Late 2008 Macbook kernel panic going from Yosemite to El Capian

[carmen617]

Client wants to hold onto her old Macbook for another couple of years, figured it would be cheaper to upgrade it than to get a new one. i do a good business installing SSDs and more RAM and upgrading older MacBooks, so took on the job. Replaced her original 160 GB drive with a 250 GB Samsung 850 EVO, cloning it using Disk Utility.Additionally, I upgraded her 2 GB of RAM to 8 GB of Crucial. Upgraded her Snow Leopard to Yosemite as I found it in her purchased software and it seemed a good idea to do that first. So far, everything smooth, working well, etc. Then I download and install El Capitan. It just won't install. Says it's going to reboot the system, the Apple icon comes on, and then I get a kernel panic and a reboot loop.

I charge a flat labor rate for this work, and I've put a good amount of time into this already. I can boot easily back into Yosemite using boot options, so that's not a problem. As far as troubleshooting is concerned, I've tried taking out one stick of RAM, as Apple says the system only supports 6GB (but Crucial and everybody else says it can take 8). The system is on the latest firmware, so that's not it. If someone has an easy answer for me, I'm willing to put some more time into this, but I'm leaning towards telling her that Yosemite is as far as she can go with this system. Suggestions?

 

[sapphirescales]

I've upgraded plenty of 2008 Macbooks to El Captain without issue. Do you have the most recent image from Apple?

 

[Mainstay]

Do a fresh install of El Capitan and then import from the old drive from a docking station.

HOWEVER, I never upgrade a client's OS unless they explicitly ask for it. There might be real reasons they are still running Snow Leopard.

 

[sapphirescales]

You're upgrading and not doing a fresh install? Not good. Do a fresh install. I thought since you were using a new SSD that you were doing a fresh install, but if you mirrored the drive and upgraded it it's no wonder you're having problems.

 

[Markverhyden]

I'm assuming you have run repair disk and repair disk permissions. Also see what happens if you boot into safe mode, powering up holding down the shift key. If so there may be some legacy software you brought over doing the upgrade that is hosing the system.

 

[carmen617]

I've repaired disk, repaired permissions, no joy. I also ran Onyx for the fun of it, didn't help. The system has some legacy encryption software on it, as it looks like it was used at one point for some "at home" hospital work, but that's disabled as far as I can see. Could possibly be the issue, not sure. I don't particularly want to do a clean install as that's a time sink, but I did a TM backup of the system as it is right now before heading out this morning, so I can give it a shot tomorrow. System is supposed to be ready Monday morning.

 

[Markverhyden]

That's why you need to try safemode. Just like Windoze it loads a minimal amount of stuff.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2047747/take-control-of-startup-and-login-items.html

 

[carmen617]

OK - heading out, will give that a shot when I get back, thanks

edited to add - tried safe mode, won't get past the kernel panic

 

[carmen617]

Safe mode didn't help. This morning I tried a clean install of El Capitan twice. Both times the install ran about 5 minutes with "1 second remaining" and then failed with the message "An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again"

Any suggestions?

 

[Markverhyden]

I'd just cut my losses and leave it with Yosemite then.

 

[carmen617]

I'd just cut my losses and leave it with Yosemite then.

That's what I'm doing - restored it from the TM backup, giving up on El Capitan. I actually think it's a conflict with the graphics card, which was fixed with a firmware update for the late 2008 MacBook Pro but not for the late 2008 MacBook.

 

[Markverhyden]

Completely possible. The Macbook's, like the iBooks before them, tend to be the unwanted stepchild in that family.