MP 1,1-5,1 Problem downgrading from Monterey to High Sierra

[donvito4ever]

Well... I sold my two Mac Pro, one of the with Monterey 100% working, all OK, but the second......

I has instalen and working Monterey, but the buyer wants High Sierra installed... but I can't install it!!!

When boot from the USB installer or SSD installer (I was made a installer with an Sata SSD, thinking that the error will be in the USB, but no...) at the begining of load stop.... I attach a video.... what can I do???

The setup of the Mac Pro is:

- Mac Pro 5.1 2012
- Single proccessor W3660
- 48Gb Ram 1333Mhz
- Ali Radeon 5870 1Gb
- HDD 1Tb Seagate
- SSD NVME Samsung 870 EVO 250Gb

If I boot with this setup in Monterey all works perfect (except graphics, very slow). OpenCore 0.7.4 is installed in the NVME drive, and I know that will be erased with the High Sierra install, this is no problem...

If I take out the NVME with OpenCore, the problem it's the same...

Video:

HELP!

 

[sfalatko]

I would ask @tsialex as I think he could quickly give you the answer. As a stab in the dark the issue might be the APFS format of the drive. Try reformatting the drive as HFS+ and see if that works.

 

[tsialex]

Do a fully erase. Boot the High Sierra installer and do something like this below, from the macOS installer Terminal:

diskutil list
diskutil erase disk jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" GPT disk0

 

[donvito4ever]

Do a fully erase. Boot the High Sierra installer and do something like this below, from the macOS installer Terminal:

diskutil list
diskutil erase disk jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" GPT disk0

Thanks... the problem is that don't do nothing more than you see in the video... The usb installer don't give and option, don't boot... If I take off the NVME with OC, when the usb boot arrives to these point reboot...

 

[tsialex]

Boot a working macOS install, then nuke the drive that you want to install HighSierra from the Terminal. After that, remove all other drives and boot just the createinstallmedia High Sierra installer and then install High Sierra to the nuked disk.

 

[donvito4ever]

Boot a working macOS install, then nuke the drive that you want to install HighSierra from the Terminal. After that, remove all other drives and boot just the createinstallmedia High Sierra installer and then install High Sierra to the nuked disk.

I’ll try

 

[donvito4ever]

@tsialex don't work...

Please, see the new video, this is the MacPro without HDD/SSD/USB, only the boot installer...

If I put again the NVME with Monterey, works fine...

 

[macguru9999]

In the mac, just have a blank drive formatted hfs plus, not apfs. format it from an external boot drive running hi sierra or below. , or before you put it in the mac. restart with cmd opt PR 3 times if necessary. run a current hi sierra installer if you can find one. If not, clone an older system across from the external boot drive.

 

[donvito4ever]

In the mac, just have a blank drive formatted hfs plus, not apfs. format it from an external boot drive running hi sierra or below. , or before you put it in the mac. restart with cmd opt PR 3 times if necessary. run a current hi sierra installer if you can find one. If not, clone an older system across from the external boot drive.

I only have MacMini M1, and I can't install High Sierra on a external disk...

I mas reset the PRAM 3 times... This las the first thing I did when see the trouble.

If I put the NVME in the MacPro with Monterey, Monterey can't execute High Sierra Installer...

I'm lost, I'm not know what to do, because in theory, if I put ONLY the High Sierra Boot Installer, almost have to boot and told me that no disk are plugged to install High Sierra... Only reboot like you can see in the video...

 

[steve123]

It might be a firmware incompatibility. Do you have a backup of your firmware from an earlier version of macOS?

 

[donvito4ever]

It might be a firmware incompatibility. Do you have a backup of your firmware from an earlier version of macOS?

No, I haven't not a firmware backup... I think that the firmware is 144.0.0.0, the last for the MacPro 5.1... I mas running High Sierra -> Mojave without issues or OC... I installed OC to run Hardware Acceleration and after to run Monterey...

 

[tsialex]

@tsialex don't work...

Please, see the new video, this is the MacPro without HDD/SSD/USB, only the boot installer...

View attachment 1970931

If I put again the NVME with Monterey, works fine...

Enable verbose boot and see where is failing, my bet is on a corrupt createinstallmedia installer. Could also be NVRAM problems, did you tried a deep NVRAM reset?

Try a deep NVRAM reset, then a fresh createinstallmedia HighSierra installer on a USB key that you are sure that works with your Mac Pro.

 

[donvito4ever]

Enable verbose boot and see where is failing, my bet is on a corrupt createinstallmedia installer. Could also be NVRAM problems, did you tried a deep NVRAM reset?

Try a deep NVRAM reset, then a fresh createinstallmedia HighSierra installer on a USB key that you are sure that works with your Mac Pro.

What will be the better way to do the createinstallmedia and download a good macOS?

 

[tsialex]

What will be the better way to do the createinstallmedia and download a good macOS?

You can use installinstallmacos.py and follow Apple createinstallmedia instructions.

GitHub - munki/macadmin-scripts: Scripts of possible interest to macOS admins

Scripts of possible interest to macOS admins. Contribute to munki/macadmin-scripts development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

You can use a USB flash drive or other secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install the Mac operating system.

support.apple.com

If you can't get it working, then you probably have BootROM problems and will need a BootROM reconstruction service.

 

[donvito4ever]

@tsialex you bético, you win!!!

At 4th created USB installer works!

THANKS!!

 

[tsialex]

@tsialex you bético, you win!!!

At 4th created USB installer works!

THANKS!!

Check if your main NVRAM VSS store is not full - see what you have to do below. Don't risk sending it to the buyer and getting it back because the NVRAM corrupted itself.

MP5,1: BootROM thread | 144.0.0.0.0

How to do a BootROM dump with ROMTool: If you are running anything newer than Mavericks, you will need to disable SIP. You can boot your Recovery partition or you can boot a createinstallmedia USB installer (≥10.11) to disable SIP. Boot your Recovery partition or boot a createinstallmedia USB...

forums.macrumors.com

MP5,1: BootROM thread | 144.0.0.0.0

How to check the health of the NVRAM/if the garbage collection is still working: There is a extremely simple way (simple here as in not need to know how the NVRAM works/check free space indicators/validate checksums and etc) to check if the garbage collection failed and the need to reflash with...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[donvito4ever]

OK! Thanks!