This might do the trick, if I had the balls to get my soldering iron and magnifying glass out - EFI chip.
Cheers
Hugh
Cheers
Hugh
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High Sierra / Mojave on 2GB?
- Thread starter Hughmac
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Request a partial refund from the seller and give it a go?This might do the trick, if I had the balls to get my soldering iron and magnifying glass out - EFI chip.
Cheers
Hugh
Going on experience, they probably don't want to deal with it being returned. Not too long ago, I ended up with a computer for free that way.
Seller is not communicating so far...
I'll up the ante tomorrow, but I've also told him that sometimes a firmware lock kicks in if you try and boot from a different hard drive, and this one came with none.
That was OK by me because I had the OWC SSD, but no knowledge of what was on it.
Cheers
Hugh
I'll up the ante tomorrow, but I've also told him that sometimes a firmware lock kicks in if you try and boot from a different hard drive, and this one came with none.
That was OK by me because I had the OWC SSD, but no knowledge of what was on it.
Cheers
Hugh
Always always always this. Every machine that is "new to me" I wipe and reinstall the OS. I bought an HP EliteBook once that had the firmware password protected and the last owner was no help, and I had to wipe and refresh the CMOS with some questionable hack tools to regain control of the system. I was immensely lucky others had been down that road before me.
Also you never know what the last seller did to the software on the machine. I guess Catalina and newer Macs this is less of a worry. My MacBook came with an Admin account set up with a password provided at sale, and it worked, but it was 20 minutes before I had it booting from Internet Recovery to reinstall HS. Can't be too careful.
I look through the applications folder to see if there's anything cool, but that's it. I never bother looking in the home folder. I don't really care about seeing someone's turbotax file from 2007 and I don't want to risk running into their, uh, collection.
I wonder, are MB airs more likely to be firmware locked than other models? There are several I've seen on craigslist for low prices with firmware locks. Makes me wonder if they were stolen. How come passwords on pre 2010 macs can be unlocked without going to apple support, and why does it only trigger when you swap out hardware?
I wonder, are MB airs more likely to be firmware locked than other models? There are several I've seen on craigslist for low prices with firmware locks. Makes me wonder if they were stolen. How come passwords on pre 2010 macs can be unlocked without going to apple support, and why does it only trigger when you swap out hardware?
MBAs are by far the most frequently seen Apple laptop at my university, for instance. That is, they sell in higher numbers than other Macs and are thus more likely to be stolen and protected.
The password is requested when trying to boot from another volume. And that happens when you swap the drive.
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I still don't know what kicked it off - whether it was me firing it up with someone else's account on the SSD (I still don't think I connected to wifi), or what is most likely it triggered the firmware lock when I signed into my HS backup via a USB HDD.
Which means the firmware already had a password and was waiting for some sort of transgression to occur.
I am still waiting for the seller to absolutely confirm the MBA isn't stolen, and have offered to not send it back if he refunds me the cost of firmware lock removal.
I would like to keep it because of the 4GB RAM, but if I get no response tomorrow I will start a return and look around for another.
Cheers
Hugh
Which means the firmware already had a password and was waiting for some sort of transgression to occur.
I am still waiting for the seller to absolutely confirm the MBA isn't stolen, and have offered to not send it back if he refunds me the cost of firmware lock removal.
I would like to keep it because of the 4GB RAM, but if I get no response tomorrow I will start a return and look around for another.
Cheers
Hugh
There's something not quite right with this MBA; I can't put my finger on it but it definitely doesn't work properly, even with the firmware lock. It turns itself off randomly while I'm trying to get it to boot, and was very very slow when I originally got it to boot to my backup disk.
So, I've requested a return but as usual the seller has ignored me, and after a few days of this eBay will just send me a label and issue a refund.
However I've got the bug now and bought another, 1.4GHz and 2GB RAM, but it has a working SSD, good battery and was considerably cheaper. Fine for Snow Leopard and Mint so I'll be happy with that if all goes well.
Cheers
Hugh
So, I've requested a return but as usual the seller has ignored me, and after a few days of this eBay will just send me a label and issue a refund.
However I've got the bug now and bought another, 1.4GHz and 2GB RAM, but it has a working SSD, good battery and was considerably cheaper. Fine for Snow Leopard and Mint so I'll be happy with that if all goes well.
Cheers
Hugh
Those Late 2010 MBAs are fun, if underpowered, little machines. Last Core 2 Duo-based Macs and the only ones to have USB flash drives as restore media - something that the older ones unfortunately lack - screw that "use an external DVD drive or hijack another machine's" nonsense.
I have an external DVD drive of course, but I've made myself a USB flash drive from the 10.6.6 link you gave earlier.
I just wish they'd found room for a firewire port
Cheers
Hugh
Oh yeah - at least the 2011 gained Thunderbolt as sort-of replacement.just wish they'd found room for a firewire port
No good for me; I've specifically chosen the 2010 for SL.
My daughter is sending me her broken (floppy screen) 2012 11" MBA for repair - I've already sent her my 2013 13" MBA as replacement, which I've put Big Sur onto (yuk) - but there's no way I can install Snowy on it.
Cheers
Hugh
My daughter is sending me her broken (floppy screen) 2012 11" MBA for repair - I've already sent her my 2013 13" MBA as replacement, which I've put Big Sur onto (yuk) - but there's no way I can install Snowy on it.
Cheers
Hugh
I coaxed SL onto my 2011 11" MBA and it seemed to run OK except for the LCD being glitchy after booting and waking from sleep - this fixed itself as I used the system though.
Hang on a minute, the 2011 MBA is either i5 or i7 - how did you get 10.6 to install?
If I can boot from a CCC backup from my iMac with SL then maybe the 2012 will start up and run...
Cheers
Hugh
For what it's worth, I've had a 2011 11" Air (1.6 i5, 2GB, 128GB) for years now. I got it when I started teaching as a cheap little machine to tote between home and school. I still use it daily in my classroom, though it lives on a cart at the front of the room running a few screen sharing sessions to other computers and maybe a Chrome tab or two.
Point is, it's running High Sierra on 2GB of RAM and getting useful work done while running well enough! It's certainly no speed demon, but for light use, these little fellas just keep on truckin'!
Point is, it's running High Sierra on 2GB of RAM and getting useful work done while running well enough! It's certainly no speed demon, but for light use, these little fellas just keep on truckin'!
I cloned 10.6.8 from my 2011 MBP which has very similar hardware (including a Sandy Bridge i5/i7 CPU) and is fully supported by SL.
Nope. SL and Ivy Bridge don't really mix.
Seller has accepted my return and the broken MBA is on it's way back to him.
On to the next...
Cheers
Hugh
On to the next...
Cheers
Hugh
The new MBA has already arrived, and swiftly I have 10.6.8 restored plus Linux mint 19.3 from backups.
Running well, and I'm not even going to try High Sierra
Excellent !
Cheers
Hugh
Running well, and I'm not even going to try High Sierra
Excellent !
Cheers
Hugh
Congratulations: Snow Leopard and Linux Mint (my fave distro) sounds like a good combination for that machine.
lolwat. I didn't know about that. That's legitimately terrible.
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I keep an 8GB stick with High Sierra and another 8GB stick with Windows 10 on it. And the moment I get a brand-old Mac, I wipe it and reinstall the macOS.
Next up is for me to have a stick somehow with Windows 7 on it for the 2009/2010 MacBook that the hubs has and I might just get (a second one, not stealing hubs).