Stuck on OS X Utilities

[Arturo]

Please help! I've been trying to boot a downloaded version of MAC OS from a flash drive but simply cannot. My wife decided she wanted to factory reset her Macbook Pro before giving it away and voila, she can no longer use the computer like normal anymore. It is just stuck on OS X Utilities. So it's up to me to figure out how to fix it. I've tried downloading the new OS directly from the Macbook to no avail. It simply says. "Tty again later." I believe this may be because of the macbook being 10 years old. It still worked great though. I just want to boot an OS and have this peoblem over with. Thank you very much!

(I attached the most recent image of when the computer functioned normally which includes the specs)

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

I believe a 2008 MBP shipped with mountain lion, so to set it back to out of the box you need the install disks, and if you don't have then you can buy from Apple very cheaply here.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion

Just to add step by step guide for making a usable usb boot drive.

http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/17/make-bootable-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-usb-install-drive/