Apple won't like this! Mac OS Monterey running on obsolete iMac!

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2008 iMac Core 2 Duo Mac OS 12 Monterey Upgrade

This iMac is now 14 years old, and still is capable of running the latest official Mac OS 12, Monterey. In this video I show how I got it working.

[lovehunting]

After installing your fresh OS, Spotlight starts indexing your machine. This will slow down your older mac until its finished. This is normal and after a while (startups and reboots) it will not be a big issue anymore and your mac feels more snappy like you used to.

[andrewdupuis]

i have early 2009 iMac to I bought year a go it still works great

[jerryaalto]

Hey, i might know why u kept getting that error. I had the same issue, on my installer. It’s because iMac’s and MacBook’s sometimes reset motherboard’s time to 31 of December 2000. U just need to open terminal in recovery and change time time via code!

[danhutchinsonbackup]

I did this to my early 2009 20 inch iMac and installed the latest macOS Ventura (commenting from that iMac running Ventura)

[marcoslaredo]

I had a similar error while installing Ventura on my Mac mini late 2012. Then I thought it could be because of the original HDD read/write speed. When I changed my 5400rpm original HDD with a brand new 1TB SSD, it was installed like a charm. Try it.

[DaiAtlus]

ive done this on my 8, 1 with Mojave. runs smooth on 4gb, runs an SDR as well as a hobby laser i have, plus i can do day to day computing on it (ironically, using Edge and its Website As An App thing. i did replace the hard drive with an HDD but an SSD and the ram upgrade will happen soon enough. a buddy of mine gave it to me, was lumped off on him and running Linux. i wiped it and installed Snow Leopard from a USB, and then did the rest.

[geoman]

Running Monterey on my MacBookPro (late 2008) and Ventura on my MacMini (late 2014) with OCLP...

[EasyHeat]

Great video.
I have one of these w/ 6gb ram & Radeon HD 2400 XT 128mb GPU.
I'm mainly looking into making it a competent standalone VST guitar amp sim device.
Mostly out of curiosity, and potentially for a content topic for my upcoming channel.
I've already got mine running Positive Grid's legacy version of BIasFx 1.0 with great results, and
IMO I'd really only need to get it up to High Sierra to push it farther. After an SSD upgrade obviously.
The loss of Wi-Fi was my biggest concern overall, but observing how you overcame that hurdle has me intrigued.
Thanks for sharing!
I love seeing people breath new life into these machines!
Cheers!

[ASobhi]

If you use the latest version of OCLP all of the root patches are built into the app and you don’t need internet to get them

[danandlaundry]

Probs no Mach to my 2015 21.5 one which officially supports this version

[Hurbie_]

Looking forward when the next OCLP comes out, that will enable my 2008 dual 3.2 GHz MacPro to run Ventura. Looks like they have it running in a beta already and I have a 8GB RX580 flying around in my workshop.

[litemint]

I tried the OCLP the latest one on my iMac late 2009, 12GB Ram 1333mhz with Radeon 512MB, with Kingston 250GB, using Monterey, it was working, though there are some glitch when im on the full screen, using canva and zoom, it suffers some graphical artifact while on the full screen, while full screen on youtube works well, after some days, a popping sound on the left speaker began to show, I thought this was a bug on Monterey on this model, and I tried Zorin OS, the same popping sound came though this iMac was snappy on linux, the popping sound would disappear when I plugged an headphone jack, I decided to go back to High Sierra, and the popping wasnt showing up, I read on some random youtube comment that switching from monterey to HS was the solution for the popping speaker noise, and I did, I finally concluded to stick on HS for me to use the speaker freely, and be able to use the graphics card on my daily task(some graphics, video editing too, and zoom meetings) my main goal buying this imac was to run linux with it, but the popping noise just irritates me. Its just a fun experience I have owning this jurrasic unit, had it cleaned from the inside, installed monterey and linux back and fort, opening it up and upgrading the ssd and ram, I learn from it so much on my 1st attempt. Cheers Justin.

[michael-dytz]

Amazing! I also have a 2011 imac that got the pink screen of death after 11 years of beautiful service.

[cocoaanimarts]

Fun fact: I managed to install Mac OS sonoma on it. It’s a bit laggy, but works as good as it was on Yosemite.

[YepezEduardo]

Se quemo mi tarjeta de video en el iMac 2008 256Mb porque Big Sur y Monterrey le exigen mucho al procesador y la tarjeta de video :/

[rFacts]

I must have did something wrong.. never worked for me

[panakcoding]

My best bet as for why Monterey wasn't installing on your 2008 iMac, is because it was a USB stick. I've had similar problems with USB sticks, but no problems with external HDDs, SSDs, and fusion drives.

[zachariahmetoyer]

I’m running Monterey on a 2008 MBP 15”. Work okay, but several apps are using Metal for graphics which makes it obsolete. It would be nice if Apple made apps like Logic more backwards compatible with OpenGL but that will never happen.

[NickJustKnows]

Is installing Monterey possible if the iMac A1225 (2009) does not have a MacOS already installed? OS was wiped and reinstalling Yosemite via online method fails (says temporarily unavailable upon Apple ID sign in) and the iMac will not see my bootable USB with El Capitan setup via TransMac. Ubuntu 22 is installed at the moment.

[danstone_]

I got 2 kits of rare 4GB ddr2 kits, no it will not boot with 8GB