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A1989 2018 Will not install the OS

C

CRC2018

Member
So i've got an A1989 2018 year model in - stuck on flashing folder with ?

Internet recovery I have tried with multiple different wifi networks and it doesn't start it gives the 2003F error every single time.

I tried to boot to external drive with Mac OS on it - you can't do that because of "security" - very helpful Apple. I can however get it to Command R and boot to the recovery on the external drive so 100% marks for security there. From this recovery I can see the internal SSD, I can wipe it and repartition it no problem however if I try to reinstall the OS From there the machine freezes and reboots as soon as I click on the next button to reinstall the OS - I presume that the T2 has decided that i'm doing something i'm not allowed to do and it is stopping this or there is some other hardware failure.


I've done a full T2 DFU restore and the behaviour has not changed.

I've tried reimaging the disk with a DMG image I have of Catalina using the recovery mode from my external drive but that gets about 70% of the way through then the machine shuts off and reboots.

I'm guessing therefore that either the T2 is stopping the process or there is something wrong with the internal SSD.
 
C

CRC2018

Member
Well as for ethernet connection it refuses to acknowledge the existence of Ethernet when its connected and still asks for wifi!
I took the macbook home with me to try on a different faster internet connection - it actually got all the way into internet recovery once and then shut down part way through installing the OS and rebooted. I still think something is not right hardware wise and it's just shutting off and rebooting.

I'll have to check target disk mode - wasn't aware that this was still a thing with the modern macbooks to be honest! Does it work with an M2 Macbook Air as the host device as it's all I have on hand with type c connections?
 
2informaticos

2informaticos

Administrator
Staff member
Target disk mode is an old Apple "invention"; not USB-C only.
Any Mac with USB-C is good in your case.

Any error pops up starting in diagnostic mode?
 
C

CRC2018

Member
Ok so after beating Mac OS into submission with it refusing to image the target mac I managed to finally get it to image my catalina image across from recovery mode on my M2 Macbook Air. It refused to do it within the normal OS. I really do hate that Apple broke imaging completely with Big Sur, it's completely idiotic. I've now got something on the target macbook at least although it's now gone onto the screen asking for an internet connection to verify the disk and it's now rebooted into Catalina sucessfully. Still do not trust this machine one bit and will try to run the diagnostics on it now and see if it throws any errors. At least now I can return it to the customer with an OS on!
 
C

CRC2018

Member
Diagnostics run - no issues found. The machine is randomly turning off and rebooting however - guess i'll take the board out and inspect it under the microscope.
 
C

CRC2018

Member
As a final update to this turns out the problem was the touchbar - it was not lighting up and after replacing it with a new one the machine no longer reboots and works normally.
 
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