Prohibitory Sign at Boot after SSD upgrade... But with a twist?

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Prohibitory Sign at Boot after SSD upgrade... But with a twist?

I currently have a late 2011 MBP (Macbookpro 8,1) , just recently upgraded to a Samsung Evo 250gb SSD with original Toshiba 500GB drive in optibay

Problem is upon boot (1 out of 4 times) shows a "Prohibitory" sign, or the one with a circle with a diagonal line across it.

If I start it up in verbose mode I get an error message

Most concerning line is:

"Error loading kernel 'mach_kernel' (0x6)"

From my understanding this is called a Kernel Panic? Occasionally I get the regular kernel panic message, the one with bunch of lines with the gray background.

But here is the thing... If I leave it alone it boots up normally. The prohibitory sign goes away and shows the Apple logo then boots normally.

My Macbook operates and performs like a normal computer after that. I have gone through several threads and tried troubleshooting.

Here is what is did:

Clean install of OSX Mavericks (Properly formatted the SSD)
Formatted the HDD
Checked EFI and SMC Firmware (Up to date)
Checked SSD Firmware from Samsung (Up to date)
Resetted PRAM and SMC
Removed Second drive from optical bay and replaced with it with factory CD drive
Enabled TRIM
Swapped with original HDD in main bay (Error doesn't occur)

My assumption leads me to believe that the SSD is faulty but checking from other threads their MBP just simply doesn't start up whilst mine does?

I've also read that replacing SATA cable helps but again my symptoms are a little different as it actually starts up.

If anyone out there with a brilliant mind can help my situation I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm running out of hair to pull from my head :[

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Mar 12, 2014 8:17 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 12, 2014 8:23 PM in response to itsyourboykenny

My guess is you have a bad system installation. This could be from failing to properly prepare the drive or it could be a problem with the physical installation or a compatibility with the EVO models. In any event I would start at:

Install Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion Using Internet Recovery

Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.

Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:

Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.

Partition and Format the hard drive:

1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.

2. After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.

Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.

Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet

if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

This should restore the version of OS X originally pre-installed on the computer.

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Answer 2

Mar 12, 2014 8:51 PM in response to Kappy

That is not actually a kernel panic. The kernel cache (which I believe is the cache of extensions, pre-linked into a single file as a speedup) has encountered a Read error.

The kernel cache should be rebuilt when you boot into Safe Mode, then into Normal mode. If no joy from that shortcut, Kappy has your answer.

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Answer 3

Mar 12, 2014 9:05 PM in response to itsyourboykenny

Thank you so much for the quick reply! I will try both methods and report back

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Answer 4

Mar 13, 2014 2:46 AM in response to itsyourboykenny

So I tried the Safe Mode method. Still no avail, same error message shows up. So I went ahead and did the online reinstall, followed every step to the T.

Apparently my Macbook shipped with OSX Lion so it started downloading Lion naturally. It was going well until the actual installation part. It said that there was an error during the installation. I know when you install Mavericks you lose the ability to boot Windows from USB which means they updated the bootloader possibly, could this have caused the error? So far I've tried twice and same error.

Could it be that my MBP is just not compatible with the EVO?

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Answer 5

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Mar 13, 2014 3:03 AM in response to itsyourboykenny

Once you boot into OS X go to the System Preferences and make sure the SSD is slected as the Boot source, Startup Disk and then click Restarts twice.

I've seen this happen when the EFI, Firmware, is unsure, doesn't really know, which drive to load the OS from. If your original drive that you placed in the Optical bay has any trace of an install of OS X on it and you haven't properly selected the Startup Disk you can get these errors.

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Answer 6

Mar 13, 2014 3:30 AM in response to LowLuster

Yes I have made sure that it was selected as the start up drive, I even tried holding the "Option" method and selecting the SSD as well. I also thought that having the original drive in the optibay was the issue so I pulled that out and replaced it with the superdrive.

Still same issue :[

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Answer 7

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Mar 13, 2014 3:37 AM in response to itsyourboykenny

Then 2 things come to mind.

1) Faulty SSD. That happens.

2) Faulty drive to logic board cable. This is a known weak link in the MBP drive chain. Works fine, or seems to work fine, with slower rotating HDDs and gives errors with Faster SSDs or hibrid drives.

There are several posts about this cable problem. But in my opinion the cable can fail at any time.

Stick the SSD in the optical bay and see if you get the same result. If you don't then it is the cable. But some Mac models don't like fast drives in the optical bay so it is not really a test of the SSD itself.

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Answer 8

Mar 13, 2014 4:45 AM in response to LowLuster

Omg... I think it was the cable...

Put the SSD in the optibay and so far no issues 😀. So wierd it shows no error for regualr HDD. I'll give this a go for a while and see if anything comes up

Thank you so much!

Can you point me to where I can buy a replacement cable that isnt prone to the same issue?

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Answer 9

Mar 13, 2014 4:50 AM in response to itsyourboykenny

Not sure why it says I solved my own problem 😕

But LowLuster's solution worked for me

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Answer 10

Mar 12, 2016 11:56 AM in response to itsyourboykenny

hello i have the same problem with the same configuration (sad and 2nd hdd to optical bay) same model and with the same response, if i leave the mac open for a while this the prohibite sing it boots ok and work.... the problem is that when i have tried to install my ssd i destroy the original cable so i bought a new one from eBay... so now you believe that problem was the cable? if i use the ssd to optical bay what speed i could have? what is the speed of optical sata bus?

and if i use it to optical bay mac will boot ok? can i install the 2nd disk to the cable and ssd to optical and start mac os from ssd?

thank you.

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