Man, we've had a rash of bad macs in the shop lately. We've got a MBP A1297 which the customer has simply requested the drive be wiped and the OS clean installed. This one tops out at High Sierra I believe. Anyhow, installing from USB, the installer progress lined will get to 100% and then the machine just hangs - all night it hangs. Tried to do it from internet recovery instead and when I choose continue on the installer, after about 2 minutes, I get an error that the recovery server could not be contacted. The machine is connected to the network so I don't know why. I've tried resetting NVram, as well as setting the date using 'sntp -sS time.apple.com' to no avail. I also tried setting the date to Sept 25 2017, the release date of High Sierra. What the heck is wrong with this?
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The recovery server could not be contacted
- Thread starter tawnytim
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A "MBP A1297" is too broad of a group since it could be;
MacBook Pro (17-inch. Mid 2009)
Original OS Mac OS X 10.5.7 (9J3032)
Later OS Mac OS X 10.6 (10A432)
Maximum OS OS X10.11.6 (15G31)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009)
Original OS Mac OS X 10.5.7 (9J3032)
Later OS Mac OS X 10.6 (10A432)
Maximum OS OS X10.11.6 (15G31)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010)
Original OS Mac OS X 10.6.3 (10D2094)
Later OS Mac OS X 10.6.4 (10F2108)
Maximum OS macOS 10.13.6 (17G65)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)
Original OS Mac OS X 10.6.6 (10J3210)
Later OS Mac OS X 10.6.7 (10J4139)
Maximum OS macOS 10.13.6 (17G65)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011)
Original OS Mac OS X 10.7.2 (11C74)
Maximum OS macOS 10.13.6 (17G65)
The minimum (Original) OS can effect internet support (internet recovery support officially started with 10.7) and the max OS also varies between 10.11.6 or 10.13.6.
Can you be more specific?
MacBook Pro (17-inch. Mid 2009)
Original OS Mac OS X 10.5.7 (9J3032)
Later OS Mac OS X 10.6 (10A432)
Maximum OS OS X10.11.6 (15G31)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009)
Original OS Mac OS X 10.5.7 (9J3032)
Later OS Mac OS X 10.6 (10A432)
Maximum OS OS X10.11.6 (15G31)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010)
Original OS Mac OS X 10.6.3 (10D2094)
Later OS Mac OS X 10.6.4 (10F2108)
Maximum OS macOS 10.13.6 (17G65)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)
Original OS Mac OS X 10.6.6 (10J3210)
Later OS Mac OS X 10.6.7 (10J4139)
Maximum OS macOS 10.13.6 (17G65)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011)
Original OS Mac OS X 10.7.2 (11C74)
Maximum OS macOS 10.13.6 (17G65)
The minimum (Original) OS can effect internet support (internet recovery support officially started with 10.7) and the max OS also varies between 10.11.6 or 10.13.6.
Can you be more specific?
Sorry! I can't believe I thought I had given enough info. I've attached some more info. Thanks!
Attachments
A few things come to mind.
Try booting from the USB installer, launch Disk Utility and run First Aid to determine if there are any errors that can be repaired. While you are in Disk Utility, what is the current format of MBP internal drive? High Sierra was the first macOS that transitioned from Mac OS Extended (journaled) to APFS.
I'm not sure if your MBP supports internet recovery since the original OS was Snow Leopard. How are you starting internet recovery?
Another possible problem is the SATA cable to the internal drive. The cable is old and could be having degraded performance/errors, but has not completely failed yet.
Try booting from the USB installer, launch Disk Utility and run First Aid to determine if there are any errors that can be repaired. While you are in Disk Utility, what is the current format of MBP internal drive? High Sierra was the first macOS that transitioned from Mac OS Extended (journaled) to APFS.
I'm not sure if your MBP supports internet recovery since the original OS was Snow Leopard. How are you starting internet recovery?
Another possible problem is the SATA cable to the internal drive. The cable is old and could be having degraded performance/errors, but has not completely failed yet.
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