Want to install Snow Leopard, but three beeps

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I have an MBP 17" early 2011 that came with SL installed on it. Right now it has macOS High Sierra as the OS. I have an installation disk (white one I paid for from Apple) for SL. I have a reason to need Rosetta, so my thinking was to install SL on the internal, or on an external USB drive, using the installation disk, to get to Rosetta. But when I try to boot the MBP from the installer, I get three beeps.

OK, so three beeps means memory. So I booted the MBP into the Apple Hardware Test and ran the test. Memory was all fine. Reseated the memory, no problem. HS boots fine, no beeps at all. But every time I try to boot the installer disk for SL, I get three beeps.

So, why three beeps on trying to boot from the SL install disk? I've done a quick internet search, but three beeps is only associated with memory, or with Google Drive, which I have never used.
 

chscag

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Has your 17" MBP had any firmware updates since you owned it? I believe the SL white disk from Apple has 10.6.6 on it and your early 2011 model probably came preinstalled with 10.6.2 or 3, so that disk should have worked. One more thing comes to mind: You had the logic board swapped out on that machine by Apple when the GPU failed. I wonder if that has something to do with it?
 

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Does your MacBook Pro boot from the Snow Leopard disk at all (gets to the desktop)?

If not...have you tried forcing the computer to boot from the optical drive by pressing the c key when restarting/rebooting?

HTH,

- Nick
 
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Charlie, I honestly don't know if the firmware is updated or not. The logic board was swapped out by Apple for the GPU fix, so that could be it, but there is no mention of either of those problems when I search for three beeps. Everything returns memory as the issue, but I don't get three beeps booting HS and the AHT passes the memory just fine. And the memory is 2x4, for a total of 8gb, also installed by Apple. Maybe I should remove one and go back to 4?

Nick, It won't boot from the disk at all. I haven't tried the c key, but Option at boot shows the disk, and lets me select it to boot from. I can hear the drive working away, but the three beeps comes up pretty quickly. No success at getting to the desktop at all.

EDIT: Corrected the memory sizes. Brain failure on the original numbers.
 

chscag

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Go ahead and pull one of the modules to see if that works. But it does seem odd since the machine boots okay using High Sierra.
 
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Try holding the “C” down, that should force it to boot from the optical drive. If it doesn’t boot using that method, then there is an issue somewhere else.


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OK, took out one module, tried booting with the Option key, selected the drive when it appeared and then waited. And waited. No beeps, but it was stuck on an Apple on a grey background for about 20 minutes. Took out the one module, replaced it with the first one I removed, same result. No beeps, no boot. Oh, and in both one-module configurations I booted to HS no problem. So I put both back in, booted HS, then booted into Apple Hardware Test and am now running the extended test that it says may take an hour.

So, two memory modules, three beeps, no boot. One memory module, no beep, no boot.

I'll report back when the AHT is done. Not looking good to get back to SL on that machine at this point.

And for Bob, I tried the C key and got the same results as the Option. No beep with one module, no boot. Two modules in, three beeps, no boot.
 
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Does this MBP have an SSD installed? Do you have an external you can boot from?

How about, in System Preferences > Startup Disk?


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Sorry to hear no solution yet. As luck will have it...I still pretty regularly use my 17" 2011 MacBook Pro with Sierra installed. If you don't find a solution...I'll dig out one of my Snow Leopard install disk's...and attempt to boot from it...and see if I run into a similar issue.

Assuming no hardware issues...if I get different results...maybe there's a difference between Sierra & High Sierra accounting for things.

- Nick
 
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No SSD, it's a spinner drive. I do have an external drive (several, in fact) but it boots from the internal drive to HS just fine. It's only the Install disk that won't boot. I did try it in an external CD/DVD drive and got the same three beeps, so it's not the internal CD/DVD drive.

Not sure what system preferences>Startup disk has to do with it. It boots from the internal HD fine into HS, reads the install disk fine as a disk, but won't boot from it.

I'm beginning to think that maybe the firmware is conflicting with the SL disk.

And thanks for the offer, Nick. That may be a useful test.
 
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Entended AHT completed, no issues reported. It must be something in the disk/firmware as Charlie suggested.
 

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Can I suggest using something other than the Apple Hardware test to test the memory. I had a similar problem with my G5 tower shortly after I got it. If the computer booted it ran fine most of the time. Whenever I powered down I had to try four or five times to boot. The failures often resulted in kernel panics. D0Searching for a solution was the reason I joined a now defunct forum called MacOSG.

Long story short everything pointed to memory failure but the macine kept passing Apple's hardware tests. One day, out of frustration, I downloaded and ran a program called Memtest. More info here. The machine failed the memory test in the first two minutes IIRC. Purchased and installed new memory and the problem went away.
 
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Sly, according to the website, the most current version only goes through Sierra, the MBP has HS installed. I have used memtest in the past, will give it a try.
 

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You're right. I checked to see whether there was a version for SL still available. Didn't notice that about stopping at Sierra. Might be worth a try anyway.
 

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Jake, I am 99% sure with one of the Sierra and High Sierra updates updated the Firmware on both my 2010 iMac i& and MBP late 2011. Charlie I believe is right and it's a firmware issue. I will try my factory from Apple Snow Leopard DVD later in my MBP and report back.
 
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Thanks, Dennis.

Sly, memtest won't run for me. I even tried booting in Safe Mode and using the command line, but it doesn't see memtest in the Applications folder. Not sure why, it's definitely there. I need to see if I can think up some trick to get it to run. It's been a while since I worked with a Unix command line, but it's like riding a bicycle, right?
 

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I will try it but my Late 2011 came with Lion so I doubt it will run Snow Leopard. Will try anyway.
 

Slydude

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It's been a while since I worked with a Unix command line, but it's like riding a bicycle, right?
Haven't been on a bike since I was a kid. IITC the result was a head wound and a few stitchers. Surely your command line knowledge is better than my biking skills. LOL.
 
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I will try it but my Late 2011 came with Lion so I doubt it will run Snow Leopard. Will try anyway.

The Late 2011, was similar to the Early 2011, that it will run Snow Leopard. However, if there was a firmware update for the 2010, there may have been one for the 2011 models also. So, it may not work, if you’ve already upgraded to High Sierra.

When I got my Late 2011 MBP off eBay, it had Snow Leopard installed. So I know it will work, but this was back in May 2012.


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Do you have another drive you can put in the MBP to test? Even if it is a bare drive?


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