NOT POLITICS - Any MAC Experts Here?

[nolaxride]

I have an older MacBook Pro A1286 that I got from work. It booted up just fine, but with all the old users stuff. It had Sierra OS on it, I followed instructions on reinstalling the O/S. HOWEVER, now when I turn it on, I get the gray screen with the circle with the line through it. I did the OPT-CMD-R to install from the web. It did something for about 5 minutes, rebooted to nothing again. I do a CMD-R to get into disk manager, and nothing but a gray screen.

Anyone?

I'm guessing you don't have a backup. Sounds like the SSD might be fried.

Make sure the machine is completely shut down. Hold the power button down for 10 seconds or more.

Disconnect all peripheral devices, including bluetooth devices.

Start with rebooting into the recovery OS (CMD-R)

From the Recovery Screen, run the Disk Utility. Let it fix whatever it finds.

On the upper right, next to the battery icon is the wifi icon. Make sure you're connected to the internet.

Try reinstalling from the disk image again.

It worked fine when I got it. Was working, and I was clearing it off and reloading Sierra. It won't even go into the disk utility now. No biggie, was just gonna tinker with it.

Oh... and make sure it's plugged in. Some of those old batteries don't hold much charge.

Love the keyboards on those old macs...

[Scooter]

I have an older MacBook Pro A1286 that I got from work. It booted up just fine, but with all the old users stuff. It had Sierra OS on it, I followed instructions on reinstalling the O/S. HOWEVER, now when I turn it on, I get the gray screen with the circle with the line through it. I did the OPT-CMD-R to install from the web. It did something for about 5 minutes, rebooted to nothing again. I do a CMD-R to get into disk manager, and nothing but a gray screen.

Anyone?

I'm guessing you don't have a backup. Sounds like the SSD might be fried.

Make sure the machine is completely shut down. Hold the power button down for 10 seconds or more.

Disconnect all peripheral devices, including bluetooth devices.

Start with rebooting into the recovery OS (CMD-R)

From the Recovery Screen, run the Disk Utility. Let it fix whatever it finds.

On the upper right, next to the battery icon is the wifi icon. Make sure you're connected to the internet.

Try reinstalling from the disk image again.

It worked fine when I got it. Was working, and I was clearing it off and reloading Sierra. It won't even go into the disk utility now. No biggie, was just gonna tinker with it.

Oh... and make sure it's plugged in. Some of those old batteries don't hold much charge.

Love the keyboards on those old macs...

Yeah they are friggin solid. It may be from 2011 but it's still a righteous Macbook

[nolaxride]

I have an older MacBook Pro A1286 that I got from work. It booted up just fine, but with all the old users stuff. It had Sierra OS on it, I followed instructions on reinstalling the O/S. HOWEVER, now when I turn it on, I get the gray screen with the circle with the line through it. I did the OPT-CMD-R to install from the web. It did something for about 5 minutes, rebooted to nothing again. I do a CMD-R to get into disk manager, and nothing but a gray screen.

Anyone?

I'm guessing you don't have a backup. Sounds like the SSD might be fried.

Make sure the machine is completely shut down. Hold the power button down for 10 seconds or more.

Disconnect all peripheral devices, including bluetooth devices.

Start with rebooting into the recovery OS (CMD-R)

From the Recovery Screen, run the Disk Utility. Let it fix whatever it finds.

On the upper right, next to the battery icon is the wifi icon. Make sure you're connected to the internet.

Try reinstalling from the disk image again.

It worked fine when I got it. Was working, and I was clearing it off and reloading Sierra. It won't even go into the disk utility now. No biggie, was just gonna tinker with it.

Oh... and make sure it's plugged in. Some of those old batteries don't hold much charge.

Love the keyboards on those old macs...

Yeah they are friggin solid. It may be from 2011 but it's still a righteous Macbook

It is. And it's one of the few that can still be upgraded. It was just after 2011 that Apple integrated the sims with the motherboard. You should be able to upgrade the ram and the SSD.

[Scooter]

I have an older MacBook Pro A1286 that I got from work. It booted up just fine, but with all the old users stuff. It had Sierra OS on it, I followed instructions on reinstalling the O/S. HOWEVER, now when I turn it on, I get the gray screen with the circle with the line through it. I did the OPT-CMD-R to install from the web. It did something for about 5 minutes, rebooted to nothing again. I do a CMD-R to get into disk manager, and nothing but a gray screen.

Anyone?

I'm guessing you don't have a backup. Sounds like the SSD might be fried.

Make sure the machine is completely shut down. Hold the power button down for 10 seconds or more.

Disconnect all peripheral devices, including bluetooth devices.

Start with rebooting into the recovery OS (CMD-R)

From the Recovery Screen, run the Disk Utility. Let it fix whatever it finds.

On the upper right, next to the battery icon is the wifi icon. Make sure you're connected to the internet.

Try reinstalling from the disk image again.

It worked fine when I got it. Was working, and I was clearing it off and reloading Sierra. It won't even go into the disk utility now. No biggie, was just gonna tinker with it.

Oh... and make sure it's plugged in. Some of those old batteries don't hold much charge.

Love the keyboards on those old macs...

Yeah they are friggin solid. It may be from 2011 but it's still a righteous Macbook

It is. And it's one of the few that can still be upgraded. It was just after 2011 that Apple integrated the sims with the motherboard. You should be able to upgrade the ram and the SSD.

Picking your brain again. I have tried everything. All keyboard combinations. Had a brand new 2TB external USB drive in the box, unopened. Opened it, broke out the HDD and put it in the MacBook. I did the option+⌘+R key combination. Got the globe, then the apple logo then goes to a blank screen... I am about to give up LOL

[nolaxride]

I have an older MacBook Pro A1286 that I got from work. It booted up just fine, but with all the old users stuff. It had Sierra OS on it, I followed instructions on reinstalling the O/S. HOWEVER, now when I turn it on, I get the gray screen with the circle with the line through it. I did the OPT-CMD-R to install from the web. It did something for about 5 minutes, rebooted to nothing again. I do a CMD-R to get into disk manager, and nothing but a gray screen.

Anyone?

I'm guessing you don't have a backup. Sounds like the SSD might be fried.

Make sure the machine is completely shut down. Hold the power button down for 10 seconds or more.

Disconnect all peripheral devices, including bluetooth devices.

Start with rebooting into the recovery OS (CMD-R)

From the Recovery Screen, run the Disk Utility. Let it fix whatever it finds.

On the upper right, next to the battery icon is the wifi icon. Make sure you're connected to the internet.

Try reinstalling from the disk image again.

It worked fine when I got it. Was working, and I was clearing it off and reloading Sierra. It won't even go into the disk utility now. No biggie, was just gonna tinker with it.

Oh... and make sure it's plugged in. Some of those old batteries don't hold much charge.

Love the keyboards on those old macs...

Yeah they are friggin solid. It may be from 2011 but it's still a righteous Macbook

It is. And it's one of the few that can still be upgraded. It was just after 2011 that Apple integrated the sims with the motherboard. You should be able to upgrade the ram and the SSD.

Picking your brain again. I have tried everything. All keyboard combinations. Had a brand new 2TB external USB drive in the box, unopened. Opened it, broke out the HDD and put it in the MacBook. I did the option+⌘+R key combination. Got the globe, then the apple logo then goes to a blank screen... I am about to give up LOL

Are you connected to the internet? IIRC, you should be able to install from the net. When you say you put it in the Macbook, did you open the machine and install it or just connect via USB?

[Scooter]

I have an older MacBook Pro A1286 that I got from work. It booted up just fine, but with all the old users stuff. It had Sierra OS on it, I followed instructions on reinstalling the O/S. HOWEVER, now when I turn it on, I get the gray screen with the circle with the line through it. I did the OPT-CMD-R to install from the web. It did something for about 5 minutes, rebooted to nothing again. I do a CMD-R to get into disk manager, and nothing but a gray screen.

Anyone?

I'm guessing you don't have a backup. Sounds like the SSD might be fried.

Make sure the machine is completely shut down. Hold the power button down for 10 seconds or more.

Disconnect all peripheral devices, including bluetooth devices.

Start with rebooting into the recovery OS (CMD-R)

From the Recovery Screen, run the Disk Utility. Let it fix whatever it finds.

On the upper right, next to the battery icon is the wifi icon. Make sure you're connected to the internet.

Try reinstalling from the disk image again.

It worked fine when I got it. Was working, and I was clearing it off and reloading Sierra. It won't even go into the disk utility now. No biggie, was just gonna tinker with it.

Oh... and make sure it's plugged in. Some of those old batteries don't hold much charge.

Love the keyboards on those old macs...

Yeah they are friggin solid. It may be from 2011 but it's still a righteous Macbook

It is. And it's one of the few that can still be upgraded. It was just after 2011 that Apple integrated the sims with the motherboard. You should be able to upgrade the ram and the SSD.

Picking your brain again. I have tried everything. All keyboard combinations. Had a brand new 2TB external USB drive in the box, unopened. Opened it, broke out the HDD and put it in the MacBook. I did the option+⌘+R key combination. Got the globe, then the apple logo then goes to a blank screen... I am about to give up LOL

Are you connected to the internet? IIRC, you should be able to install from the net. When you say you put it in the Macbook, did you open the machine and install it or just connect via USB?

Opened it up and replaced the internal HDD. Found out that if you replace with a new HDD you have to have a second drive/USB with an image on it to restore to. Reason that no key commands are working is because it cannot find any recovery/boot partitions on the new drive. A friend has a computer shop and I called him yesterday. He told me all that and is gonna do it for me on Monday. This is why I hate MacBooks...

[nolaxride]

I have an older MacBook Pro A1286 that I got from work. It booted up just fine, but with all the old users stuff. It had Sierra OS on it, I followed instructions on reinstalling the O/S. HOWEVER, now when I turn it on, I get the gray screen with the circle with the line through it. I did the OPT-CMD-R to install from the web. It did something for about 5 minutes, rebooted to nothing again. I do a CMD-R to get into disk manager, and nothing but a gray screen.

Anyone?

I'm guessing you don't have a backup. Sounds like the SSD might be fried.

Make sure the machine is completely shut down. Hold the power button down for 10 seconds or more.

Disconnect all peripheral devices, including bluetooth devices.

Start with rebooting into the recovery OS (CMD-R)

From the Recovery Screen, run the Disk Utility. Let it fix whatever it finds.

On the upper right, next to the battery icon is the wifi icon. Make sure you're connected to the internet.

Try reinstalling from the disk image again.

It worked fine when I got it. Was working, and I was clearing it off and reloading Sierra. It won't even go into the disk utility now. No biggie, was just gonna tinker with it.

Oh... and make sure it's plugged in. Some of those old batteries don't hold much charge.

Love the keyboards on those old macs...

Yeah they are friggin solid. It may be from 2011 but it's still a righteous Macbook

It is. And it's one of the few that can still be upgraded. It was just after 2011 that Apple integrated the sims with the motherboard. You should be able to upgrade the ram and the SSD.

Picking your brain again. I have tried everything. All keyboard combinations. Had a brand new 2TB external USB drive in the box, unopened. Opened it, broke out the HDD and put it in the MacBook. I did the option+⌘+R key combination. Got the globe, then the apple logo then goes to a blank screen... I am about to give up LOL

Are you connected to the internet? IIRC, you should be able to install from the net. When you say you put it in the Macbook, did you open the machine and install it or just connect via USB?

Opened it up and replaced the internal HDD. Found out that if you replace with a new HDD you have to have a second drive/USB with an image on it to restore to. Reason that no key commands are working is because it cannot find any recovery/boot partitions on the new drive. A friend has a computer shop and I called him yesterday. He told me all that and is gonna do it for me on Monday. This is why I hate MacBooks...

When Macbooks work, they're great. And, like you've experienced, when they don't they're very frustrating. Sounds like your friend has a boot drive, so your problems should be solved. I made that mistake many years ago... the machine made a great frisbee. The dog wasn't sure what to do with it.

[Chester Cheesewright]

► A prohibitory symbol, which looks like a circle with a line or slash through it, means that your startup disk contains a Mac operating system, but it's not a version or build of macOS that your Mac can use. Press and hold the power button on your Mac for up to 10 seconds, until your Mac turns off.Aug 17, 2023


https://support.apple.com/en-us/101666# ... urns%20off.

Seen that and I did an install from the web... OPTION-COMMAND-R and it went online to get the install

► Take it to an Apple Store and show it to one one of the techs on the floor

[nolaxride]

► A prohibitory symbol, which looks like a circle with a line or slash through it, means that your startup disk contains a Mac operating system, but it's not a version or build of macOS that your Mac can use. Press and hold the power button on your Mac for up to 10 seconds, until your Mac turns off.Aug 17, 2023


https://support.apple.com/en-us/101666# ... urns%20off.

Seen that and I did an install from the web... OPTION-COMMAND-R and it went online to get the install

► Take it to an Apple Store and show it to one one of the techs on the floor

That machine is probably older than the techs at the store.

[Chester Cheesewright]

► A prohibitory symbol, which looks like a circle with a line or slash through it, means that your startup disk contains a Mac operating system, but it's not a version or build of macOS that your Mac can use. Press and hold the power button on your Mac for up to 10 seconds, until your Mac turns off.Aug 17, 2023


https://support.apple.com/en-us/101666# ... urns%20off.

Seen that and I did an install from the web... OPTION-COMMAND-R and it went online to get the install

► Take it to an Apple Store and show it to one one of the techs on the floor

That machine is probably older than the techs at the store.

► Yes, most likely

You never can tell, though. Last time I went in to an Apple Store it was because my tablet screen was black and wouldn’t respond to anything I tried

But the tech on the floor who fixed it was an old fart in jeans and sandals

He said let me see, ran his fingers over the three buttons on one corner and handed it back to me

It only took a few seconds