[Success] Yosemite on Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L + Nvidia GTS250

[anonimoculto]

Hello FlapFlapRooRoo. I do not have Sierra on my system. I have here a Q6600 processor, and it does not support Sierra. I am already thinking on a upgrade to a compatible quad core processor, but not for now. So, about Sierra, I can not help! I know almost nothing about its nuances. Sorry.
Try to boot with -v option and see if the kexts are beeing loaded; and if present, what kind of error is beeing showed!
Good luck!

 

[FlapFlapRooRoo]

Thank you, i've got the sound and the ethernet to work and voiletdragon helped me with my HD5450.
I have issues with the sleep mode and the shutdown reboots but everything else works properly!
I will try to boot with-v option and see what i get.

I attach the kexts i used for the LAN and the Audio. If you plan to upgrade you processor and install Sierra you may want to use them:

 

[deeveedee]

To everyone running Sierra on your GA-G31M-S2L/ES2L with an SSD, does your System Report show that TRIM is enabled on the SSD? I have the TRIM kext patch enabled in CLOVER, but System Report does NOT show TRIM enabled.

EDIT: After further research, it appears that the old ICH7 chipset on this motherboard does not support TRIM.

 

[deeveedee]

For those who want to extend the life of their Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L (or are just curious), contrary to all the expert opinions and official documentation, the GA-G31M-S2L fully supports 8GB DDR2 RAM (2x4GB). I picked up 8GB Mushkin Silverline 996762 (2x4GB kit) DDR2-800 RAM on Ebay for < $40. Recognizes all the RAM and runs great. This very old board makes a great Sierra machine.

 

[deeveedee]

Just for kicks, I added an IOCrest PCIe SATA III card to my GA-G31M-S2L ($20 on Newegg) and performed a fresh install of High Sierra (APFS) with Clover (Legacy) and apfs.efi in CLOVER/drivers64 folder. TRIM is now enabled on the SATA III SSD, the Mac boots/runs fast and High Sierra runs perfectly. Performed High Sierra install by creating a High Sierra install USB with CLOVER (Legacy), custom DSDT/SSDT, config.plist, kexts from my Sierra build.

The GA-G31M-S2L is still a great motherboard for MacOS. My system config is now as follows:

• Motherboard: GA-G31M-S2L (BIOS F10f)
• OSX: High Sierra 10.13.6 (APFS)
• CLOVER (Legacy): 4658 (APFSDriverLoader-64.efi in drivers64)
• CPU: Xeon E5450 (Socket 771 > 775 conversion) (CPU Voltage manually changed to 1.1250 in BIOS)
• Memory: 8GB DDR2-800 (2x4GB)
• Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 8600GTS (web driver 387.10.10.10.40.105)
• Storage: 256GB SATA III SSD / IOCrest PCIe SATA III (Marvel chipset) - TRIM Enabled

 

[anonimoculto]

For those who want to extend the life of their Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L (or are just curious), contrary to all the expert opinions and official documentation, the GA-G31M-S2L fully supports 8GB DDR2 RAM (2x4GB). I picked up 8GB Mushkin Silverline 996762 (2x4GB kit) DDR2-800 RAM on Ebay for < $40. Recognizes all the RAM and runs great. This very old board makes a great Sierra machine.

Thanks a lot! I will try here. I was thinking in by another motherboard due that. Thanks.

 

[deeveedee]

Thanks a lot! I will try here. I was thinking in by another motherboard due that. Thanks.

You're welcome. Good luck. Be sure to purchase DDR2 memory that is low density (2rx8) non-ECC. If it says "for AMD," it may not work in your motherboard.

 

[deeveedee]

I just purchased a GeForce 9800GT 1GB graphics card with 2 DVI ports for $20 on eBay and installed it in my old GA-G31M-S2L running OSX High Sierra 10.13.6. Nvidia web drivers recognized the new card without any OS configuration changes and my system now fully supports 2 monitors. This old GA-G31M-S2L board continues to amaze me.

• Motherboard: GA-G31M-S2L (BIOS F10f)
• OSX: High Sierra 10.13.6 (APFS)
• CLOVER (Legacy): 4658 (APFSDriverLoader-64.efi in drivers64)
• CPU: Xeon E5450 (Socket 771 > 775 conversion) (CPU Voltage manually changed to 1.1250 in BIOS)
• Memory: 8GB DDR2-800 (2x4GB)
• Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 9800GT 1GB / Dual monitors (web driver 387.10.10.10.40.105)
• Storage: 256GB SATA III SSD / IOCrest PCIe SATA III (Marvel chipset) - TRIM Enabled

 

[larasconMD]

I'm completely new at this. First time even trying this. I'm assuming is it impossible to install High Sierra with this motherboard, correct? I would like to add a MSI GTX 760 4gb. Is this possible ? Thank you all for your info.

 

[BreBo]

@larasconMD, please update your profile (personal details) with your Motherboard, CPU and iGPU or Graphics Card(s).
If you have a prebuilt computer enter make and model instead of motherboard.

Profiles are mandatory so that others can assist you.