Omnibus response...

Thanks, but no thanks. Since the iBook seems to be bricked, you might pile some dirt on the keyboard and plant ivy. tongue

Keeping stuff together...

Originally Posted By: Rita
|I found out that the reason the Macbook Pro I am looking at is an open box and returned so soon is b/c the person who bought it wanted a touch bar instead so returned it to the shop for a different model.

Forever the sceptic, I don't buy that.

Had the original purchaser bought the 2016 model I could see the mind change and upgrade, but since se went for the $200 cheaper 2015 model in the first place, I'll scratch my head.

At any rate, the same MBP is available from the Apple Refurbished Store for $1,099 as I type.

And last, but not least, back to square one...

If these steps can be followed, they should get your MBP working with no need for your external drive:
  1. Boot from your external.
  2. Navigate to Disk Utility.
  3. If it appears in DU's sidebar, select your MBP's "Macintosh Hard Drive" (or whatever it's called). (Don't select the top line, i.e. the HDD, itself, but the one immediately below it.) (*)
  4. Click on the "Erase" tab.
  5. If you're offered options, select "Write all zeros".
  6. Let 'er rip, and be prepared to wait a while.
  7. Since you've got a bootable external, I assume that you've got a cloning app, so now clone your external back to your MBP.
  8. If Steve Jobs is smiling up on Olympus, the MBP should now be good to go on its own.
(*) Erasing only your OS X volume, not your entire HDD, will preserve your recovery partition.

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire