Grey screen with external DVD drive

[Eamoex]

Hello Everyone,

I want to sell my Mac Book Pro 7,1 (Intel Core Duo 2.4 GHz). To this end, I want to wipe it up and perform a clean OS X 10.6.8 install. I have the original Snow Leppy DVD, which I know is fine because I've tested it on another rig.

Now this Mac Book Pro has been souped up with an SSD in the DVD drive bay, which means it has no internal DVD drive, of which I don't have the original. I do have an external, USB DVD drive. I thought it would be no problem at all installing OS X from there. But, while this external DVD drive shows up at the boot option screen, and selecting it produces what looks like normal DVD boot, with the disc spinning and whirring during the Apple logo screen, I get a grey screen of death every time, after about 45 seconds.

Is it only possible to install Snow Leopard from an external drive? Is the installer flipping out because the original, internal drive is not the expected thing on the machine?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

[CoastalOR]

Is it only possible to install Snow Leopard from an external drive? Is the installer flipping out because the original, internal drive is not the expected thing on the machine?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

I have never had any luck installing the OS from an external DVD drive when the internal DVD drive is unavailable.

Here is a method to install Snow Leopard from a USB drive I found by doing a search:
https://www.apple.com/shop/question...-leopard-without-a-cd-drive/QFFUJCPJ7PUADAYAA

 

[Eamoex]

Here is a method to install Snow Leopard from a USB drive I found by doing a search:
https://www.apple.com/shop/question...-leopard-without-a-cd-drive/QFFUJCPJ7PUADAYAA

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, same result (grey screen).

I also tried using my Windows laptop to perform a network remote install, but the startup option screen on the MacBook does not show a wireless network dropdown EDIT: menu, a dropdown menu, that is, to select a wi-fi or ethernet connection for remote install.

I'm stumped. There must be a way...

 

[Eamoex]

Okay, I'll soon lack enough hair to pull out...

I've tried a ton of things. At the point where I still had half my hair, I took my wife's MacBook, an old white plastic model (not the square one, which also came in black; the other one, less old, which came only in white and was more roundish), which still has the DVD drive in there. Tried my original Snow Leopard DVD, but same thing, grey screen. So I though, "this DVD is faulty, that's why the images I restored from it on USB sticks and/or other media didn't work".

Then I thought I'd outsmart this bastard setup and went and dowloaded a 10.6.8 install ISO from someplace on the web and restored that image on an USB stick. It looked legit when opened on the desktop, and it passed verification (obviously, otherwise Disk Utilities wouldn't have restored it).

Well, it still does the same thing on both my MacBook Pro AND my wife's MacBook.

How could this be?! Is my house haunted?

EDIT: I'm okay with installing 10.7 -- if it only installs --, but I'm always fearing resource hogging on older machines. What do you guys think?

 

[_Kiki_]

if you have SSD you should go for Yosemite or El Capitan