Internet recovery problems?

Hello all. First off my name is Chris and I am new to macs, very new. I have a macbook pro 15' from 2011 or 12 I believe, with the flashing ? folder. I have a new drive wiped clean. When I attempt to do a internet recovery I am having problems. I power on and hold command-option-R. It gives the message that this may take awhile. Then asks to choose network, which I do and put in password. ( I have also attempted to use with LAN drop with the same results). It connects and I get the spinning globe & progress bar. After some time could be a minute or could be 10 minutes as the time fluctuates with attempts I get an apple logo. Now sometimes I get a progress bar under the logo and sometimes a spinning wheel. When I get the progress bar it get to the halfway point and the screen goes blank(white/grey, and blank) and that's it. I let it sit for hours. If I get the spinning wheel under the apple logo, it spins for a bit. Then the screen goes black for second and then the white/ grey blank screen comes back and its done.
So I don't know what I am doing wrong. I tried a drive with windows on it and it tried to boot into to windows so I know it sees the drive. I have tried on multiple networks with WiFi & ethernet and still nothing. I do not have access to another macbook to make a bootable usb or cd. I cannot even get to a disk utility or the like.
Oh. on one attempt and only 1 attempt I got an error. 2100f with the exclamation point but only once for that out of say a dozen or so tries. If I let it boot and press no keys I get the flashing question mark or Windows logo depending on which drive I tried.

So any ideas on what to do? How can I get this working? Is there something I haven't tried? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Chris

Well it may be that the MBP only had Snow Leopard OS X.6 installed as that was the standard operating system back in 2011. Internet Recovery is not available for Snow Leopard. for %20.00 including postage, pop the DVD in, reboot

Suggest purchasing Snow Leopard OS X.6 from Apple Online. Pop the DVD in, reboot and hold down 'C' When the OS loads, leave the Installer and go to Utilities > Disk Utility and erase and format the hard drive Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Back to the Installer and proceed. When finished, set up Network etc and go online and download the OPS X.6.8 Combo Update, and from there when you establish an Apple ID for the App Store, you will be able to download El Capitan OS X.11 free of charge. I have provided links for Snow Leopard fromn Apple, the Combo Updater andEl Capitasn for OS X.6.8 users. Keep us posted:-


https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard

https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1399?locale=en_AU


https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT206886

Harry, thank you for the reply. And I see what you are saying about the OS not being availble by internet recovery. However wouldn't the macOS utilities still load? I can't even get to that point.

Nope, new drive, wiped clean, nothing to boot. No recovery partition, which is where the utilities will be installed when you upgrade from Snow Leopard to something more modern.

Hello all. First off my name is Chris and I am new to macs, very new.

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So any ideas on what to do? How can I get this working? Is there something I haven't tried? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Chris

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Yup, for your situation and comments, I'd suggest you get hold of a good Mac tech or take your Mac to them to get it repaired or at least a cost to repair estimate.

And probably it will be money well spent.




- Patrick
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Thanks for the replies. I would prefer not to pay someone to do this, I work on Pc's for a living and should be able to figure this out.
So I got a boot-able USB with Snow Leopard 10.6 on it. Now when I boot wile holding option it only gives me the choice to boot from the USB or pick a network. Should I not see the hard drive in the options too? I am not. I replaced the hard drive cable and have 2 hard drives(one SSD & 1 SATA). I am concerned the macbook is not recognizing the HD, what can I do to check? Thank you again.

Oh when I select boot mac os usb it starts to load then I get an apple logo, then it says to hold down the power button to restart.

@Chris:

We are going to need to know exactly which MacBook Pro you have. Here's how you can find out without booting the machine:

Find the serial number of the MacBook Pro - (should be on the bottom plate).

Enter the serial number at this site. Copy the info and post into this thread. We can get a better idea of how to get the machine going again if we know exactly what we're working with.

dginn69 said:

Thanks for the replies. I would prefer not to pay someone to do this, I work on Pc's for a living and should be able to figure this out.
So I got a boot-able USB with Snow Leopard 10.6 on it. Now when I boot wile holding option it only gives me the choice to boot from the USB or pick a network. Should I not see the hard drive in the options too? I am not. I replaced the hard drive cable and have 2 hard drives(one SSD & 1 SATA). I am concerned the macbook is not recognizing the HD, what can I do to check? Thank you again.

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dginn69 said:

Oh when I select boot mac os usb it starts to load then I get an apple logo, then it says to hold down the power button to restart.

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Hmmm… as I said previously and if I dare say so, this is a Mac Help Site, and not one to provide full Mac OS training tutorials.

But chscag ^ has posted some constructive info.




- Patrick
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pm-r said:

Hmmm… as I said previously and if I dare say so, this is a Mac Help Site, and not one to provide full Mac OS training tutorials.

But chscag ^ has posted some constructive info.




- Patrick
======

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I am not really looking for full training. I just dont know macs. If this were a pc I'd log into BIOS and see if the stupid thing even sees the hard drive. If there is a way to do it on a mac I dont know nor was I able to find it. And I have searched. Asking on a forum is usually my last resort. My apologies if I am putting you out.

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.0 15" Early 2011 2.0 GHz Core i7 (I7-2635QM)

Intro. February 24, 2011 Disc. October 24, 2011
Order MC721LL/A Model A1286 (EMC 2353-1*)
Family Early 2011 15" ID MacBookPro8,2
RAM 4 GB VRAM 256 MB*
Storage 500 GB HDD Optical 8X DL "SuperDrive"
Complete MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.0 15" Early 2011 Specs

Sorry I should have put this on here sooner.

Asking on a forum is usually my last resort. My apologies if I am putting you out.

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You're not putting anyone out here. We will try to help you out best we can. Most of us have come from the world of Windows and PCs and some of us run both systems. Macs are just not as easy to tear apart and get into as some Windows machines are. You probably already realize that Macs are very proprietary machines and Apple does not publish schematics or service manuals.

According to the info you provided, your MacBook Pro shipped with macOS Snow Leopard 10.6.6 installed. Apple lists the machine as vintage and will not work on it or even look at it. OK, so much for that.

I don't think the Snow Leopard DVD purchased from Apple contains 10.6.6. I believe it's only 10.6.3 which means it will not boot that machine. And trying to boot from a Snow Leopard USB flash drive is likewise not going to work. You may be able to boot with an original 10.6.3 DVD that came with the machine. I'm not sure Apple still has those in stock. You would have to give them a call and provide the SN of the machine to find out. Also, it's possible the DVD drive in that machine is not working right. Optical drives used by Apple in their machines are not very robust since they're designed to look nice and are slot drives not tray.

Another thing about that machine you should know: The graphics used is a dual chipset: AMD Radeon 6490 or 6750M and an Intel HD 3000 (auto switching). The GPUs in those machines have been problematic over the years and many of them failed. Apple had a special repair program for awhile but it expired long ago.

Based on the fact that you can boot the machine from USB is a good sign that the graphics are OK and the logic board is functioning. If the internal hard drive is not seen when you run Disk Utility from the external hard drive, it's possible the internal drive is not formatted. It has to be formatted as Mac OS Extended Journaled, GUID partition scheme.

Hope some of the above helps. Let us know.

If you know someone with a Mac of about that vintage, you could open up yours and remove the Hard Drive. ifixit.com will have step-by-step directions. Once the drive is out, attach it to the other mac and format it from there. Then at least it should be visible to your MBP. You can also ask the owner of that Mac to create a bootable installer USB for you using DiskmakerX and an installer for whatever version you and the owner can get from Apple's Mac store. Boot that USB, install the OS and you should be ok.

PITA, but that's about the only way I can think to get it done. You can try buying a SL disk from Apple ($20) but as chscag said, the optical drives in that vintage system are notoriously prone to failures. I know, I have one.

Thanks for all that info. I am aware of the graphics issue and it isn't a problem right now. I did run the diagnostics and it said all hardware minus HD was ok(results didnt mention HD).
So the disk in the link harrb posted wont work? Meaning I would need 10.6.6 disks? I see 10.6.3 disks on eBay and will assume they wont work either? Good thing I didn't order it. I will try and contact apple tomorrow. Will an external DVD drive work in case the optical drive does not work?
I am discovering these things seem to be a PITA. I have dealt with windows pc's and pc's with Linux and have never had this much trouble just getting an OS installed.

MacInWin said:

If you know someone with a Mac of about that vintage, you could open up yours and remove the Hard Drive. ifixit.com will have step-by-step directions. Once the drive is out, attach it to the other mac and format it from there. Then at least it should be visible to your MBP. You can also ask the owner of that Mac to create a bootable installer USB for you using DiskmakerX and an installer for whatever version you and the owner can get from Apple's Mac store. Boot that USB, install the OS and you should be ok.

PITA, but that's about the only way I can think to get it done. You can try buying a SL disk from Apple ($20) but as chscag said, the optical drives in that vintage system are notoriously prone to failures. I know, I have one.

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What is an SL disk? And will and external usb cd/dvd drive work? And PITA is right. I dont know of anyone with a mac, nevertheless this vintage. lol.

SL=Snow Leopard

That's the name of 10.6 version of the OS. I don't know if 10.6.3 will boot on a machine shipped with 10.6.6 or not. It might.

Oh, and passing the hardware test is not a valid confirmation that the GPU has not failed, or does not have issues. I had a "failed" GPU that only manifested when it switched from low graphics to high graphics, at which time the screen went black and the system became unresponsive. But if the hardware test didn't even see the HD as a device, then the drive sounds to be dead, dead, dead. Or the cable is broken, broken, broken. Or both. You said in the first post the drive was new, so it's either the cable or infant mortality on the drive, I suspect.

BTW, Apple replaced the logic board in my MBP under an extended warranty but now that program has ended.

Wow, ok so this isnt good then. the drives are new and the cable is new as well.

Try clicking on the “mount” button in that image. The hardware seems to be connecting, given that the drive is visible in DU. Maybe it will mount and you can see what’s going on.

In what image. this is what I get when I try to boot from USB.\