
Apple bricked my MacBook and there's nothing I can do about it - lisper
http://blog.rongarret.info/2016/06/apple-bricked-my-macbook-and-theres.html
======
ausimian
Yep, exactly the same thing happened to my wife's iMac two weeks ago. Bought
it in the US 4 years ago, private sale, reputable owner (senior MS exec if I
remember, bought it for his wife, she didn't like it).

Back in Sydney now some two years. I don't have the receipt or any record of
the purchase. When i phoned Apple, they wouldn't help, said I wasn't the
registered owner.

But what really pissed me off was that they wouldn't even reach out to that
owner. So I'm stuck.

As a family, we've purchased our fair share of Apple hardware over the past 7
years or so, you name it, we probably have at least one.

Not any more.

------
miles
There are a number of videos on YouTube which demonstrate bypassing the EFI
PIN code with USB-based brute force tools. Here are two which included
purchase links:

Finding your lost EFI PIN code on a locked MacBook Air 2015
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-9VCAUyJlM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-9VCAUyJlM)
[http://www.cmizapper.com/products/brutus.html](http://www.cmizapper.com/products/brutus.html)

Unlock ICloud Locked Macbook Pro, MacBook Air, Imac , Mac Mini
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIo3jK-
cd_w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIo3jK-cd_w)
[http://pfdinc.wix.com/icloudunlock](http://pfdinc.wix.com/icloudunlock)

I have not had any experience with these, so cannot vouch for their efficacy
(or safety). A comment for the CIMzapper claims recovering a 4 digit code can
take up to 2 days and a 6 digit code up to 200 days, and that only numeric
codes can be recovered.

Good luck regaining access to your MacBook!

~~~
lisper
I actually tried this. It didn't work. The PIN entry is throttled, and after a
while it stops accepting guesses altogether. At the moment it says, "Try again
in an hour." It has been stuck in that state for a few weeks now.

~~~
miles
Did you try the "CMIzapper Brutus"? It claims to work on models as recent as
2015 and 2016. Might be worth emailing the apparent maker anyway:
info@cmizapper.com .

~~~
lisper
I did not try that exact model, no. I don't see how that (or anything else)
could get around the throttling limit.

~~~
miles
Looks like you might be in luck!

Apple EFI firmware passwords and the SCBO myth

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11974806](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11974806)

[https://reverse.put.as/2016/06/25/apple-efi-firmware-
passwor...](https://reverse.put.as/2016/06/25/apple-efi-firmware-passwords-
and-the-scbo-myth/)

The site is under heavy load at the moment; here is a cached version:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://reverse.put.as/2016/06/25/apple-
efi-firmware-passwords-and-the-scbo-myth/)

~~~
lisper
Yes, I saw that. Unfortunately, it requires re-flashing the EFI ROM, which is
beyond my hacker-fu at the moment. I don't have the right hardware. But this
does offer some hope that I can keep the machine out of the landfill.

