This is a sequel to the first post I wrote just over a year ago: https://www.nairaland.com/6679162/macbook-pro-overrated
I conversed with 8 Engineers and the summary is that boards are not repaired in Nigeria.

Just a few days ago (Friday), my mac packed up.

I was about to round up for the day and it initiated a shutdown sequence by itself and it didn't come back on.
Going online, I discovered thousands of people has experienced the same and it was the T2 chip that got bricked after the update.

First aid
I tried all the keyboard combinations found on the internet. None worked.
I unplugged, plugged, and pressed everything; it still didn't work.
I was glad it was just the beginning of the weekend, so I took the device to Computer Village on Saturday.

Experience so far:
I got this thing around August 2021 and I knew right away that it wasn't worth it. Macbooks are simply overpriced pieces of tech.
Doing my software development and engineering solely on this machine girl has been 'okay'. Nothing special or extreme.
I understood its capabilities early enough and learned to limit my work to prevent hanging.

Recap:
This mac is a 1Tb SSD, 32Gb Ram with dedicated Graphics, Intel Core i9, 8 Cores, A1990 (2018/2019) 15.x". Just like my practice, I got it brand new.

In performance comparison, I can say this device is equivalent or a bit less to a Lenovo X1 Carbon 9th Gen with 16Gb DDr4 Corei7 vPro with turbo up to 3.8 GHz.

In summary, I can't categorically say it was useless. It was just an 'Okay' computer, but given the price of about 1.3m; it was clearly a

 billsht.

My experience in computer village too is another story. I thought to create a separate thread for it. I'll just write here. Guys, be careful.

Computer Village, Ikeja.
I have been going to the village for about 6 years now. From the days of going to buy CD software or checking out sticker printers.
I am quite aware of their tactics and how a good number of the people there are cheaters. Even some merchants.

I took my PC straight to the firm I purchased it from. I was asked for the receipt even though their invoices are computerized. I presented it and I was referred to Engineer 1 for diagnosis.

Engineer 1
He was called and I followed him to his shop after the maze walk. I entered and there was no single mac in the shop being displayed or repaired. I saw more phones and low-budget hp carcasses.
It was time to begin the check. Can you believe this guy man doesn't have a screwdriver for a mac case?
I kept my chill and this guy, together with his partner/friend was testing out about 10 screwdrivers without any luck.
I told him to look for the exact one as they are identifiable by the type and size. The man kept trying.
He went out to borrow 2 from neighboring shops and luckily, one of them worked.
He unscrewed the 4,2 screws with ease (anyone could do that). He couldn;t open (lift) the case.
I was looking with awe. He didn't have this plastic tool for lifting the casing, instead, he dipped about 2-3 inches of a flat screewdriver inside a side of the back case and was trying to force open it.
I swang into action and told him to screw it back and give me my thing.
I had spent about 30 minutes there and that was the first time the mac's screws will be removed.

I went back to the seller's shop and asked him why he recommended someone that clearly doesn't repair macs.
He apologized and called engineer 2. I followed engineer 2 to[b] engineer 3[/b]'s shop. 2 wasn't an engineer in the first place. He claims to be a merchant but I identified he makes a living by connecting people and taking a cut of the fees.
We got there and I told engineer 3 that I don't know engineer 2 and I immediately discussed price with 3. 2 wasn't okay and was claiming he will handle the pricing. I simply told him I'll handle it myself. He left.

After a few minutes in Engineer 3's shop, my mac was opened for the first time.
This shop contains only macs. About 300 of them and maybe more. He has electronics, mini machines, and different types of screwdrivers (I purchased a set from him).
He plugged a type C meter into the thunderbolt and read the voltage from the board. He said the board was OKAY and that the issue with the mac is a software issue.
I told him about the update (not an upgrade) performed just a few days prior. He confirmed to have seen a lot of similar reports recently.
He gave me direction to Engineer 4 who deals with software/ firmware issues for mac after I paid him a negotiated fee of 5k.

I got to Engineer 4's shop and he did a DFU repair which failed. 4 suggested immediately that the board is bad and needs to be replaced for about 300-500k.
I informed him that Engineer 4 said there was no hardware (board included) issue on the mac but he insisted that the only solution was to change the board.

I left there, thinking of getting a new PC and fixing this Mac myself. I had watched a lot of YouTube videos the previous night. I saw most DFU issues could be fixed from another Mac using Apple Configurator 2 connected via Type C. I had purchased the screwdrivers as well to see for myself. #YoutubeDYIMentality

I was really interested in this baby: SnK-00001 but the 4 cores is the fear for me. I am used to having 6 or more cores at any given time.

I went back to the shop where I got it. The guy has clearly exhausted his options, so he referred me to their HQ. I got there and their in-house engineer 5 came after 30 minutes.
I asked him to diagnose the mac and instead of collecting it, opening it, and plugging a machine to read something, he simply told me it will take days to do that.
Days to do what? I asked him simple questions about Macbook failures and this man ONLY wanted me to drop it and come back days after. Something I was not willing to do... I knew he was planning to take it elsewhere.
So, I left. It was about 6pm.

On Sunday, I did the DFU repair myself (revive and restore) with another mac but it failed. I also used my vacuum cleaner to such out a ton of dust from the two fans when I opened the case.

On Monday, I took a leave from work and went to the village again. Back to the HQ of the firm I got the mac from.
They referred me yet to another Engineer 6.
Engineer 6 dresses corporate. It felt like meeting a bank manager.
The gesture, composure, and courtesy all look premium.
I showed him the mac and all he asked was that I tell him the story of my meetings with Engineers 1-5. He immediately said I have to change the board.
He asked about the warranty status. He checked the serial number and I told him not to worry, the mac was already out of warranty when I bought it. He went ahead and checked it on his phone and stylish[ly] blamed me for not buying a warranty right after it expired. The warranty is cheap. About 50k for 3 months (100 days) he said.

So, I agreed to drop the mac with him later after exhausting my options. Meanwhile, I went to Apple Nigeria Site and called their official partners.
I went to iDevice Store in Jara Mall. The guy, (Engineer 7) there claims to be their Engineer but couldn't even identify the MAC. He doesn't know what DFU means or T2 chip. I quickly left there.
I called Mac Center 2 times, I asked them if they can repair a board and I expressed that I was not changing it. They confirmed to me twice that they do repair mac motherboards. You need to visit their website. They claim to be trained in USA.
I told the call girl to please give the phone to one of the engineers so I am sure.
I didn;t want to waste my time going to Lekki and discovering that they don't repair boards. She confirmed that they do it and suggested I visited their Surulere branch since that is closer to Ikeja.
I asked her if they have the same expertise in Surulere and machines as well. She said yes.
I got to Mac Center, shoprite, Surulere. Can you believe the guy (Engineer 8 ) there told me they don't repair boards at all? He immediately offered to give me a number of an engineer in Computer Village who can look into it.
I declined his offer, I had seen enough engineers and left back to Computer village. It was around 4 pm.

I finally agreed to drop the Laptop with the premium Engineer for the board change and also initiated the purchase of 100 days warranty on it.

I have been reviewing a suitable PC (windows) to switch back to.
I don't need a mac anymore since I have stopped building iOS apps this year.

Lessons learned: Always buy a warranty when the manufacturer's warranty expires.
Back up (commit and push) ALL your data. I lost only 4 hours of code. But my other small files are all lost.
It is a bit painful pouring money into a tech, thinking it will last 5 years at least but seeing it fail.
I will never buy an onboard SSD and RAM anymore.

I am typing from a very old Dell E550. I have to manage this till I find a good choice or get back the baby mac.

I'm already having a rethink, was planning to get a macbook pro 2019.

I took time to read through your post.

Sorry for the experience.

First, did you follow the instructions on https : // support .apple.com / en-gb/ guide /apple-configurator-mac /apdebea5be51/mac

Did you also take particular attention to the network proxy (did you check the logs to ensure your system was connected?)

Can you describe the failure points during revive/restore?

You described sucking out a lot of dust. Could it have been a thermal issue?

Could it also have been a defective machine?

Could it have been a power surge issue from the thunderbolt port?

Many questions.



If you dont mind using an affordable Apple Computer, i would recommend a 2015 Macbook Pro i7 with 16GB of RAM. This is one of the most recommended specs for basic development. I dont know what you develop though this is just a generalisation.

If you feel you would need more performance, i would suggest getting a 16inch M processor Apple Macbook Pro. Apple left Intel for many reasons. The M processors would handle everything you want to throw at it.

In my years of using Apple computers, i have never experienced serious reliability issues. Apart from keyboard and display issues which plagued some years, Apple computers are known to be reliable.

I have used different Windows laptops and very few are as comprehensive as macbook pros. I am also sure many people would confirm this.

Cheers.

PS:

Dear OP, please there are differences between a Mac, a Mac-Mini, a Macbook, a Macbook Air and a Macbook Pro.

Saying your Mac packed up means a different thing from your Macbook Pro packed up.


EDIT:
The OP's title is misleading.

The title says the Macbook Pro was killed by a software update. I believe the OP arrived at this conclusion as an after-the-fact. The OP said the laptop initiated a self shutdown. Most T2 bricks happen on the first restart after the update and not moments (time frame not stated by the OP) but it was clearly not the first restart.

There has been many reports of fake docks bricking Macbooks.

I wont be surprised if:
A. The laptop actually has a user-induced damage to the logic board, thermal damage from persistent operation in dusty environments (per OP statements), or even some cables not being seated properly
B. It is actually a soft-brick and the exact restore process has not been followed.

18.4 million Apple Computers were sold in 2019. If this was a common issue with all of them, we would know.

icold:
I'm already having a rethink, was planning to get a macbook pro 2019.

If you have the funds, get a 16 inch M1 Macbook Pro. I am not saying there is anything wrong with the 2019, its just that the performance gain with an M processor is in leaps.

Also ensure you are getting from a reliable source.

truthCoder:


If you have the funds, get a 16 inch M1 Macbook Pro. I am not saying there is anything wrong with the 2019, its just that the performance gain with an M processor is in leaps.

Also ensure you are getting from a reliable source.

From online research i did, it seems the M1 processor has compatibility issues with apps. Thats why i opted for intel core processor so i can run windows with bootcamp. Im just buying apple hardware, there is something about macbooks i cant just resist.

icold:

From online research i did, it seems the M1 processor has compatibility issues with apps. Thats why i opted for intel core processor so i can run windows with bootcamp. Im just buying apple hardware, there is something about macbooks i cant just resist.

For bootcamp, stick with intel MacBooks for now.

For app compatibility, the M1 is not the culprit, it is the lazy developers who have failed to update their codes. When Electron never die?

Most major apps are now on Apple Silicon. Some of those online complaints are old.

If you have a major app that is still not compatible with Silicon or Rosetta at worst, maybe that app needs an alternative.

truthCoder:
I took time to read through your post.

First, did you follow the instructions on https : // support .apple.com / en-gb/ guide /apple-configurator-mac /apdebea5be51/mac

Did you also take particular attention to the network proxy (did you check the logs to ensure your system was connected?)

Can you describe the failure points during revive/restore?

You described sucking out a lot of dust. Could it have been a thermal issue?
Could it also have been a defective machine?

Yes, I followed it meticulously. I tried DFU 3 times.
The second mac detected it. Both revive and restore failed. The error failure speaks of abortion in DFU in step 4.
E0006. Same error for restore.

Meanwhile, an Engineer in the village already tried it also before I decided to try it myself.
It couldn;t have been heat. My work desk is very close to a 2HP Air conditional, plug the mac always sit on a desk fan.

Could it also have been a defective machine?

No way. If it is, then it should have died those times it used to hang.

Could it have been a power surge issue from the thunderbolt port?

I am not sure. This may be. My XR is always plugged into the thunderbolt and it was connected when the thing shut down.
My power source is Clean and Stable inverter power though.

If you dont mind using an affordable Apple Computer, i would recommend a 2015 Macbook Pro i7 with 16GB of RAM. This is one of the most recommended specs for basic development. I dont know what you develop though this is just a generalisation.

If you feel you would need more performance, i would suggest getting a 16inch M processor Apple Macbook Pro. Apple left Intel for many reasons. The M processors would handle everything you want to throw at it.

In my years of using Apple computers, i have never experienced serious reliability issues. Apart from keyboard and display issues which plagued some years, Apple computers are known to be reliable.

Basic is not enough for what I do. Except I want to deliberately kill productivity.
I am going back to windows.
I had the keyboard issue as well because of the butterfly.
No display issues.

I wont be surprised if:
A. The laptop actually has a user-induced damage to the logic board, thermal damage from persistent operation in dusty environments (per OP statements), or even some cables not being seated properly 
B. It is actually a soft-brick and the exact restore process has not been followed.

I changed my environment this April. My current environment has been dust 'free' (low dust). Though I met a lot of dust in the fan.
With all these in view, I was still unable to repair the thing.

Going online and seeing thousands of people having the same problem speaks volumes. In beta countries, they simply walk into Apple for a replacement or free repair. So, they wouldn;t talk too much about it. But here in 9ja. That is hard to get.

truthCoder:


If you have the funds, get a 16 inch M1 Macbook Pro. I am not saying there is anything wrong with the 2019, its just that the performance gain with an M processor is in leaps.

Also ensure you are getting from a reliable source.

Hmm,, I think Apple really want people to buy their newer devices . I am not going to do that.
The Surface Book 3 I am considering is more expensive than this MacBook pro. I am 100% sure the performance can't be matched.

Ovaltine:


Hmm,, I think Apple really want people to buy their newer devices . I am not going to do that.
The Surface Book 3 I am considering is more expensive than this MacBook pro. I am 100% sure the performance can't be matched.

Hmm,, I think Apple really want people to buy their newer devices . I am not going to do that.
The Surface Book 3 I am considering is more expensive than this MacBook pro. I am 100% sure the performance can't be matched. [/quote]

There have been many tests.

The M processors are little wizards dressed in Apple cloaks. Intel has got nothing on them. Power and thermal efficiency and they just float through the heaviest of tasks.

You can get the Surface if you want but you would be getting the smaller witch from the colony.

Ovaltine:


Yes, I followed it meticulously. I tried DFU 3 times.
The second mac detected it. Both revive and restore failed. The error failure speaks of abortion in DFU in step 4.
E0006. Same error for restore.

Meanwhile, an Engineer in the village already tried it also before I decided to try it myself.
It couldn;t have been heat. My work desk is very close to a 2HP Air conditional, plug the mac always sit on a desk fan.


No way. If it is, then it should have died those times it used to hang.



I am not sure. This may be. My XR is always plugged into the thunderbolt and it was connected when the thing shut down.
My power source is Clean and Stable inverter power though.





Basic is not enough for what I do. Except I want to deliberately kill productivity.
I am going back to windows.
I had the keyboard issue as well because of the butterfly.
No display issues.

I wont be surprised if:
A. The laptop actually has a user-induced damage to the logic board, thermal damage from persistent operation in dusty environments (per OP statements), or even some cables not being seated properly 
B. It is actually a soft-brick and the exact restore process has not been followed.

I changed my environment this April. My current environment has been dust 'free' (low dust). Though I met a lot of dust in the fan.
With all these in view, I was still unable to repair the thing.

Going online and seeing thousands of people having the same problem speaks volumes. In beta countries, they simply walk into Apple for a replacement or free repair. So, they wouldn;t talk too much about it. But here in 9ja. That is hard to get.

Error 6 is most likely an SSD NAND failure. You can visit this site for more insight (remove spaces). https : // logi.wiki /index.php/DFU_Mode_Restore_(Macs)

An excerpt from the same site reads thus:

"
Rule out parts or any other board issue that is possible before DFU restoring the unit. There are many things that can cause a DFU restore to fail. The problem is, if you fail a DFU restore, you may end up in a different error state than your original issue. For example:

If you have a board that comes in, with no power. You plug it into another unit, to check if its in DFU mode. It's not. Let's say PP3v3_G3H is shorted. Let's call this Failure State A.

Now you're in Failure State A, and you decided to force the unit into DFU, and attempt a restore. At this point, it would fail, and you would be stuck in recovery, let's call this Failure State B. Now you're at Failure State B, it makes it 10x harder to diagnose Failure State A, simply because you can't follow the power structure anymore. At this point, if you find you're short on PP3v3_G3H and remove it, you would have to restore again and PRAY that it works. It does not always. There have been many cases, where the unit came in with liquid damage, clearly a Failure State A type of situation, but the client attempted to restore before sending it, making it into a Failure State B. It seems half the time, after I fix Failure A, that I am able to get out of Failure B after restore. The half that is unsuccessful, is, I'm sure because of a damaged trace or something like that - however, with it being in recovery, or Failure State B, it's much harder to diagnose."

Irrespective of the balloon goodwill, computer village is not what it seems any more. It is now more of a collection of phone sellers and half-baked hustlers. Computer repair has gone beyond swapping out defective hard disks. What you experienced with your macbook would be experienced on most modern high end Windows laptop too.

truthCoder:


Error 6 is most likely an SSD NAND failure. You can visit this site for more insight (remove spaces). https : // logi.wiki /index.php/DFU_Mode_Restore_(Macs)

An excerpt from the same site reads thus:

"
Rule out parts or any other board issue that is possible before DFU restoring the unit. There are many things that can cause a DFU restore to fail. The problem is, if you fail a DFU restore, you may end up in a different error state than your original issue. For example:

If you have a board that comes in, with no power. You plug it into another unit, to check if its in DFU mode. It's not. Let's say PP3v3_G3H is shorted. Let's call this Failure State A.

Now you're in Failure State A, and you decided to force the unit into DFU, and attempt a restore. At this point, it would fail, and you would be stuck in recovery, let's call this Failure State B. Now you're at Failure State B, it makes it 10x harder to diagnose Failure State A, simply because you can't follow the power structure anymore. At this point, if you find you're short on PP3v3_G3H and remove it, you would have to restore again and PRAY that it works. It does not always. There have been many cases, where the unit came in with liquid damage, clearly a Failure State A type of situation, but the client attempted to restore before sending it, making it into a Failure State B. It seems half the time, after I fix Failure A, that I am able to get out of Failure B after restore. The half that is unsuccessful, is, I'm sure because of a damaged trace or something like that - however, with it being in recovery, or Failure State B, it's much harder to diagnose."

Irrespective of the balloon goodwill, computer village is not what it seems any more. It is now more of a collection of phone sellers and half-baked hustlers. Computer repair has gone beyond swapping out defective hard disks. What you experienced with your macbook would be experienced on most modern high end Windows laptop too.

Interesting.. I am really trying to learn from your technical explanations. I watched YouTube and read blogs just enough to understand what might be the problem.

Here is the actual error:

the system cannot be restored on this device error 6
amrestoreerrordomain error 6

I am surprised that could be an SSD issue. THe product was marketed to have one of the best SSDs (great speed and performance).

Meanwhile, It doesn't make a lot of sense to create machines that have such many points of failure. I have not used a lot of modern high-end Windows outside X1 Carbons and HP Pro books.

My Question:
How do you know about all these and do you repair Macbooks?

Ovaltine:


Interesting.. I am really trying to learn from your technical explanations. I watched YouTube and read blogs just enough to understand what might be the problem.

Here is the actual error:



I am surprised that could be an SSD issue. THe product was marketed to have one of the best SSDs (great speed and performance).

Meanwhile, It doesn't make a lot of sense to create machines that have such many points of failure. I have not used a lot of modern high-end Windows outside X1 Carbons and HP Pro books.

My Question:
How do you know about all these and do you repair Macbooks?

Apologies, i am not as methodical as you (in regards to segmenting responses).

SSD issues could mean the system cannot access the SSD at the moment, due to other issues.

I would suggest getting the MBP opened again, checking for any loose cable, physical burn or even antelope and be sure it is not a physical issue. Afterwards, i would suggest trying the NVRAM and SMC resets to see if it would even recognise those sequences. You can also try to remember the flow of events prior to the crash. I had an experience with a Macbook once when i was trying to dual boot with linux. I modified the EFI then installed one useless EXFAT software and after a restart, my serial number was dead. I had to use a bootable disk with a special Apple software and my iphone's lucky store of my MBP's serial number to get the frigging thing back.

Let's do a forensic re evaluation and see if we can remember the steps that happened before the village people landed on your laptop.

Answer:
I am just a website developer who loves apple products and tries to resolve issues by troubleshooting. I am not a certified engineer but i fix my things.

truthCoder:

I would suggest getting the MBP opened again, checking for any loose cable, physical burn or even antelope and be sure it is not a physical issue. Afterwards, i would suggest trying the NVRAM and SMC resets to see if it would even recognise those sequences. You can also try to remember the flow of events prior to the crash. I had an experience with a Macbook once when i was trying to dual boot with linux. I modified the EFI then installed one useless EXFAT software and after a restart, my serial number was dead. I had to use a bootable disk with a special Apple software and my iphone's lucky store of my MBP's serial number to get the frigging thing back.

Let's do a forensic re evaluation and see if we can remember the steps that happened before the village people landed on your laptop.

Answer:
I am just a website developer who loves apple products and tries to resolve issues by troubleshooting. I am not a certified engineer but i fix my things.

Alright. Thanks for sharing.

I stopped those hacks years ago. I have had a fair share or ruining my computers because of unofficial modifications.

I actively run Windows 10 on VMFusion and it was always running. I build some windows specific tools as well.

To be precise, a call came in on my phone. It was plugged in to thunderbolt. I picked the call and was watching the stuff shutdown barely 10 seconds into the call.

A newer LG and an old HP monitor were plugged into the two Type C ports at the right.
HDMI adapters used are high end and not the cheaper alternatives.

I hardly shutdown and I can confirm that I didn't shutdown since after the update.

Those initial first aid were SMC and other commands.
I had used this in the past when I tried improving the Battery life from 3 hours.

It's too late to try anything again now.
I have processed the board replacement.

I got my MacBook Pro back today.
The board was replaced from Apple and I am typing from it right now. The Touch ID was changed as well.

Here are the list of cautions I am taking:
* For backup reasons, I have placed order for a 4TB HDD external storage for Time Machine in addition to 50gb of iCloud+ for light files.

* I am maintaining the OS on Mojave. No more update/upgrade. Any software that refuse to install surely have alternative:
Visual Studio => Rider
Microsoft Office => Online Google Docs and so on.

* I won't charge anything via the thunderbolt port.
* No leaving on 24/7 anymore. Shutdown after use.
* Renewal of warranty immediately it expires.

Thanks for the comments.