Firmware Locked Mac Help

[CheatingSoi]

Hi there. My friend has a 2012 MacBook Pro that they complained about being really slow. So I told them to buy an SSD and I'd swap out the drive and install the latest Mac OS. However, trouble began when I realized the Mac seems to be firmware locked. It will ONLY let me boot into the original drive and original OS. It will not let me boot into recovery or boot from another drive. It gives me this grey padlock symbol. I have tried every tutorial out there for trying to reset and it and nothing works. She has no clue what the password would be as she doesn't recall creating one. I read you can call Apple and they can reset it but they require proof of purchase but it's a 6 year old laptop and my friend doesn't have the receipt. This is super frustrating because I thought this was going to be simple and I don't know what to do. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Deleted User]

Do you have another pc you could just clone the old drive to the new SSD?

 

[hippy dave]

Something to try, found from google:
http://osxdaily.com/2009/10/19/bypass-mac-firmware-password/

The mac has to be old enough to have removable ram, but apparently that includes MBPs up to Mid 2012.

 

[Ryccardo]

Something to try, found from google:
http://osxdaily.com/2009/10/19/bypass-mac-firmware-password/

The mac has to be old enough to have removable ram, but apparently that includes MBPs up to Mid 2012.

AFAIK the free-chance-to-clear-settings-after-ram-change trick only works on pre-2011 models (in fact I can prove it doesn't work on my early 2011 MBP8,1)
These computers use the "setregproptool" program to change the password from a command line

Two options:
1- press command-shift-option-S at the password prompt to get the recovery code and have it signed with Apple's key (through Apple licensed servicemen, or less ethical ones selling this service online) - the result is a file to be put in a FAT32 flash drive, which will be accepted instead of a typed password

2- hardmod - get a 1,8V bios programmer, backup the rom, and edit it to delete the variable which holds the settings, then flash it back to the board (Apple went with the same chip for firmware and settings), soldering probably required as I didn't see a standard SOIC chip on my computer's motherboard...

All the details and some more at https://reverse.put.as/2016/06/25/apple-efi-firmware-passwords-and-the-scbo-myth/