macOS update causes black screen on M1 MacBook and DFU revive doesn't fix it.

[russell_garriso]

I have had two 14-inch M1 MacBook Pros run into issues applying minor updates. One was going from 13.5.2 to 13.6 and the other was 12.6.9 to 12.7.1. The Ventura machine never made it to 13.6, but the Monterey machine did manage to finish updating to 12.7.1. The authenticated restart allowed it to even check-in/inventory with Jamf.

In both cases it appears that something went wrong and the result is that video doesn't work. The video cuts out as soon as your try to go past the initial startup chime and Apple logo. Holding the power key down displays the messages to get into startup options, but loading startup options is the last thing you see before it disappears. It seems like there is something wrong with the iBoot, but I am not sure what I can do about that.

The only thing that works is to DFU revive the machine and go directly into recovery. If you select the SSD as a startup disk the issue returns and you have to DFU all over again. At that point you share the disk and get their data off. 

Has anyone else run into this? Is anyone aware of what we can do about this apart from rolling the dice?

I have deferred the October updates with a management profile for 30-days, but in the meantime I am hoping there is something I can do to prevent it or at least fix it after it happens. The DFU revive seems to fill in where Internet Recovery and Target Disk Mode used to be with Intel, since it can get around some of the more local issues and at least mount the disk to get data off. Disk First Aid didn't solve the problem, so I am just wondering if I am missing some terminal command that might bail out the video issue.

[AVmcclint]

I have had several techs report the 13.6 or 13.6.1 update bricking some Macs. It doesn't appear to be widespread. Out of 1500 Macs I've heard maybe 5 or 6 Macs having this problem.  Definitely annoying. I have sent 2 to be repaired by Apple successfully.

[hoorneil]

Didn't they say what caused it?

[sohail_yousaf]

Hi, we had two M1 Macs with same issue. They were sent to Apple and they replaced the Motherboard. No explanation, why that happened, but it happened during the Software update.

[VS]

Seen this topic in macadmins and we had few devices as well. Happens when display refresh rate (pro motion) is not set as default. And reviving the device via configurator is the only solution. 

[jamf-42]

sound a bit like this.. https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/01/asahi_linux_mac_black_screen/ 

[easyedc]

I'd opened a ticket with Apple last week regarding this. They stated it is supposedly resolved with the release of 13.6.2 or 14.1.1 (which ever OS you're running).

[russell_garriso]

This one may remain unsolved, but it is good to hear there may be a fix for Ventura/Sonoma even if it isn't stated publicly. Will have to remove the deferral for a sample and hope for the best! I added an extension attribute to collect the "OS Loader Version" from system information and will reply back here with what I see in testing.
I did want to update on what happened with the machine I got back. 
Reached out to both users on the refresh thing and neither one felt like they had ever touched the default refresh settings or even had any idea how they would do that, so might not have been that.
After re-reading some Mr. Macintosh and Eclectic Light Co. for inspiration I first tried a USB installer for Monterrey 12.7.1. That did complete after a few FV prompts, but it just went back to blanking the screen on the first attempt to load the installed OS from the disk. I wonder if there is some subsequent Monterey installer released that pushes the iBoot version and would fix this, but I didn't have that. It seems like setting the startup disk was causing me to get the black screen and then I would have to DFU revive.
Finally I realized that I was staying in system recovery after performing a DFU revive instead of the macOS recovery on the main part of the disk. This is sticky as long as I don't select the drive or hold the power key to load options. Just tap the power key, wait for the loader and click options. The DFU system recovery was offering Sonoma instead of Monterey, so I decided to take the hint.
The system recovery based Sonoma install completed and finally the system came up. Again suggesting something grumpy with iBoot in the volume group. At that point things were useable, but I was getting some odd  launch daemon and application errors that haven't come up in my Sonoma in-place upgrade testing to-date. It may be possible to get back to a working OS, but YMMV there.
In the end I use IPSW to reload the machine and that worked as perfectly as expected, so for now I don't have any test cases and hopefully never will.