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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Gagnante on July 12, 2018, 08:27:08 PM

Title: Macbook won't recognize option key at startup
Post by: Gagnante on July 12, 2018, 08:27:08 PM

I have posted about my husband's mid-2010 13" Macbook Pro before and got helpful information, so I thought I'd try again.  He was trying to run an update, and after updating, the computer got stuck on the opening screen and wouldn't budge.  We tried a number of things, including resetting PRAM, etc, and nothing worked.  Of note:  it doesn't seem to recognize any of the usual keyboard shortcuts during startup except Command -R (which also does not seem to be working now).  Then it stopped recognizing the startup disk, so we took a shot in the dark and installed a new hard drive. 

I created a bootable USB stick but trying Option plus start doesn't get the screen where you select which drive to start from. (I tested the USB stick in my own Macbook and it works fine.)  And while trying all of this stuff, we stopped being able to go directly to the Recovery utilities and now it's going into Internet Recovery mode instead.

Can any of the wise people here think of things we can try to get this thing back up and running?  It is used solely for browsing the internet and watching Netflix, and it seems ridiculous to pour much money into it, but given the cost of a replacement...

Alternatively, if it's beyond salvaging at this point, can anyone recommend a replacement that has a similarly awesome display and won't break the bank?

Title: Re: Macbook won't recognize option key at startup
Post by: BrightFIRE on July 13, 2018, 10:24:55 AM

Was he by any chance updating the OS? I made the mistake of updating to High Sierra a few weeks ago and it has rendered my Macbook very finicky/practically unusable. It restarts if I set it down too firmly (what was previously normal - seriously, I have it sitting on a pillow so its delicate sensibilities aren't bothered) or lean too much on my hands while typing. He might just have to revert to factory settings, then update the OS to get to where he was before.

Title: Re: Macbook won't recognize option key at startup
Post by: Gagnante on July 13, 2018, 01:59:22 PM

Yes, I believe it was an OS update.  It was already running High Sierra, but it has been a bit finicky since someone who will go unnamed spilled a glass of wine into it several years ago.

Unfortunately, we have already tried resetting it, but it won't recognize the new hard drive as a location to install the OS.  It just comes up blank.