[Guide] Dell XPS 13 9360 on MacOS Sierra 10.12.x - LTS (Long-Term Support) Guide

[markperez1904]

Managed to get it to boot with the following settings (taken from RehabMans Laptop Config), however my HD620 is now displayed as 7MB and monitor brightness is not working. What am I missing? Cant attach problem reporting files, as I still use my external USB to start the new clover files.

Seem like a fresh install of macOS 10.14.6 with Darkvoid's EFI config has resulted to this as well (I used my own config.plist).

Sleep is broken and video memory it set to 7mb.

I presume this might be due to the EFI config not supporting macOS 10.14.6 (Darkvoid's repo states that it's a sample config only for 10.14.4).

 

[jkbuha]

change darkwake to 4 in the boot args
i had the same issue and this worked for me

(remember to also set DVMT pre-alloc to 128MB if HD or 192MB if you're on UHD)

 

[kylec]

Does anybody have a working battery cycle count btw? Mine is showing 0. Is the Dell battery even tracking its cycles?

Yeah, I can see that in System Information under Power. Couldn't say what the difference might be. I have pretty much a standard DarkVoid-based install, except that I stayed with FakeSMC instead of VirtualSMC, and I install all kexts to /S/L/E (which means adding LiluFriend).

 

[sbreezemac]

Hi @jkbuha ,

Which BIOS version are you using your undervolt settings with?

I tried the settings posted earlier in the thread (sticky, page 1) on BIOS 2.10.0 and the machine wouldn't POST ; I also have an i7-8550u/16GB/QHD. I unplugged the internal batteries (main, RTC), re-plugged, it came up and then I had to reset the EFI variables for video and machine booted back to OSX.

Also, I'm 99% certain the memory is LPDDR3, not DDR4. I've disassembled the machine a few times and the DRAM on my MB is Micron D9SVW ---> MT52L1G32D4PG-093 WT:B (https://www.micron.com/support/tools-and-utilities/fbga?fbga=D9SVW#pnlFBGA) .

The motherboard schematics aren't clear whether it's DDR3 or DDR4 so it could be either....



With regards to the UEFI settings, just send over the exact list of changes you implemented in the UEFI shell (ie: using setup_var) so I'll create a script for them and host them on github for future reference.

The below is just a subset; I imagine you've modified more settings to tweak things like TDP etc:

//HWP (Speed Shift)
setup_var 0x4AD 0x01

//Undervolt CPU
setup_var 0x653 0x46 // -0.070V
setup_var 0x655 0x01

//Undervolt GPU
setup_var 0x85A 0x4B //-0.075V
setup_var 0x863 0x4B //-0.075V
setup_var 0x85C 0x01
setup_var 0x865 0x01

//Undervolt Uncore
setup_var 0x852 0x4B
setup_var 0x854 0x01

//Overclock, CFG, WDT & XTU enable
setup_var 0x4DE 00
setup_var 0x64D 0x01
setup_var 0x64E 0x01

//DVMT patch
setup_var 0x785 0x06

 

[jkbuha]

Latest BIOS 2.11.1. If the machine doesn't POST then it's likely your chip die is more sensitive to voltage changes.

Start at -5mV increments, run Prime95 for 1h, decrease by -5mV and repeat until you get a BSOD. Then increase once by -5mV and you're done.

 

[ressetkk]

So it's been a while since I have updated my XPS. Right now I'm in the process of switching to OpenCore bootloader but I have faced a really uncool issue which I want to ask if any other owner got the same problem as well.
The thing is that NVRAM write is not working neither on OpenCore nor on Clover. Whenever I type in terminal sudo nvram -c I get:

nvram: Error clearing firmware variables: (iokit/common) not permitted

This one looks like a generic issue with desktop motherboards which use APTIO V, especially Z3xx.

Has the Dell changed something between the BIOS updates or maybe it's something else I'm missing?
I'm using 2.12.0 BIOS with macOS Mojave 10.14.5.
Thanks for helping out.

 

[guillegn]

Hi, I recently installed macOS 10.14.6 on a dell xps 9360 with iris plus 640 graphics, everything is working fine but my system ramdomly freezes after a few minutes of using the computer.

Any ideas on how to solve this? Or at least what can be the cause of the problem

 

[Richylitschy]

Hi, I recently installed macOS 10.14.6 on a dell xps 9360 with iris plus 640 graphics, everything is working fine but my system ramdomly freezes after a few minutes of using the computer.

Any ideas on how to solve this? Or at least what can be the cause of the problem

Does it freeze every time? I would suggest checking temps then.

 

[guillegn]

Does it freeze every time? I would suggest checking temps then.

Yeah, after a few minutes post login. What software do you suggest?

 

[Richylitschy]

Yeah, after a few minutes post login. What software do you suggest?

HW Monitor seems to be the most reliable