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[Guide] HP Elite 8300 & 6300 Pro (all form factors) using Clover UEFI hotpatch

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BillyGoatGruff said:
Okay, I've ordered a new motherboard. I'll give this one more go. Assuming that I get it to boot from the msata, may I ask what you did to get BT working? I have a AW-CE123H combo wifi+bt card, which I've used successfully in the Optiplex USFF mini-pcie slot with nothing going a USB header.

Obviously I'm trying to get the whole Airdrop/Continuity/Handoff experience, and the AW-CE123H is supported pretty well.
Click to expand...
I've just opened my USDT machine and can confirm I DO have a connection from my BT/Wifi card to the internal USB header. My bluetooth does work as I use a bluetooth keyboard and trackpad. I'm using a BCM94360CS in an adaptor in the mini pci slot. Its an official Apple Card so should support Airdrop et al - I don't use iCloud on the USDT so haven't tested it.

Looking at the specs for your card on p.6 it does say "Wifi: PCI-E, BT:USB" - so I'm not sure what happened with the Dell! In my desktop 8300 I have a full PCI card and that also has internal USB for the BT - as has everything I have read.

Good luck with the new motherboard. Perhaps worth downloading a new Bios file and using a different USB in case somewhere some corruption is being introduced.
 
phrozenpenguin said:
I've just opened my USDT machine and can confirm I DO have a connection from my BT/Wifi card to the internal USB header. My bluetooth does work as I use a bluetooth keyboard and trackpad. I'm using a BCM94360CS in an adaptor in the mini pci slot. Its an official Apple Card so should support Airdrop et al - I don't use iCloud on the USDT so haven't tested it.

Looking at the specs for your card on p.6 it does say "Wifi: PCI-E, BT:USB" - so I'm not sure what happened with the Dell! In my desktop 8300 I have a full PCI card and that also has internal USB for the BT - as has everything I have read.

Good luck with the new motherboard. Perhaps worth downloading a new Bios file and using a different USB in case somewhere some corruption is being introduced.
Click to expand...
I appreciate you opening up your case and taking a look. However, no I am thoroughly intrigued. I cannot find any mini-pcie wifi+bt combo cards that have a usb cable connecting to USB internal header. ??

On the Dell Optiplex USFF and AIO, the mini PCIe 1x slot support USB via the slot. (This is common on many laptops, it is also just as common that the mini PCIe only supports the specific wifi card, so 50/50?.). So no separate wire is needed.
Wikipedia Mini PCI-E ALL mini PCI-e ports are supposed to support PCIe and USB 2.0.

I didn't know this until AFTER i tried the same AW-CE123H in the HP 8300 USDT and the BT didn't work in either macOS nor Windows (!).

So looks like IF I want this to work, I need to go with the solution which you implemented. Can you tell me more about the adapter that is has the BCM94360CS in it?
 
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phrozenpenguin said:
I've just opened my USDT machine and can confirm I DO have a connection from my BT/Wifi card to the internal USB header. My bluetooth does work as I use a bluetooth keyboard and trackpad. I'm using a BCM94360CS in an adaptor in the mini pci slot. Its an official Apple Card so should support Airdrop et al - I don't use iCloud on the USDT so haven't tested it.

Looking at the specs for your card on p.6 it does say "Wifi: PCI-E, BT:USB" - so I'm not sure what happened with the Dell! In my desktop 8300 I have a full PCI card and that also has internal USB for the BT - as has everything I have read.

Good luck with the new motherboard. Perhaps worth downloading a new Bios file and using a different USB in case somewhere some corruption is being introduced.
Click to expand...
okay, here's another seemingly silly question... where do I find the screws to hold in the mSata and the wifi card? The HP USDT doesn't seem to use the same screw size as everyone else (M2x3mm). Seems it is a M1.4x3mm, with a large head. I have M1.4x3mm, but all small heads that pass right through the holes in the mSata and wifi half mini card.
I just seem to have all the silly luck with this thing!
 
@BillyGoatGruff its a long thread but worth searching through this thread which is the one the started me off down this rabbit warren! I recall posting a bunch of info that might be useful regarding how I set my USDT up. In summary

- the screw sizes is a real pain. I don't have an answer. I found one in a glasses repair kit and another in a childs mechanic set and they manage to work...you can see the bodge in the photo.
- I'm no expert in cards but as mentioned I used a BCM94360CS - which is a non standard PCIe connector. I then got an adaptor from eBay https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-PCI-E-...r-V3-0-for-BCM94360CD-BCM94331CM/261640890456 which as you can see comes with a cable which goes to an internal USB header. Now I look at yours it is quite different. As far as I'm aware my card is from an Apple machine so it all supported natively.

Out of interest why the reason for moving from Dell to HP - just for fun?
 
phrozenpenguin said:
Out of interest why the reason for moving from Dell to HP - just for fun?
Click to expand...

Yeah, for fun. I totally enjoyed setting up the Dell Optiplex 9010s from trs96's excellent guide. So I followed his link to another of his guides plus the Sniki guide.

Then I saw on eBay an HP Elite 8300 USDT with i7 3770, 8GB RAM and 320GB spinning disk AND a power supply for $100. I thought that was enough of a bargain to give it a go. I really like the ultra small size. My daughter wants a macOS to manage her large collection of iphone photos, and only has an older PC now.... so I was thinking if I could get this built and stable, she could easily fit this in her space with a nice 2K, DP monitor and away she could go with Airdrop, Continuity and Handoff. She already has an iphone XS and an Apple Watch.

Turns out with the problems I've been having to be a challenge, but I probably made it so..... I wanted to use the mSata slot for the boot volume, and add in a larger 1 or 2 TB drive internal for her photos, and an external drive for Time Machine backup protection. Plus it had to have hackintosh compatible WiFi + BT. I had the experience of the AW-CE123H plus I have some cheap but working antenna that I am able to mount to the USDT back case right through existing holes (with an extra washer).

So, I'll try as you say very carefully and do checksums on the BIOS file. If it is at 2.9 I might not even upgrade at this time (unless you all tell me something super compelling reason to go from 2.9 to 2.99).
So it's a bit of a bummer to have 2 motherboard replacements for what seems to be BIOS problems that I can't figure out how I mucked it up. Especially since I had mojave 10.14.3 running stable for the better part of a day after following this guide.

I've tried searches within the threads... might have to buckle down and read the hundreds of posts? lol... I'll try to get better at keyword searching...

I appreciate the conversation phrozenpenguin. It's enjoyable tinkering and trying to stay low-cost, recycle, etc.

What got me started in this at all was wanting to have a macOS machine fast enough to process camera input into a mac-only camera solution by bensoftware - SecuritySpy. Old mac mini just can't keep up. So I waited and waited for the 2018 mac mini, only to get sticker shock when the price started at $799! And that's when I bough a NUC8 for $300 on eBay and hacked it using Rehabman's guide (after adding RAM and NVME of course).
 
BillyGoatGruff said:
I appreciate you opening up your case and taking a look. However, no I am thoroughly intrigued. I cannot find any mini-pcie wifi+bt combo cards that have a usb cable connecting to USB internal header. ??

On the Dell Optiplex USFF and AIO, the mini PCIe 1x slot support USB via the slot. (This is common on many laptops, it is also just as common that the mini PCIe only supports the specific wifi card, so 50/50?.). So no separate wire is needed.
Wikipedia Mini PCI-E ALL mini PCI-e ports are supposed to support PCIe and USB 2.0.

I didn't know this until AFTER i tried the same AW-CE123H in the HP 8300 USDT and the BT didn't work in either macOS nor Windows (!).

So looks like IF I want this to work, I need to go with the solution which you implemented. Can you tell me more about the adapter that is has the BCM94360CS in it?
Click to expand...
Check out this product from Superplus. You'll see that the expectation is that mini PCIe ports support USB 2.0 on the port itself.
 
I received the new-to-me, used motherboard. Swapped. Checked md5 on the BIOSes and updated from 2.0 -> 2.99, then to 3.04 and stopped there. Inserted Samsung 860 EVO 250GB mSATA and booted. All good. Then added AW-CE123H WiFi+BT combo card. WiFi works; BT does not, as expected now. HP Elite 8300 USDT does NOT implement USB on the mini-PCIe card slot on its motherboard. (Apparently pins 36,38 are not connected/are ignored).

Option is to go with your solution, and get that specific adapter w/BT port/cable to attach to motherboard internal header pins, PLUS BCM94360CS/CD card that fits adapter. Approximately $60 on eBay for the two items combined.

Another solution is to attempt to solder/hack wires onto pins 36,38 of either the mini PCIe slot or onto the pins 36,38 of the AW-CE123H itself, and then connect to the internal USB header, and thus provide a path to USB D- and D+ for the AW-CE123H. Approx $2 for wire/dupont connector, plus solder cost of a pro who can micro-solder? I own 2 of the AW-CE123H already. ($15 on eBay) . You can probably guess which of the two I WANT to try!
 
So I got everything installed and running fine. Went to boot up on clover and the menu comes up. However, there is no selection to install Mojave. There is a selection to boot off my old hard drive. Must have missed a step somewhere?
 
OK got everything to the menu. However, does not see any of my internal drives
 
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