Mac Pro 5,1 not responding to any boot commands

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Mac Pro 5,1 not responding to any boot commands

Hi all,

I have a 2012 Mac Pro which I bought without any hard drive in it. I thought this would be no issue, just boot from a USB installer and install onto a new drive. However, no boot commands seem to work at all. Option doesn't bring up boot options, CMD, Option, P & R does nothing. I have tried with multiple keyboards, including an Apple one, all USB connected. Tried different USB ports. Any advice would be much appreciated, as I have been looking online for ages and nothing has worked.

I know the computer works. I purchased it from a mate and he showed me it turning on with his hard drive in it before I bought it. He's now wiped that drive so no good.

I have a modern MacBook Pro which I used to install a copy of Ventura onto a SSD. I know Ventura wouldn't work but I wanted to see what would happen. I was expecting the prohibit sign, but I got a ? folder icon. I tried making the sata SSD into a bootable high sierra installer and got the same ? folder icon. Its almost like it doesn't want to do anything but boot to its old hard drive. Do computers get sentimental? lol

Thanks,

Tom

Mac Pro, macOS 10.13

Posted on Dec 29, 2022 12:25 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 29, 2022 2:31 PM in response to TomH381

to get those initial 'snag keys' to work, your wired USB keyboard must be connected to a USB port on the chassis, not on a display, or other hub.

if using a Windows keyboard, all the alphabetic and numerics work fine. The keys that do not always generate the same key-code as a Mac keyboard is the Alt/Option key, the Windows/command key, and rarely, the Control key.

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Answer 2

Dec 29, 2022 3:27 PM in response to TomH381

can you make a 10.11 El Capitan installer instead (or in addition). Mac Pro 5,1 does not inherently understand the drive organization of a Ventura boot drive.

If you leave a Mac with flashing question mark alone for a few minutes, it will usually "look around" and try to find a bootable drive. But Ventura Installer is not a bootable drive for that Mac, because the stuff needed for boot is inside an APFS container-disk.

How to download macOS - Apple Support

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

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Answer 3

TomH381 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 30, 2022 1:58 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I'm on the same wavelength. I'm currently half way through downloading a Sierra installer (joys of rural English internet speeds). I'll see what I can get to work with that.

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Mac Pro 5,1 not responding to any boot commands

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