4540s sometimes no keyboard or trackpad at login screen

[nguyenmac]

Due to RehabMan's comment, I understood I would need to re-patch the DSDT if I changed the RAM. Can you confirm I do not re-patch DSDT when changing RAM in light of his statement?

I don't notice any difference in DSDT when I upgrade from 4GB RAM to 8GB RAM on my system. However, because your system has glitches after upgrading RAM, RehabMan suggests that you should repatch your DSDT. Besides DSDT, we have no clue what causes this problem.

Try re-install Mavericks with Clover by the guide here:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/hp-probook-mavericks/112383-guide-install-mavericks-clover-bootloader.html

There's a small hope that switching from Legacy bootloader to UEFI loader can make a change.

 

[RehabMan]

Due to RehabMan's comment, I understood I would need to re-patch the DSDT if I changed the RAM. Can you confirm I do not re-patch DSDT when changing RAM in light of his statement?

I could instead read him as referring to the episode where I both changed the BIOS and happened to also change the RAM, but I want to check that.

This goes back almost a year now, but I think I've seen DSDT change with only a change in the amount of installed RAM. The fact is there is no reason to risk having an unstable system by being lazy. If you make a change, re-patch DSDT. For one to check whether the DSDT changes in certain circumstances (by diffing the previous DSDT against the current) requires more skill and takes more time than simply patching DSDT.

 

[bcw1000]

This goes back almost a year now, but I think I've seen DSDT change with only a change in the amount of installed RAM. The fact is there is no reason to risk having an unstable system by being lazy. If you make a change, re-patch DSDT. For one to check whether the DSDT changes in certain circumstances (by diffing the previous DSDT against the current) requires more skill and takes more time than simply patching DSDT.

Working with as few unknowns as practicable is the watchword for me. I shall steer clear of situations that require patching the DSDT in favour of re-installing for these trials.

And trials they are. I am encountering persistent failure attempting to install with 8G of RAM. I am reluctant to accept that is the cause of the failures.

Yesterday, 4 attempts failed, with two different hard disks (an SSD and a rotating drive). One attempt was with Mountain Lion, and the others with Mavericks. All failed at the same point in the process - after the first re-boot and continuing to complete the install I reached the final screen where i am infrormed the install is complete. That screen itself never completes and the system does not then open the desktop. The next step would be to run the ProBook Installer from that desktop, but I did not reach that state.

I ended my efforrt last night by re-downloading Mavericks and rebuilding my Mavericks and Mountain Lion install USB drives. This morning the Mavericks installer has failed to bring up a usable screen after the primary isntall segment completed. This has passed 10 minutes of waiting.

In order to rebuild the installers yeesterday I reassembled the 'best' working set up I had - 16GB, my 840 Pro SSD, and Mavericks - the one that occassionaly loses pointer/keyboard at start up, but has no obvious other problems. It worked as expected, to my great relief. I am keeping that drive out of the fray.

I will try with the other boot flags I have used. RehabMan suggests 'IGPEnabler=Yes IGPlatformID=01660003'. The other set I will try is 'IGPEnabler=Yes IGPlatformID=01660003 -x PCIRootUID=0 GraphicsEnabler=No'.

A next step beyond that is to spend some quality time in Linux with GParted making certain the target hard disks are in a known state.

"'Curiouser and Curiouser', said Alice"

 

[nguyenmac]

Try this

Try re-install Mavericks with Clover by the guide here:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/hp-probook-mavericks/112383-guide-install-mavericks-clover-bootloader.html

There's a small hope that switching from Legacy bootloader to UEFI loader can make a change.

 

[bcw1000]

'IGPEnabler=Yes IGPlatformID=01660003 -x PCIRootUID=0 GraphicsEnabler=No'

A restart with these boot flags has allowed me to reach the second half of the OS X set up. I am encountering another problem that manifested during my failures yesterday - the WiFi is not finding the local access points.

The working set up I have has no problem finding and connecting with the access point, but the installs don't see it. Same wifi hardware in the machine. The USB installer was rebuilt since yesterday's failures, but is largely behaving the same so far.

I also had to plug in my USB mouse to get a pointer I could move.

I elected to 'Continue' without wifi. As before, the system has stopped on the last screen "Setting Up Your Mac..."

I left it there, and the system auto-slept without any change.

I will work on clearing the hard drives and re-check the BIOS, but note I checked the BIOS settings yesterday after those disappointments and found nothing amiss.

 

[bcw1000]

Try this

I may, but I am reluctant. It may work just as you hope.

However I'm not certain that is my desired use case.

I am intending to start coding for tablets, Android at first, and then possibly iOS as well. I might also work into coding for OS X in time. This is why I want a Mac, for now just to start gaining familiarity with the platform.

And I want that Mac with little or no fuss. Apologies, but Hackintoshes are not my interest.

I do contribute to Free Software, but that doesn't seem to be quite what this is.

The "little or no fuss" bit gives me pause if this doesn't work out fairly seamlessly. The ProBook Installer is in my comfort zone as it represents some promise of support, but dealing with details to get things to work is out side of my zone. I don't want to rely on a system that I don't know I can rely on later. Upgrading a system that requires manual steps troubles me.

At some point, this will add up to too much trouble, and I'll decide to either get a Mac with a warranty, or I'll stick with my very reliable Thinkpads with Xubuntu & CentOS for my Android work. For now, I could also get a lot of mileage out of my working Mavericks with 16GB installation.

I realize this is an opportunity for you to learn about the behaviour of your own installer project. I may act on this, but I am reluctant. After some significant medical issues that have me going through my savings, I am starting to seek work again, and I don't see a way Hackintoshes help with that, unless they provide me with a reliable 'Mac'.

You are welcome to point out any ideas I may have missed about this - if it helps me, it helps me.

 

[RehabMan]

Working with as few unknowns as practicable is the watchword for me. I shall steer clear of situations that require patching the DSDT in favour of re-installing for these trials.

Installing fresh involves patching DSDT.

And trials they are. I am encountering persistent failure attempting to install with 8G of RAM. I am reluctant to accept that is the cause of the failures.

Yesterday, 4 attempts failed, with two different hard disks (an SSD and a rotating drive). One attempt was with Mountain Lion, and the others with Mavericks. All failed at the same point in the process - after the first re-boot and continuing to complete the install I reached the final screen where i am infrormed the install is complete. That screen itself never completes and the system does not then open the desktop. The next step would be to run the ProBook Installer from that desktop, but I did not reach that state.

I ended my efforrt last night by re-downloading Mavericks and rebuilding my Mavericks and Mountain Lion install USB drives. This morning the Mavericks installer has failed to bring up a usable screen after the primary isntall segment completed. This has passed 10 minutes of waiting.

Are you booting with "IGPEnabler=No -x" for that second part of the OS X installer?

 

[RehabMan]

A restart with these boot flags has allowed me to reach the second half of the OS X set up. I am encountering another problem that manifested during my failures yesterday - the WiFi is not finding the local access points.

What WiFi card do you have?

 

[RehabMan]

I may, but I am reluctant. It may work just as you hope.

However I'm not certain that is my desired use case.

I am intending to start coding for tablets, Android at first, and then possibly iOS as well. I might also work into coding for OS X in time. This is why I want a Mac, for now just to start gaining familiarity with the platform.

If you want a no fuss computer running OS X, buy a product from Apple.

Hackintosh is always a process of experimenting, troubleshooting, tinkering, and especially reading and learning.

 

[bcw1000]

Installing fresh involves patching DSDT.

Yes. And until I gain the ability to install without surprises, that will be the only way I will patch the DSDT. If my knowledge is not adequate to install, I also can't be certain of what I'm doing further on.

Are you booting with "IGPEnabler=No -x" for that second part of the OS X installer?

I am using 'IGPEnabler=Yes IGPlatformID=01660003 -x PCIRootUID=0 GraphicsEnabler=No' at all steps now, as that is the most reliable set of boot flags. Note that if I determine that my hard drive corruption was causing me problems I may go to a lesser set in the future, but for now I want to go with the most reliable approach I've found to try to eliminate uncertainties. I should be able to install, first of all.

What WiFi card do you have?

The machine mounts my Broadcom BCM94322HM8L. Again, this card works with my existing 'good' Mavericks install & 16GB & SSD. However, F1 reports 'check WLAN', so I suspect it's not on the whitelist for this machine. My 9280 has not arrived yet.

If you want a no fuss computer running OS X, buy a product from Apple.

Hackintosh is always a process of experimenting, troubleshooting, tinkering, and especially reading and learning.

I agree. Money is tight, and I hoped (and still hope) for an opportunity. Perhaps it will yet work out for me.

I booted on Mint Linux and used GParted on the rotating drive to remove all partitions and recreate an empty MBR Partition Table. Next, I wrote '0' to the drive:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=4096k

I suspect the GParted bit wasn't required, but I'm fuzzy on low-level disk internals and didn't want to miss the possibilty the details were stored in CMOS or something.

fdisk -l /dev/sda showed nothing on the drive, and OS X Disk Utility showed the same. I'm attempting an install of Mavericks with 8GB RAM now on that disk, using the full flag set mentioned above.