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It's not "bricked" if you can fix it in Recovery Mode. Still bad that it's happening, but the term "bricked" is thrown around so flippantly these days. If a pi

• bromuro 7y ago
  English is not my native language and this is the first time I hear about this “bricked” expression. What does it mean?
  • DonaldPShimoda 7y ago
    It means you've rendered your device functionally equivalent to a brick, i.e., it's a hunk of inanimate metal that will never again be useful.
  • dagmx 7y ago
    It means that something made your device non functional, so it’s almost like your device is a brick or useless heavy load
  • plussed_reader 7y ago
    Some manner of update or action attenuates the processing power of the device to that of a clay brick.
  • throwaway15392 7y ago
    It’s not a real word, it’s more of a slang word It just changes the noun brick into a verb. So if a laptop has bricked, it means it’s like a brick now (useless)
    • eru 7y ago
      Slang words are real. (And so is "ain't", and most words you can make up on the spot.)
      • throwaway15392 7y ago
        Well duh. But that’s not the way I mean by real which everyone can understand, so you’re just being pedantic and annoying
  • deleted 7y ago
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  • __init 7y ago
    Originally, "the device is bricked" meant that the device was about as useful as a brick, i.e. it had no useful functionality left couldn't be recovered at all. However, as the parent points out, it's been increasingly misused.
    • copperx 7y ago
      I wonder what the replacement term will be. Probably "hard bricked"?
      • K0SM0S 7y ago
        Hard / soft bricked is already conventional for phones and consoles (most mainstream products, unsurprisingly). I kinda like "cold bricked" personally. - soft: need some sysadmin mojo, USB adb etc. - hard: can be fixed with soldering, physical repair of sorts. - cold: will never again work even if you're Louis Rossman (maybe as a ship of theseus). Think CPU fried.
  • brippalcharrid 7y ago
    Rendered permanently inert, given the computational utility of a rectangular block of baked clay; banjaxed.
  • bitwize 7y ago
    To render a device completely inoperable, turning your computer into an expensive brick.
    • copperx 7y ago
      I remember it was originally used for smartphones, which makes sense because of their size is comparable to an actual brick.
      • DonHopkins 7y ago
        When computers were bigger heavier and not the size of cell phones, you could say "door stopped". https://www.techopedia.com/definition/18959/doorstop https://www.techopedia.com/definition/18959/doorstop But you can't keep a door opened with a broken cell phone, so they had to invent a new mobile-friendly term "bricked". For a mainframe or minicomputer, you could say "monolithed" or "bouldered".
      • bazzargh 7y ago
        It predates smartphones by at least a decade, maybe several decades. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/488450/etymology-bricked-to-render-an-electronic-device-inoperable https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/488450/etymology...
  • kbumsik 7y ago
    FYI, Korean have literally the same expression used in the web "벽돌이 되다", not sure if it comes from the english web though. Anyway, the "bricked" expression is more commonly used in smartphones and PlayStation Portable (PSP) than laptops. Then it makes more sense when considering the size of the devices.
    • saghm 7y ago
      > Anyway, the "bricked" expression is more commonly used in smartphones and PlayStation Portable (PSP) than laptops. Then it makes more sense when considering the size of the devices. I think it's also at least in part more commonly applied to those types of devices because they're generally more locked down than a laptop, leading users to risk bricking by trying jailbreaking them. Installing a custom OS on most laptops just isn't nearly as risky in terms of bricking potential.
      • kbumsik 7y ago
        Right, I mentioned PSP because jailbreaking was specifically widespread for PSP.
  • randrews 7y ago
    What everyone else said, but also, it's a particular kind of turned-into-a-brick: you can render something useless just by running a few hundred volts through it; "bricked" means that it's still functioning in some way, but because of a configuration problem it isn't listening to external input and never will again (because it also can't hear any input that might fix the configuration).
  • deleted 7y ago
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  • ncr100 7y ago
    I started using this expression in 2006 when developing apps for flip-phones. It was common for the phones to fail to reliably receive app installation files and mid-way through the process, disconnect their serial ports from my development computer. After that the phones would be, essentially, a brick. I did not have the technology to fix it - a JTAG connector and software to drive a reinstallation of what I assumed was the firmware.
• deleted 7y ago
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• dagenix 7y ago
  On the one hand, I tend to agree with you. But on the other hand, I think there is a significant nuance - for many users going into recovery mode is beyond what they are comfortable doing with their laptop and so for all intents and purposes a laptop that can only be recovered that way is unrecoverable. More generally, any issue with a computer can be fixed by a sufficiently skilled and determined user - maybe with some data loss. Even a broken firmware might be fixed by writing a new one, cracking the authentication mechanism, and building a custom rig to flash it to the chip. It's all a matter of degrees and how much users can be expected to do which makes defining exactly what "bricked" means very difficult.
  • akiselev 7y ago
    To be honest, even as an advanced user, I'm not comfortable with recovery modes on any operating system. They tend to be monolithic black boxes and that's a lot scarier than every other recovery method short of desoldering Macbook flash.
• bangonkeyboard 7y ago
  Here is one procedure for possibly recovering an affected Mac which cannot boot: https://mrmacintosh.com/how-to-restore-bridgeos-on-a-t2-mac-how-to-put-a-mac-into-dfu-mode/ https://mrmacintosh.com/how-to-restore-bridgeos-on-a-t2-mac-... It requires a separate, recent Mac, involves arcane combinations of specific ports, keys, and timings, relies on luck and voodoo, and ultimately may not even work.
• gregmac 7y ago
  "Bricked" is relative, depending on your skill level. For some consumers, if recovery mode doesn't work that might be the end of line. However, there are more advanced users that can access the storage via another system and fix it there, hook up via serial port or JTAG and flash new firmware, or even desolder and replace chips. On the far other end of the spectrum, there's going to be people that consider "doesn't show the normal UI after I press the power button" as bricked.
  • irjustin 7y ago
    Granted there's no formal definition of "bricked" it usually means a hardware requirement to restore functionality. I'd like to keep it this way even to the general lay person. Because if you need hardware the barrier to entry goes up significantly. Agreed that 'bricked' is not the right term here.
    • NaOH 7y ago
      > Granted there's no formal definition of "bricked" it usually means a hardware requirement to restore functionality. From Dictionary.app that comes standard with the Mac: "a smartphone or other electronic device that has completely ceased to function"
      • dragonwriter 7y ago
        Dictionary definitions are not formal definitions, they are attempts to capture usage. And they are almost invariably approximations except when explicitly specifying otherwise, and outside of the the more lavish of the unabridged dictionaries are also almost in invariably simplified, both in the number of definitions of any term presented and often the individual definitions, for brevity at the expense of accuracy.
        • zimpenfish 7y ago
          > Dictionary definitions are not formal definitions, they are attempts to capture usage. But because they're "captured usage", they're generally what people would understand by the term.
• Osiris 7y ago
  I agree. Back in the day I often installed custom ROMs on my Android phones and there was a distinction between needing to use recovery mode or losing your data vs "bricking", literally meaning that you turned your phone into a brick. There were some "unbricking" guides but those usually required hardware voodoo, soldering, etc., things that most people couldn't do. Now it's a clickbait term that has lost its original meaning of "you now own an expensive paper weight".
  • reaperducer 7y ago
    I remember the term being used at least as far back as the mid-80's. If you screwed up adding a second SID chip to your Commodore 64, the guides warned you about the potential for "bricking" the computer. Usually through static discharge.
• kingbirdy 7y ago
  At least in the Android world, I've seen folks make the distinction between a "soft" or "hard" brick, with the former being fixable via a recovery mode or other software method, while the latter would require a hardware modification or may be truly bricked.
  • lawl 7y ago
    It's also seen that terminology used with game consoles. Seems pretty standard (and it's how I use the term[s]).
• zenexer 7y ago
  The original source[0] states that access to Recovery Mode is not possible, at least in some cases. One user there reports[1] that the device shows no signs of life--no power, no fans spinning, nothing: > No power at all. I tried SMC and PRAM reset but sadly was unable to do either since my computer won’t even turn on. [0]: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/warning-macos-catalina-10-15-4-supplemental-update-bricked-my-13-inch-macbook-2018.2230133/ https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/warning-macos-catalina-... [1]: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/warning-macos-catalina-10-15-4-supplemental-update-bricked-my-13-inch-macbook-2018.2230133/?post=28350304#post-28350304 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/warning-macos-catalina-...
  • floatingatoll 7y ago
    Does this issue only affect T2 Macs and MacBooks? If so, maybe a DFU restore is needed.
    • apfsx 7y ago
      Do T2 Mac’s have DFU mode like iPhone’s? If so that’s news to me and pretty interesting.
      • Shank 7y ago
        Yes. It’s essentially an ARM A-series chip — it has firmware (BridgeOS) and does have a DFU mode. See https://help.apple.com/configurator/mac/2.7.1/#/apd0020c3dc2 https://help.apple.com/configurator/mac/2.7.1/#/apd0020c3dc2
        • FireBeyond 7y ago
          Best have your spare MacBook available to do it!
          • floatingatoll 7y ago
            Desktop Macs should also be fine. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple ships Configurator iOS someday, but today is not that day.
• tinus_hn 7y ago
  But how are they going to get the clicks?
• DonHopkins 7y ago
  Brick different.
• GrumpyNl 7y ago
  Only the HN community cans tart a discussion over the term brick while the issue is a non functioning mac book after a update.
  • dagenix 7y ago
    Is your theory that if this thread didn't exist in HN that the problem would be less severe? I don't think it works that way.
• z3t4 7y ago
  Many software bricks can be resolved with a screwdriver and solder iron, then reflash, pull battery or gate.
• Zenst 7y ago
  I classed bricked as something that need hardware intervention to make work again. Bit like having a bad bios flash and the only way to fix is to make a custom JTAG cable and serial transfer...effort. With that mostly bricked is a broken boot bios in many instances, maybe some other definitions, but most blur between bricked and broken and with that I'd class it broken over bricked if it needs hardware replaced.
• thawaway1837 7y ago
  This is an unnecessary pedantic argument that is also wrong. Bricking does not mean unrecoverable. That’s why the term unbricking exists. It’s absolutely ok to call something that most regular users will be unable to fix on their own and in the meanwhile their device won’t even turn on “bricking”.