New installation on a Macpro 4,1 (2009)

[UTtechrepair]

Please forgive my ignorance. I'm a PC guy so this is a new world to me.

I have a customer who came to me because his Macpro tower from 2009 "crashed" on an "update". At startup, the logo shows up and the bar begins to fill but crashes just before it's halfway finished. From what I can tell, the update was an installation of Ventura 13.5.1. I gathered this from the fact that the crash happened right about the same time that 13.5.1 was released. And in recovery mode the drive states that it has 13.5.1 installed on it. I'm guessing this computer should not be running this software since it's last supported OS was El Capitan. But you guys can correct me. I'm no mac expert.

I've created several boot disks with the software "transmac" for different versions of MacOS. But every time I tried installing a different version of a MacOS, the computer would eventually crash. When I tried doing a fresh install on a new exFAT formatted SSD, I couldn't get anything to show up on the screen. At this point, the customer would be fine with a fresh install on his drive and I'm pretty sure he'd be happy with an older version of MacOS. But I can't even do that. Every time I tried installing El Capitan the installation would crash. I have a theory that this is because there is AMD RX570 installed on the system and native support for that card didn't start until High Sierra. I tried created a USB of High Sierra but for whatever reason, the Macpro wouldn't even acknowledge the USB. (This tower has no onboard video.)

Guys, I'm really sorry. This is a completely new world for me. At this point, I would just like to install ANY version of MacOS on his tower. Any thoughts?

 

[MacsBug]

Hi there and welcome to the forum. You found the best place to get help with this.

Just some background.... Without patching the the computer, the latest natively supported OS is Mac OS X 10.11.6.

The easiest way to reinstall the OS is to boot from the recovery partition.

You do this by holding down the Command R keys as soon as you turn on the Mac, and continuue holding them till you see the bar going across below the apple logo.

You will see a screen that will let you reinstall the OS on the computer. You shoudl be able to reinstall over the existing install leaving everything intact.

If you need more help, just post back here.

 

[UTtechrepair]

Thanks for the response! Reinstalling doesn't work though. I get the error:

"Installation of macOS could not continue. Installation requires downloading important content. That content can't be downloaded at this time."

I'm guessing this is because this 14 yr old Macpro isn't supported by Ventura. I was hoping I could simply reinstall from a USB drive. I have now created 4 or 5 different USB drives with some unusual results, none of which work. El Capitan will begin to install but crashes while displaying lines of text on top of lines of text as well as a circle with a line through it. The Bootable installers for Lion and Mt Lion don't even show up.

 

[MacsBug]

Are you able to boot into the recovery partition? If so check the clock to make sure that the date and time is correct. You may need to replace the battery if it isn't correct, then set the date and time via the terminal while booting from the Recovery partition..

 

[UTtechrepair]

I'm able to boot into the recovery partition but I've had a few issues with that as well. None of my computer mice work so I've had to "tab" my way around and I can't actually navigate my way to the very top ("File, edit, etc.) When I select, "Reinstall OS" it gives me the following error:

 

[MacsBug]

Since that computer does not support macOS Ventura without being patched, It looks like the owner patched the system to allow newer OS'es.

What you need to do Hold down the Option key when you 1st start up the Mac Pro. You should see several icons, one being for a Boot Loader. You need to select the boot loader 1st and then boot into the OS installer. Just note that after the install, you will most likely need to reinstall the Post Boot Loader.

I am not sure what Boot Loader that they used. I use the one at https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher. You may want to go through their site. They also have a Discord chat room for help.