Black MacBook powers off during OS X install

Hello,

I have been asked by a friend to reload their black 13" MacBook with a fresh install of OS X. I have a copy of Snow Leopard with which to do the job.

The problem is that the system seems to stop doing much of anything around the point where there's ~17 minutes remaining, then after about 10 minutes, the system just powers off.

Here are some quick bits of information:

-- I did a complete format (erase) in Disk Utility before starting the install.
-- The system is plugged into a power source.
-- I have tried with two separate OS X install DVDs.
-- The system worked fine before starting this process. No reports of issues that seemed hardware-related.

Any idea what could be wrong? What else can I try?

Okay, so I just tried again and at ~18 minutes left, the window disappeared, the background faded to grey, and the system proceed to load something off the disk for about a minute, then just shut off.

It's not losing power or anything, but I have no idea why it won't take an install.

Nameci said:

Is it plugged in to the charger?

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Yes. Sorry, that's what I meant by "power source". I should've been more specific.

Okay, I've unchecked everything in the Customize options except for Additional Fonts to try and keep the possibilities for failure down to a minimum. Same issue.

I've also removed the battery for that install attempt.

I'm watching the install log. It keeps spitting out:

localhost OSInstaller[143]: reading from /System/Installation/Packages/BSD.pkg: Input/output error
localhost OSInstaller[143]: error processing data: Input/output error

Last time it seemed to try to download the package before giving up, so this time, I've connected to wifi.

----------

It still failed!

localhost OSInstaller[143]: Failed to download package from file://localhost/System/Installation/Packages/BSD.pkg and no alternate source.
localhost OSInstaller[143]: Install failed: The installer could not copy the necessary support files.

Guess I misread the "download" bit last time.

Update: I replaced the hard drive and RAM after they failed a test (SeaTools and memtest) and the issue still occurs.

zackkmac said:

Just asking out of curiosity, but are the DVDs legitimate? Not accusing you of using illegal copies, but if it happened to be a torrent copy, then there are many reasons it could not be working.

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Yes, they are.

minifridge1138 said:

I would also suggest trying a new disk.

or making a bootable USB image of the installer.

Click to expand...

I will try that.

zackkmac said:

Do you have access to a copy of Lion that you could try? Also, if you've replaced the RAM/HD, this could be a logic board failure.

Click to expand...

I don't.

I'm out of ideas. If I had the disk that came with it, I would run the full hardware test.

Alright, I've replaced the RAM and hard drive with new components, acquired the original Mac OS X Install DVD for the machine, and used a USB SuperDrive for the install (just in case the optical drive was the issue).

Same result!

I ran the extended Apple Hardware Test on the system -- "No trouble found."


This is for a friend who is giving this laptop to her son for Christmas. I want to help, but at this point, I have no idea what the issue is!

Any help would be greatly appreciated by more than just myself.

brop52 said:

Apple Store?

Click to expand...

Perhaps, but it's most certainly no longer under warranty, and probably not worth the cost to repair it if it's anything major. I wonder what they would charge to run some diagnostics on it?

Well, I was able to get a hold of yet another Snow Leopard retail disk and for whatever reason, it worked! Now the MacBook is up and running and seems to be just fine. Thanks for the help.