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Bizarre Mac OS X installation problems.

DecipherXX

DecipherXX

Guest
Original poster
Sep 3, 2011
17
0
Hi all. Long time reader, first time poster.

I have here a 2007 MacBook (2.16GHz C2D, 4GB DDR2, 500GB HDD, GMA45)

And i also have three, separate, known working OS X Install methods.

Mac OS X Leopard disk; doesnt work, doesnt as much as boot properly.

Mac OS X Snow leopard disk, boots, then stops at the wallpaper splash screen.

Mac OS X Lion (USB Key + Home-made DVD), same as Snow leopard, boots, then sits at the wallpaper. (As if X/Aqua hasnt loaded.)

Tried the following:
New RAM, Old RAM, 3 seperate HDDs, 1 external optical drive, the internal drive, USB installation, Safe mode, Verbose mode, Single-user mode, etcetc

Nothing is working.
Any suggestions/help? I got this MacBook for £100 with a broken screen, and it does boot (Launches Parted Magic fine.)
 
Usually, i would. But this is actually driving me insane, i cant understand why it wont boot. It boots everything else (Parted Magic, Windows 7 Pro disk) with no problems. But it wont boot its native OS?

Any theories as to WHY it wont?
 
If you have a Leopard retail disc that doesn't have any damage to it, It should have worked if everything else was fine.

The SL disc was a long shot.

If the Lion USB key was made with the Apple disk tool, it probably wouldn't have worked. If you used Lion DiskMaker it should have worked. If you created the DVD properly it should have worked.

It seemed like you had an HDD error, but you tried 3. Were any of them known to be good? After that I'd say there was a RAM error, but you switched out the RAM.

If you tried all these combinations, then I think the problem lies in something you won't find or won't want to bother fixing. It seems like a hardware or CPU issue. I don't know why Windows booted. You don't have very much to go on. £100 isn't that much, is it? The MB battery is probably going to be dead soon and it's a 4 year old computer. I'm sorry, but I don't see the value in continuing this fight. My best wishes. :(
 
treestar said:
If you have a Leopard retail disc that doesn't have any damage to it, It should have worked if everything else was fine.

The SL disc was a long shot.

If the Lion USB key was made with the Apple disk tool, it probably wouldn't have worked. If you used Lion DiskMaker it should have worked. If you created the DVD properly it should have worked.

It seemed like you had an HDD error, but you tried 3. Were any of them known to be good? After that I'd say there was a RAM error, but you switched out the RAM.

If you tried all these combinations, then I think the problem lies in something you won't find or won't want to bother fixing. It seems like a hardware or CPU issue. I don't know why Windows booted. You don't have very much to go on. £100 isn't that much, is it? The MB battery is probably going to be dead soon and it's a 4 year old computer. I'm sorry, but I don't see the value in continuing this fight. My best wishes. :(
Click to expand...

The disk was retail, but a bit scratchy.
Snow leopard; long shot; why?
The Lion USB key was NOT made with Lion Diskmaster, i shall try this.
Two of the three HDDs were known good, one was brand new, one was in another machine, and the third was lying around my place of work but after checking the disk it seemed fine.
The RAM that came with it (512MB DDR2 Single DIMM) was tried also.
It has since been replaced with 2x2GB DDR2 DIMMs.

I will continue this fight as even though it cost me £100, it does work. Just not the way it should. Its going to be a gift to a friend starting uni.

I hope.
 
Thanks for your advice, treestar.
The only problem is i cant redownload Lion from the app store... but i'm sure i can try. Will update the post when i can.

Oh and not that it should be relevant, but the screen on the MacBook is cracked, and as such all of the above procedures completed were on an external monitor with the internal LCD removed.
 
If you downloaded Lion from the app store and you have a computer with SL or Lion running, you should be able to redownload the installer. You hold option or command or something in the app store and it allows you to download again.
 
Tried that, said i already have it.

I mean, i do, but not in the form of an App.
 
treestar said:
I haven't tried personally, but in this forum I see people saying the non-retail OS X install disks will only work with the machine they came with.

Good luck with Lion DiskMaker!
Click to expand...

Retail Snow Leopard disk will work for any (intel) machine before ~2009

OP: Have you tried reseting PRAM (cmd+opt+p+r at boot), SMC (remove battery, unplug unit and hold the power button for 5 seconds), or the EFI firmware? (Press and hold the power button until the machine produces a long beep)
 
nelz886 said:
Retail Snow Leopard disk will work for any (intel) machine before ~2009

OP: Have you tried reseting PRAM (cmd+opt+p+r at boot), SMC (remove battery, unplug unit and hold the power button for 5 seconds), or the EFI firmware? (Press and hold the power button until the machine produces a long beep)
Click to expand...

Have tried all except EFI reset. Will do that when i'm back home. May have done SMC reset but i cant remember if i done it properly.

Here's hoping! Thanks nelz886!
 
No banana. It freezes at the loading screen with the little Apple logo and a small gray cog.

Ideas?
 
MacBook is now doing the same as before; getting to the wallpaper and then doing nothing. Getting really stressed out now... more ideas?
 
Latest: After following all suggestions, i still have got no further. Other things ive tried since last update:

Using only 2Gb of ram (Apple Max. recommended)
Using external DVD only (Same result)
Using Snow Leopard from USB (Gives me a strikeout circle, stops.)

Done overheating treatment, replaced thermal compound and compressed air'd the system.

Tried ANOTHER HDD from another MacBook, so known working with OSX
Tried original RAM configuration.

The only thing i will say is this;
I'm using an external monitor due to a broken LCD.
The boot sequence often works fine but only shows the default wallpaper (Which, when using multi-monitors in OSX, tells you its a slave/secondary monitor.)

Could the OSX installer window/X/Aqua be getting displayed on the primary (Internal, missing) display?

Thanks!
 
First off, thank you!

I have solved this; it was indeed displaying to the internal monitor first. I can now see the mouse pointer if i drag it over. Problem solved!

Will post here next week when i get my new LCD to confirm my theory.

Thanks a lot! This forum is excellent, and i'll be sticking around!
 
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