)
- EFI ESD Passes & Apple Diagnostic test Passes

Device does not appear to be water damaged, looks like new and not a single piece of corrosion can be found. All water indicators are still white as well and the motherboard looks barely used

Any other ideas? Its so annoying not able to repair this device. So close, yet so far!

 

[smiba]

Update: After a lot of trying, for some reason, it decided to boot. I opened up the App store and downloaded the OS X 10.14 installer in the hope it would install it and with that update the ROM (It is not running the latest version because its unable to boot or see APFS volumes in the boot loader)

First reboot for the 10.9 Combined update went fine, second reboot for the 10.14 Installer didn't and its back stuck again in the boot.efi loader. The 10.14 boot.efi is more verbose though! No idea if this gives us some more information:


The device gets stuck after "End RandomSeed" and never shows it Ended "FinalizeBootStruct", which makes me think it gets stuck in that routine?

I've also attached a system.log from when it decided to successfully boot all of the sudden.

Any idea? Honestly anything at this point is welcome, I wouldn't even mind if the solution was to use a different boot loader then Apple's boot.efi

 

[smiba]

Wrote a new clean ME region (v9.5 Slim) and transferred the firmware configuration over with flash image tool, diagnostic test and everything passes but still no way out of boot.efi

Honestly can't be an ME issue after having both duke and me made a clean me rom. Does anyone have a tutorial or explanation to me where to get the 820-3435 BIOS Area and how to replace the serial numbers and update the checksums? I know this needs to be done to do a proper move but I have never find someone who could explain it to me.
If no one is able to tell me I'll just try it with the information I know and hope I do it correctly.

The BIOS area in my ROM compared to a 820-3435 rom dump I found online is majorly different so it could be interesting.

 

[2informaticos]

You must replace all Fsys area, not only serial.
It starts with Fsys string and terminate just before $SVS string...

Did you try to clean original ME with Medusa 2?