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MacOS refuses to boot after clean install.

Kale04
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Go to solution Solved by TopHatProductions115,

I don't know if this will help, but I did find this:

It could be the drive cable. There's only one way to find out...

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Hello to any MacOS experts,

 

I am currently in the process of repairing a friends 13 Inch Mid 2012 MacBook Pro (Model 1278) after the Apple Store quoted over AUD$400 to replace the internal HDD with a 250GB SSD (That Apple magic smoke does not come cheap). After replacing the horrifically slow 5400 RPM HDD that came in the system, I proceeded to replace the current, dead HDD and replace it with a 250GB Samsung 860 EVO. After this, I proceeded to boot into the Internet Recovery utility and proceeded to format the SSD as HFS+ for use with OS X Mavericks (The operating system the recovery tool attempted to install) and start an OS X installation. After about 6 hours of waiting for the OS to install, I was greeted with a screen showing me that the installation of OS X Mavericks had succeeded and all that was left to do was restart the system with this handy button provided. Upon restarting the system, came the first issue, upon the restart, I was greeted with a flashing grey cross (as can be seen in an image attached). Thinking this was just a failed installation, I proceeded to reformat the drive and attempt the installation again, but without success, once the system restarted, I was greeted to another flashing grey cross. This time I enabled verbose startup and took a photo of the errors that appeared (images attached). After this, I have tried to install MacOS Sierra, MacOS High Sierra, and MacOS Mojave all with similar results.

 

Does anyone have any solution or tips to help in solving this issue as I have not been able to find much help on the Googles (not in English anyway)?

 

I hope the pictures below also help in solving the issue.

 

Thanks,

Kale04

Grey Cross.jpg

Mavericks Errors.jpg

Sierra Errors.jpg

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You need to create a bootable USB for the latest version of macOS that the machine is compatible with, macOS Mojave.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

 

Then once that is done you can format the entire drive of the MacBook, including the recovery partition, and install macOS that way. 

 

Laptop: 2019 16" MacBook Pro i7, 512GB, 5300M 4GB, 16GB DDR4 | Phone: iPhone 13 Pro Max 128GB | Wearables: Apple Watch SE | Car: 2007 Ford Taurus SE | CPU: R7 5700X | Mobo: ASRock B450M Pro4 | RAM: 32GB 3200 | GPU: ASRock RX 5700 8GB | Case: Apple PowerMac G5 | OS: Win 11 | Storage: 1TB Crucial P3 NVME SSD, 1TB PNY CS900, & 4TB WD Blue HDD | PSU: Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 600W | Display: LG 27GL83A-B 1440p @ 144Hz, Dell S2719DGF 1440p @144Hz | Cooling: Wraith Prism | Keyboard: G610 Orion Cherry MX Brown | Mouse: G305 | Audio: Audio Technica ATH-M50X & Blue Snowball | Server: 2018 Core i3 Mac mini, 128GB SSD, Intel UHD 630, 16GB DDR4 | Storage: OWC Mercury Elite Pro Quad (6TB WD Blue HDD, 12TB Seagate Barracuda, 1TB Crucial SSD, 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD)
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Have tried (that is how I attempted to install macOS Mojave), the same problem.

 

Thanks,

Kale04

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UPDATE:

Just to try again, I created another MacOS Mojave bootable USB and used it to format the drive as HFS+ again (the installer does not allow installing onto an APFS drive directly, saying that the Mac needs a firmware update in order to install to the APFS volume) and upon attempting to install MacOS again I received a new error as seen attached below.

 

Is anyone able to assist in this matter further? 

 

Thank you in advance, 

Kale04

IMG_20181003_125958__01.jpg

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Update 2:

 

Just out of curiosity I attempted to install Windows 10 1809 onto the system using a Bootcamp install drive made on an identical Macbook Pro. While Windows appeared to install, whenever the Mac boots into Windows I'm greeted with a new error at boot up, (what else would it possibly be :P). I have attached an image of the error below. I'm starting to think this may be a firmware or hardware issue, rather than an issue with MacOS. Is anyone able to assist in this situation? 

 

Thanks, 

Kale04

IMG_20181004_131929__01.jpg

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6 hours ago, Kale04 said:

Update 2:

 

Just out of curiosity I attempted to install Windows 10 1809 onto the system using a Bootcamp install drive made on an identical Macbook Pro. While Windows appeared to install, whenever the Mac boots into Windows I'm greeted with a new error at boot up, (what else would it possibly be :P). I have attached an image of the error below. I'm starting to think this may be a firmware or hardware issue, rather than an issue with MacOS. Is anyone able to assist in this situation? 

 

Thanks, 

Kale04

IMG_20181004_131929__01.jpg

Tried an installation of Ubuntu. Also had a similar issue. 

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Just now, firelighter487 said:

try option+command+r when booting. it should install the latest version compatible with that MacBook. 

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

The computer will boot into recovery mode however will not boot beyond the first restart in the installation process. 

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I haven't read the topic but it's probably because you oddly put a full stop at the end of the topic title ;)

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What it seems to me is an hard disk hardware fault.

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2 hours ago, Kale04 said:

The computer will boot into recovery mode however will not boot beyond the first restart in the installation process. 

oh okay. check to see if the ssd is correctly plugged in, the Windows blue screen shows an I/O error

She/Her

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33 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

oh okay. check to see if the ssd is correctly plugged in, the Windows blue screen shows an I/O error

The SSD is correctly plugged in, it is detected by GParted and Disk utility. Since MacOS, Windows and Linux are all having very similar issues booting, I'm thinking it may be a problem with the firmware. 

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1 hour ago, Lukyp said:

What it seems to me is an hard disk hardware fault.

The SSD works fine, I have tested it on multiple other systems with no problems and also got the store I purchased the SSD from to do their own testing, no problems were found. I'm pretty much certain it is an issue with the laptop itself. 

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Try updating the SSD's firmware if possible first, and test again. If that fails, check the SSD for bad sectors and other faults. If nothing shows up there, run the Apple Hardware Test, as outlined here:

If your Mac is newer than 2013, use the alternative link at the top of the page...

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7 hours ago, TopHatProductions115 said:

Try updating the SSD's firmware if possible first, and test again. If that fails, check the SSD for bad sectors and other faults. If nothing shows up there, run the Apple Hardware Test, as outlined here:

If your Mac is newer than 2013, use the alternative link at the top of the page...

I have run Apple hardware test with no issues found. Upon checking Samsung's website, no firmware updates to be found. After checking the SMART status of the drive, nothing out of the ordinary can be found (to be expected since the drive is brand new). 

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12 minutes ago, TopHatProductions115 said:

Sounds like a possible hardware incompatibility. What are the complete specifications for the SSD in question?

Samsung 860 Evo 250GB. 

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I don't know if this will help, but I did find this:

It could be the drive cable. There's only one way to find out...

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32 minutes ago, TopHatProductions115 said:

I don't know if this will help, but I did find this:

It could be the drive cable. There's only one way to find out...

I will swap the cable in my working identical MacBook with the system in question. Thanks for the tip. I'll let you know of the outcome. 

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46 minutes ago, TopHatProductions115 said:

I don't know if this will help, but I did find this:

It could be the drive cable. There's only one way to find out...

Interesting, once I used the proprietary SATA cable from the dead Mac and used it with a known good Mac and SSD of the same models, we started to see issues. I will likely order a new ribbon cable and see if this solves the issue. 

 

Thank you TopHatProductions115 for the advice! 

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Mac just works! As long as you pay us that $400 fee and in which you can say fck it, I will just buy a cheap Windows laptop that will just work too. 

 

 

Have you tried turning it on and off again btw?

Sudo make me a sandwich 

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A SATA cable replacement has fixed the issue. Thank you TopHatProductions115 for the suggestion. Mojave has installed with no issues at all.

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