MBP 1,1-10,2 Macbook Pro early 2011 - OSX 10.11.6 - boot freeze on last step (black screen)

[simpatico666]

I have Macbook Pro 17, Early 2011, installed OSX 10.11.6 (El Capitan).

I have partly failed dedicated GPU, which I fixed 5 years ago by using SW method
to disable dGPU, and always use Intel integrated GPU. Fixed sleep function and keyboard backlight associated problems.


Recently I noticed that sleep function (closing laptop lid) wasn't working.
To try to fix the problem I rebooted laptop, but after few screen of typical
verbose console text bootup log info, it just stuck on black screen.

Last screen of bootup text before black screen:

Kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv is in exclude list, not loadable

Kext org..virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB - library kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv not found.
Can t load kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB - failed to resolve library dependencies.
Kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB failed to load (OxdcO0800e).
Failed to load kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (error OxdcO0800e).
Kext load request buffer from user space still retained by a kext; probable memory leak.
Kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv is in exclude list, not loadable :
Kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt - Library kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv not found.
Can’t load kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt - failed to resolve Library dependencies.
Kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt failed to Load (OxdcO0800e).
Failed to load kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (error OxdcOO800e).
Kext load request buffer from user space still retained by a kext; probable menory leak
Kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv is in exclude List, not loadable
Kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp - library kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv not found
Can’t load kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp - failed to resolve library dependecies.
Kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp failed to Load (OxdcOO800e).
Failed to load kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (error OxdcOO8GHe)
Kext load request buffer from user space still retained by a kext;probable memory leak
Kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp not found for unload request.
Kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt not found for unload request.
Kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB not found for unload request.
Kext org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv not found for unload request.



I tried bootup by disconnecting battery (which was newly replaced few month back),
removing and switching RAM memory slots, which eliminated RAM problem unless both memory RAMs are having some problems.
Disk utility scan of SSD drive showed no errors (in recovery mode)

I have done reset of PVRAM and SMC, and confirmed that dGPU still works (with artifacts)


Ive tried to over system logs but due to size, I was unable to find any
clue to fix the problem


I know there is a command to pack all the log files, which I can put additionally if needed.

I still dont know if the problem is related with faulty dGPU or not.
Or is it HW or SW problem.

Maybe its malware issue(very small possibility).
If so, how to scan for malware?


I would appreciate if anyone can help out or provide advice
to fix the laptop.

 

[Grumpus]

Have you tried booting in safe mode? Power off, then hold the shift key down and power on. Keep holding until you see the Apple logo and progress bar. Hopefully that will avoid loading the virtualbox kexts allowing the boot to get farther.

 

[simpatico666]

Thank you for your quick reply.

I booted up in safe mode, as suggested.

Anyway there was some difference in booting up, but it also stuck in black screen.

One line in entire boot up screen appeared before black screen:

Sandbox: apsd(237) deny(1) system-fsctl 682f

After that, black screen appears with cursor (white box) in upper left corner, and every few seconds mouse cursor/arrow/pointer appears and disappears.

 

[ToniCH]

Have you tried to boot from external drive or USB stick? And if problems persist, disconnect the internal drive and try again. Hope you have backups?

And you do know that the sw fix for the failed GPU is reset if you zap the PRAM/NVRAM or disconnect the battery? So, you need to do the fix again after such activity. Might not be related to the Virtualbox errors but anyways, you need to redo them.

 

[simpatico666]

After resetting PVRAM I did redo solution to disable dGPU on 2011 MBP.

As for backup, I only have 2 year old backup (time machine) on external machine, which I think is unusable.
Is it possible to extract core system files from old backup?

 

[ToniCH]

Manually trying to fix a file system error or boot problems can be difficult. To me it looks like vbox kexts are missing or broken. Dunno why it cannot get past that, maybe something else too?

What I was trying to suggest was to boot from external device so you could see if the problem is just a corrupted OS or hardware based. Do you have another Mac, external hdd/sdd or USB thumb drive? Make a bootable drive and boot. If you cannot boot then I would pop the bottom open ja disconnect the original drive all together and try again.

If you manage to boot it successfully first copy all important files out of it. Then you could try repairing the file system (I guess you tried that) or even reinstall the OS. And final possibility is to format the drive and start from scratch. Also, use DriveDx to check your SSD health.

And in future start making frequent backups.

 

[simpatico666]

Manually trying to fix a file system error or boot problems can be difficult. To me it looks like vbox kexts are missing or broken. Dunno why it cannot get past that, maybe something else too?

What I was trying to suggest was to boot from external device so you could see if the problem is just a corrupted OS or hardware based. Do you have another Mac, external hdd/sdd or USB thumb drive? Make a bootable drive and boot. If you cannot boot then I would pop the bottom open ja disconnect the original drive all together and try again.

If you manage to boot it successfully first copy all important files out of it. Then you could try repairing the file system (I guess you tried that) or even reinstall the OS. And final possibility is to format the drive and start from scratch. Also, use DriveDx to check your SSD health.

And in future start making frequent backups.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have DriveDx installed, is there a way to run in in console or recovery mode?
If not, I guess I can make bootable drive with fresh El Capitan and install it there and scan the SSD properly.

After that works, can I just reinstall the OS 10.11.6 and keep all my data? Similar to what can it be done with Windows OS.

I will for sure start making regular backups from now on, learned my lesson.

Keep you posted.

 

[ToniCH]

I think you might need to do 2 bootable drives, first a full os so you can boot all the way to the OS and rescue files and then a bootable installer to install the OS. Copy the DriveDx to the bootable full os drive to use it when you have booted to check if your drive is still usable.

Other option is, if you have another Mac, take the drive out of the MBP, plug it into the second Mac via SATA-USB -adapter or external USB hdd case. Then you could extract the files to the second Mac, reinstall the drive to MBP and then install an OS to it.

If you do not have an another Mac then I would start by making the bootable drive first, boot with it, rescue all files and only then try to reinstall the OS.

If the OS installation does not fix the issues (it might not as the issues seen in your capture above do point to Virtualbox) then you might need to format the drive and do a clean install.

 

[simpatico666]

I think you might need to do 2 bootable drives, first a full os so you can boot all the way to the OS and rescue files and then a bootable installer to install the OS. Copy the DriveDx to the bootable full os drive to use it when you have booted to check if your drive is still usable.

Other option is, if you have another Mac, take the drive out of the MBP, plug it into the second Mac via SATA-USB -adapter or external USB hdd case. Then you could extract the files to the second Mac, reinstall the drive to MBP and then install an OS to it.

If you do not have an another Mac then I would start by making the bootable drive first, boot with it, rescue all files and only then try to reinstall the OS.

If the OS installation does not fix the issues (it might not as the issues seen in your capture above do point to Virtualbox) then you might need to format the drive and do a clean install.

I have lost entire day trying to create bootable OSX 10.11 USB drive in Windows.
Almost all info on the net is to create bootable OSX installation USB drive, which is not the same.

I only found out following:

After downloading installation OSX 10.11 dmg file , extract BaseSystem.dmg and copy "Packaged" dir in it.

I was using TransMac and (balena) Etcher which both had problems, and had to involve Paragon Partition Manager CE to fix the problem.

After all that, Macbook recognized USB drive, and after booting up, just offers me option to install OSX on SSD disk or USB drive itself (which causes errors).

What is easy and correct way to bootable OSX on USB drive in Windows OS? And what is official name for this? Live, startup, recovery USB drive image?

​

 

[ToniCH]

What is easy and correct way to bootable OSX on USB drive in Windows OS?

I've never tried to make a bootable OSX -disk in Windows, and I will not try. IMO it makes more sense to use Macs for Mac-things.

You can buy a good Mac for 50€/$ or even less. Why would you use an entire day to try to do something on Windows machine that you could do in 5-10 minutes with any cheap Intel Mac?!

 

[simpatico666]

I've never tried to make a bootable OSX -disk in Windows, and I will not try. IMO it makes more sense to use Macs for Mac-things.

You can buy a good Mac for 50€/$ or even less. Why would you use an entire day to try to do something on Windows machine that you could do in 5-10 minutes with any cheap Intel Mac?!

Thanks for the reply.

Outside US, (domestic Apple Macbook market) prices are quite different.
Unfortunately, Im in small EU country, and prices here are 100-150 EUR to buy non faulty Macbook 2011-2013.

There is a chance to ask or maybe borrow Macbook (Intel based) with newer OSX.
Do you know procedure (or link with info) on how to create bootable USB (older OSX version) on newer Mac OSX?

 

[ToniCH]

Unfortunately, Im in small EU country

Yeah, me too - one of the most expensive countries in EU. Here non faulty MBAs or MBPs go for less than 100€ every day, less than 50€ quite often. I think the best of the cheap ones would be the MBP 13" with Intel i5/i7. They are never very expensive and are pretty good performers.

Do you know procedure (or link with info) on how to create bootable USB (older OSX version) on newer Mac OSX?

Download OS: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102662
Make the installer: https://support.apple.com/en-us/101578

 

[simpatico666]

After long time trying all different methods to reinstall OSX 10.11 El Capitan with keeping all the data, I have almost run out of all possible solutions.


So far:
- in Recovery Mode its impossible to reinstall OSX 10.11, reports "error 403", because Apple removed certificate from their servers few years ago (confirmed on other deep dive tech forums)

- Apple removed El Capitan.app installation file from AppStore (which is need to create bootable USB installation), and
you can only download DMG file which contains PKG file.
Supposedly, in Mac OSX after open .PKG file, it will create required .app file, but there is a BIG catch, you cannot do it, if Mac OSX you are running is much newer the El Capitan, and as far as I know you cannot run PKG file in recovery mode (unless someone knows a trick to do it)

- Can someone try to download El Capitan 10.11.6 official dmg file, run pkg, unpack it to .app, and send it to some temp cloud storage like maybe ufile.io or filetransfer.io? I would much appreciate the help.

I know that I can with certain key combination install original OSX version that came with laptop (10.6 Snow Leopard) and then try to upgrade to El Capitan. Is it maybe possible to do so and keep the data?

I also made a backup of my laptop disk to external HDD using cp -R method (it took me 18 hours). Is there a way to convert this in Time Machine backup? Or make it directly in recovery mode on console single user mode?

 

[Amethyst1]

I know that I can with certain key combination install original OSX version that came with laptop (10.6 Snow Leopard) and then try to upgrade to El Capitan.

The laptop came with 10.6.6 or 10.6.7 on grey restore DVDs. It’s not possible to go back to that version using Internet Recovery.

 

[DeltaMac]

I agree with Amethyst1's info about Snow Leopard. Not available through Internet Recovery.
But, is there some reason that you need only El Capitan? The 2011 supports the later High Sierra (OS X 10.13.6), which can be a bit simpler to find.

 

[simpatico666]

I agree with Amethyst1's info about Snow Leopard. Not available through Internet Recovery.
But, is there some reason that you need only El Capitan? The 2011 supports the later High Sierra (OS X 10.13.6), which can be a bit simpler to find.

There is a lot of applications that wont work on newer OS version, and there are no good substitute for them. Not to mentioned that Macbook will work quite slower on newer OS.

 

[DeltaMac]

It's good to have a dedicated system to use with older software, but I don't necessarily agree with the "slows down with a newer OS"... Have you actually tested this? You may find that the "Slowdown" is not always as noticeable as you might expect, plus, you may discover that you may be having some internet browser issues with El Capitan, that may still be working with a newer system, such as High Sierra, making it worth something to upgrade to a later supported system. That won't be helpful with obsolete apps, I know. But, still worth considering, particularly if you have upgraded the RAM memory to the maximum of 16GB on your MacBookPro8,3. That can help the performance of any older Mac.

 

[simpatico666]

I was able to bring my laptop from the dead by erasing disk and installing El Capitan 10.11.6 from scratch.

I was able to download unofficial copy of El Capitan in DMG format, since official Apple removed it and replaced with pkg which is deliberate way to prevent many users to install it (since you can only run pkg, and extract dmg on older running OSX version).

Started up Recovery mode on the laptop, copied dmg installation file on the disk, used official console command to create USB installation boot drive.

Had to reset PVRAM to enable my dGPU (since its broken) to finish installation, and disable dGPU again in the Console Single user mode.

Now Im slowly moving all the data from my backup disk (which I created by direct copy method with cp command).

While rebuilding MBP, Im often using Carbon Copy app as a backup on my newly bought SSD external drive.

But I still dont know what happened to the laptop to crash in the first place.

 

[B S Magnet]

I was able to bring my laptop from the dead by erasing disk and installing El Capitan 10.11.6 from scratch.

I was able to download unofficial copy of El Capitan in DMG format, since official Apple removed it and replaced with pkg which is deliberate way to prevent many users to install it (since you can only run pkg, and extract dmg on older running OSX version).

I believe it is still possible to download El Capitan as a .dmg.

A direct link [note: you will need to right-click this link and manually paste it into a new browser tab; Apple will deny a direct link connection when coming from a third-party web site (i.e, MacRumors.com)] indicates what’s being pulled from Apple is a disk image, not a pkg launcher.

Started up Recovery mode on the laptop, copied dmg installation file on the disk, used official console command to create USB installation boot drive.

Had to reset PVRAM to enable my dGPU (since its broken) to finish installation, and disable dGPU again in the Console Single user mode.

Now Im slowly moving all the data from my backup disk (which I created by direct copy method with cp command).

While rebuilding MBP, Im often using Carbon Copy app as a backup on my newly bought SSD external drive.

But I still dont know what happened to the laptop to crash in the first place.

Shy of having a cloned copy of the problematic installation/partition of the old El Capitan, you may never know what truly happened.

It could have been something as simple as a corrupt parent file associated with Oracle’s VM VirtualBox (as gleaned from your logs), causing all dependency files for the suite to either not be found correctly. Or, it could have been more serious, such as a (repairable) invalid node count on the SSD. I have found these errors using Disk Utility from within the usual boot, not from within recovery mode. (A third, even less likely possibility is some process blacklisted org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv from being able to load, although I would not be clear on what would have invoked that exclusion in the first place. Whatever the case, failure to load it caused a cascade of other issues.)

This latter issue is not uncommon with my experience of using an SSD in my early 2011 13-inch MBP, especially when in Snow Leopard or in HFS+ installations of OS X. Every several weeks or so, if I let the battery run empty on sleep or I needed to do a force-reboot, it could invoke an invalid node count in a Disk Utility check. Sometimes, the issue would present itself even in absence of these. To fix this, it required booting the MBP in target disk mode and repairing the issue with Disk Utility from another Mac (not via Recovery mode).

If I didn’t fix the invalid node count issue (or, if I hadn’t yet checked), I would run into significant issues with smooth running of the OS. Depending on which node was incorrectly handled, the issues ranged from odd behaviour of the system itself, odd behaviour from an application in particular, or watching in verbose mode a litany of errors and warnings being thrown into the log, followed by a (reluctant) displaying of the WindowServer and login screen — usually around one key component or area (not unlike all the VBox-adjacent warnings you were seeing).

In every case, fixing the invalid node count (which drifted off from expected by at least one node, and sometimes up to a half-dozen or more) fixed the functionality issues. I have never experienced an invalid node count issue on HDDs, so this suggests something happens in the logic portion of the the SSD, when handling input-output with the host system.

As you have a 2011 MBP, this would introduce another opportunity to explore eventually: to create a separate partition to install *at least* High Sierra or greater, and to set that partition as APFS. I’ve found, at least with an SSD/High Sierra-or-later/APFS combo, invalid node counts don’t happen, as the file system approach in APFS is completely different (and engineered for SSD storage in mind) than with HFS+.

Again, all of this is conjecture, but that would have been one of the areas I would have been looking into, in process of elimination.

 

[TheShortTimer]

...if you have upgraded the RAM memory to the maximum of 16GB on your MacBookPro8,3. That can help the performance of any older Mac.

Yes. Most of my used Macs were either unexpanded on the RAM front or had received minimal upgrades from their stock configurations. As I've mentioned before, whenever I scan through the details of used Macs and note that the seller complains/warns that the computer runs slowly, when I check the RAM specs, they've nearly always been used for years with just the factory settings.

I believe it is still possible to download El Capitan as a .dmg.

A direct link indicates what’s being pulled from Apple is a disk image, not a pkg launcher.

I've got the same source in my bookmarks too - which also hosts Lion to Sierra in .DMG format.

 

[simpatico666]

Thank you for detailed answer and analysis for my problem

Anyway I mixed-up DMG with real problem. DMG is a container, same as IMG in Windows world.
Real problem is that Apple removed .app installation file from App Store (and the rest), and only left .PKG which is basically useless in most situation when you are trying to recover laptop with OSX 10.11.
.PKG installation file is really just a compressed file with .APP in it, but you cannot do it in Recovery mode or Command line mode, or Windows laptop or Macbook with newer OS then High Sierra.

I never run into any problem regarding invalid node on my SSD, and I have enabled TRIM option from the start.

Im using DriveDX and other apps for SSD diagnostics and tests, and everything looks great, with TBW only used 30%, which means I still have 70% left.
As for upgrading to High Sierra, in this forum alone there are 10 examples of upgrade for my 2011 MPB, and 50% reports problems with heat, high CPU and slowdown, so its too much risk to upgrade.

I have max 16GB RAM for years now, and SSD Samsung 1TB Evo 850

 

[B S Magnet]

Thank you for detailed answer and analysis for my problem

Anyway I mixed-up DMG with real problem. DMG is a container, same as IMG in Windows world.
Real problem is that Apple removed .app installation file from App Store (and the rest), and only left .PKG which is basically useless in most situation when you are trying to recover laptop with OSX 10.11.
.PKG installation file is really just a compressed file with .APP in it, but you cannot do it in Recovery mode or Command line mode, or Windows laptop or Macbook with newer OS then High Sierra.

The purpose of that disk image is to, literally, image it to a separate physical (and/or logical) device, like a USB flash drive. Then, once imaged to there, one can boot directly from that flash drive, behaving much as an old DVD installer might: a local, bootable copy of the system installation, which doesn’t rely on a proprietary intermediary online, such as the App Store.

(This is also the basic principle which makes the community patched versions of macOS — dosdude1 and OCLP — work the way they do.)

I try to minimize getting the App Store involved in any of this, especially around the older builds of OS X/macOS Apple which stopped supporting prior to the re-issue of those downloads in 2019 (when the original security certificates expired and each of the installers had to be newly uploaded by Apple with new certificates expiring in, as memory serves, 2034).

I never run into any problem regarding invalid node on my SSD, and I have enabled TRIM option from the start.

Same: I’ve used TRIM ever since a third-party utility called TRIM Enabler was necessary for the system to enabled TRIM on non-Apple SSDs.

But in Snow Leopard and, less frequently, when I used Sierra, the invalid node count issue came up regardless. And I’ve managed it ever since with the same routine.

As for upgrading to High Sierra, in this forum alone there are 10 examples of upgrade for my 2011 MPB, and 50% reports problems with heat, high CPU and slowdown, so its too much risk to upgrade.

I’m replying to you from a late 2011 MBP running a dosdude1-patched Mojave. With Macs Fans Controller configured, I have a system which, only under heavy use, gets just “warm”.

At the moment, here are my system’s readings:

And my Macs Fan Controller setting:

This same Mac, previously, ran High Sierra natively before that upgrade, and it performed comparably as Mojave insofar as heat and battery use.

I have max 16GB RAM for years now, and SSD Samsung 1TB Evo 850

I would offer to try adding Macs Fan Controller to your mix if you haven’t already. Cheers.

 

[Amethyst1]

The purpose of that disk image is to, literally, image it to a separate physical (and/or logical) device, like a USB flash drive. Then, once imaged to there, one can boot directly from that flash drive, behaving much as an old DVD installer might: […]

Does Apple offer anything past Lion in ready-to-image format though? If that dmg just contains the Install macOS [...] application, requiring the use of the createinstallmedia command, it’s no more useful than the pkg.

 

[Amethyst1]

Sometimes, I hate being right - the dmg is "useless":

 

[TheShortTimer]

Sometimes, I hate being right - the dmg is "useless":

Such is the price that comes with always being right.