iMac - Can not upgrade from Yosemite to El Capitan

Zoolooter

This is driving me nuts!!!!

I have a 24" 2008 imac, and according to the apple support page I can upgrade to El Capitan with this mac. 

So, I go on to the apple page and get to the El Capitan download page, then directed to the apple store, hit the download icon for El Capitan, then asks me to sign in with my apple ID which I do. After the last step of trying to sign in I get this message - Your request produced an error (newNullResponse) 

I have retried and searched for answers but can't find out why this is happening - so frustrating.

Any ideas????

xwaspfan

Not sure but may be worth giving apple a call they are usually quite helpful regardless of any out of warranty or no Applecare 
They have helped me few times.
 

Funkfingers

According to Mactracker, subject to the usual RAM and hard disk space caveats, OSX 10.11.n should run on an Early 2008 iMac 24".

Zoolooter said:

After the last step of trying to sign in I get this message - Your request produced an error (newNullResponse) 

This message could signify an Apple ID account error rather than a denial of the download request.

The other possibility is that you need to have the very last revision of OSX Yosemite (i.e. 10.10.5) before the nanny system will allow you to upgrade to El Capitan.

goldtop

FWIW the 2008 24" iMac that I bought from the Classifieds here runs El Capitan just fine.

Perhaps the seller (whose name escapes me at the mo) can confirm if you PM?

(By the way, you can also go to 6GB RAM maximum on this iMac; don't believe Apple's claimed 4GB limit.)

Zoolooter

goldtop said:

FWIW the 2008 24" iMac that I bought from the Classifieds here runs El Capitan just fine.

Perhaps the seller (whose name escapes me at the mo) can confirm if you PM?

(By the way, you can also go to 6GB RAM maximum on this iMac; don't believe Apple's claimed 4GB limit.)

That's interesting about the RAM, I'll be buying more. Any pointers for where has the best price online?

goldtop

I bought a used/salvaged SO DIMM from Ebay (as the iMac was used anyway it seemed a waste to buy new) - DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz 200 pin.

4GB ones seemed to be more than 4x the price of the 2GB ones unfortunately. I paid about £40. (The now-unwanted 2GB seems to go for under £10.)

Philtre

I'd stay on Yosemite if I were you. Every MacOS update requires more resources, particularly GPU, until eventually it crawls and you end up having to buy a new machine. Which is exactly what Apple want,

notanon

Tried Google on that error message? For example countries can cause issues.

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/mac-os-upgrade-from-yosemite-10-10-5-to-high-sierra-problem.668119/

 Have you tried creating a bootable USB? I solved one of my upgrade issues with bootable USB.

axisus

Have you previously downloaded the system? If not then apple won't let you have it as they are complete and utter arseholes. They have this f*ckwit policy of Not letting people have anything except the current system. I hate apple these days ...

Zoolooter

axisus said:

Have you previously downloaded the system? If not then apple won't let you have it as they are complete and utter arseholes. They have this f*ckwit policy of Not letting people have anything except the current system. I hate apple these days ...

The Mac came with Yosemite. I haven't downloaded any new OS in 7 years. This is the first time I've tried to 'upgrade ' to a new OS. Thought it would be simple.

axisus

Zoolooter said:

axisus said:

Have you previously downloaded the system? If not then apple won't let you have it as they are complete and utter arseholes. They have this f*ckwit policy of Not letting people have anything except the current system. I hate apple these days ...

The Mac came with Yosemite. I haven't downloaded any new OS in 7 years. This is the first time I've tried to 'upgrade ' to a new OS. Thought it would be simple.

There you go then, they won't let you have it!

Funkfingers

Zoolooter said:
The Mac came with Yosemite. I haven't downloaded any new OS in 7 years. This is the first time I've tried to 'upgrade ' to a new OS.

There is only so far back Apple supports "senior" operating systems. Typically, it is only possible to jump two major revisions in a single bound. Apple expects you to download the intervening OSX revisions before it will supply the one that you actually want. 

A few years back, I was obliged to download 10.7 Lion before Apple would let me install my shop-bought, three-user license , disc format 10.8 Mountain Lion.

Two installations and three Time Machine back-ups in one day. What a swell party that was! 

Zoolooter

**ck'em, I'll stick with my senior os.

lukedlb

I was surprised to learn that I didn’t need to add extra ram to my 2008 PowerBook. I just changed the hard disc to a flash drive and had the new os installed. So far so good. I’m not running anything heavy. Maybe heavier programs require more ram. 

Zoolooter

goldtop said:

FWIW the 2008 24" iMac that I bought from the Classifieds here runs El Capitan just fine.

Perhaps the seller (whose name escapes me at the mo) can confirm if you PM?

(By the way, you can also go to 6GB RAM maximum on this iMac; don't believe Apple's claimed 4GB limit.)

Just put 6GB in and wow, big difference with heavy files using photoshop, and generally everything else. Thanks for the heads up!

shrinkwrap

Funkfingers said:

Typically, it is only possible to jump two major revisions in a single bound. Apple expects you to download the intervening OSX revisions before it will supply the one that you actually want. 

A few years back, I was obliged to download 10.7 Lion before Apple would let me install my shop-bought, three-user license , disc format 10.8 Mountain Lion.

I'm not sure it's fair to crticise Aple over this - it's not a fresh install to an empty computer.  Each new OS will update the old system and it means they don't need to make an all purpose updater that can cover all the historic OS versions.

Funkfingers

This, I know, already, Reuben.

Zoolooter said:

RAM ... Any pointers for where has the best price online?

Kingston and Crucial do good prices. They also have machine/RAM compatibility databases on which to check before you purchase.

Many of these trainspotter computer questions can be answered on this free app. http://mactracker.ca

goldtop

Zoolooter said:

goldtop said:

FWIW the 2008 24" iMac that I bought from the Classifieds here runs El Capitan just fine.

Perhaps the seller (whose name escapes me at the mo) can confirm if you PM?

(By the way, you can also go to 6GB RAM maximum on this iMac; don't believe Apple's claimed 4GB limit.)

Just put 6GB in and wow, big difference with heavy files using photoshop, and generally everything else. Thanks for the heads up!

Good to know and sorry to hear you can't upgrade to ElCap. Although I presume yours is faster than ElCap runs on my machine, and you have better support for the sorts of older 'abandonware' hardware I'm now using (where ElCap compatibility can be a problem).

I treat this iMac as a standalone system (no network connection, no software updates, no new plug-ins, etc). I've also bought an SSD and am just plucking up the courage to open up the iMac for that, too. Then it'll remain a fixed-state DAW-only machine.

BTW, I found out about the 'secret' RAM capacity from this page/site (very useful so far): https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-2-duo-3.06-24-inch-aluminum-early-2008-penryn-specs.html

lukedlb

Very helpful @Funkfingers and @goldtop. Would doubling my ram from 2gb to 4gb make a noticeable difference? Mine is a late 2008 MacBook Pro with a 250 Solid State drive running at 2.4ghz.

Funkfingers

Mactracker reckons that your Early 2008 iMac can run 6GB.  

goldtop

lukedlb said:

Very helpful @Funkfingers and @goldtop. Would doubling my ram from 2gb to 4gb make a noticeable difference? Mine is a late 2008 MacBook Pro with a 250 Solid State drive running at 2.4ghz.

I think so. The way I think of it is that, right now you have 2GB occupied by the Mac OS, your application and your data. So the extra 2GB (or more if the funky fella is correct) provides HUGE amount of extra space for your application (plug-ins?) and/or your data (audio) before needing to shuffle stuff to/from the HDD/SSD to make space.