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MacBook Pro Stuck on Apple Logo

hainennas

hainennas

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 23, 2019
3
0
Hi Everyone,

I need some help with the Following: my Macbook Pro (late 2011) is stuck on the Apple logo and the loading bar.

I have tried fixing this issue through the system inbuilt recovery mode but it did not work. After many attemps that were in veine, I decided to go ahead and reinstall the iOS 10.11.1 (El Capitan) using a bootable USB flash drive.

I was able to make the bootable USB Flash drive using Windows 10 with the help of a sofware called TransMac. As described in the web page (https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/bootable-mac-install-drive-3575875/)

Upon complition of this process I followed these istractions:

Install macOS from the bootable installer
Now you can follow these steps to use the bootable installer:

  1. Make sure the bootable installer (USB flash drive) is connected to your Mac.
  2. Shut down your Mac.
  3. Hold down Option/Alt and press the Power button.
  4. The startup device list window should appear displaying a yellow drive with Install (software name) below it.
  5. Select it and press Return. Wait for the progress bar to fill.
  6. Select Disk Utility.
  7. Select the drive under Internal (your main hard drive).
  8. Click Erase.
  9. Give the drive a name; "Macintosh HD" is traditional but you can choose. Ensure that the Format is Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the Scheme is GUID Partition Map.
  10. Click Erase.
  11. Click Done.
  12. Choose Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility.
  13. Select Install macOS and click Continue.
  14. Follow the install macOS options.
  15. Select Macintosh HD as the installation disk, when presented, and click Install.
I always got stuck in the 4 instruction (in red colour) as my macbook Pro failled to ditect the USB and did not list the YELLOW DRIVE in the list.

Technical Description:
- MacBook Pro 15 inch
- Core i7
- Running iOS 10.11.1

Appreciate your help
Thanks
 
You should always use another Mac to create the installer. Using a Windows machine can be problematic.

Not sure if it is related but your MacBook has the dreaded Radeon GPU which is prone to failure.
 
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A question that may not "sound relevant", but it is:
What size is the display of your 2011 MacBook Pro?
Is it 13"?
Or... is it 15" or 17"?
 
You are most likely getting stuck on step 4 because there's something wrong with your bootable USB Flash drive. Transmac appears to allow you to format/write to HFS+ volumes from Windows. I am guessing that your bootable flash drive doesn't have the correct partitioning or something like that. (When you totally erase/partition/reformat in macOS disk utility there is a hidden EFI partition created and maybe the bootable installation drive need to have that?). Aside from that point, now I'm confused: how could you possibly run the createinstallmedia command from Windows 10? That command (as specified in the page you linked) must be run from a working macOS system... If you didn't run that command, you don't have a bootable macOS drive at all.

It's possible that the particular USB flash drive you used is defective, but that seems unlikely as you were apparently able to write to it from Windows.

===========================================

Your original problem may be caused by the failure of the discrete graphics chip (GPU) which the 2011 models are notorious for. I have an Early 2011 15" with that failure; I've made it usable by forcing the use of the integrated GPU on the Intel CPU chip.

If you still have macOS on the drive (i.e., you haven't wiped the internal drive) you might want to skip the re-installing of El Capitan and instead try to fix your boot-up problem by disabling the discrete GPU chip. However, the process is not for the faint-hearted and very confusing because the thread is 100 posts long...

You might try the instructions in post #875:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...fi-variable-fix.2037591/page-35#post-24956091

When you get to the line that says "Reboot normally:
you will have an accelerated iGPU display." you should have a usable computer.
 
Brian33 said:
You are most likely getting stuck on step 4 because there's something wrong with your bootable USB Flash drive. Transmac appears to allow you to format/write to HFS+ volumes from Windows. I am guessing that your bootable flash drive doesn't have the correct partitioning or something like that. (When you totally erase/partition/reformat in macOS disk utility there is a hidden EFI partition created and maybe the bootable installation drive need to have that?). Aside from that point, now I'm confused: how could you possibly run the createinstallmedia command from Windows 10? That command (as specified in the page you linked) must be run from a working macOS system... If you didn't run that command, you don't have a bootable macOS drive at all.

It's possible that the particular USB flash drive you used is defective, but that seems unlikely as you were apparently able to write to it from Windows.

===========================================

Your original problem may be caused by the failure of the discrete graphics chip (GPU) which the 2011 models are notorious for. I have an Early 2011 15" with that failure; I've made it usable by forcing the use of the integrated GPU on the Intel CPU chip.

If you still have macOS on the drive (i.e., you haven't wiped the internal drive) you might want to skip the re-installing of El Capitan and instead try to fix your boot-up problem by disabling the discrete GPU chip. However, the process is not for the faint-hearted and very confusing because the thread is 100 posts long...

You might try the instructions in post #875:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...fi-variable-fix.2037591/page-35#post-24956091

When you get to the line that says "Reboot normally:
you will have an accelerated iGPU display." you should have a usable computer.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much Brain
Brian33 said:
You are most likely getting stuck on step 4 because there's something wrong with your bootable USB Flash drive. Transmac appears to allow you to format/write to HFS+ volumes from Windows. I am guessing that your bootable flash drive doesn't have the correct partitioning or something like that. (When you totally erase/partition/reformat in macOS disk utility there is a hidden EFI partition created and maybe the bootable installation drive need to have that?). Aside from that point, now I'm confused: how could you possibly run the createinstallmedia command from Windows 10? That command (as specified in the page you linked) must be run from a working macOS system... If you didn't run that command, you don't have a bootable macOS drive at all.

It's possible that the particular USB flash drive you used is defective, but that seems unlikely as you were apparently able to write to it from Windows.

===========================================

Your original problem may be caused by the failure of the discrete graphics chip (GPU) which the 2011 models are notorious for. I have an Early 2011 15" with that failure; I've made it usable by forcing the use of the integrated GPU on the Intel CPU chip.

If you still have macOS on the drive (i.e., you haven't wiped the internal drive) you might want to skip the re-installing of El Capitan and instead try to fix your boot-up problem by disabling the discrete GPU chip. However, the process is not for the faint-hearted and very confusing because the thread is 100 posts long...

You might try the instructions in post #875:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...fi-variable-fix.2037591/page-35#post-24956091

When you get to the line that says "Reboot normally:
you will have an accelerated iGPU display." you should have a usable computer.
Click to expand...


Hi Brian,

Thank you so much Brain for this. Will try one last time getting my mac fix using a bootable flash drive. This time will be using another a software called Rufus instead of TransMac. If it does not work I will process with your recommendation.

Will keep you posted.

Have a great day ahead.

Haitam
 
Audit13 said:
You should always use another Mac to create the installer. Using a Windows machine can be problematic.

Not sure if it is related but your MacBook has the dreaded Radeon GPU which is prone to failure.
Click to expand...
Thanks you so much for your feedback. I hope to fix my mac issue using what Brain did recommend.

Thanks
Haitam
 
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