Dell Optiplex 990 with Catalina?

[cfrancis21]

Greetings all,

I have tried repeatedly to get my Dell Optiplex 990 (full size, not SFF) working with Catalina, upgrading from Mojave, trying everything I can think of, including trying OpenCore. It keeps freezing while booting from the Install volume, but it's not consistent at where. It will just freeze a few seconds into the boot.

Specs on my system are in the profile. I'm also attaching my config.plist, if anybody wants to take a look.

But just for clarity:
Optiplex 990 Intel Sandy Bridge Rev 09
3.39 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 1023 MB

Thank you so much!

 

[rcohen04]

Greetings all,

I have tried repeatedly to get my Dell Optiplex 990 (full size, not SFF) working with Catalina, upgrading from Mojave, trying everything I can think of, including trying OpenCore. It keeps freezing while booting from the Install volume, but it's not consistent at where. It will just freeze a few seconds into the boot.

Specs on my system are in the profile. I'm also attaching my config.plist, if anybody wants to take a look.

But just for clarity:
Optiplex 990 Intel Sandy Bridge Rev 09
3.39 GHz Intel Core i7
NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 1023 MB

Thank you so much!

I'm sorry I don't have the answer for you, but I would like to know how you got your Optiplex 990 working with Mojave? I'm new at this! I have a stock 990 minitower, i7, 3.4 Ghz, 24Gb ram, with an SSD for Windows, and a second empty HDD for install. It now has an NVidia GeForce GTX 1050graphics card, but also have an older ATI AMD Radeon HD6670 if needed.

I would greatly appreciate some guidance! Thank you in advance, Rick.

 

[RileyC]

Supposedly OpenCore works on the 990 with Catalina/Big Sur.

Unfortunately the OC forums discourage posting working config files and insist everyone read the crappy/non-existent docs and figure it out for themselves.

Sure that's required for generic pc builds, but for known systems like dell models some efi packs would sure be welcome!

 

[cfrancis21]

I'm sorry I don't have the answer for you, but I would like to know how you got your Optiplex 990 working with Mojave? I'm new at this! I have a stock 990 minitower, i7, 3.4 Ghz, 24Gb ram, with an SSD for Windows, and a second empty HDD for install. It now has an NVidia GeForce GTX 1050graphics card, but also have an older ATI AMD Radeon HD6670 if needed.

I'm using a NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 1023 MB video card, which seems to have a lot to do with it. You can find them pretty cheap out there on eBay. I can't speak for experience with the others, but just from my experience video cards seem to be half the battle in getting a working config.

 

[cfrancis21]

Supposedly OpenCore works on the 990 with Catalina/Big Sur.

Unfortunately the OC forums discourage posting working config files and insist everyone read the crappy/non-existent docs and figure it out for themselves.

Sure that's required for generic pc builds, but for known systems like dell models some efi packs would sure be welcome!

Perhaps one of those folks can point to some key settings WITHOUT posting the entire config. I'll try searching the OC forums, though. Thanks!

 

[madhouse28]

I'm no expert, far from it I'm struggling with open core at the moment on my OptiPlex 990 MT; but I can tell you that the OptiPlex 990 will run Catalina very well. I found the UEFI difficult with OSX (windows is fine) so I chose to boot in legacy mode. You will not need a DSDT file. Currently I'm booting via clover r5131. The attached plist will boot your OptiPlex 990, but you will need to put in the correct smbios. I'm currently using Mac Pro 6,1 because I'm trying to get Big Sur to boot reliably (its hit and miss ATM). Attached also is a screenshot of my refi folder. Hope this is some help to you.

 

[cfrancis21]

Well, I tried the config.plist posted here and got rid of the excess kexts. I was able to boot into Mojave all right, and all looked well when I ran the system updater within Mojave to go to Catalina, but then when I finally tried to boot from macOS selection in Clover (not "install macOS" because that part had completed successfully), I got an Apple logo for a couple of seconds, an empty progress bar, and then a reboot. I try using -v and it will hang in random places a couple of seconds after starting up (usually around [PCI configuration begin]). I have tried using -v and -x, and I have come up with a black screen and a mouse cursor. So now I'm stumped at what to do next. Thanks for any help!

 

[madhouse28]

What version of clover are you using? With 5131 on my Optiplex 990 it would boot intermittently, I had to press F11, then remove all boot options (from the menu select), or use single user via the spacebar at menu. It gave very strange results; sometimes booting ok, sometimes not. I even had to boot my USB open core stick to clear the NV ram frequently. Then on a restart I got an apple logo with an empty progress bar just sitting there. I know the Big Sur drive is good as it will boot up ok on either the T5400 or the Z97. I have given up now with the Optiplex 990 both with open core AND Big Sur. I'm 69 years old and have already given about a month of my life expectancy to this without success. Going back to Clover r5119 it boots every time on Catalina and runs really well so for now until some bright spark here can actually post a proven configuration for the 990 for open core/Clover running Big Sur I'll leave it be as I have the T5400 and Z97 both on open core running well.

Also I forgot to mention that the last update (the 10.15.7 supplemental) would not with any version of clover update sucessfully so without doubt there is something strange about the 990. I had to remove the drive put it in the Z97, update it and refit it. From there it rebooted OK. One other thing I'd check is make sure VM is disabled in the bios.

I'm sorry I can't be of any more help to you as I just don't have enough knowledge and I know all to well how frustrating this can be.

 

[OSX790]

Hi

I believe that the 790 is very similar to 990, are you booting clover or opencore. If you want to try either let me know and I can upload the config I am using. I have added the clover one that works on 790 with the GT 710.

You will have to update your SMBIOS id on the config.

Thank you

 

[madhouse28]

@OSX790, not sure if your referring to myself or @cfrancis21?

- What version of clover are you loading and what OS?

From my end opencore will not load either Catalina or Big Sur on the 990, yet clover will, albeit hit n miss. Once its up its fine, the issue arrises upon a restart - it just won't. Strange thing is opencore will boot Hi Sierra and Mojave every time on the 990, it just won't go beyond Mojave. From memory I get an error something like 'ACPI S3, S4, S5' it just hangs. As I said above, on this 990 I've reverted back to clover r5119. I'm loosing the will to live with this 990 TBH. Perhaps @CFRANCIS2 can load your config file and try it out. Since the move to open core a couple of weeks ago the T5400 and the Z97 have run without fault, booting is rapid and the OS feels very snappy, just a pitty the 990 is a no go for me No worries