[Guide] Dell XPS 13 9360 on MacOS Sierra 10.12.x - LTS (Long-Term Support) Guide

[Lopburi]

After a long battle it seems I got my XPS 13 QHD Touch Stable (Finger's crossed). It seemed that the audio driver hates sleep or switching to my external soundcard on my mixer. I suspect the audio driver was making kernel_task skyrocket in CPU usage.

Question: My 9360 came with an M2 SATA drive, anyone know if it will take an M2 NVMe?

Yes it will take NVME drive mine came with Hynix PC300 512GB and it works fine with bozma88's instructions.

 

[RaymondXie]

Have you handle this about camera? @RaymondXie
I got the same problem as you.

I know nearly nothing about the camera kext. What I can do is waiting for the camera light fading out(taking a long time), which means it will work again

 

[RaymondXie]

Found a sad bug for me...
When I use Safari with the language option (Chinese), a click of CapsLock can lead to a non responsible state. So I could only force quit it.

 

[francke]

Found a sad bug for me...
When I use Safari with the language option (Chinese), a click of CapsLock can lead to a non responsible state. So I could only force quit it.

Try different encoding, it might help

 

[cnekol]

Hey guys,
I've got a problem about bluetooth.
It seems a bug of sierra. My bluetooth become "not available" after sleep when I left.
Energy Saver setting "Put hard disk to sleep when possible" on. I don't know if it related.

If you guys meet same problem, try this.
[Solution]:
1.Open Finder and go to /Library/Preferences/
2.Find "com.apple.Bluetooth.plist" and remove it.( ! IMPORTANT: empty trash or it won't work.)
3.then shutdown( ! IMPORTANT not reboot)
4.open your XPS and enjoy

I'll test if it's about the Energy Saver setting "Put hard disk to sleep when possible" .

 

[cnekol]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone here who has contributed - especially @bozma88 .

I'd like to offer a small contribution - I don't know if this was posted here, but I got all the functions (aside from VGA) of the Dell DA200 USB-C to HDMI/VGA/Ethernet/USB 3.0 Hub working using the drivers from:

http://www.asix.com.tw/download.php?sub=driverdetail&PItemID=131

I took a guess at the chipset in it and it works beautifully. I currently have a USB3.0 Flash Drive, an HDMI monitor and an ethernet connection running through it perfectly. So if anyone is debating buying one, I can confirm it is working.

Specs are exact same as Bozma88, except I am using Clover r4012.

NOTE: I am using NullEthernet kext as well, as I am still waiting for my WiFi chip to come in, and used it to activate iMessage/App Store. I don't know if that plays any role in the success of the DA200.

EDIT: Strange occurrence - the Ethernet and USB ports stopped working until I fully reinstalled the drivers again. Weird. Will monitor to see what triggered that.

Hey, @sonik13 .
Have you tested DA200 with a diskplay 4K@60Hz? Does it work perfectly?

 

[pspracers]

Hey, @sonik13 .
Have you tested DA200 with a diskplay 4K@60Hz? Does it work perfectly?

I thought the DA200 offers HDMI 1.4 only?

 

[cnekol]

I thought the DA200 offers HDMI 1.4 only?

According to official document it should be HDMI 1.4.
For 2K@60Hz, No higher supported.

 

[bozma88]

After a long battle it seems I got my XPS 13 QHD Touch Stable (Finger's crossed). It seemed that the audio driver hates sleep or switching to my external soundcard on my mixer. I suspect the audio driver was making kernel_task skyrocket in CPU usage.

Question: My 9360 came with an M2 SATA drive, anyone know if it will take an M2 NVMe?

Are you sure about the drive being SATA? I wasn't aware if any version shipping with them.
Anyway, ask yourself if the transition to NVME is worth it for your workload, since current-generation NVME drives draw a lot more power, both in idle and active states.

@bozma88

I have good news. Regarding the Wifi/BT chip. I bought a BCM94352z without an A-key. BUT, I was successfully able to cut a notch into it with a dremel (cutting disc) and it works perfectly. Mine was a Lenovo one from eBay.

SO, finding a unicorn A-keyed BCM94352z isn't absolutely necessary - if you have a dremel, a steady hand, and balls, you can do it with an E-keyed one.

For anyone who attempts this... be very careful. I take no responsibility for if you break anything.

Good catch.

@bozma88 could you please try the AppleALC patching to enable native apple HD audio without any filesystem modifications. Here's the website http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/311293-applealc-—-dynamic-applehda-patching/

Or is cloverHDA good enough to use?

CloverHDA is good enough for me, only thing not working at the moment is external mic (TRRS headphones jack), but I think it's very minor. Everything else (power saving features, jack sense, etc) works and it's a fairly persistent solution since it doesn't overwrite or patch any original kext, relying instead on dynamic kext patching to prevent loading of original ALC kext.
If you want to try it and experiment, we'd be glad to hear from you!

Have you handle this about camera? @RaymondXie
I got the same problem as you.

I had the same issue before patching the camera with the kext I include in my files.
Maybe your camera is from different vendor and has different hardware signature.
Please share your camera Hardware ID (you can find it in MacOS system profiler or in Windows Devices details).
Or try the kext I am attaching here to this message, it's taken from syscl 9350 build.

I know nearly nothing about the camera kext. What I can do is waiting for the camera light fading out(taking a long time), which means it will work again

See above.

Found a sad bug for me...
When I use Safari with the language option (Chinese), a click of CapsLock can lead to a non responsible state. So I could only force quit it.

Maybe try to ping @RehabMan.

Hey guys,
I've got a problem about bluetooth.
It seems a bug of sierra. My bluetooth become "not available" after sleep when I left.
Energy Saver setting "Put hard disk to sleep when possible" on. I don't know if it related.

If you guys meet same problem, try this.
[Solution]:
1.Open Finder and go to /Library/Preferences/
2.Find "com.apple.Bluetooth.plist" and remove it.( ! IMPORTANT: empty trash or it won't work.)
3.then shutdown( ! IMPORTANT not reboot)
4.open your XPS and enjoy

I'll test if it's about the Energy Saver setting "Put hard disk to sleep when possible" .

@RehabMan 's Bluetooth kext relies on firmware upload at boot and wake from sleep (IIRC).
My BT too takes ~10-30 secs to start working again after wake from sleep, and Wifi reconnect after wake from sleep takes longer if BT is active. The latter one may be a common bug of MacOS since I find many complaints in Apple forums about the issue.
Anyway, try to transition to BrcmFirmwareRepo.kext (S/L/E), as it's said to be the preferred configuration, and then report.

 

[landmarker]

Out of interest, I have the same problem on the QHD version and the camera is (VendorID 3141, ProductID 26380)

Maybe different cameras for the FHD & QHD models?

Maybe your camera is from different vendor and has different hardware signature.
Please share your camera Hardware ID (you can find it in MacOS system profiler or in Windows Devices details).
Or try the kext I am attaching here to this message, it's taken from syscl 9350 build.