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[Guide] Dell XPS 8930 Big Sur 11.4 (upgraded from Catalina 10.15.7), RX580/UHD630, OpenCore

Hi all!
I'm an HP Z220 user and I'm in the migration process to the Dell XPS 8930, based on the EFI in this initial post.

I've managed to adapt the config.plist to run with OC v0.8.2 and Monterey 12.4.
So far everything works perfectly ! :)
 
Hello,
I have an issue with my 8930 + OC 0.8.3 + Monterey 12.5.1 :
Everything works correctly, but 10 minutes after startup the kernel_task eats up to 50% CPU and a lot Idle Wake Ups (about 89000).
The machine is idle, no program running.
When going to sleep then wake, this doesn't occur anymore, until a next reboot...

Edit:
After hours / days of troubleshooting, I can precise some elements about this issue :
- Still present after MacOS Ventura beta 6 (apart from this, Ventura works perfect on our 8930 with Opencore 0.8.3)
- Issue occurs only if the CPU load is very very low (<1.0 with the "uptime" command line) at the 10th minute after startup
- If the load is more than 1.0-1.1, then between the 10th and the 11th minute after startup the kernel_task will climb to around 60% CPU load, with lots and lots of "Idle Wake Ups" (around 80000) and won't never go down.
- When putting the computing into sleep mode and wake up again, everything goes back to normal. Kernel_task is normal. And apparently it stays like this very stable.
- I checked the EFI and everything is normal. No additional software is installed. It does this thing even just after the MacOS installation. "EtreCheck" doesn't find something weird.

It would be great if someone here could check on his 8930 if can reproduce the issue. Just power on the computer, launch no app to ensure the CPU load is low. Just open the terminal app, and from time to time type "uptime" and observe the CPU load at around 10 minutes.
 
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Howdy all - A big thanks to dandelionclock and everyone else. I was able to use the EFI and I have a working XPS 8920 running 12.6. I don't have Bluetooth or Thunderbolt running yet but am hoping with the addition of some kexts, it will be running prefectly.

I still have to run the post-install steps but at least I was able to login which is huge.

Update - I was able to get Bluetooth and Wifi running using some kexts. I didn't know about these: https://dortania.github.io/Wireless-Buyers-Guide/misc/intel.html
 
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Howdy all - A big thanks to dandelionclock and everyone else. I was able to use the EFI and I have a working XPS 8920 running 12.6. I don't have Bluetooth or Thunderbolt running yet but am hoping with the addition of some kexts, it will be running prefectly.

I still have to run the post-install steps but at least I was able to login which is huge.
Great news ! :)
 
Howdy all - A big thanks to dandelionclock and everyone else. I was able to use the EFI and I have a working XPS 8920 running 12.6. I don't have Bluetooth or Thunderbolt running yet but am hoping with the addition of some kexts, it will be running prefectly.

I still have to run the post-install steps but at least I was able to login which is huge.

Update - I was able to get Bluetooth and Wifi running using some kexts. I didn't know about these: https://dortania.github.io/Wireless-Buyers-Guide/misc/intel.html
Hello!
Could you please try the following on your 8920 to see if you see the same "issue" as on my 8930 :
Start your system, ensure that no app is open and leave it idle for 10 minutes (check with "uptime" terminal command for both timer and load level).

Do you observe that after 10 or 11 minutes of uptime without any app opened the kernel_task takes up to 50-60% of CPU load (in activity monitor) ?

Thanks for your feedback !
 
Hello!
Could you please try the following on your 8920 to see if you see the same "issue" as on my 8930 :
Start your system, ensure that no app is open and leave it idle for 10 minutes (check with "uptime" terminal command for both timer and load level).

Do you observe that after 10 or 11 minutes of uptime without any app opened the kernel_task takes up to 50-60% of CPU load (in activity monitor) ?

Thanks for your feedback !
My computer doesn't seem to have this issue (at least not yet).

Maybe these ideas can help:

How to solve kernel_task high CPU usage? | MacRumors Forums

Maybe you have some processes running in the background like Photo or Spotlight (I think they have their own named process though)

If I see anything weird I will let you know but the computer seems to be running well.
 
Actually I spent some countless hours to try to debug this. No process seem to work in background. It only occur at the 10th minute of uptime:
- If at this time the PC is idle, then the kernel_task will go crazy forever (hours and hours), until the computer goes to sleep and wake, then everything is back to normal forever.
- If at the 10th minute there is a little bit of load (not much, a browser with a YouTube video is enough), then nothing happens and there won't be any kernel_task issue until next reboot.

It happens on Monterey and Ventura beta the same way (except that in Monterey the kernel_task runs on the first CPU core and in Ventura in second CPU core). I think it is more related to opencore or one of the kext extension in conjunction with my CPU type (i7 9700), but it's way beyond my skills level ! :)

(Occurs on fresh macOS installations with zero apps installed!)

For instance, see the attached pictures.

Picture 1 : 9 minutes of uptime with no load. Everything is normal, kernel_task is at 1.2% (CPU temp is cool at 29°C)

Uptime is 9 minutes.png


Picture 2 : uptime is now at 10 minutes. Kernel_task goes crazy at 69 and the temperature will rise up to 60°C within the next couple of minutes.

Uptime is 10 minutes.png


Which event triggered this thing at exactly 10 minutes ? That's a pure mystery to me.
 
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Hello,
Updated to the latest Ventura beta and OC 0.8.5 => Fully compatible. Now let's wait for the final release of Ventura !!
 
OK. I *THINK* I've found the cause of my 10 minutes uptime issue.
I've kept the initial SSDT-USBX.aml dsdt from the posted EFI. This is a mistake, I had to generate a new one from my own system.
So today I used ssdtime in Windows to generate this USBX aml file. Since then, I don't have the issue anymore. Still to be confirmed in the long term.

I also upgraded the XPS8930 with 64 GB of RAM and an i9-9900K, this machine is now maxed out ! :)

EDIT : I was wrong the issue still continues !
 
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Hello,
So here is an update on my weird case of high "kernel_task" after exactly 10 minutes of uptime.

I eventually narrowed the issue to be caused by using only an NVME SSD drive.
- If I use the nvme drive only, with low cpu usage, then at 10 minutes of uptime, I get 60% of kernel_task
- If I hook any SATA hard drive or SSD, with or without the NVME drive, then I never get these kernel_task issues.

I even replaced the original Dell nvme drive with a WD SN750 NVME, same behaviour.

So I still don't know the route cause, but now I attach a secondary SATA SSD (serving as "backup data" for instance) and everything is OK ! :)
 
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