Assuming your laptop is compatible with macOS 10.11 El Capitan, then you will need access to a Qualifying Mac in order to create a bootable macOS 10.11 USB installer using the instructions in this Apple article:
How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
A Qualifying Mac for macOS 10.11 is usually most Macs from 2008 to 2015. The following article shows which versions of macOS are compatible with various Apple hardware:
https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility
You can get the exact model of your Mac by clicking the Apple menu and selecting "About This Mac".
FYI, you can try booting your current 2007 Mac into Safe Mode to try running the macOS 10.11 installer in case you have some third party software installed which is interfering with the normal operation of macOS. Typical culprits are anti-virus apps, cleaning apps, and third party security software .... none of which are needed on a Mac.
Does your 2007 laptop boot normally or into Safe Mode? If so, then you should be able to create a bootable macOS USB 10.11 USB installer using the instructions in the Apple article I linked earlier. This assumes your 2007 laptop is indeed compatible with macOS 10.11. Make sure to read the instructions carefully since macOS 10.11 requires multiple steps to extract the contents of the mounted .dmg archive file by running the .pkg app contained within it which will extract the installer to the Applications folder so the Terminal commands can be used for creating a bootable macOS USB installer.
FYI, TransMac is known not to work for creating a bootable macOS USB installer these days. At least I have not seen any recent posts over the last few years where anyone reported success with TransMac. Apple has changed their macOS installers several times so many instructions online no longer apply.