non-booting macbook

[Big Jim]

Macbook Pro mid 2010 13"
On boot up the apple logo shows for a very brief second then changes to circle with a line through.
internet recovery fails (server not available) unable to connect via wifi as no networks are showing, and only having the option to manually enter the wifi info.

have tried reinstalling OS from a USB stick to a fresh drive but that fails part way through.
disk diagnostics show the SSD is healthy

tried SSD in another Mac and it boots straight up.
tried another HDD cable (although it was for a 2012" macbook) and still the same.

Is there a common point of failure to look for on these ?

 

[Markverhyden]

Sounds like you've done due diligence. That symbol is when an OS is not compatible with the underlying architecture. Was the other Mac newer or older? What version of OS on the patient's SSD? One last thing I'd try is a different SSD that't been nuked. That model shipped with 10.6 so even though it can be upgraded the the recovery partition resides on the the HD and not in firmware. So you will have to use a USB installer.

 

[Big Jim]

High Sierra on laptop
Our laptop is same year but 15"

Tried to install mavericks and that failed as well

Fyi, all installs I've tried have been on a fresh SSD that was clean.

 

[Markverhyden]

Do you know the history of this box? How do the installs fail?

If I have an installation failure of a listed supported OS I'll kick it back to a version as close as possible to the original. In this case the original should be 10.6 so I'd try 10.7.

As I mentioned earlier I've only seen this error on unsupported OS's. Depending on the customer situation, for grins, I might try a W7 install.

 

[Big Jim]

The spare drive originally had an old w10 install on it. At one point the machine started booting Windows, I left it for an hour and it was still stuck on the loading screen.

Only seen this machine once before, fan replacement and speaker replacement. It belongs to an autistic 10 year old who had a tendancy not to give it the best treatment. It has a cracked front glass and a missing rubber foot.

 

[ell]

Macbook Pro mid 2010 13"
On boot up the apple logo shows for a very brief second then changes to circle with a line through.
internet recovery fails (server not available) unable to connect via wifi as no networks are showing, and only having the option to manually enter the wifi info.

have tried reinstalling OS from a USB stick to a fresh drive but that fails part way through.
disk diagnostics show the SSD is healthy

tried SSD in another Mac and it boots straight up.
tried another HDD cable (although it was for a 2012" macbook) and still the same.

Is there a common point of failure to look for on these ?

disconnect internet, install snow leopard from usb with the date in terminal set to 2010

 

[cyabro]

Have you tried booting to macOS on a USB drive?
Not a common issue with that model but it could be the hdd cable. That is a known issue with the 2012 MacBook pros.

 

[sapphirescales]

Could be memory related

 

[Big Jim]

Have you tried booting to macOS on a USB drive?
Not a common issue with that model but it could be the hdd cable. That is a known issue with the 2012 MacBook pros.

Yup tried that, same issue.
Also see original post, have already tried another HDD cable.

I'll try and install earliest version of Mac os, but what is that proving? The patient drive works fine still. The WiFi and Ethernet both seem to not work at the same time as the os boot issue. I'll pull the board tomorrow and check for any obvious signs I think

 

[sapphirescales]

Yup tried that, same issue.
Also see original post, have already tried another HDD cable.

I'll try and install earliest version of Mac os, but what is that proving? The patient drive works fine still. The WiFi and Ethernet both seem to not work at the same time as the os boot issue. I'll pull the board tomorrow and check for any obvious signs I think

Just swap the memory. More importantly, visually inspect the memory slots. I had a MacBook in with a similar problem and it turned out to be a bent pin in the memory sockets.

 

[Big Jim]

latest update, took board out, lots of dust/fluff but nothing obvious on the board.

tried to install various versions of OSX with a spare SSD and new HDD cable.

lots of them are giving me the config error that happened recently when Apple decided to kill old os installers (i'll sort this later), Sierra has a kernel panic and reboots, mountain lion just says that the machine needs rebooting every time.
however have now managed to install high sierra, which also works with the existing HDD cable. (so HDD cable is ruled out)

then went back to the original SSD and it still doesn't boot, however now it doesn't boot in our machine either.

Is there a way to time machine backup the drive as a slave or do a repair install over the top of the existing drive?
Disk utilities say the disk is fine by the way and doesn't repair anything

 

[ell]

latest update, took board out, lots of dust/fluff but nothing obvious on the board.

tried to install various versions of OSX with a spare SSD and new HDD cable.

lots of them are giving me the config error that happened recently when Apple decided to kill old os installers (i'll sort this later), Sierra has a kernel panic and reboots, mountain lion just says that the machine needs rebooting every time.
however have now managed to install high sierra, which also works with the existing HDD cable. (so HDD cable is ruled out)

then went back to the original SSD and it still doesn't boot, however now it doesn't boot in our machine either.

Is there a way to time machine backup the drive as a slave or do a repair install over the top of the existing drive?
Disk utilities say the disk is fine by the way and doesn't repair anything

I would still try again with snow leopard, but you must roll the date back to 2010 or you get all kinds of errors, and if its connected to the net it will reset the clock so disable it. I recall trying to install sierra on a old mac and found it crashed because it had to be updated in the order the osx came out, couldn't skip versions. It may not help you but I'd give it a try.

 

[Big Jim]

I would still try again with snow leopard, but you must roll the date back to 2010 or you get all kinds of errors, and if its connected to the net it will reset the clock so disable it. I recall trying to install sierra on a old mac and found it crashed because it had to be updated in the order the osx came out, couldn't skip versions. It may not help you but I'd give it a try.

I think you misunderstood.
I have it booted with a clean install of High Sierra, now I am trying to save the original install (that isn't booting) somehow if I can.

 

[Markverhyden]

@ell's point is that is how you can get around the expired cert problem with older installers. But the machine cannot be connected to the Internet as it accesses NTP which will reset the date and time.

If you boot into recovery mode and choose reinstall OS it refreshes the OS, leaving everything intact. Have you taken care of all updates using the working High Sierra install? Hidden in those updates are firmware updates as needed. That's why it's sometimes a good idea to kick back the OS install earlier versions, close to the original. I've had several updates of 10.6.8 machines recently where doing an update with the latest failed. So performing an update using an older version, I usually start with 10.9, then works. Once that is updated the upgrade to the recent version worked.

If you need to try to preserve the original drive install intact, for what ever reason, I'd image it to another drive first and then work off that. Actually if it's really important I'd make two images just to be safe. Then try recovery mode>reinstall OS.

Time machine only works on a live OS. You can slave the patient to a working Mac, so disk utilities can be used to image to another slaved drive.

On the EU's situation? One of my customer's employees ask me to fix her son's, who has ADD, MBP. Same model, unibody. The palm rest was covered in small dents. Put in an SSD and all's been good so far.

 

[cyabro]

I think you misunderstood.
I have it booted with a clean install of High Sierra, now I am trying to save the original install (that isn't booting) somehow if I can.

Why do you need to save the original install?
Just use the working install you have and do a migration of the data and apps etc.

 

[cyabro]

I think you misunderstood.
I have it booted with a clean install of High Sierra, now I am trying to save the original install (that isn't booting) somehow if I can.

Why do you need to save the original install?
Just use the working install you have and do a migration of the data and apps etc.

 

[Big Jim]

Why do you need to save the original install?
Just use the working install you have and do a migration of the data and apps etc.

may resort to this, I assume this is easier to do in mac os than in windows ?

Would I be right in saying I just copy the folders over and everything just works ?

 

[cyabro]

may resort to this, I assume this is easier to do in mac os than in windows ?

Would I be right in saying I just copy the folders over and everything just works ?

Much easier. Use Migration Assistant.
You pretty much won’t know that it’s a fresh install of macOS.

 

[Big Jim]

Much easier. Use Migration Assistant.
You pretty much won’t know that it’s a fresh install of macOS.

This worked perfectly, thanks.

The issue now is, I used disk utility to try and clone the now working and booting installation back to the original SSD (same size as the spare I am using) it ran for around 4/5 hours (200GB through a 2010 USB Port ) and then failed. the data has copied but the drive isn't bootable.

I am going to run it again overnight from within the OS itself this time (ran from recovery mode initially) and see if it works this time, however assuming it will do exactly the same thing again, is there an alternative I can use ?
can Parted magic perfectly clone a drive ?

would macrium reflect do it from within windows if I slave both drives ?

 

[cyabro]

This worked perfectly, thanks.

The issue now is, I used disk utility to try and clone the now working and booting installation back to the original SSD (same size as the spare I am using) it ran for around 4/5 hours (200GB through a 2010 USB Port ) and then failed. the data has copied but the drive isn't bootable.

I am going to run it again overnight from within the OS itself this time (ran from recovery mode initially) and see if it works this time, however assuming it will do exactly the same thing again, is there an alternative I can use ?
can Parted magic perfectly clone a drive ?

would macrium reflect do it from within windows if I slave both drives ?

I usually use the free version of Super Duper! To clone a Mac drive.