M1 iMac impossible to reinstall BigSur

[Ahnbar]

Hello fellow Mac Users,

I am out of hope right now. My new M1 iMac (16GB Ram, 256GB storage, middle version) has recently started to get many bugs and crashes. These include random restarts (a purple light flashes and the iMac restarts, the following messages say kernel panic), not possible to open/close programs, impossible to install/delete programs, safari constantly reloading pages etc. The list seems endless.

So I thought it would be a good idea to reinstall MacOs in case of this being a software problem. Using the recoverymode by holding the on/off button, I reinstalled BigSur without wiping the SSD. After reinstalling, the probems persisted. So the next step was wiping the SSD and then reinstall MacOS (did it with this method https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211983). This is were the problems got worse. Since then, the iMac can't download the BigSur and every solution I tried have failed me. Most of the times it gives me the errormessage "PKDownloadError error 8".

Doing some research, this seems a problem with the internet connection, especially with WiFi. So thanks to the middle version I have the ethernet connector in the powerbrick - giving me the same error right off the start. I can't change the DNS-settings of my router so that solution falls short for me. Turning off the firewall of the router may have led to finishing the download, only ending in the error message "An error has occured loading the update" without further explanation.

My next step was loading the installer on an external USB drive and install BigSur from there. Only to realise that this leads to the error message saying, that the "Installation cannot proceed because the installer is damaged". I did a new setup of the external drive several times, every time leading to this error.

I have an appointment with the Apple Support but judging by the experience of some other users i doubt, that they will know any solution.

Has anybody experienced the same problems and found a solution? Is this a warranty case and shall i just return it? The machine is unusable at this point.

 

[mdgm]

Have you tried running Apple Diagnostics?

 

[Yebubbleman]

Do you have another Mac from which you can perform a DFU restore on your iMac? That might be the best way to go. With Apple Silicon Macs, you can't 100% wipe the SSD. (A) I'm not sure that it'll even let you and (B) You need it to facilitate booting from literally any other drive or volume seeing as the firmware runs off of it. It's a bit kludgy. But welcome to the "your Mac is really an iPad under the hood" era that is Apple Silicon.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hello fellow Mac Users,

Has anybody experienced the same problems and found a solution? Is this a warranty case and shall i just return it? The machine is unusable at this point.

I can't see why this is not a warranty case. Your iMac is not usable, there is no physical damage caused by you.
Just take it to the Apple Service center and let them take care of the problem.
Don't forget to get Apple Care Plus if you haven't got one.

 

[Ahnbar]

Have you tried running Apple Diagnostics?

Yes I did, Diagnostics said "No Issues found ADP0000"

Do you have another Mac from which you can perform a DFU restore on your iMac? That might be the best way to go. With Apple Silicon Macs, you can't 100% wipe the SSD. (A) I'm not sure that it'll even let you and (B) You need it to facilitate booting from literally any other drive or volume seeing as the firmware runs off of it. It's a bit kludgy. But welcome to the "your Mac is really an iPad under the hood" era that is Apple Silicon.

I have an old MacbookAir 2015 but no USB-C to USB-A cable, that supports data transfer aswell. Apple only sends those lame USB-C to lightning and I won't buy another cable just for this case.

I can't see why this is not a warranty case. Your iMac is not usable, there is no physical damage caused by you.
Just take it to the Apple Service center and let them take care of the problem.
Don't forget to get Apple Care Plus if you haven't got one.

I talked to the Support, they didn't had any further ideas than everything I tried before. So in the end I will return the machine and get a new and flawless one soon.

In the meantime I tried installing via terminal only to receive more different errors and crashes, including the error
"curl: (23) failed writing body ( 0!= 5632)" or after downloading in the third attempt and finally manage to run the installation only to get the same error I get when I tried to install bootable installer. Really frustrating to waste so much time on this...

Thank you all for your answers, the thread can be closed. I hope nobody else in the future must handle such chaos.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Just curious if you can run Big Sur from an external SSD (TB3 or USB 3.0) on this specific machine.
If Big Sur can run normally from an external SSD, then I guess the internal SSD has corrupted.
Anyway, taking it to Apple Support Center and let them worry about it.

 

[Ahnbar]

Just curious if you can run Big Sur from an external SSD (TB3 or USB 3.0) on this specific machine.
If Big Sur can run normally from an external SSD, then I guess the internal SSD has corrupted.
Anyway, taking it to Apple Support Center and let them worry about it.

I had the BigSur installer on an Sandisk Extreme Pro (1TB SSD USB 3.0) but not the whole system. But even from the SSD the recovery-manager gave me some errors.

But you are right, not my business anymore!