Leopard Install Problems -Essentials Pkg - RAM issues

I am regretting being an early adopter of Leopard OSX.

The install was a nightmare.

I got the Failed Install message = "The Installer could not validate the contents of the Essentials Package...". I got it for the Upgrade Install, the Archive Install, and with desperation, the Erase and Install. All failed. The disc test worked fine, but the install always failed about 20% in to the install process. Mac Tech Support said, "Probably a bad DVD- return it." Which I did. Still had the exact same error messages. So - I stripped out all the RAM leaving the original 512 that came with the machine. Still failed.

What "worked"?

I eventually installed the 512 RAM that I bought from Chip Merchant (basically looks the same but no apple sticker). That RAM configuration finally worked. Then added the other 1.5G of RAM back in and that works. Crazy. But importing of mail failed to import my sent mail. And it failed to import the address book files I had. Ouch. Still trying to get my printer to work.

This has not been enjoyable.

Just thought you'd like to know that RAM issues may be causing your install problems.

(And I suspect the words of another poster are accurate = non intel macs are likely 2nd class citizens now...)

m

G5, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Nov 1, 2007 7:58 PM

52 replies

Nov 27, 2007 6:13 PM in response to spooled_eclipse

The Disk you get with your hardware purchase is different than buying the Retail version of OS X separately. This disk is specific to the kernel and hardware you have.

Lame, but that's how they've chosen to separate their Retail version of OS X that's universal for PPC/Intel and that of the new Intel only hardware.

You've got a few choices: Buy a retail copy of Tiger that may be available from third parties, or off Ebay and/or if you have AppleCare you might want to contact them about purchasing a PPC copy of Tiger from Corporate.

Nov 27, 2007 8:17 PM in response to Jerome Franks

I have the same model as you with the factory memory sticks and the only way the installation succseed on my computer was to take out one memoty stick, install Leopard and put that stick back. After this operation everything is fine for now... I chose Erase&Install installation option.

Nov 28, 2007 6:35 AM in response to Oxana Sannikova

I'll try and do that but it ***** man.. It worked before when I had Tiger installed. Then i tried to resintall some of the same programs I had with Tiger not knowing it didnt work on leopard and crashed my whole Mac OS X.. So I tried to reinstall leopard and Im getting this essentials package error. I think Ive tried removing 1 gb of ram.. I'll retry it again and see what will happen. But ive been searching on this for about a week now...

« Jesse

Level 1

4 points

Dec 1, 2007 11:45 PM in response to Sean Murphy3

Yeah there is alot of us out here going through the same problem. Once I removed the third party ram, the installation of leopard worked fine. After the installation and all the updates I put the ram back in and it worked fine. So currently I have 5gigs and everything seems to working ok. Unless you try to install Vista using boot camp you get an error during the installation which has to do with the third party ram. Hopefully the mac gurus can fix this issue soon because it is really becoming a very unproductive way of spending our weekends.

Dec 5, 2007 10:30 PM in response to vespadisco

Well I finally gave up. After a couple weeks of a barely functioning Leopard with crashes & kernel panics growing more and more frequent until I couldn't open half my apps, I decided to give in and go back to Tiger.

Of course first time I tried to reinstall Tiger it failed. I finally got it to go, and then when I tried to combo update to 10.4.11, failed again, this time leaving me in limbo, unable to boot.

So after a few hours at Genius Bar, I'm up and running on 10.4.8 and loving life! The look and feel of Tiger is actually a relief after all that nonsense in Leopard. I do miss a couple features, but I can do without the bugs and other "improvements" to the UI.

I don't know if I'll ever know if it was the RAM or what, but I'm pretty sure I'll never try the Leopard upgrade again on this machine. I'll just wait until it comes stock on my next one and I have no choice.

Dec 23, 2007 2:12 AM in response to fancypants

Just thought I'd drop in and say that after 10+ failed attempts at installing Leopard for the second time, removing my third party RAM did the trick for me as well. And I think Leopard is also running a lot more stable now (I had it installed before, until I screwed it up pretty bad. Entirely my own fault though).

So put me in the RAM-error team... I do hope Apple will provide us with a fix for this issue since the RAM worked perfectly fine with Tiger. Introducing new software doesn't mean they can just raise their hardware standards or whatever they did...

sfatula

Level 2

158 points

Dec 27, 2007 8:02 AM in response to vespadisco

Add me to the list. Took machine in to Apple Store, they could not install, my message was actually that the media was bad more often than not. They tried from their external drive they use, also failed. They replaced the memory with Apple memory, worked fine. So, I suppose I have to take up a warranty issue with the memory manufacturer as I did not keep the Apple memory. However, the problem is not limited to installing Leopard. After I got home, I went to install Xcode 3, and it fails now! Similar errors. Machine runs perfectly, just can't run an Apple installer. Techtools says the memory tests fine. So, I ave no easy way to install Xcode. Yes, I could try removing memory, but it's a Mac mini, and, too much hassle for me at this point.

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Leopard Install Problems -Essentials Pkg - RAM issues