[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

[CaseySJ]

Update:

• After contacting Tech Support, we believe the problem lies with my WiFi mesh router (Netgear Orbi RBR50).
• The router might have a strange conflict with the cable modem, so a new more advanced cable modem should arrive on Wed or Thurs of this week.
• An old router that had been lying in the closet for the past 2 years works perfectly, but does not support mesh WiFi, which is necessary for covering all areas.

Therefore:

• If you are using a mesh WiFi router (not a standard router), have you had any trouble accessing this website?
• If your mesh WiFi router has accessed this website flawlessly for 6 months or more, please let me know the make/model by Private Message.

Thanks again for your patience with my delayed replies. Hopefully this will be sorted out within a few days.

Update #2: Problem Solved.

Access to this website has been restored by changing the MAC address of my router. It seems the previous MAC address has been blacklisted somewhere along the Internet route, maybe because of "excess" traffic to and from that site?

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi everyone,

I'm faced an issue and have no clue why it happened. I'm sure someone here may give me hope.

I attempted to update my Hackintosh to 10.15.4 yesterday, with updated Lilu, Whatevergreen, AppleAlc kext and 5108 Clover. By the time I restarted and enter installer/macOS drive, my clover went dark and 'freeze'. It literally freeze at the second it boot into the hack.

At normal times my backlit keyboard will turn off and on during the boot, but not now anymore (keeping on now). When I press ctrl+alt+del it reboots itself. Even Verbose can't help as it went dark and freeze completely. I tried enabling/disabling all options in the clover it doesn't work. It's driving me crazy as I never face such a situation in my 3 years hackintosh life.

My PC setup is as follows:
CPU: Intel i7-8700K
GPU: MSI Vega 56
RAM: 32.0GB@3600MHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370

My injected kext is as follows (tried turning individuals on and off and can't see any hope ;( ):
Lilu
Whatevergreen
AppleAlc
AMD10000controller

Countless thanks.

Installing 10.15.4 from scratch or updating to 10.15.4 from an earlier version can be very tricky. The procedure I summarized in the Mini-Guide may or may not work on other boards. But one of the key steps is to use config-AMD-GPU.plist from the ZIP file and copy your existing RtVariables and SMBIOS sections into it.

If you're updating to 10.15.4 (not a fresh install) then please see Plan C:

[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

I created a new EFI folder for that system on a USB flash disk maybe 2 days ago using the procedure in the 10.15.4 Catalina Mini-Guide (and the files from the ZIP attached there). I used config-AMD-GPU.plist and copied/pasted the SMBIOS/RtVariables sections from old config.plist into this file...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[CaseySJ]

LG 27UL650-W

This monitor does not support MST so that's good. There are several reports of problems with multiple monitors after updating to 10.15.4. We may need to wait for next WhateverGreen or downgrade to 10.15.3 from the backup.

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi all

Had a few questions (in italics below) before my motherboard arrives. Would be grateful if I could get some answers - I'll keep the questions as concise as possible as I know you're all busy and appreciate your time in helping novices like me!

• I use Ethernet to connect to the Internet. However, eventually, I want to get a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth PCI-E card for Airdrop/Unlock Mac with Apple Watch, etc., functionality, as well as using the Bluetooth in Windows for my Keyboard/Mouse. My questions are:
  • Can I install Catalina for now and in a couple of months get the card?
  • Will I be able to simply pop the card in and configure a few settings or will I need to reinstall OS X?
  • When using the PCI-e card in Windows, can I also use it for Bluetooth (as I plan to remove the WiFi/Bluetooth card that comes with the motherboard, as my understanding is that it doesn't work with OS X
• In terms of USB ports, I had a few questions:
  • On the front of my case, I have 2x USB-3 and 1x USB 2. Can I successfully connect this to the motherboard using the internal headers, and still have the back USB ports working, as well as the USB header that's needed for the PCI-e WiFi/Bluetooth card?
• In terms of SMBIOS settings, and as I want to use this rig for Adobe CC/FCP and potentially music production in the future, I'm slightly confused by the table above which states that 'Pro Apps Option 2' is strongly reccommended, however if you click the 'Spoiler: Additional tip for Pro apps users', it states we should disable iGPU and use iMac Pro 1,1. My questions are:
  • Which SMBIOS setting should I be using?
  • I thought iGPU was needed for some tasks like opening PDFs, QuickLook for JPEG files, watching Netflix/certain DRM content etc? So if I go with the iMac Pro 1,1 route and disable iGPU for the best rendering performance, can I still do the aforementioned activities that the iGPU normally handles, like QuickLook of JPEG files?
• I also use Windows on a normal SATA SSD:
  • From reading the guide, I understand I need to install Windows in an M2M slot, however I already have a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO that I use for windows. Do you recommend I get a small 120GB M2 drive for Windows and then just use the 500GB for Windows Games etc?
  • Is it advisable I install Windows first on that SSD, disconnect that SSD, slot in my WD BLACK NVMe drive, install OS X and then put the Windows SSD back?
  • Is anyone here dual-booting with Windows? Is Audio working fine in Windows with the same rear and front jacks? I want to use 2.1 speakers (that connect via a single 3.5mm jack) to the rear of the motherboard, and at the front, use the headphone jack when I don't want to wake the rest of my

Let's go through this point by point:

• Ethernet
  • Yes you can install Catalina now and add the PCIe card any time in the future. If you choose a Fenvi FV-T919 or FV-HB1200 it will just be matter of plug-and-play. However, do not remove the Intel CNVi WiFi/BT module. Windows will fully utilize it, but do not install any Broadcom drivers for the Fenvi (a little driver CD for Windows comes in the box, but do not use it).
• USB Ports
  • The front 1x USB 2.x port can be used by connecting it to the motherboard's F_USB header. Because there's only one such header, and because future WiFi/BT card will require that as well, one should purchase either a 2-to-1 or 4-to-1 USB splitter. Product links are in the Components section of Post #1. We will need to change either HS11 or HS12 to Type 0 from Type 255. But that can only be done when everything is assembled and installed.
• SMBIOS
  • More recently we have found that even with SMBIOS set to iMacPro1,1 it's possible to enable the IGPU. I believe even Sidecar in Catalina is functional. The choice between iMac19,1 and iMacPro1,1 largely depends on any speed improvement that one or the other might bring.
• Windows
  • If Windows is installed on a SATA 2.5" SSD (not M.2) then there's no issue with M2M or M2P. That issue arises only when both M2M and M2P slots are to be used, in which case we install Windows in M2M and macOS in M2P.
  • If Windows is already installed on the Samsung EVO 850, if it can boot from that disk (i.e. the Windows boot loader is installed also on the same EVO 850) then that's the ideal setup. We really want to avoid having the Windows boot loader co-resident on the macOS EFI partition.

 

[mdog474]

Hi @CaseySJ I'm starting my upgrade from Mojave to Catalina. I have a Designare Z390, 9900K, Vega VII, Fenvi T919 (plugged into PCIEX1_2) with USB plugged into HS11/HS12. My first step was to upgrade the BIOS. Everything was working with BIOS F6b -- I updated the firmware to F9b and the bluetooth stopped working. After updating the BIOS, I loaded optimized defaults and set the values in the Spoiler: Firmware F8 and Newer. In 10.14.6, The Bluetooth icon on the top of the screen now says "Bluetooth: Not Available"--Does this sound familiar? Did a miss some important step that is specific to Bios F9b?

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi @CaseySJ I'm starting my upgrade from Mojave to Catalina. I have a Designare Z390, 9900K, Vega VII, Fenvi T919 (plugged into PCIEX1_2) with USB plugged into HS11/HS12. My first step was to upgrade the BIOS. Everything was working with BIOS F6b -- I updated the firmware to F9b and the bluetooth stopped working. After updating the BIOS, I loaded optimized defaults and set the values in the Spoiler: Firmware F8 and Newer. In 10.14.6, The Bluetooth icon on the top of the screen now says "Bluetooth: Not Available"--Does this sound familiar? Did a miss some important step that is specific to Bios F9b?

Upgrading the firmware should not cause this. But please download and run IORegistryExplorer and scroll the device tree on left side until you see XHC, then capture and post a screenshot. In particular we want to see whether Bluetooth is showing up under HS11 or HS12.

 

[faithie999]

Thank you. I'm going to do a clean windows install on the 850 EVO and will do that first and then follow your steps (as well as the Catalina guide) above.

Just a quick follow-up question. Does it make a difference to Windows/Dual boot or anything to do with dual booting that I'm going to be installing Mac OS Catalina on a NVMe Drive, whereas windows will be on a SATA drive?

No issue at all. In my setup, macOS is on an NVMe drive, and windows is on a spinning HD connected to SATA. There is an icon for Boot Microsoft EFI from EFI on my clover screen. If for some reason you don't get a Windows boot icon in Clover, you can always press F12 at startup time and select your windows drive as the boot drive.

 

[hamzab]

Thank you @CaseySJ and @faithie999 - I’m looking forward to building this on the weekend!

 

[mdog474]

Upgrading the firmware should not cause this. But please download and run IORegistryExplorer and scroll the device tree on left side until you see XHC, then capture and post a screenshot. In particular we want to see whether Bluetooth is showing up under HS11 or HS12.

@CaseySJ Here is the IORegistryExplorer screenshot--I don't see HS11 or HS12

 

[jackieblitz]

Hello Jack,

Are you testing these apps via WiFi or wired Ethernet? If over wired, are you using the i211 or i213 Ethernet port? Please refer to large rear IO panel diagram in Post #1.

The driver for i211 might not be as robust as the native MacOS driver for i213, so try connecting Ethernet to i213.

@CaseySJ thanks for your immediate response and thanks for making my professional life 1000x less of a hustle with the workflow and efficiency boost I gained through your guide.

The Apps where tested solely via WIFI Connection. Is there any problem/ solution you could think of regarding that ?
Im using the "fenvi fv-t919" WIFI Card as suggested in your build.

Best regards
Jack