MP 7,1 Prohibitory sign on Mac Pro 7.1 after security update

[ProfessorBong]

Hi,

I'm running Catalina 10.15.7 on a Mac Pro 7.1 , and I recently I installed the security update 2021-002. Since then I'm having trouble booting, getting the prohibitory sign every 2-3 attempts in a row, then being able to boot and log in. I can then boot successfully one or two times until it starts all over again with the prohibitory symbol.

Attached is a screenshot of the log I'm getting in verbose mode. Can anybody tell me what the error codes mean and what could be the cause of the issue?

I have already tried:

• resetting NVRAM,
• repairing disk in recovery mode (no errors were found)
• rebuilding kernel cache through terminal
• reinstalling Catalina 10.15.7 freshly from a USB stick

None of these measures helped. Even after a fresh install of Catalina, I still got the same exact behaviour.

Any help is much appreciated, thank you.

 

[patrick.a]

My Mac Pro recently started to show a similar but even worse behavior. It randomly crashes, restarts and then shows the prohibition sign. After several attempts of starting it would boot up but then show graphical glitches. Tried everything you mentioned including a complete reinstallation of Catalina. Apple is investigating the problem at the moment and I was not able to use my Mac Pro for a week now already. It's very annoying.

 

[choreo]

Having more crashes than usual here as well since update. 5 yesterday.

 

[klemsaba]

My Mac Pro recently started to show a similar but even worse behavior. It randomly crashes, restarts and then shows the prohibition sign. After several attempts of starting it would boot up but then show graphical glitches. Tried everything you mentioned including a complete reinstallation of Catalina. Apple is investigating the problem at the moment and I was not able to use my Mac Pro for a week now already. It's very annoying.

I have a MacPro at work that is starting to crash with the prohibition sign on restart. No graphic issues after eventually booting up.

 

[startergo]

Can you guys please specify the operating system version/revision?

 

[OkiRun]

Do you have the 'odd' legacy hardware or software attached/installed which might be causing incompatibility with latest Catalina update?
My company Mac Pro 7,1 has not had issues.

 

[patrick.a]

My Mac Pro is on 10.15.7, the most current version of Catalina with all available updates installed. It had some restarts and graphic-glitch-problems before but I think that's the doing of the W5700X. For a week now the restarts happened way more often (like three times in 30 minutes) and the prohibition sign showed at start up. Nothing attached to the machine except for mouse, keyboard and display. Can't say if it's related to the security patch as I'm on automatic updates and have no clue when this patch was installed. But I'll try reinstalling Catalina without the patch today and see if that helps.

As a side note: Apple should really offer an Apple Care Pro for these machines. Waiting on feedback for a week just doesn't do it in a professional environment with a machine in this price range. The guy on the phone even asked me to press the power button on the back of the machine as he thought it's an iMac. And as excuse he said: "It's been a while since I had a Mac Pro." Great.

 

[patrick.a]

Hi everyone. Just wanted to give you a quick update: Did a complete reinstall of Catalina 10.15.7 today and made sure the security update 2021-002 is not installed. It still happens. So these crashes don't seem to be related to the security update, at least not in the case of my Mac Pro. What I don't know is, if the update did change some deeper firmware (t2 chip maybe?) that is not overwritten with a reinstall of the OS.

 

[ProfessorBong]

I'm also on a Mac Pro 7.1 with Catalina 10.15.7. The boot issues started happening right after installing the latest security update 2021-02.

 

[ProfessorBong]

Hi everyone. Just wanted to give you a quick update: Did a complete reinstall of Catalina 10.15.7 today and made sure the security update 2021-002 is not installed. It still happens. So these crashes don't seem to be related to the security update, at least not in the case of my Mac Pro. What I don't know is, if the update did change some deeper firmware (t2 chip maybe?) that is not overwritten with a reinstall of the OS.

Interesting, I also did a full reinstall of Catalina 10.15.7 and it did not fix my issues either. I got on a phone call with Apple support and they suggested I should do a full time machine recovery from a date prior to the start of the boot problems (and prior to installing the security update 2021-02, wether related or not). The backup is transferring right now, will report back when it finished.

 

[ProfessorBong]

Do you have the 'odd' legacy hardware or software attached/installed which might be causing incompatibility with latest Catalina update?
My company Mac Pro 7,1 has not had issues.

I did have some outdated kernel extensions installed, which I have deleted, followed by a rebuild of my kernel cache. Also tried unplugging all external devices and PCIe cards. None of this made a change to my boot issue.

 

[bsbeamer]

Not that this is ideal, but have you tried "fixing" through Apple Configurator 2 via another Mac?

 

[patrick.a]

Not that this is ideal, but have you tried "fixing" through Apple Configurator 2 via another Mac?

This app with a 1.8 star rating in the app store only works for iOS devices, no?

Interesting, I also did a full reinstall of Catalina 10.15.7 and it did not fix my issues either. I got on a phone call with Apple support and they suggested I should do a full time machine recovery from a date prior to the start of the boot problems (and prior to installing the security update 2021-02, wether related or not). The backup is transferring right now, will report back when it finished.

What is the configuration of your Mac? Mine is a 12 core with the 5700X and 96GB Ram by OWC and 1 TB SSD.

 

[bsbeamer]

Bash the app and/or Apple's methods all you want, but that is the tool for fixing/resolving this kind of issue on your own. If you don't like it, don't buy or use a Mac Pro.

And no, it's NOT an iOS app.

Apple Configurator - Official Apple Support

Access resources, contact options and learn about mass configuration and iOS deployment options for your institution's devices with Apple Configurator.

support.apple.com

‎Apple Configurator

‎Apple Configurator makes it easy to deploy iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV devices in your school or business. Use Apple Configurator to quickly configure large numbers of devices connected to your Mac via USB with the settings, apps, and data you specify for your students, employees...

apps.apple.com

Revive or restore an Intel-based Mac using Apple Configurator 2

In rare circumstances, Apple computers may become unresponsive and the chip’s firmware must be revived.

support.apple.com

 

[ProfessorBong]

This app with a 1.8 star rating in the app store only works for iOS devices, no?


What is the configuration of your Mac? Mine is a 12 core with the 5700X and 96GB Ram by OWC and 1 TB SSD.

My configuration is a 16 core with 2 TB SSD, 64GB and 580X (using it for music production only).

 

[ProfessorBong]

Bash the app and/or Apple's methods all you want, but that is the tool for fixing/resolving this kind of issue on your own. If you don't like it, don't buy or use a Mac Pro.

And no, it's NOT an iOS app.

Apple Configurator - Official Apple Support

Access resources, contact options and learn about mass configuration and iOS deployment options for your institution's devices with Apple Configurator.

support.apple.com

‎Apple Configurator

‎Apple Configurator makes it easy to deploy iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV devices in your school or business. Use Apple Configurator to quickly configure large numbers of devices connected to your Mac via USB with the settings, apps, and data you specify for your students, employees...

apps.apple.com

Revive or restore an Intel-based Mac using Apple Configurator 2

In rare circumstances, Apple computers may become unresponsive and the chip’s firmware must be revived.

support.apple.com

I haven't tried this tool yet no, first time I hear about it, and Apple's phone support did not suggest this one.

I did run the diagnostic tool though (pressing 'D' when booting), and it did not find any issues. I might be wrong, but my intuition tells me this Apple Configurator 2 tool wouldn't find anything either. It makes sense to use it remotely from another device if you cannot access the faulty device at all, but like I said, I can boot up my Mac and log in fine after every 3rd - 4th attempt.

 

[patrick.a]

Bash the app and/or Apple's methods all you want, but that is the tool for fixing/resolving this kind of issue on your own. If you don't like it, don't buy or use a Mac Pro.

And no, it's NOT an iOS app.

Apple Configurator - Official Apple Support

Access resources, contact options and learn about mass configuration and iOS deployment options for your institution's devices with Apple Configurator.

support.apple.com

‎Apple Configurator

‎Apple Configurator makes it easy to deploy iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV devices in your school or business. Use Apple Configurator to quickly configure large numbers of devices connected to your Mac via USB with the settings, apps, and data you specify for your students, employees...

apps.apple.com

Revive or restore an Intel-based Mac using Apple Configurator 2

In rare circumstances, Apple computers may become unresponsive and the chip’s firmware must be revived.

support.apple.com

Please don't be rude. I was only quoting the description in the app store where it says: "Apple Configurator 2 makes it easy to deploy iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV devices in your school or business." So I thought it's for iOS devices.

Have never heard of this app before, thanks for the tip.

 

[ProfessorBong]

Wow so my time machine recovery just finished, and the issue is still present!

Every 2-3 attempts to boot and log in fail, then it works.

Since I recovered from a backup date before any of this trouble started, before changing my user last name and before installing the security update, it has to be unrelated to those changes and that leaves me to assume it can only be a hardware issue at this point?

I'm still getting the same error messages in verbose mode as shown in my screenshot in my original post. Does anybody here understand what the error codes mean?

 

[startergo]

Wow so my time machine recovery just finished, and the issue is still present!

Every 2-3 attempts to boot and log in fail, then it works.

Since I recovered from a backup date before any of this trouble started, before changing my user last name and before installing the security update, it has to be unrelated to those changes and that leaves me to assume it can only be a hardware issue at this point?

I'm still getting the same error messages in verbose mode as shown in my screenshot in my original post. Does anybody here understand what the error codes mean?

The security update most probably updated the T2 security chip. The backup restore will not affect the T2 chip.

 

[patrick.a]

Was trying to reset the T2 with Apple Configurator 2 the last hour. But whatever I do, the Mac Pro would only show up as "Apple-Steuerung" (German for control). I can restore it and with that it updates the system. But it doesn't change anything and is still not accessible after this procedure. Am I doing anything wrong? Couldn't find any troubleshooting for the Configurator-app and the Mac Pro.

 

[startergo]

Was trying to reset the T2 with Apple Configurator 2 the last hour. But whatever I do, the Mac Pro would only show up as "Apple-Steuerung" (German for control). I can restore it and with that it updates the system. But it doesn't change anything and is still not accessible after this procedure. Am I doing anything wrong? Couldn't find any troubleshooting for the Configurator-app and the Mac Pro.

Keep pushing Apple until you resolve it. It is a supported Mac. There is no excuse on their side so they should fix it. Especially at the price they sold that machine.

 

[OkiRun]

You might have to bring into Apple Store and leave to have work on the T2 ?

 

[patrick.a]

Ok, so another update: Finally managed to reset the firmware with the Configurator 2, did a clean install of Catalina, and made sure it wouldn't security update automatically. Installed Creative Cloud, wanted to restart and boom: prohibition sign. So yeah, I'm done with this machine.

Keep pushing Apple until you resolve it. It is a supported Mac. There is no excuse on their side so they should fix it. Especially at the price they sold that machine.

Well, I agree with you. Apple should fix this. But I haven't heard back from the support for almost a week now. I'm self-employed and just recently started my business. I have a deadline coming and I can't finish this project on my Macbook Pro alone. So basically right now I'm trying everything possible to get the Mac Pro running and save my business. If it was an iMac, I would buy another one right now. But a Mac Pro ist not exactly in the price range to buy a spare one just in case the other one fails, at least not for a start-up.

 

[startergo]

Ok, so another update: Finally managed to reset the firmware with the Configurator 2, did a clean install of Catalina, and made sure it wouldn't security update automatically. Installed Creative Cloud, wanted to restart and boom: prohibition sign. So yeah, I'm done with this machine.


Well, I agree with you. Apple should fix this. But I haven't heard back from the support for almost a week now. I'm self-employed and just recently started my business. I have a deadline coming and I can't finish this project on my Macbook Pro alone. So basically right now I'm trying everything possible to get the Mac Pro running and save my business. If it was an iMac, I would buy another one right now. But a Mac Pro ist not exactly in the price range to buy a spare one just in case the other one fails, at least not for a start-up.

try this:

Desktop computers with the T2 chip​

1. Shut down your Mac, then unplug the power cord.
2. Wait 15 seconds, then plug the power cord back in.
3. Wait 5 seconds, then press the power button to turn on your Mac.

 

[patrick.a]

Went through these steps with the Apple Support last week already. They don't help with the problem unfortunately.