Late 2012 iMac - Thunderbolt : no hardware was found

Question

I have an Late 2012 27" iMac (iMac13,2) and somehow when looking in system report for the Thunderbolt ports say "no hardware was found.”

I have tried:

• Endless searching to find a solution
• Resetting SMC and NVRAM
• Updating OS to High Sierra
  • Clean Install, deleting HD and installing High Sierra
  • Clean Install, with 2nd level secure disk delete in hopes to delete firmware
• Updating Thunderbolt firmware 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 to no avail
• Tried to create a bootable installer of Yosemite to trick the machine into letting me "downgrade" firmware to v1.0 or v1.1. I’m almost positive that it's a firmware issue as the system does not see any Thunderbolt firmware.

This system was used as the heart of an audio editing project studio and is now completely non-functional as the two high-end Thunderbolt audio interfaces used to get audio in and out of this iMac are no longer functional.

What can I do to fix the Thunderbolt ports?

Answer 1

Hardware not found

When it comes to hardware, there are two “conditions”

• Detected
• Functional

Hardware can be detected and non-functional, but it is impossible for it to be functional without being detected.

When something is detected, the system says “I found this piece of hardware. It’s identified by these numbers at such-and-such and address.” That’s a very simplistic description of what happens but it encapsulates the concept.

Hardware is functional when a driver(kext) is loaded and the device can be used by the system to do whatever it’s designed to do (i.e. webcam displays pictures and captures sound)

Your Thunderbolt subsystem has failed

Now, if a previously functional device suddenly is no longer detected, the device has failed. It could be the Thunderbolt controller or the associated circuitry, but in the end, it has failed to the point where the system doesn’t see it.

I’m almost positive that it's a firmware issue as per the system does not see any thunderbolt firmware.

Unlikely. Even if the firmware was corrupted, your system would report an “unknown device” because something would be there, it just can’t identify what it is. Upgrading/downgrading firmware is not going to work if it can’t find the device which to apply the update.

Diagnostics

The very first thing that should be invoked long before you reinstall the or do any sort of firmware patching is to run Apple Hardware Test (Hold D while booting). An OS reinstall should be done last. In fact, you should install macOS onto an external drive and boot off of that instead of wiping the drive. Why? If there is any sort of forensic evidence of the failure, it gets erased with the new install.

Resetting the NVRAM and SMC are usually fruitless because they’re unrelated, but it can’t harm anything. Before wiping the hard drive and reinstalling the OS, try Safe Mode or Recovery Mode. These are clean, versions of macOS (Recovery, especially) that have only the native drivers. If the hardware device can’t be seen here, it’s definitely a hardware failure.

Bottom line

It’s got to go in for service or you need to replace the unit.