[GUIDE] Dell XPS 9530

This guide is now outdated as I have migrated to Yosemite.
Please find the updated guide for Yosemite here:

[Guide] Dell XPS 9530 on Yosemite

Following is a guide to run Mavericks (10.9.5) on a Dell XPS 9530 (Bios revision A06).

The Dell XPS 15 (9530) is a MacBook Pro look-a-like laptop with a QHD+ touchscreen.
As such it is a very suitable laptop to be used as a Hackbook (Hackintosh).



Specifications

The Dell XPS 15 (9530) comes with the following specifications:

• Intel i7-4712HQ processor (i7-4702HQ in older revisions)
• Intel Lynxpoint HM87 Chipset
• Intel HD 4600 integrated graphics
• Nvidia Geforce GT750M, 2GB DDR RAM dedicated graphics
  
• Realtek ALC668 audio codec
• Intel AC-7260 wifi (PCI-express) and bluetooth (USB) M2 (NGFF)

​
Current Status

Currently the following is working properly on the Dell XPS 15 (9530) BIOS A06 with OS X Mavericks (10.9.5).

• Intel HD 4600 graphics with full QE/CI on 3200x1800 QHD+ display
• Full speed USB 3 ports through GenericUSBXHCI
• Internal SATA AHCI (6 gbit, SSD TRIM enabled)
• Keyboard and trackpad through VoodooPS2Controller by RehabMan
• Battery status and charging indicator through ACPIBatteryManager + DSDT by RehabMan
• Full XPCM power management through SSDT generator by Pike R. Alpha
• Screen brightness control in OS X and through keyboard function keys (with OS X on-screen feedback) through DSDT and ACPIBacklight by RehabMan
• Audio (Realtek ALC668) through AppleHDA patch and DSDT
• Volume control through keyboard function keys (with OS X on-screen feedback)
• Keyboard backlight switching through keyboard function key
• Built-in Webcam
• Full Sleep / Wake through CodecCommander, GenericUSBXHCI and -gux_defer_usb2 kernel flag
• Touchscreen through driver from touch-base.com
  
  

The following things are not working yet:

• Realtek SD Card reader, the reader uses a PCI-express interface which is not supported on OS X. Some open-source drivers are around which might resolve this, unknown at this moment.
• Intel AC-7260 wifi, this card has no existing drivers on OS X and cannot be supported. The card can be swapped for a Broadcom BCM94352Z which works on OS X for both Wifi and Bluetooth

​Guide
The guide is separated in several chapters which cover different areas of functionality:

1. Initial installation
2. Unlocking the BIOS
3. Installing Clover Bootloader
4. Intel HD 4600 on QHD+
5. DSDT Patching
6. Realtek ALC688 Audio
7. HDMI / DisplayPort Audio
8. Replacing Intel AC-7260 Wifi/BT with BCM94352Z

Thank you very much for the guide,

I think the card you are searching is the Azurewave AW-CE123H ( http://www.ebay.es/itm/Azurewave-AW...02-11ac-WiFi-card-Bluetooth-4-0-/271452703326 )

I hope you can fix the Sleep / Resume problem, and have a perfect system

The card you are linking to is Half Mini-PCI-E, which is larger then the M2.NGFF card inside the Dell XPS 15.

The Dell XPS has a Intel AC-7260 Wifi+Bluetooth M2 card, the card in the Dell XPS uses PCI-Express connectivity for the Wifi and USB for the Bluetooth module.



Above is a photo of the card inside my Dell XPS 9530, you can clearly see it uses only PCI Express and USB lanes. The SDIO interface is not present on the card.

Beware of other laptops/cards on the market which are SDIO based, those are not supported by any existing OS X drivers.

There is one OS X compatible M2.NGFF PCI-Express Wifi+Bluetooth card on the market that I know of, the Broadcom BCM94352Z.

I ordered the card on http://www.amazon.com/BCM94352Z-NGFF-WiFi-Bluetooth-802-11ac/dp/B00JGFA50U/.

Its confirmed working on OS X 10.9.2 on a Russian site which we can't link to here.

Let's see how well it works when it comes in.

Thanks for the info, I was wrong

darkvoid,
did you consider to share your changed bios file?
looking forward to see next steps
thx

wojtoo said:

darkvoid,
did you consider to share your changed bios file?
looking forward to see next steps
thx

Click to expand...

Here is mine, I don´t know if you can use it directly, have care

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10347108/bios_mod.rar



PD: It's a top-tier with A05 bios

Ok, so my XPS 9530 has broken by itself.
When leaving it on overnight in order to download something, it was switched off in the morning and refuses to switch on.

There is no indication at all, no lights or fans.

Opened it up, disconnected main battery and CMOS battery, still no result.
Now I need to wait for my international warranty to transfer (bought it abroad) and get it resolved from Dell.

So no new updates for a bit

Any ideas are welcome of course.

the-darkvoid said:

Ok, so my XPS 9530 has broken by itself.
When leaving it on overnight in order to download something, it was switched off in the morning and refuses to switch on.

There is no indication at all, no lights or fans.

Opened it up, disconnected main battery and CMOS battery, still no result.
Now I need to wait for my international warranty to transfer (bought it abroad) and get it resolved from Dell.

So no new updates for a bit

Any ideas are welcome of course.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry to to hear it, I hope it's something minor and you can fix it soon.

the-darkvoid said:

Ok, so my XPS 9530 has broken by itself.
When leaving it on overnight in order to download something, it was switched off in the morning and refuses to switch on.

There is no indication at all, no lights or fans.

Opened it up, disconnected main battery and CMOS battery, still no result.
Now I need to wait for my international warranty to transfer (bought it abroad) and get it resolved from Dell.

So no new updates for a bit

Any ideas are welcome of course.

Click to expand...

Laptops overheat all the time. I got my Lenovo Yoga 2 13" on friday and I could feel it overheating during the weekend and that affected other components namely, the Wifi card which doesn't in Windows anymore. So to cut the long story short, mine is on its way back for a full refund.

Ouch.. I'd say you're on the right track with removing all power sources to the motherboard. I'm guessing there wouldn't be a reset CMOS jumper on it since it's a laptop board, so your best bet is probably to try to leave it without power for a few hours and see if it will reset itself to a working state.
Barring that, hopefully the MB is completely fried so dell doesn't give you grief when they find a modified BIOS..

charliebounce said:

Laptops overheat all the time. [...]

Click to expand...

Not to the point of self destructing hardware components though.. That would either be a major design flaw or a specific one-off component failure, but laptops don't self destroy all the time!