System locks during install of Snow Leopard - full details in post

Hello,

I have an HP 8200 elite SSF. Processor is an Intel i5-2400 running at 3.1ghz, processor stepping is 000206A7, 0000001B.

There is 4GB of ram on board

There is a 1tb Hard drive which has been partioned as 200gb and 800gb (or there abouts)

Graphics is an Nvidia Gt210 in the black pcie slot.

DVD drive is HP original.

No other HW is connected other than mouse and keyboard, both plugged into the USB ports directly below the J45 network.

Bios is J01 V2.29

My problem is that I am getting random system locks when trying to install Snow leopard.

I am following this guide - https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...cos-sierra-install-guide.230056/#post-1574984

Which has info on installing Snow Leopard and states that I do not need to use Multi Beast (could this be the issue?)

My initial attempts locked the system between it displaying the apple logo and spinning cartwheel spokes and the language selection. This rectified(?) itself without me doing any BIOS etc changes and I could then get to Disk utility.

Disk utility then locked formatting the second partion. I tried various sizes but to no avail. The 200 gb system partion always formats ok.

Restarting produced a lot of Linux boot info and a rectangle centre screen saying I had to reboot the system. Doing so resulted in a black screen as there is no OS installed.

Forcing the HP to boot only from the DVD got me back into Disk Util and I could varify both partitions, both are clean and OK.

However trying to install OSX results in it either locking at the very start of the install, the candy cane stops moving, or at a point during the install when it says it has 30 mins to go.

I am now stuck.

I have tried adjusting the SATA speed, there is an option to run at 1.5 or 3 gbs. The latter always locks the install at the candy cane stage. the 1.5 option always locks during the actual OS install.

This sounds like some kind of timing issue, but I have no idea how to resolve it.

Anyone any ideas?

Hello (part 2),

Rather fed up that I was getting less than no-where on a system that should be able to run SL, I stripped it down and did a thorough clean with my air brush (using the compressor at just under a bar). This blew a lot of gunk from, well everywhere really - so much for this being a refurbished PC EBay seller!

Any way I then reconnected everything and tried again.

This time the install ran fine from iboot through configuring the keyboard and installing update helper – from a usb drive. Quite why it didn’t run through the 1st time when the PC was happily running win 7 without a clean is beyond me. Perhaps a loose connection?

I then connected the network cable and tried to update to 10.6.8, which resulted in a system lock again.

Indeed the system locks randomly whenever I have the network cable plugged in. I downloaded the 10.6.8 update from supplied link (from this thread - https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...cos-sierra-install-guide.230056/#post-1574984 ) and installed without the network cable plugged in. Rebooted and all was fine. Turned off, plugged the network back in and tried to update further as suggested, which once again resulted in a system lock.

I cannot run Safari – it locks – and can’t run software update – again everything locks.

I have tried installing an apple compatible USB dongle (A Tenda W522U) which has SL drivers available from the Tenda web site – again I had to download these onto a USB drive and copy to the HP.

The drivers installed Ok, but I get another lock when I try and configure the network. For some reason it wants a static IP and locks once I enter it at the configuring stage. The cartwheel spokes just spin forever.

I can scan for wifi networks, I have set up a profile and can connect wirelessly to the router so I am baffled as to why I am getting this lock up.

I’m also baffled as to why I am getting locks whenever I try and use the onboard network.

So again I am stuck. I cannot update any further as I cannot get a network connection. It’s very odd given so many folk seem to have got the HP 8200 macised. Could it be my motherboard rev? Its 0, what are other HP 8200 user's motherboards?

Has anyone any idea how to progress?

Thanks in advance.

Hello (part 3)

Well very minor progress. I have discovered that the Tenda drivers also include a wifi utility - they come with virtually zero documentation and the manual on the Tenda web site is for Windows only. Using this utility now gets around the odd issue of having to have a fixed IP address and i can run dhcp with my router being auto detected.

But....

I am still getting system locks whenever I try and access the internet.

It locks if I try and use Safari at all.

It locks if I try and use software update.

It locks if i try and access the Apple store.

Looking in system prefs - network I can see the Tenda USB wifi dongle is connected.

However is also shows that the ethernet (is that the onboard one?) is connected - even though I don't have a cable plugged into it! Ermm how's that possible?

There are also 2 odd entries for serial connections. The HP has an external serial port so I could expect 1, but have no idea where the other one is coming from. Could these be interfering somehow?

How can an Ethernet card that is not connected to anything say its connected?

Is there any way to disable the onboard ethernet and serial port(s)? At least I might be able to discount them causing the system locks if I can do so.

I really need a tech genius' help on this. I might be getting closer but am still miles from betting internet access.

Thanks (and hope) in advance.

Hello (part4) ... why do I keep thinking about a burning fuse?

Well dispite the guide saying you dont need multi-beast I have been getting nowhere. So I thought what have I got to loose?

I scrubbed the OSX partition, reinstalled, ran the update helper,rebooted,ran the apple update then ran multibeast as an easy with the 2 rebuild options.

I then booted onto the hd and got the boot0: error. In my case its
boot0: GPT
boot0: test
boot0: test
boot0: test
boot0: test
boot0 GPT
boot0: test
boot0: test
boot0: test
boot0: test
boot0: error.

The hard drive is a new 1TB so almost certainly has 4k sectors.

As I have not used unibeast at all I don't have a usb. I do have the SL install dvd and iboot.

So I rebooted using iboot ran the install, started disk util and unmounted the osx partion.

I then tried to use the dd=if... etc command but found that I do not have boot1h in /usr/standalone/i386/

I do have boot.efi in / and also on the Apple install dvd; so I ran

dd if="/Volumes/Mac OSX Install DVD/usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi of=/dev/disk0s2

This 'appeared' to work in that I had bytes in and out and no errors.

However.

Booting to the HD still gives the boot0: error and now the hd has vanished from the iboot startup menu, suggesting that it is dud and I'm currently re-installing .... again .

Help anyone? please?

Hello (part 5, the rather disappointing sequel to hello part 4)

Well slight progress. I found an old 80gb sata drive in my pile of bits. Installed it and followed the guide again. This time I did not install multibeast and managed to get as far as accession Software update. However although it found updates and I was able to select Safari, the apple store and software update, the system then hung *again!* after only downloading 640k.

Rebooting just gave Kernal panics so I reinstalled again, and this time I ran Multibeast.

As a result I can now boot from the hard drive, previously I have had to boot from the iboot cd.

However I cannot connect to the internet at all. System prefs states that I am disconnected with the cable plugged in and trying to install the Tenda USB dongle appears to work, but when I go looking for its wireless app in applications there is nothing there and system prefs does not show it in network.

So I am still stuck, just at a different point.

Please can someone, anyone, explain how I can get the internet to work now? Previously I have had system locks when I could at least connect, now I cannot connect at all.

Well this is my last post as I have now given up. There appears to be no way to get this HP8200 to become a Mac. It either refuses to connect to the internet (install, run multibeast) or connects to the internet and then hangs (install without multi beast)

In my final attempt I connected the 1TB hard drive to a USB to SATA adaptor plugged into the top usb port under the network connector. I plugged the mouse below that and the keyboard next to it. You don't need the keyboard during the copy - when most of the usb ports stop working.

With this I was able to install SL, run the update helper and install the combo update. I then ran multibeast with the intel network kext selected. This allowed me to boot and see the network. However as soon as I tried to do anything network related, safari - anything - I got the same system locks.

In short if you have an HP 8200 sff elite working as a Hackingtosh well done, you are lucky. Mine is going to go back to windows, since at least that works, even if I hate the OS.

Well miracles apparently do occur as I have literally fallen over the solution while looking for something else.

The answer is here : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3923564

In essence there is a bug(?) in Snow Leopard which causes a conflict between IPV4 and IPV6 and this causes some Macs with Snow Leopard as well as 10.5 to lock when accessing the internet.

The solution is to go into system prefs->network and find where its talking about auto configuring IPV6. Turn this to OFF before you connect to the internet.

With this option off I have been able to update and download El Capitan.

So far I have only (!) had one other issue and that was that I needed to add the boot option nv_disable=1 as described in this thread - https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...ported-intel-based-pc.172672/#create_unibeast in order to get to the El Capitan install. Without it the load runs until the progress bar is just past the bottom dent in the Apple logo and then system reboots.

At present I am installing El Capitan.

I have no idea if it will work or not.

Well the install of El Capitan worked, but the post install of Multibeast did not.

For those of you wishing to continue to follow this mini-series, here is a link to my plea for help on the El Capitan forum - https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/installation-of-multibeast-fails-due-to-unsigned-etc.248704/