trying to boot a mac

Ive had a mac (before 2012)sitting around for a while now and i plugged it into power and held on the power button and it’s made the chrime sound and powered on, a white screen appears. i’ve researched and tryed the command + R and nothing happens, i’ve tryed the control alt + R+P and it makes the chrime noise again after holding but still remains on a white screen. I’ve tryed the Single user with command+ S and nothing happened. What can i do next?