2010 MacBook Pro on endless restart loop, displaying DOS-like text on startup screen

[camboden]

This started out of nowhere some time ago. I opened the MacBook one day and it just wouldn’t start, first showing the Apple logo with no progress on the startup bar, then switches to displaying white text highlighted black over that, then it says it’s restarting itself, rinse and repeat.

I’m sure someone’s seen this before, but I have not. Any ideas?

 

[Audit13]

Is this a 13" or 15"?

Tried booting from an external drive?

Tried removing a stick of ram?

 

[tomato500]

Looks like it’s kernel panicking.

Can you send a full image of the screen when it shows the DOS-like text?

 

[camboden]

Looks like it’s kernel panicking.

Can you send a full image of the screen when it shows the DOS-like text?

[automerge]1587817872[/automerge]

 

[camboden]

I’ve run First Aid and it says thes a problem with the partition map that’s preventing booting.

I’ve tried reinstalling Sierra but get an UNTRUSTED_CERT_FILE error. In researching this I’ve found this is due to an error in the date/time settings.

But I can’t boot into safe mode to change the time or to reinstall Sierra from the App Store..

 

[camboden]

Got the date changed in terminal, and got past the CERT_TITLE error, but now getting a “permission denied” error

 

[Audit13]

Did you delete and re-create partitions before trying to install?

Tried Internet Recovery?

 

[camboden]

Got into internet recovery mode. Tried resetting the date through terminal there and repairing the disks, now getting new partition error messages and a “?” Folder at startup. Additionally, when I try to reinstall os in internet recovery, it defaults to Mountain Lion, which cannot reinstall over Sierra. Wondering if I’ll have to reinstall from an external drive..

 

[Audit13]

Did you erase the disc before attempting to install mountain lion?

 

[camboden]

I get “Disk Encryption Failed, Couldn’t unmount disk” when trying to erase

 

[Audit13]

Click on the first "untitled" drive and erase.

 

[camboden]

As far as I can tell there is no option to erase when the first Untitled is selected, only first aid/repair and partition

I’m also getting this when attempting Mountain Lion install

 

[Audit13]

Okay, select partition and see what happens.

 

[camboden]

I was able to use terminal to format the disk to allow me to at least attempt to erase the first Untitled drive, but still getting us mounting issues with that..

 

[Audit13]

Could it be that the drive is bad? Or a bad SATA cable?

Did you try installing or running macOS from an external drive?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Is the drive inside the ORIGINAL, factory-installed drive?
also...
You said that you WERE able to get booted via internet recovery, right?

In that case, looks like the internal drive has suffered a failure. (well, of course!)
It may or may not be repairable.
The fact that you've tried to reformat it -- and it WON'T reformat -- seems to indicate a problem with the drive itself. We don't know that yet.

Looks like it might be time to get another drive.

BUT...
We might be able to get the MB going without a working drive inside.

Do you happen to have an EXTERNAL drive around?
Hard drive, or even a USB flashdrive 32gb (or larger)?

What we can do is install a working and bootable copy of the OS onto an EXTERNAL drive to get the MB booted.

EVERYTHING is easier if you have a SECOND external working drive from which to boot and run in an emergency.

If you have a drive that you can use, try this:
- Boot to internet recovery (you already can do that)
- Connect the USB drive
- Open disk utility and "aim it" at the external drive
- ERASE the drive to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format
- Quit disk utility and open the OS installer
- Begin clicking through, but when the installer asks WHERE you want to install, point it at the external drive and let it go.
- See if it will install onto the external
- When you get to the setup screen ("choose your language"), set it up with a simple account just to get running.

If you can get this far, there are tricks with disk utility that might get the internal reformatted.
If you have to give up on it, not a big problem.
Buy a CHEAP SSD, put it in, and use that instead for a few more years.