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December 2011 MBP - want SL

M

MrAndy1369

Guest
Original poster
Nov 27, 2011
36
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I got a MBP 13" (late December 2011). I'm not feeling the love for Lion, want to downgrade to Snow Leopard. I know people say installing SL isn't possible on late 2011 models, but I know of a few instances where people used the grey non-retail 10.6.7 DVD that came with early/mid-2011 MBPs for their late 2011 (came with Lion preinstalled) MBPs, and after updating to 10.6.8, everything worked like a charm.

The problems/questions I have are:

a) Obviously, as this laptop came with Lion, I don't have the SL DVD handy. Short of downloading it illegally, which is something I don't want to do, is there any way I can request this from Apple? Think I'll get pushback? I'm trying to find a friend who has the hard-to-find 10.6.7 DVD, but that may be hard to impossible.

b) The instances mentioned above were for MBPs from August-October 2011. I'm not sure if the 10.6.7 DVD would even support a December 2011 MBP, because it's possible Apple added some kind of hard block for SL in those laptops. I'm probably wrong, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

c) Would this void my AppleCare?

Thanks!
 
a) The 10.6.6, 10.6.7 and 10.6.8 DVDs that came with early-2011 MBPs work too, and I can confirm because I performed a Time Machine restore on my late-2011 MBP. You can also use another Mac (if you don't have another one, ask your friend!), grab a FireWire/Thunderbolt cable and boot your Mac into Target Disk Mode. Insert the OS X disc into the another Mac and select the hard drive, depicted by a FireWire/Thunderbolt icon.

b) My late-2011 MBP is rocking 10.6.8 just fine, and I've helped a handful of my friends downgrade and theirs are also running flawlessly. Only a little hardware was changed and the model identifier is even the same.

c) No.
 
Last edited:
miles01110 said:
a) SL retail discs can be found if you look around.
Click to expand...

Dunno if they come in later versions but the first revision 10.6 retail disks absolutely did not work on late gen (mid 2011 onward) macs. I tried because I needed to use the password reset utility (until I found out it's also in lion). retail disks kernel panicked on every machine, presumably because of driver issues.
 
MrAndy1369 said:
but I know of a few instances where people used the grey non-retail 10.6.7 DVD that came with early/mid-2011 MBPs for their late 2011 (came with Lion preinstalled) MBPs, and after updating to 10.6.8, everything worked like a charm.
Click to expand...

That's what I did. I bought a new MBP with Lion and was able to install SL from the disk that came with my now-dead MacBook (not pro). At first a lot of stuff didn't work right (could not scroll with track pad, and keyboard lights didn't work just to name a couple). But once I upgraded everything works fine!
 
BasilFawlty said:
That's what I did. I bought a new MBP with Lion and was able to install SL from the disk that came with my now-dead MacBook (not pro). At first a lot of stuff didn't work right (could not scroll with track pad, and keyboard lights didn't work just to name a couple). But once I upgraded everything works fine!
Click to expand...

Just to help with clearing things up for prospective readers :): If you install 10.6.6-10.6.7 on the late-2011 MBPs, it won't work entirely fine. But once you update to 10.6.8, it will.
 
I have a 2.4 quad 17. I don't know the month it came out, but I believe it's a late year version.

I installed Snow on it. Works fine.

BTW, I think you may want to go back to Lion eventually ;)
 
An update:

I was able to borrow a friend's MBP 13" grey restore DVD (with 10.6.7). I was able to install SL just fine, and it purrs like a newborn kitten (works very fast, too, amazingly nimble). So, I can confirm from my end - it is possible to install SL on all 2011 MBPs!
 
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