MacBook Pro Locked after Factory Reset

[inadav]

Hey,
I was offered to buy from a friend's company a MacBook Pro of an employee which forgot his Apple ID and then tried factory resetting the device and ended up with an internet recovery screen.

The thing is I have no knowledge at all regarding these locks but I had made a few and a few Hackintosh installations during my life, and so I wonder whether I should buy it or not, the price they offered is crazy cheap.

Do anyone of you guys know if there's something that can be done? Is it a real bios like lock by Apple, or a new hard drive for example can fix it all up?

They promised to provide an invoice proving it's not stolen as I was suspicious about the whole deal at first.


Thanks in advance everyone

 

[Feartech]

Hey,
I was offered to buy from a friend's company a MacBook Pro of an employee which forgot his Apple ID and then tried factory resetting the device and ended up with an internet recovery screen.

The thing is I have no knowledge at all regarding these locks but I had made a few and a few Hackintosh installations during my life, and so I wonder whether I should buy it or not, the price they offered is crazy cheap.

Do anyone of you guys know if there's something that can be done? Is it a real bios like lock by Apple, or a new hard drive for example can fix it all up?

They promised to provide an invoice proving it's not stolen as I was suspicious about the whole deal at first.


Thanks in advance everyone

you need to have the original user reset their icloud account password to be able to unlock it

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hey,
I was offered to buy from a friend's company a MacBook Pro of an employee which forgot his Apple ID and then tried factory resetting the device and ended up with an internet recovery screen.

The thing is I have no knowledge at all regarding these locks but I had made a few and a few Hackintosh installations during my life, and so I wonder whether I should buy it or not, the price they offered is crazy cheap.

Do anyone of you guys know if there's something that can be done? Is it a real bios like lock by Apple, or a new hard drive for example can fix it all up?

They promised to provide an invoice proving it's not stolen as I was suspicious about the whole deal at first.


Thanks in advance everyone

Hi there.

I'm sure there are some very clever hackers out there, but from an average point of view I'd leave this Macbook Pro well alone.

Apple just will not help you unlock a device unless you have access to the Apple ID it is locked to.

 

[inadav]

Hi there.

I'm sure there are some very clever hackers out there, but from an average point of view I'd leave this Macbook Pro well alone.

Apple just will not help you unlock a device unless you have access to the Apple ID it is locked to.

So from what you're saying I'm guessing there's no way to simply reformat the drive or something and got rid of the lock? It's locked within their boot level?

 

[Feartech]

So from what you're saying I'm guessing there's no way to simply reformat the drive or something and got rid of the lock? It's locked within their boot level?

nope, sorry!

 

[P1LGRIM]

the price they offered is crazy cheap

Buy it and replace the main logic board.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Buy it and replace the main logic board.

That's interesting... Not something I've ever tried. Do you have to "register" the part with Apple in some way before it can be recognised? I've heard that just replacing an iPhone screen or battery you have to somehow "register" it before it will work?

 

[P1LGRIM]

Do you have to "register" the part with Apple in some way before it can be recognised?

I've never done it either.
I know that there is a software tool to add/change the serial number after a board change, so it is feasible to generate a new serial number and insert it.

 

[P1LGRIM]

Maybe the serial change tool would be enough on its own to just change the serial number to avoid the lockout.