Contribute
Register

Gigabyte GA-G41M Combo rev 1.3/1.4 - Fully working with Yosemite

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Messages
13
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK
CPU
i7-4790K
Graphics
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SC
Mac
  1. 0
Classic Mac
  1. 0
Mobile Phone
  1. 0
Hi everyone,

I know this board is old, but I recently acquired one and immediately started trying to install Mavericks 10.9.5. Almost a week after starting this endeavor, Yosemite was released so I switched to that OS instead. Here are the specs for this build.

CPU: intel Xeon E5450 3.0GHz / 12MB cache / 1333MHz fsb
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-G41M Combo rev 1.3 (I'm using the rev 1.4 F4 BIOS)
(The rev 1.3 and 1.4 boards were identical, just some beefed up electrical components were added to the 1.4 version...from what I read.)
RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) Patriot 1066MHz
Video: Nvidia GeForce 8400GS 256MB (Integrated intel X4500)
PSU: Corsair CX430

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 4.32.12 PM.png Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 4.32.43 PM.png

You will no doubt notice I have a Xeon CPU listed above in my specs. This cpu is a socket 771 modded to fit into the socket 775 motherboard. If you feel like going with a Xeon the best sites to check out are...
http://www.delidded.com/lga-771-to-775-adapter/ and
http://www.overclock.net/t/1431723/mod-lga775-support-for-lga771-xeon-cpus

**The intel socket 771 CPU microcodes had to be added to this motherboards BIOS for the Xeon to work properly. The sites above will give the necessary instructions to do this.**

I personally paid $32 for my Xeon on ebay. A comparable Core 2 Quad proc is the intel Q9650. It's going for around $100, but when I bought my Xeon, the core2 chip was around $150

Anyway, to install Mavericks and/or Yosemite with this motherboard/CPU combo I had some issues to overcome that didn't occur when I had a Core 2 Duo installed. I could not install using the ANY nvidia card. I had to install initially using just the integrated graphics. So here are the steps...

1) Make your Yosemite boot USB (There are many tutorials out there, so I won't go into how to do this)
2) If you are using a Xeon, boot from the IGP
3) Boot flags are -v -x cpus=1
4) Once you are at the installer, go into disk utility and prepare your hard drive for installation
5) Install Yosemite and reboot with the same flags as above
6) Use Multibeast 7 to install drivers (I made a DSDT from the F4 BIOS with a patch file I found on the net. It will be posted below. I will also include screenshots of what I chose to install.)

7) To fix the cpus=1 issue with a Xeon CPU, I have included a modified VoodooTSCSync kext below. If you are using a Core 2 Duo, you won't need this. I'm not sure if a Core 2 Quad CPU requires a TSCSync file though, as I don't have one to test with. Install the kext, repair permissions/rebuild cache and reboot.
8) For Xeon users, this is the time to disable the IGP and boot from the nvidia card. Using the boot flags -v -f npci=0x2000 GraphicsEnabler=Yes should get you proper screen resolution and acceleration from the video card.
9) To get sound working on this board (VIA VT1708S) I have included a kext that worked right after I installed and rebooted. (Took awhile to find one that actually worked!!!)

Note: The reason I had to install using the IGP was that with the Xeon CPU, the video from the nvidia card was so messed up, you could not see anything but a full screen of colourful atifacts.

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 4.35.25 PM.png

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 4.36.18 PM.png

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 4.37.12 PM.png

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 4.38.00 PM.png

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 4.38.45 PM.png

Links:
gigabyte ga-g41m combo patched dsdt
VIA VT1708S Kext
Modified VoodooTSCSync Kext to fix cpus=1

I hope this tutorial is able to help someone out there achieve their dream of running OS X! If it appears incomplete in any way, please let me know so I can make the needed changes!

Thanks!
 
hey my ethernet n sound is not working even if ur voodoohda kext is loaded !
i have the same board n successfully installed OS X Yosemite :)
plz help
 
hey my ethernet n sound is not working even if ur voodoohda kext is loaded !
i have the same board n successfully installed OS X Yosemite :)
plz help

There are only two things I can think of for sound not working. I think I forgot to mention in my tutorial that you should repair permissions/rebuild cache. I used kext wizard to do this which made it easy. The other thing is make sure the sound chip is enabled in the BIOS. I know this is supposed to be a no brainer, but I mention it because during my testing I disabled it and forgot to re-enable and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work when I finally got yosemite to install and run properly!
As for Ethernet, mine worked perfectly after install, but then disappeared after installing drivers with Multibeast, so I ran Multibeast again and installed the AtherosL1cEthernet 1.2.3 kext and all was good after rebooting.
Just to make sure, your board is definitely a rev. 1.3 or 1.4 and you are using the F4 BIOS version???

I'll keep thinking about what might keep sound and LAN to not work but nothing is standing out besides the things I've mentioned so far!
 
My pleasure! I hope everything goes super smooth for you!
Had to do a few reinstalls because I was messing around with my spare HD 7950 and GT 220. System is running perfectly on the GT 220. (HD 7950 wouldn't make sense in that kind of system)

G41M-Combo Rev 1.3
Bios F3 (No F4 for Rev 1.3)
Core 2 Duo E5500 2.8Ghz
8GB DDR3 (1333Mhz)
Gigabyte GT 220 1GB

Sound and Internet works. Tested most things and I haven't had any problems. Only the normal iMessage and FaceTime problem!

Thanks once again.
 
Thank you Viking. Got the sound working on my Yosemite now, thanks to your kext.
I have this board (rev 2.0) with C2D E8400. Yosemite freezes if I set usb legacy keyboard and mouse to disabled. And it's some hustle to set the data settings right if you have Windows 8.1 on the same machine. Windows not booting now when setting sata to Enhanced. Still looking into that.

G41M-Combo Rev 2.0
Bios FB
Core 2 Duo E8400 3 Ghz
4GB DDR2 800 MHZ
Gigabyte GT 740 2 GB
 
I have the same problem with my GA-G41M-COMBO rev. 2.0

G41M-Combo Rev 2.0 Bios FB
Core 2 Duo E8400
4GB DDR3 1333 Mhz
EVGA GT 440 1 GB

Please help!!!
 
Thank you Viking. Got the sound working on my Yosemite now, thanks to your kext.
I have this board (rev 2.0) with C2D E8400. Yosemite freezes if I set usb legacy keyboard and mouse to disabled. And it's some hustle to set the data settings right if you have Windows 8.1 on the same machine. Windows not booting now when setting sata to Enhanced. Still looking into that.

G41M-Combo Rev 2.0
Bios FB
Core 2 Duo E8400 3 Ghz
4GB DDR2 800 MHZ
Gigabyte GT 740 2 GB

That's odd! I have the Windows 10 Preview Running on a separate drive, with the same settings as for Yosemite and it runs smooth as silk! I haven't tried Win 8/8.1 in this computer yet. I don't see alot of differences between the two OS's however, so I'm not sure why it won't work. Perhaps it's something between board revisions that is causing the issues. I hope you can get things straightened out with it though!

Take care!
 
Heyy i have same motherboard.. and everything is working.. sleep, internet, graphics( gtx 650 ti boost) rear sound outputs and inputs.. but i have problem with front outputs.. do you have any clue what can be the solution.. audio chip is vt 1708s
im using voodoo 2.8.4 right now.. dsdt.aml is also used.. os x 10.10.1
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top