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Dell Studio XPS 9100 with ATI Radeon HD 5970 install guide

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EEE3

EEE3

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Thanks to all of the great knowledge and tools on this site I've successfully installed my Dell Studio XPS 9100. Everything is working great, including sleep mode. The only caveat is that only one of the GPU's on the 5970 can be active so it runs pretty comparable to a 5870 (Cinebench 11.5 is 28fps). I reboot to Windows 7 for heavy gaming so this is no big deal.

System specs:

  • Dell Studio XPS 9100[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • Intel Core i7-920 2.66Ghz CPU[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • 12GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • ATI Radeon HD 5970[/*:m:2fhamfdh]

Here's a guide for anyone else looking to install this system:

1. Install the system using the iBoot ATI5xxx rev 3 boot disk and a Mac OS X 10.6 retail DVD. The install should complete successfully.

2. Reboot with the iBoot boot disk and choose the hard drive.

3. Install the Mac OS X 10.6.4 update using the standalone combo updater. Do not reboot after it's completed, just move the window with the reboot button out of the way.

4. Run MultiBeast.pkg 2.1.4 and select the following options:

  • EasyBeast for Unsupported CPU[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • System Utilities[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • Voodoo HDA 0.2.2[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • ATY_Init Vervet[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • ATI 5xxx Support 1.6.18.13 (8408)[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • Realtek R1000SL[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • fakesmc[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • Ev0reboot[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • LegacyAppleRTC[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • NullCPUPowerManagement[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • 32-bit GraphicsEnabler=No[/*:m:2fhamfdh]
  • smbios.plist iMac Core i7[/*:m:2fhamfdh]

5. Edit /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist and set the Kernel Flags to be:

arch=i386 busratio=21 -force64
Click to expand...
Also verify that GraphicsEnabler is set to No (MultiBeast.pkg should have done this from step 4).

The busratio setting fixes a kernel panic and -force64 allows >4GB of RAM to be accessed.

6. Edit /System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeonX3000.kext/Contents/Info.plist and add the following statement right after the IOPCIMatch pair:

<key>IOPCIClassMatch</key>
<string>0x03000000&amp;0xFFFF0000</string>
Click to expand...
This will exclude (disable) the second GPU on the 5970 which has a PCI Class ID of 0x038000. Credit to this post for that tip.

7. Install SleepEnabler.kext in /Extra/Extensions

8. Reboot using the hard drive (no iBoot boot disk). You can safely install all of the errata except for the Snow Leopard Graphics Update 1.0.

Some notes:

- In my setup the Ethernet is connected to a GigE switch however the Realtek R1000SL driver kept linking up at 100Mbit. Changing the settings from autodetect to manual 1000mbit full duplex worked fine though.

- The Realtek RTL8169 Ethernet driver also works however Bonjour was unreliable (network shares/network Time Machine would randomly stop working) and it broke resume from sleep.

- I tried extracting the DSDT data and customizing it to avoid using SleepEnabler.kext but it seemed incomplete too difficult to be worth the effort. As far as I could tell there weren't even any System Management Bus or Audio devices defined to patch.

Enjoy!

-E
 
It seems to fluctuate between ~7800-8000. Here's the last run of 7923:
http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/289628

Dell doesn't let you do anything in the BIOS so the i7-920 is just stock 2.6Ghz. Not nearly as speedy as many of the systems ya'll have but coming from a 3 year old Cure 2 Duo iMac this thing is a rocket! :)

-E
 
I have the exact same computer than you except I have the ATI 5870. Everything works out of the box, no tweaking, no problems, I event installed the new graphic drivers working flawlessly.

I have three hard drives, one for Windows 7, one of OSX and one for backup. When I boot, I press f12 which ask me which hard drive I want to boot from. I installed all updates in OSX, no issues at all.

Thank you for your help, this is the perfect build for a hackintosh!!
 
Just installed osx on my alienware Area 51 alx with iboot and multibeast !
It has the i7 920 and the ATI 5970

I found this and thought it could Be nice to use:

http://www.kexts.com/view/427-ati_5970_kext.html

do you think it Works with kexts Utility in 32 Bit??
Can i still Run my Windows 7 on my other hdd in 64 Bit??

Thanks a Lot and sorry for my Bad english i am German
 
I tried this last night, however, I used the later multi beast and the 10.6.5 combo update. Everything appears to be fine, except when I first boot the pc seems to go to sleep, the monitor light goes yellow, pc light stays white (not blinking), mouse and keyboard are unresponsive. If I push the power button, the pc will go to sleep and if I push it again, it will wake up. And most of the time, everything will be fine. At times, I will have no lights on the keyboard nor will it function. I was going to try to reinstall using 10.6.4 hoping for a different result. Any information that you guys can pass my way would be greatly appreciated.
 
I tried multiple times on two different Studio XPS 9100 without success, on the main one and most important, I never get to the "Choose your language installation" screen. I tried booting with iboot & with iboot GE. Using different retail disk of SnowLeopard (10.6 & 10.6.3). I also tried with & without -x switch.
I also removed some ram as suggested somewhere

Here's my setup.
Intel Core i7-920 2.66Ghz CPU
Dell 0X501H motherboard (Intel X58 + ICH10R Chipset)
9GB RAM
2 DVD+-RW
3 Sata HD (1x 1TB, 2x 500GB)
nvidia GeForce GTX 260 (1792MB)

I was thinking about trying another video card. Any help would be really really appreciated, been trying with so much time...
Math
 
Thanks for the instruction. I now have it running on 10.6.6 using latest iBoot and MultiBeast.

I had similar issue with unable to get to the select language UI for a while, but I did not give up and eventually figured out that it was a boot option. This is similar to the kernel issue where you have to add busratio=21. You have to add PciRoot=1 when booting from the iBoot CD.

Instruction below are supplement to the original tonymac iBoot + MultiBeast instruction:
1) iBoot with: -v PciRoot=1
I like to see what's going on during boot so I always use -v.
2) Install 10.6.3 CD
3) Follow instruction from original post on selecting MultiBeast
  • EasyBeast for Unsupported CPU (for not having custom dsdt.aml)
    System Utilities (Rebuild Caches and Repair Permissions)

    Drivers
    Voodoo HDA 0.2.72 (for internal audio)
    FakeSMC (need this to boot)
    Ev0reboot (need this to boot)
    ElliottForceLegacyRTC (need this to boot)
    NullCPUPowerManagement (need this to boot)
    Chameleon 2.0 rc5 r700 experimental for ATIxxxx

    Boot
    64-bit GraphicsEnabler=No (go together with Chameleon rc5 r700)

    System Definitions: MacPro 3,1 (people recommend use of MacPro 3,1 for better graphic performance and allow for later use of iBoot to restore system from time machine backup. I randomly chose MacPro 4,1 during install and had to customize my own iBoot when I had to do my time machine restore.)
    Themes: Chameleon RC5 Default (very basic and looks better than nothing)
    All OSx86 Software (these are useful tools)
4) Find and get latest sleepenabler.kext that work for 10.6.6 or you will get kernel Panic. Hint - Google Code: xnu-sleep-enabler
5) Install 10.6.6 update.
6) Edit /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist and set the Kernel Flags to be: -v arch=i386 busratio=21 -force64

Non-critical MultiBeast kext stuff, you do not need these to boot:
JMicron36x ATA, SATA, eSATA (for our eSATA stuff)
Lnx2Mac's RealtekRTL81xx (for our network card only if default driver doesn't work)

Now you have fully working system. Next post: how to get it to boot with the least amount of kext and hdmi audio output by editing dsdt.aml

Thanks to original poster and this site/article: http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/04/ ... -x-on.html

For I would not have been successful without all the information that this site has provided.
 
So now that I have my system up and running. I decided to begin my optimization quest.

1) Custom DSDT.aml. Why? Because it makes your system easy to upgrade to the next osx release. Look at your /Extra/Extensions folder. Notice there are a ton of kext in there, most are osx version specific (sleepenabler.kext for example).

You can simply generate your own custom dsdt.aml by using an app called DSDTSE. Afterward, all I have in my /Extra/Extensions folder are four kext that my system need: Ev0rboot.kext (required for boot), FakeSMC.kext (also required for boot), JMicron36xATA.kext and JMicron36xSATA.kext (does not require to boot, but is required to show up in system profiler)

After custom DSDT.aml, I no longer need NullCPUPowerManagement and SleepEnabler.kext

Custom dsdt.aml can be install in the system root or /Extra folder or both.

2) Editing DSDT.aml for hdmi audio out for 10.6.6.
Two methods: (VooDooHDA.kext hex edit) or (custom dsdt.aml and AppleHDA.kext hex edit)
In the second method, you will loose internal audio card functionality because you will have to remove VooDooHDA.kext. I don't need internal audio since I do not have speaker and do not use headset or microphone. I decided to go with the second method.

  • Remove VooDooHDA.kext from /System/Library/Extension (this is the driver for your internal audio, you need to remove it or it will conflict with AppleHDA)
    Edit DSDT.aml and modify NPE7
    Code: 
    Device (NPE7)
            {
                Name (_ADR, 0x00070000)
                Name (_PRW, Package (0x02)
                {
                    0x09, 
                    0x05
                })
                Device (GFX0)
                {
                    Name (_ADR, Zero)
                    Method (_DSM, 4, NotSerialized)
                    {
                        Store (Package (0x02)
                            {
                                "hda-gfx", 
                                Buffer (0x0A)
                                {
                                    "onboard-1"
                                }
                            }, Local0)
                        DTGP (Arg0, Arg1, Arg2, Arg3, RefOf (Local0))
                        Return (Local0)
                    }
                }
                Device (HDAU)
                {
                    Name (_ADR, One)
                    Method (_DSM, 4, NotSerialized)
                    {
                        Store (Package (0x02)
                            {
                                "hda-gfx", 
                                Buffer (0x0A)
                                {
                                    "onboard-1"
                                }
                            }, Local0)
                        DTGP (Arg0, Arg1, Arg2, Arg3, RefOf (Local0))
                        Return (Local0)
                    }
                }
            }
    I found NPE7 to be the address of my computer graphic card.
    Add DTGP method under Device PCI0.
    Code: 
    Method (DTGP, 5, NotSerialized)
            {
                If (LEqual (Arg0, Buffer (0x10)
                        {
                            /* 0000 */    0xC6, 0xB7, 0xB5, 0xA0, 0x18, 0x13, 0x1C, 0x44, 
                            /* 0008 */    0xB0, 0xC9, 0xFE, 0x69, 0x5E, 0xAF, 0x94, 0x9B
                        }))
                {
                    If (LEqual (Arg1, One))
                    {
                        If (LEqual (Arg2, Zero))
                        {
                            Store (Buffer (One)
                                {
                                    0x03
                                }, Arg4)
                            Return (One)
                        }
                        If (LEqual (Arg2, One))
                        {
                            Return (One)
                        }
                    }
                }
                Store (Buffer (One)
                    {
                        0x00
                    }, Arg4)
                Return (Zero)
            }
    Install dsdt.aml system root or /Extra.
    Edit and install your AppleHDA.kext in /System/Library/Extensions.
    Run kext utils to update cache and permissions.

GeekBench: http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/354215

Credit goes to reference: hdmi audio instruction
 

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  • AppleHDA.kext.zip
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hi! thanks for all the info everyone here! Are you guys managing to run in 64 bit? I am using the xps 9100 with 5870 graphics card, and I've followed everything in the very first part and above, but it seems the computer won't boot if I delete ATI_init. It just sticks on the apple loading screen forever if I boot without. Any ideas?
 
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