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

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On a side note, I had to dissasembly the machine in order to swap the keyboard, doing that I removed the cpu/gpu heatsink and I found a very nasty pile of thermal compound in there, so I cleaned it and reapplied with Prolimatech’s PK-3. I didin’t performed proper benchmarks, but checking the Intel Power Gadget I can tell it is at least 5-15 ºC cooler. It has never passed 80C under load since then.

Also I leave you here Dell’s Service Manual (way better than Ifixit’s teardown) for our laptop, in case Bozma wants to add it to future guides as reference if someone needs to deal with hardware issues.
 

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[Almost] Out Of The Box
GA-Z77X-UP5-TH |  i7 3770K |  GeForce GTX 770
HackPro [case mod]
MAXIMUS VII GENE |  i7 6700K |  GeForce GTX 970
Maximus X
ROG MAXIMUS X HERO |  i7 8700K |  GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition
bozma88 said:
Maybe you can activate, configure it on windows, then run linux or MacOS.
Click to expand...
Can you or someone else here confirm if i can enable it in BIOS and still be able to install Mac OS?. (I'm afraid it will brick the instalation, and i will not be able to turn off the option later.)

bozma88 said:
I think that the persistent nature of it means that even after a hdd wipe the core module is still active.
Click to expand...
IIRC This is true only for Windows, if you are using other OS it doesn't inject the file in OS at boot time when it detects that the file its not there (due to hdd wipe). If you want i can link you to the youtube video of presentation by Vitaly Kamluk, Sergey Belov, and Anibal Sacco on the matter.

bozma88 said:
In case of a robbery, I'd be more concerned about data safety, to be honest. The use of a password manager like 1Password (with a super strong master key) and File Vault (which, with proper efi drivers seems possible even on hackintoshes) are a starting point.
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In my case i'm not afraid of losing data, because of backup procedures and the use of Keepass in combination with cloud services. Regarding File Vault, i read somewhere that the implementation on non official hardware is not fail safe yet. (I could be wrong regarding this.) but i really don't want to stay locked outside my own laptop data. I think Veracypt containers are a good alternative. (Of course FDE (FileVault) are way safer, but AFAIK is not stable yet.)

bozma88 said:
Also, IIRC, beware that Computrace cannot be disabled once activated in BIOS.
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I'm not sure about that yet, i will confirm in a call to "Absolute Software"(the seller), in the youtube video by Vitaly at time 56:41, he said something about a procedure only "Absolute" can do to disable it.
 
Jiojimbo said:
On a side note, I had to dissasembly the machine in order to swap the keyboard, doing that I removed the cpu/gpu heatsink and I found a very nasty pile of thermal compound in there, so I cleaned it and reapplied with Prolimatech’s PK-3. I didin’t performed proper benchmarks, but checking the Intel Power Gadget I can tell it is at least 5-15 ºC cooler. It has never passed 80C under load since then.

Also I leave you here Dell’s Service Manual (way better than Ifixit’s teardown) for our laptop, in case Bozma wants to add it to future guides as reference if someone needs to deal with hardware issues.
Click to expand...
I have a sheet of liquidmetal thermal
pad waiting to be installed. I think I'll do it today, let's see how well it performs!
Thank you for the insights.
 
Guys - I have some interesting developments.

Hotpatching (with some additional files + changes) DOES fix the freezing issue on the affected 9360s.

Initially it was freezing as the SSDT-UIAC file was not matched properly to this laptop's hardware variation, reaffirming my belief that the issue actually lies with the i7-7500u+UHD config. I've since patched the right USB layout in and also injected the correct HDEF parameters (I'm using the AppleHDA patching method) and it works.

Great work @fv316 and @bozma88.
 
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jkbuha said:
Guys - I have some interesting developments.

Hotpatching (with some additional files + changes) DOES fix the freezing issue on the affected 9360s.

Initially it was freezing as the SSDT-UIAC file was not matched properly to this laptop's hardware variation, reaffirming my belief that the issue actually lies with the i7-7500u+UHD config. I've since patched the right USB layout in and also injected the correct HDEF parameters (I'm using the AppleHDA patching method) and it works.

One issue though:

1) Device (USBX) has now gone, which means that even if EC is correctly defined it does not have the right kUSB power properties attached. Can these be injected via SSDT?

Great work @fv316 and @bozma88.
Click to expand...
This is a very good milestone.
I don't know which hotpatching plist are you using, and whether you are also enabling HWP.
Try leaving HWP or native PM disabled, like in my initial guide. Just fix USB and enable hotpatching. Then report back.

When we have isolated what is causing the freeze, I'll issue the 10.12.5 guide update with hotpatching and info to fix the power freeze.
 
I stayed as close to your config as possible (M9,1 noHWP etc).

I've attached my SSDTs and config.plist so anyone having similar freezing problems can hotpatch accordingly. The one SSDT I've removed is PluginType1 as I rather liked my Fn+insert sleep function.

Oh and I've also fixed the USB power by injecting a new SSDT-USBX device.
 

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jkbuha said:
I stayed as close to your config as possible (M9,1 noHWP etc).

I've attached my SSDTs and config.plist so anyone having similar freezing problems can hotpatch accordingly. The one SSDT I've removed is PluginType1 as I rather liked my Fn+insert sleep function.

Oh and I've also fixed the USB power by injecting a new SSDT-USBX device.
Click to expand...
So now also fn+sleep works without panic on wake?
 
Yes if you use my attached files. I've removed the PluginType1 as Fn+Insert didn't work with Macbook9,1.

I'm also trying out native HWP-enabled SMBIOSes such as MBP13,2 to see the performance.

I've attached a screenshot showing idle performance.
 

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  • Idle_MacBookPro13,2_hotpatch.png
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jkbuha said:
Oh and I've also fixed the USB power by injecting a new SSDT-USBX device.
Click to expand...

Could you please post your ioreg? I'd like to see how you set up your usb in case I set up mine wrong. Although I have a suspicion that our FHD and UHD models have different ports in which case we should probably update the guide to highlight the variation and avoid confusion.

Please keep us posted on your experience with MBP13,2 SMBIOS, I am very interested in this. Plus the Kaby Lake 14,x SMBIOSes are out now too if you're keen to experiment.
 
jkbuha said:
Yes if you use my attached files. I've removed the PluginType1 as Fn+Insert didn't work with Macbook9,1.

I'm also trying out native HWP-enabled SMBIOSes such as MBP13,2 to see the performance.

I've attached a screenshot showing idle performance.
Click to expand...
Btw 9,1 is hwp native.
 
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