Q: Why can't Mountain be installed on a 2006 iMac? I meet every system requirement.
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Dec 10, 2012 9:51 AMby MichelPM,Your father's iMac doesn't meet the hardware requirement for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.
Minumum iMac spec is mid 2007 or Later.
Your father's iMac can run OS X 10.7 Lion, though.
You need to contact Apple at 1 800 MYAPPLE and ask for software sales and purchase a 10.7 Lion install code or disc.
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Dec 10, 2012 10:02 AMby MichelPM,Apple wants users to have, at least, a decent experience running the latest OS X release on less than optimal, older Apple hardware.
This is, probably, not possible of the 2006 iMac models.
Too slow CPUs, GPUs, and the mimumim RAM spec is at or nearly the 2006 models max. threshold.
Newer versions of OS X, IMO, need Macs with a realistic minimum of 4 GBs of RAM to operate the OS, just by itself.
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Dec 10, 2012 10:09 AMby Allan Jones,Dear Captain,
MichelPM wrote:
Your father's iMac can run OS X 10.7 Lion, though.
Whoa! He may NOT be able to run Lion 10.7. Only the last of the 2006 iMacs can run Lion due to processor limitations. Lion requires a minimum Core 2 Duo processor. Only the iMAcs that Apple names "Late 2006" have that processor. Here's how to find out:
1) From your Apple menu, do "About this Mac".
2) Look at the "Processor information" in the resulting window.
3) The processor Information must read "Core 2 Duo," not "Core Duo" to run Lion.
If you wish further verification, click on "More Info" in the "About" window. That launches System Profiler; its opening screen looks like this (example taken from a notebook but the info is in the same places):
To run Lion, the Model Identifier must have the code 'iMac5,1" or higher number to run Lion.
While there, see how much RAM is installed. Even if the processor is Lion-capable, a lot of older iMacs have very little RAM by today's standards. 2GB RAM is the bare minimum for Lion. The Late 2006 iMac can use up to 3GB RAM, still dicey.
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Dec 10, 2012 10:41 AMby John Galt,Captain 10Beers wrote:
... the machine is more than capable of running it.
Mountain Lion requires a 64 bit kernel. Your iMac cannot use it, therefore it is not capable of running it.
Mac OS X: 64-bit kernel frequently asked questions
Note: A 64-bit kernel is not the same thing as a 64-bit processor.
Mac OS X v10.6: Macs that use the 64-bit kernel
OS X Mountain Lion Technical Specifications
Lion incorporates most of Mountain Lion's features and is likely to be supported for a long time.
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Dec 10, 2012 11:08 AMby LousyFool,If we didn't wave our old gear bye-bye sometimes, you'd be still sitting on something rather resembling a tractor than a nice and comfy car with all its features. It's called "progress".
You should talk to Apple, really. And once you're there, tell them this:
Once again Apple proves itself the master of planned obsolescence.
I'm sure they'll immediately drop any future development and downgrade all of us to have us on par with your 6+ years old machine. 6 years computer age compared to other life on earth... what's that, like 60 years?
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Jan 21, 2013 6:40 PMby danger.trouble,The 2006 iMac indeed contains a 64bit processor... the limitation is in the EFI which prevents the system from loading a fully 64bit kernel. Apple is capable of issuing an upgrade to the EFI through software update allowing it to load said 64bit kernel included in any OSX since Snow Leopard. Loading a 64 bit kernel would theoretically allow the system to address more than 3gb of ram making it a more than capable system. for crying out loud it's not as if Apple is making leaps and bounds in computer specs required to run the OS. the latest Macbook air has a 1.7GHz processor and 4gb of ram furthermore the intel HD Graphics 4000 relies solely on system memory the ATI Radeon X1600 (included in 2006 iMacs) at least has 128 mb dedicated memory in addition to shared system memory. But, the Macbook Air is supposedly better equiped to run Mountain lion?
