Obsolete or salvageable iMac 11.2

Question

Level 1

0 points

Obsolete or salvageable iMac 11.2

Hello all. My 80 year old father-in-law has a 2010/2011 iMac (model identifier iMac11.2). It does just what he needs it to, keyboard and mouse both work fine, it is still plenty quick enough and it is totally undamaged. However, he can no longer access the internet because neither Chrome nor Safari will work any longer. Given that his machine is fine for his needs, is there any way it can be 'saved' that anyone can think of please? There are no software updates available through either the update app or the app store. If anyone has any ideas, we would be hugely grateful (other than forking out thousands for a new one ;-))

Thanks in advance

KB

Posted on Nov 23, 2022 7:50 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Allan Jones

Level 9

77,918 points

Nov 23, 2022 6:19 PM in response to unionfan

However, he can no longer access the internet because neither Chrome nor Safari will work any longer.

What OS version is he running? A 2010 iMac (that is the "11,2" code) can run up to macOS 10.13 "High Sierra." that should still handle all the browser needs. The browser problems you identify suggest he is running 10.11 "El Capitan: or older. That gives a new enough version of Safari to work with most web sites.

The current version of Chrome will run on 10.13., althoughI also feel it is too hard on older systems.

The current version of FireFox runs on Mac OS 10.12 or newer.

Your FIL should be able to continue using the same computer for a while longer.

If software update is not offering the upgrade (it should) you can get it here:

How to download macOS - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 2

Jack-19

Level 8

46,188 points

Nov 24, 2022 10:45 AM in response to unionfan

Hello!

The OS is running He is running 10.6.8 and when prompted to look for a sfotware update, the machine has sufficient connectivity to look at Apple servers and comes back with a "no updates available" message.

Thanks for that information. Using the link, How to download macOS - Apple Support, download OS X El Capitan. Once downloaded, a file titled "InstallOSX.DMG" will be placed in the Downloads folder. Open it. Inside the folder will be an app to install the OS X El Capitan installer. Follow the steps, and run the El Capitan installer once done.

Once OS X El Capitan is installed, go back to How to download macOS - Apple Support, and get macOS High Sierra, the latest version of macOS for your Mac.

Jack

Reply

Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

215,346 points

Nov 24, 2022 11:05 AM in response to unionfan

One avenue to take is to create a bootable installer on a flash drive according to this Apple document, Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support (IN), and send it to him with instructions on how to run it and update his Mac to High Sierra.

This MacWorld article allow describes how to do it: How to create a bootable USB macOS installer

Reply

Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

68,660 points

Nov 30, 2022 10:15 AM in response to unionfan

unionfan wrote:

Hi Jack-19. I fall at the first hurdle because the browsers I have (Safari and Chrome) "cannot open the page..... can't establish a secure connection to the server support.apple.com".

You can download the macOS 10.11 El Capitan .dmg installer using any computer or OS including Windows. You will need to transfer the downloaded .dmg file to the iMac where you will need to run the .pkg app inside the .dmg file in order to extract the real installer to the Application's folder on this iMac. I highly recommend you follow @Old Toad's advice and create a bootable macOS USB installer so you have more options if something goes wrong during the upgrade.

Also, make sure to have a good backup before even attempting to upgrade macOS just in case something goes wrong.

Reply

Answer 5

den.thed

Level 10

90,952 points

Nov 23, 2022 8:15 AM in response to unionfan

Pitch Chrome it a resource hog and use Mozilla FireFox.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

Reply

Answer 6

unionfan Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 1, 2022 4:21 AM in response to HWTech

Hello all and thanks for your help. Have accessed the updates on a different machine and transferred / run them on the old Mac. It is now reset and running High Sierra which means it's working again and my FIL can go back to using Chrome and all things he needs. Your suggestions are all very much appreciated :-)

K

Reply

Answer 7

unionfan Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 24, 2022 10:24 AM in response to Allan Jones

Hi Allan and yes, you are right that I can't get access to the internet so can't download a different browser :-) The OS is running He is running 10.6.8 and when prompted to look for a sfotware update, the machine has sufficient connectivity to look at Apple servers and comes back with a "no updates available" message. I'll take a look to see if we can get the updates the long way round :-)

Thanks again

K

Reply

Answer 8

unionfan Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 29, 2022 3:47 AM in response to Jack-19

Hi Jack-19. I fall at the first hurdle because the browsers I have (Safari and Chrome) "cannot open the page..... can't establish a secure connection to the server support.apple.com". It seems I can open http sites but not https sites. My network is working just fine and the iMac is hard-cabled directly into the back of the fibre broadband router. any other suggestions please?

Thanks in advance

Reply