mac help.

mark richards · 5 Apr 2020

got a macbook pro with windows on it, this was on it when i bought it, trouble is i cannot seem to get drivers to work for sound, everything else
is working ok, tried all ways but failed, I have tried to set this back to mac os but it wont work,
tried all the resets that it shows online, but still no luck in reverting back to mac os, it seems to have been wiped clean?
I even ordered a new install of snow leopard, but not had luck installing that either,
so any ideas, its too good to bin it.

steveb · 5 Apr 2020

Mark, what MacBook Pro do you have? How long since you bought it, did it originally have sound, and did the sound originally work in macOS? Was the Windows installed via Bootcamp or via Parallels or similar? The last Snow Leopard DVD available was 10.6.3, does Mactracker indicate your MacBook Pro will run Snow Leopard 10.6.3 or newer? How does your Snow Leopard DVD fail to load or install?

AndrewFlannigan · 5 Apr 2020

mark richards said:
I even ordered a new install of snow leopard, but not had luck installing that either, so any ideas, its too good to bin it.

Have you used the [ Utilities | Disk Utility ] menu on the Snow Leopard DVD to reformat your disk?

With the MacBook switched on, insert the DVD.
Restart the MacBook. If the DVD ejects, push it back in.
Press and hold the option button as soon as you hear the chime. (If you don't hear the chime but the MacBook reboots into Windows, start again from (1) and press / hold the option button immediately after the restart process begins).
The drives that are attached and bootable will appear on the screen.
Use the mouse to select the drive you wish to boot from.
The OS-X installer should now boot.
Once it has booted, select the "Utilities" menu.
Select "Disk Utilities"
Select "Format" or "Partition" to reformat your disk to an OS-X format.
Once that has completed, reboot and start from the install disk as above but carry on with a normal installation.

Good luck!

Tony101 · 5 Apr 2020

With all due respect to Andrew, before Mark starts reformatting/reinstalling OS etc., we really should ascertain what MacBook Pro Mark has as it may be too new to run Mac OS Snow Leopard (which was released 10 years ago).

More info from Mark would be helpful.

Tori_T · 5 Apr 2020

Wikipedia has a chart detailing compatibility of OS X/macOS versions with MacBook Pro models.

AndrewFlannigan · 5 Apr 2020

Tori_T said:
Wikipedia has a chart detailing compatibility of OS X/macOS versions with MacBook Pro models.

Useful tip. I was making the assumption Mark had a reason to use the Snow Leopard disk. But as we know "Assume makes an Ass out of 'U' and me". :exit:

Tori_T · 5 Apr 2020

AndrewFlannigan said:
Useful tip. I was making the assumption Mark had a reason to use the Snow Leopard disk. But as we know "Assume makes an Ass out of 'U' and me".

I believe Snow Leopard was the last version released on disk. Lion and above are only available from the app store, and I think you need a working mac running macOS to access that.

AndrewFlannigan · 5 Apr 2020

Tori_T said:
I believe Snow Leopard was the last version released on disk.

My first Mac was a SE with the 20MB disk, bought new in 1988. After a while all the combinations of hardware, operating systems and application software become a bit blurred...

Nikon f1.8 · 5 Apr 2020

from the third line down of Marks post it seems he has wiped it clean anyway.

Best thing to do is boot into recovery mode, restart mac and hold down the command and R keys, this will give you the recovery screen and it will show you what version you can get from Apple servers, usually the one that shipped with the Macbook.

I would assume it is a 2010-11 macbook as he seems to have a dvd slot and has tried snow leopard.

Bobsyeruncle · 6 Apr 2020

Nikon f1.8 said:
from the third line down of Marks post it seems he has wiped it clean anyway.

Best thing to do is boot into recovery mode, restart mac and hold down the command and R keys, this will give you the recovery screen and it will show you what version you can get from Apple servers, usually the one that shipped with the Macbook.

I would assume it is a 2010-11 macbook as he seems to have a dvd slot and has tried snow leopard.

I used the command and R method recently and it worked great
I changed the date using command prompt beforehand and it let me get a later os than the original lion.

mark richards · 6 Apr 2020

yes it is 2010-11 machine with dvd slot, like i said, i failed on all commands ,that was stated on line, thats why i think that the drive thats inside, has not had a mac OS on it? is OS stored anywhere else in laptop? I dont mind having a windows system on it , if only i could get the sound drivers for it, I downloaded a few drivers but had no luck installing them,the windows start up screen makes a sound , but its not showing any drivers in device manager.thanks for all your help.

Bobsyeruncle · 6 Apr 2020

Try changing the date using command prompt to something like 30/12/2010 and try again.
I had issues getting the os onto a blank ssd until I changed to date to correspond with the original os.

Nikon f1.8 · 7 Apr 2020

mark richards said:
yes it is 2010-11 machine with dvd slot, like i said, i failed on all commands ,that was stated on line, thats why i think that the drive thats inside, has not had a mac OS on it? is OS stored anywhere else in laptop? I dont mind having a windows system on it , if only i could get the sound drivers for it, I downloaded a few drivers but had no luck installing them,the windows start up screen makes a sound , but its not showing any drivers in device manager.thanks for all your help.

Use the Command R method I posted a few posts up, and you should get the screen below, from there you get to choose Disk Utility and format the drive BEFORE you reinstall OS X.
Honestly, Apple made it dead easy to get your mac up and running, as long as you have internet connection