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

Finally got one of these, XPS 8930 with an i7 8700. I’ve tried to update the 0.6.9 EFI to 0.8.3 using OCConfigCompare but ended with an USB stick unable to find my Mojave OS (simply cloned from an older machine).

Amazingly, using - as is - the OpenCore USB key I’ve made for my Optiplex 9020 (iMac14,1 SMBIOS) worked fine to boot my cloned Mojave.

A few mods later in the Config.plist, mainly SMBIOS related but also a couple of other things (ACPI, patches…) and it works fine.

A weird thing: modding the Booter and Kernel quirks following the Dortania Coffee Lake guide to the letter made the system unbootable! I’ve reverted the EFI to the Optiplex 9020 quirks…

My intent is to migrate all my Optiplex 9020 machine - all disks, etc… - to the XPS 8930, being sure that it runs Mojave fine. Then, I’ll update to Big Sur, the goal being staying not too far from the latest OS.

BTW, no CFG Lock variable found in this BIOS, verified with UEFITool after ROM extraction.

**Using a Radeon Pro WX5100 for this build.
 
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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 ! :)
Any possibility you could share the EFI? Maybe a bit better than my « hack » Optiplex 9020 EFI!
 
Oh well, simply copied Booter and Kernel quirks from the OC 0.6.9 EFI provided here, and it worked.

Kinda interesting to note that a lot of different OC settings and quirks could work for the same machine…
 
Oh well, simply copied Booter and Kernel quirks from the OC 0.6.9 EFI provided here, and it worked.

Kinda interesting to note that a lot of different OC settings and quirks could work for the same machine…
Yes I had the same remark when I tried to boot my XPS 8930 with the EFI from my previous HP Z220 (Ivy Bridge Intel 3rd ben). OK the boot time was a bit slow, and probably the sleep / wake / USB would not work so great, but all in all it was working well !
But I prefer going on the safe side with a brand new 0.8.5 and perfectly fit ACPI AML tailored on my machine ! :)
 
Yes I had the same remark when I tried to boot my XPS 8930 with the EFI from my previous HP Z220 (Ivy Bridge Intel 3rd ben). OK the boot time was a bit slow, and probably the sleep / wake / USB would not work so great, but all in all it was working well !
But I prefer going on the safe side with a brand new 0.8.5 and perfectly fit ACPI AML tailored on my machine ! :)
Still working well for you with Monterey?
 
Still working well for you with Monterey?


Yes sure, working with Ventura since beta 4.

And upgraded to Ventura 13.0 final release on day 1 without any issue.
I think the OC 0.8.6 will be released in a few days, but in the release notes of the highly builds I can't see some very relevant updated regarding our beloved 8930...
 
@Skyfoxxp , is it possible for you to share your working OC 0.8.5 EFI?

Reason I ask: I am unable to adapt the 0.6.9 shared EFI here to 0.8.3 or above… I’ve tried with OCConfigCompare, no go!

By saving the old 0.6.9 Config with OpenCoreConfigurator, no go!

Last, just editing with a plist editor, no go!

In all these cases, OpenCore doesn’t « see » my APFS Mojave and Openshell…

CE2BD8F8-6573-416E-BBE2-FE7AC020FCA4.jpeg

0.6.9 is ok…

7FB09122-D64D-4BDA-B448-35443A5D8E94.jpeg


I’ve succeeded to « adapt » my Optiplex 0.8.3 OpenCore USB stick but unfortunately, I can’t enable power management correctly (SSDT plug not working, neither with iMac18,3 nor 19,2).
 
Ok, I finally managed to create a bootable OC 0.8.3 USB stick with Power Management functioning.

However, the lowest the CPU will go is 1.1 MHz instead of 0.8 MHz. This is with SMBIOS iMac18,3. If I choose iMac19,2, lowest will be 1.3…
 
Ok, I finally managed to create a bootable OC 0.8.3 USB stick with Power Management functioning.

However, the lowest the CPU will go is 1.1 MHz instead of 0.8 MHz. This is with SMBIOS iMac18,3. If I choose iMac19,2, lowest will be 1.3…

I have the same behavior, with my i9 9900K and my i7 9700, the minimum speed is 1.2 Ghz.
With a very old Ivy bridge it went down to 800 Mhz.
However this seems normal to me, that's the iMac SMBIOS that decides with is the lowest frequency.
You can lower it more by using some advanced CPUFriend tools, but I can't see really the interest...

Also please note that for a recent OS with Coffee Lake CPU, it's recommended to use iMac19,1 for SMBIOS (not 19,2).

The temperatures and power consumptions are super reasonable at 1.2 / 1.3 Ghz (My i9 9900K is at 36°C when idle, which is OK). However, it is recommended to replace the stock cooling system with the more advanced one provided by Dell especially the top fan, and the CPU fan. Those are standard Dell parts. The upgraded CPU fan/heatsink has some heat pipes and a blower blowing directly on top of the case.

Please find attached my EFI folder (OC 0.8.5 for Ventura), with all SMBIOS / MLP data replaced by 00000. Replace with your own SMBIOS data.
 

Attachments

  • Backup Dell XPS 8930 085 Ventura.zip
    16.1 MB · Views: 36
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I have the same behavior, with my i9 9900K and my i7 9700, the minimum speed is 1.2 Ghz.
With a very old Ivy bridge it went down to 800 Mhz.
However this seems normal to me, that's the iMac SMBIOS that decides with is the lowest frequency.
You can lower it more by using some advanced CPUFriend tools, but I can't see really the interest...

Also please note that for a recent OS with Coffee Lake CPU, it's recommended to use iMac19,1 for SMBIOS (not 19,2).

The temperatures and power consumptions are super reasonable at 1.2 / 1.3 Ghz (My i9 9900K is at 36°C when idle, which is OK). However, it is recommended to replace the stock cooling system with the more advanced one provided by Dell especially the top fan, and the CPU fan. Those are standard Dell parts. The upgraded CPU fan/heatsink has some heat pipes and a blower blowing directly on top of the case.

Please find attached my EFI folder (OC 0.8.5 for Ventura), with all SMBIOS / MLP data replaced by 00000. Replace with your own SMBIOS data.
Thanks a lot, really appreciated. Yes, not a big deal for the 800 MHz but I’m used to get the lowest multiplier on my other Hacks so…

I’ve tried the CPUFriend and CPUFriendFriend kexts but it didn’t made any difference!

You’re right about the top and CPU fans, they tends to roar like a jet engine when the processor is stressed a bit.

I’ve tried iMac19,2 because one of the built to order version came with an i7 8700…
 
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