Trying to get el capitan to install on my 2012 air...

[midiflunky]

When it boots, it boots into a white screen. So I tried to network boot. It gave me an earth with a triangle inside it and inside THAT triangle.. there was a '!'. Apple.com/support 600f. So.. I gave up on booting from network.. I'm trying to install via usb now.. using diskmaker x.. whenever I try to download the el Capitan installer into my apps folder, it tells me that this os is not available. I know you're supposed to just close the installer once it comes up and itll still be in your apps folder to then manage with diskmaker. Is there any other way to get the el capitan installer downloaded other than the app store?

 

[Fishrrman]

Try here for El Cap:
Get El Capitan

Try here for Low Sierra:
Get macOS Sierra

 

[midiflunky]

UPDATE: Wow. It's been a year. Bought an adapter and loaded High Sierra from my buddies mac. Still nothing. When I try to boot into recovery, I get a 6002f error. When I try to run diagnostics, I get a 6002d error. I've read on multiple forums that it could be memory. But.. before I spend anymore money, and start soldering memory modules, i'd like to make sure it's not software related.

When I boot into verbose mode, I get this. (See attachment). What's next? View attachment 950634

 

[Taz Mangus]

If you ran the AHT and it is reporting a problem then it is probably not a software issue. It does appear that 6002d is related to the RAM.

 

[DeltaMac]

The "prohibited" symbol means that your MBAir can't find a valid system to boot from.
One thing to try is to boot to a flash drive, or other external USB drive that has a compatible macOS system installed.
That could also be a macOS bootable system installer, which would allow you to try erasing the internal drive, and then reinstalling the system. The "Recovery" system is a separate partition on the boot drive, and could also be corrupted.
You COULD try booting to the Internet Recovery system (reboot, holding Option-Command-R). You will see a spinning globe, not the usual Apple icon, and the boot takes longer as it boots from Apple's servers, not from the internal drive at all.
If the internal drive is damaged, or just has a corrupt system installed, you might not get anywhere unless you try to erase that drive, or physically remove the card from the slot in the logic board.
However, the OTHER error, when you try to boot to the Diagnostics, is sometimes a RAM problem. The RAM is soldered onto the board, so you would be stuck with that (unless you have access to circuit board repair skills and equipment)

 

[midiflunky]

Its possible for the mac to boot into any gui with ram issues? As far as I'm experienced, when a pc has ram issues, a system won't even post.

 

[midiflunky]

Let the games begin..

 

[DeltaMac]

Looks like your battery is missing!

If you are still trying to install El Capitan, you should be aware that you have to change the system date to a couple of years ago.
Without changing the system date, it will give you an error, like download not available, or something like that. You don't get the message (and the install will finish) if you change the system date first.

 

[midiflunky]

Looks like your battery is missing!

If you are still trying to install El Capitan, you should be aware that you have to change the system date to a couple of years ago.
Without changing the system date, it will give you an error, like download not available, or something like that. You don't get the message (and the install will finish) if you change the system date first.

My battery is definitely missing. So... Another update. I've removed the logic board to get the memory type and I found the nand flash. Some small town in China has a quantity of 165000 of them.. and would only sell them in bulk. This is the only place I found the original modules from. So... I'll continue searching for them.

 

[LuisN]

Get a logic board from eBay. You can get them from the US from $100 a piece the 8GB one. Or better yet a 2013 one