El Capitan on early 2009 Mac Mini - Wont :(

[jerrysimon]

Trying to install El Capitan on the above. Its been upgraded with 8GB Ram and a 120GB SSD and runs well with Lion.

I have checked compatability i.e. run Terminal using the commands to confirm all the 64Bit tests as per this article https://www.lifewire.com/os-ex-el-capitan-minimum-requirements-2259938

i.e. Uname -a and oreg -l -p IODeviceTree -l |grep firmware-abi

Both come back with info to confirm El Capitan should work.

It installs the files fine, but then when it reboots I just get this. No matter how many times I try as below, it always only gets this far never less never more.

Left it like this for 12 hours so I know its obvioulsy frozen. I have tried it upgrading on the existing Mountain Lion boot disc. I have booted off another drive and then tried to install it first formatting the SSD boot drive, but in all cases after installing the upgrade files it reboots and stays at the above image. I have even created a bootable El Capitan disc from my other newer macs a 2011 iMac (which I successfully upgraded to El Capitan using the same install El Capitan file) which boots on my newer 2015 iMac and 2015 Macbook (both running Sierra on their boot disks) fine, but then when attached to the Mac Mini still does the same as above. I therefore know the installation is working fine.

I am kinda stuck. I have put a fresh Lion install back on the Mac Mini and have sorta given up unless anyone here can shed some light ??

I use the Mac Mini just for my CCTV software (SecuritySpy) but I can only run the 32Bit version with Lion and would like to upgrade it to El Capitan so I can run the 64Bit version.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[jerrysimon]

Hmmm after days of trying this it now seems to be booting from the external El Cpitan drive albeit very slowly. Its a USB drive and of course the Mac Mini only has USB2.

The only thing different was I reset the NVRAM and tried plugging in a standard apple keyboard rather than the wifi one I was using. I also hit shift so maybe its starting up in safe mode I dont know until it finally boots.

When it finally boots I am going to try cloning the external drive to the internal SSD.

I will report back!

 

[jerrysimon]

Well appears I was over optimistic and just wasted another 3 hours of my life.

Although it now boots and the bar moves once it gets to the end of the black bar it just hangs

Also as the bar is moving it does not display any percentage in terms of amount completed.

Fortuantely I had Lion backed up with time machine and 20 mins later, I had it restored back onto the boot drive.

I really am perplexed by this and any advice/suggestions would be greatly welcomed!!!

 

[jerrysimon]

Ok had another thought last night. Memory!

Cracked open the case and replaced the 2x4GB sims with the original 2x1GB sims. Glad I didn't sell them!

Guess what ?

El Capitan is installing, slowly but it is installing complete with the black bar and percentage installed text!

Hoping that once its installed I can put the 2x4GB sims back in
[doublepost=1504778800][/doublepost]Well finally after several weeks El Capitan is installed

Just backing up with timemachine and then I will try the larger memory sims. SecruitySpy is running in 64bit mode and looking at activity monitor, its only using about 12% of CPU over the 50% previously with the 32bit version and Lion.

Its been a long journey!

 

[BrianBaughn]

Good...and that RAM may cause you issues down the road.

 

[jerrysimon]

I guess I could always put the original 2x1GB sticks back in if that is the case.

It wont work with 8GB when I put them both back in (just progresses all the way along the black bar then stop at the end and freezes) but will work with 1x4GB stick. I have even tried each one in turn and either work but not both. 4GB seems fine for the moment just running SecuritySpy. Its curently backing up to Time Machine so we will see.

I also have an mid 2009 MacBook White which has a slightly faster processor but only DDR2 memory. Its also does not have an SSD in it, though again I guess that is cheap enough to upgrade to a small SSD. I may try El Capitan on that now as well.

 

[jerrysimon]

Just installed El Capitain on my old MacBook White mid 2009 with 2GB DDR2 Ram and a 160HDD. So easy once you know how. Takes longer to boot than the Mac Mini but of course that has 4GB DDR3 memory and an SSD. The Macbook has a slightly faster 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo over the Mac Mini's 2.00 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

I might upgrade the MacBook with a SSD and 2GB mor memory. That would give me an all in one solution i.e. built in screen for running my CCTV setup.