Chosen Solution
This A1707 cannot access internal SSD, but runs fine on the external drive. I tried Disc utility via recovery and via external drive. Internal is recognized, but cannot be altered in any way, not erased, nor new OS installed, nor first aid. I checked for water damage, nothing to see. I checked the “life boat” , but nada. Running out of options, the SSD is fixed on the board…Any thoughts…I saw videos discussing the 1706 which has a “usual failure” in the 2v7Nand circuit, but cannot correlate it to the 1707…
Is the internal drive recognized when booted into an external drive? If so, can you erase and reformat in Disk Utility from that external drive? If not, what sort of error does Disk Utility give? Apple had a known issue with their SSDs on the 13-inch models, I wonder if this is something similar - it’s not unprecedented for them to limit their service programs to only a small selection of machines effected by the issue. If you aren’t able to erase and reformat the drive from either a bootable external drive or from internet recovery mode you may need to contact an Apple Authorized Service Provider.
