A2141 will not take an os install

tawnytim

Member
SN C02ZRB5ZMD6T

This machine is haunted. I'm trying to clean-install Sonoma, and if I enter internet recovery, I can wipe the drive, initiate the install and with 14 min remaining, I get an error box stating "An error occurred loading the update". I then booted to a Sonoma install USB, and I'm presented with the obvious option "Install macOS Sonoma", but when I click it, it goes to internet recovery. I thought maybe it had some weird firmware issue, so I started it in DFU using Apple configurator, but when it pops up on the DFU screen, it says "Apple Controller" and not "MacBook Pro" so something is weird there also.

Any ideas?
 

tawnytim

Member
I'm trying to get back into recovery. I did enable USB boot, but I forget what the other options are. It's been 20 minutes trying to load internet recovery now. I've got the apple logo and the progress bar about 75% across. Something is very unusual about this. I also was unable to boot into a bootable memtest86 USB drive. I would select it "efi boot", and it would appear to begin loading, but then I would get an error about how it couldn't find a startup disk. I think this board has either bad memory, or maybe SSD. It originally came in because it would randomly not power up. I was able to get it to load macOS and boot into the user account, but if I restart it a few times, it would then not power up. Leave it sit a while, then it would power up. I might just sell them a board.
 

tawnytim

Member
Ugh. So I can't start in Safe Mode because there is no OS on the device. For diagnostic mode, I got into diagnostic mode once, but I misread the instructions and restarted the device and now I cannot get into diagnostic mode. I've tried about 10 times holding D and about 10 times holding option-D.

I can only get Internet recovery, or the missing OS file folder.

WAIT! All of a sudden it went to diagnostic mode. I will be back soon.
 
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