Failed to boot into El Capitan desktop... stuck at Apple logo with loading bar stopped at 2/3 (60%)

[MrRoberts69]

Hello all,

I have an early 2008 24" Apple iMac with 4GB DDR2, 320GB HHD and ATI 2600 Pro graphic card. Well looked-after and hardly ever used

Apple details: iMac 8,1 - Boot ROM version: IM81.00C1.B00 - SMC: 1.30f1

Downloaded the official El Capitan 10.11.6 dmg file from Apple and made a bootable USB

Successfully booted from the USB (option key) and formatted the hard drive using Disk Utility and then, installed El Capitan onto the newly formatted hard drive

After restarted, the computer is stuck at the Apple logo with loading bar at 2/3 (60%) and I can continue to move the mouse cursor around

The only way for me to completed the installation is to restart the computer, press the Shift key (safe mode), I was able to select the language and can see the El Capitan desktop.

I'm guessing that the ATI 2600 pro is the issue, right? I know that my machine maximum OSX official support is El Capitan so it should work? How do I make my machine work without having to keep pressing Shift key in order boot into the desktop?

 

[TheIntruder]

El Cap should run fine on that machine.

Boot in Verbose Mode (Cmd-V) and see if it gives any clues about what is causing it to stall.

Worst case, repeat the process with a fresh copy of the installer.

 

[MrRoberts69]

Will definitely try in Cmd-V mode

This is my third time installing El Capitan before I came on here for help.

 

[MrRoberts69]

How do I capture the cmd-v scrolling texts? Does the command automatically saved the file somewhere? It happened too quickly to catch the messages.

 

[MrRoberts69]

This is what I got...

BootCacheControl: Unable to open /var/db/BootCaches/PreheatedUser/Marged.playlist

Warning: couldn't block sleep during cache update Warning: proceeding w/o DiskArb

bash: /etc/rc.server: No such file or directory bash: /etc/rc.installer_cleanup: No such file or directory

fInterfaceSnapshots is missing (has this message 10 times)

Got incomplete channel sequence length 0, should be 16

 

[tpivette89]

I just tried to install a fresh copy of El Capitan onto my Mac Pro 2009 last night... had an error message come up weirdly enough. It wouldn't allow me to install from either a bootable USB drive, or from a downloaded copy directly from Apple's website. What I had to do was change the date in Terminal to 7/6/2017. Once I did this, everything worked.

Can't say if that is your problem, but I know it worked for me.

Here's how to do it: https://bensmann.no/changing-system-date-from-terminal-os-x-recovery/

 

[MrRoberts69]

I've replaced the PRAM battery, set the time via the terminal and tried three different hard drive. No luck.

Looks like my Apple iMac is toasted?

 

[tpivette89]

You would have had to change the date to a year when El Capitan was still relevant. Mid year 2017 is what I used.

Are you doing this from terminal while booting from the USB drive?

Try zapping the PRAM a few times in a row, then boot from USB, and change date. Then try the install.

 

[MrRoberts69]

I will try what you suggested... is the date command simply like this?... date -u 0401203017 for April 1st, 2017 at 20:30pm

 

[MrRoberts69]

I think my Apple iMac is toasted. Tried all three new hard drives. Tried PRAM reset few times, boot from USB, set the date to 2017 and installed El Capitan.

All I see is loading bar stuck at 60%, mouse cursor can move and can hear voice command regarding the select language page even though I cannot see it.

Thanks for all your help. I'm consider scraping it. :-(

 

[tpivette89]

Try “date 0401203017” without the “- u” and see if that works. If not set the date to the actual date/time.

If none of the above works, I’m not sure what is going on. Hate to see a Mac get scrapped!