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Guide: Dell XPS 8500

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Leonowski et al,

I've been lurking a while and followed your instructions, and it seems as though all is well. Most recently, changed the SMBios at your suggestion to MacBookPro9,1 and I no longer get inexplicable slowdowns with spinning beach balls.

It boots normally and audio (headphone jack on front, haven't tested others) and video work.

I should say that I took out the ATI card and put in an EVGA nVidia GeForce GT 640 with 2GB DDR3. I can highly recommend it; it was recognized automatically without any intervention on my part, recognized my monitor's resolution correctly. System Profiler identifies it correctly. It's also very quiet and takes power from the slot, not needing a connector for power.

JHM
 
Yeah - I have to get an Nvidia card as soon as I can. I purchased the Radeon 7770 from Dell using a gift I got with the 8500 purchase. I should have instead bought an Nvidia card. But, at that point, I wasn't sure if we could eventually run OS X on it. I was running into walls trying to get Lion working. Eventually, Mountain Lion came out and I was able to figure out most of this stuff based on past experiences installing OS X on different machines.

Anyway, I have to say, this is the best hackintosh I've ever used. It runs really smooth for me. The Intel HD 4000 is fast enough for everything else mac related. I will eventually get an Nvidia card so I can game in the Mac and not have to switch to Windows. Or, I might wait to see if there's a small chance that the HD 7000 video cards get support in the future.

I bet there is a way to fix the audio only coming out of the front jack. There's probably a better way than using VoodooHDA - I just need to investigate a bit more. I did notice that HDMI audio appears in the system prefs. I haven't tested it, but I bet it works.
 
I have been interested in using it as an HTPC, connected to a flat screen TV via HDMI. That would be very cool if that worked and was hassle-free. With an SSD (these are suddenly cheap just over the past few months!) this would run silently and use little power too. If you get the HDMI audio/video working well you might start a new thread with how it's done, I think people would be interested.

Thanks for all your help btw.

J
 
JHM said:
I have been interested in using it as an HTPC, connected to a flat screen TV via HDMI. That would be very cool if that worked and was hassle-free. With an SSD (these are suddenly cheap just over the past few months!) this would run silently and use little power too. If you get the HDMI audio/video working well you might start a new thread with how it's done, I think people would be interested.

Thanks for all your help btw.

J
Click to expand...

JHM, I actually think HDMI audio is already working (video is already working with my instructions). I'll have to plug it into my tv to find out. This is all using the HD 4000 video output.

For NVIDIA cards, I presume they all "just work" - but I'll have to get an Nvidia card to find out.
 
Leonowski,

I suspect that all the nVidia 6xx cards will work out of the box too. If you can wait a month the 650 series cards might be available - they use the same chip as the 640 series, but DDR5 rather than DDR3. It is thought that it will make a difference as the 640 series are supposedly constrained by the DDR3.

When you said:

Oh - forgot to mention audio. i use VoodooHDA with the kext altered with this device/vendor id:

<key>IOPCIPrimaryMatch</key>
<string>0x1e208086</string>

How do you alter the kext?

And when you described:
7 - In the /Extra folder, we can add support for the HD 4000 easily by adding this device to the org.chameleon.Boot.plist file:


<key>device-properties</key>
<string>8800000001000000010000007c0000000200000002 010c00d041030a000000000101060000027fff040010000000 6d006f00640065006c0000001a000000496e74656c20484420 477261706869637320343030302c0000004100410050004c00 2c00690067002d0070006c006100740066006f0072006d002d 006900640000000800000005006201</string>

do you think that enables just the video, or HDMI audio too? That is, would HDMI audio would work without the VoodooHDA Kkext?

Thanks

J
 
Leonowski,

I have found that four of the USB ports don't work. Not that it makes much difference, there are lots of them.

The ones that do: top of the box, four topmost on back.
The ones that don't: two on the front of the box, bottom two on back of the box.

Also, I re-installed everything, no spinning beachballs, very stable now.

Thanks!

J
 
Hi JHM,

1) To alter the kext, first put a copy of it somewhere where you can work on it (and so you don't disrupt the original one).
2) Right click on the kext through Finder > choose the option to show the package. This should open up another finder window.
3) In the new window, open the Contents folder.
4) Edit the info.plist file with your favorite text editor.
5) Look for the IOPCIPrimaryMatch section in the xml file and alter the value below it.

You shouldn't need to do this since I posted the attachment to the kext in an earlier post in this thread. Check out my attachment and just use that after using the VoodooHDA installer.

For the HDMI stuff, video and audio should work. Just check the sound prefs to see if "HDMI Audio" appears as an output option.
 
JHM said:
Leonowski,

I have found that four of the USB ports don't work. Not that it makes much difference, there are lots of them.

The ones that do: top of the box, four topmost on back.
The ones that don't: two on the front of the box, bottom two on back of the box.

Also, I re-installed everything, no spinning beachballs, very stable now.

Thanks!

J
Click to expand...

It sounds like you're referring to the USB 3.0 ports on the XPS 8500. Those are the blue ports. They should work out of the box as Mountain Lion supports it. If they aren't working, I would check to make sure if USB 3.0 is working in Windows/Linux for you. I have read about problems with the USB 3.0 ports on the Dell forums. So, if there is a problem with them in Windows, you should contact Dell to get a fix.
 
leonowski said:
Yup - speedstep is working if you see the jumping of frequencies. During idle moments, you should see the frequency/multiplier/voltage drop for power saving. When it needs more horsepower, it should jump up.

I don't know why bluetooth isn't working for you. For me, it worked out of the box. Do you get the bluetooth icon at the top of screen?

Wi-fi will probably never work because it's the atheros ar9485. You can replace the mini-pcie wireless card though. You should be able to find one of the many other chipsets that do work and drop it right in.

SMBIOS.plist fakes the system management BIOS information that comes from real Macs. It contains info like serial numbers, model numbers, type of RAM etc. I chose a MacBookPro9,1 SMBIOS.plist because they are the latest hardware from Apple and they use ivy Bridge + HD 4000 graphics. I figured that would be the best to use for now. By default, Unibeast/Multibeast installs a MacPro3,1 SMBIOS.plist. If one day Apple releases something closer to the hardware found in the XPS 8500, we should switch to that one.

Chameleon Wizard has a great interface for choosing a pre-made SMBIOS. Check it out.
Click to expand...

Yep - The Bluetooth icon shows on the top, but using the assistant or set-up new bluetooth doesn't seem to ever find the device im trying to set up. And isn't transmitting, because the computer doesn't show up on any of iphone or ipad.

Thanks again for you help. Will continue to watch your thread for updates
 
Hi, I followed exact instruction and is working on 10.8.1

However, when upgrading to 10.8.2, the whole thing can no longer be boot up. Safe mode works. Just want to let you guys know maybe do not upgrade to 10.8.2 yet.
 
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