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[GUIDE] Dell XPS 9530

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vbo said:
Not to the point of self destructing hardware components though.. That would either be a major design flaw or a specific one-off component failure, but laptops don't self destroy all the time!
Click to expand...

Yeah for sure. It must have been a faulty component from the get go in my case.
 
Agreed, it looks like a faulty component, better it fails within warranty than outside.

As its both not working on battery or with either of my 2 AC adapters its most likely the power circuit which was fried.

The bios flash was more than a week ago and would have failed instantly.

Sadly I have to wait on my international warranty transfer to complete, only then I can initiate a repair request (Brought the laptop from abroad). Apparently this takes 8 working days :banghead:.

Took out the SSD drives I installed and managed to backup the OS X installation + Clover, so at least no data (and work) is lost).

As soon as the laptop is repaired, I will continue the OS X installation.

The BCM94352Z NGFF wifi card I ordered should be coming in next week, so I will only be able to try that out when the laptop is repaired.
 
The Lenovo Yoga range also has the NGFF Wifi cards. Unfortunately the BCM94352Z is not whitelisted and the BIOS are the most difficult to patch as they require de-soldering of the chip from the motherboard and then using an external programmer.
In a way I'm glad I had to send it back as I'm not keen on the USB Wifi dongles.

There are no other NGFF Wifi card that I'm aware of that are compatible on multiple platforms. :(
 
According to what I read, Dell does not blacklist components, so ideally it should at least be recognized by the laptop.

Question is though if pin 20 (for Wifi) and/or pin 51 (for Bluetooth) need to be taped off in order for the card to be "switched on".

Today I unplugged the SSD raid drives from the laptop and connected them over USB to a Mavericks VMWare image. When it died it was left downloading OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 install from the appstore.
Interestingly enough there is nothing in /var/log/system.log (last write at 19:53) and the last write from the Appstore is a download progress notification at 20:07.

So at least it does not look like OS X had anything to do with the laptop dying, at least some error related to that would have been logged.
 
the-darkvoid said:
...
Today I unplugged the SSD raid drives from the laptop and connected them over USB to a Mavericks VMWare image. When it died it was left downloading OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 install from the appstore.
Interestingly enough there is nothing in /var/log/system.log (last write at 19:53) and the last write from the Appstore is a download progress notification at 20:07.

So at least it does not look like OS X had anything to do with the laptop dying, at least some error related to that would have been logged.
Click to expand...

I think it is unlikely your hardware failure was related to OS X, but nevertheless, the lack of logs to system.log is not proof. In the case of a kernel panic or other kernel error that causes shutdown/reboot/lockup, nothing will be written to system.log.

OS X does not have a robust crash dump system such as the one in Windows.
 
Installing OS X Mavericks

In order to prepare a bootable installation USB you will need to use a Macintosh computer.

Execute the following steps on the Mac:

  1. Download "Install OS X Mavericks.app" from the application store

  2. Open the context menu of "Install OS X Mavericks.app" and select "Show Package Contents"

  3. Navigate to "Contents" -> "SharedSupport" and mount "InstallESD.dmg"

  4. Open a terminal window and type "cd /Volumes/OS\ X\ Install\ ESD"

  5. Once in the "OS X Install ESD" directory, type "open BaseSystem.dmg" in order to mount the base system image.

  6. Using "Disk Utility" format a 8GB or larger USB drive with GUID partition (Select this in options)

  7. Restore the mounted "BaseSystem.dmg" onto the formatted USB drive

  8. Delete the "Packages" symbolic link in "/Volumes/OS X Base System/System/Library/Installation"

  9. Copy "Packages" folder from "OS X Install ESD" to "/Volumes/OS X Base System/System/Library/Installation"

  10. Copy "BaseSystem.chunklist" and "BaseSystem.dmg" (both hidden files so use Terminal) into "/Volumes/OS X Base System"

  11. Retrieve the disk identifier of the USB stick by clicking the Info button in disk utility. The result will show something like "/dev/disk2".

  12. In Terminal type "diskutil mount /dev/disk2s1" (replace the disk identifier with your own). This will mount the EFI volume in Finder

  13. Extract the default Clover setup into the EFI folder. You should now have a "/Volumes/EFI/CLOVER" folder.

  14. Unmount the USB

Execute the following steps on the Dell XPS 15:



  1. Boot the laptop and enter the BIOS to change the SATA setting to AHCI instead of RAID (Without this step OS X will not be able to install to the internal drives)

  2. Restart the laptop and use F12 to boot from the newly created boot stick

  3. Clover will display, select to boot from "OS X Mavericks Installation"

  4. OS X Mavericks installation will now start, be aware that it takes quite some time for the GUI to show up.

  5. Press spacebar to close the Bluetooth assistant wizard if it pops up.

  6. Open "Disk Utility" from the "Utilities" menu and prepare your destination drive (either internal or USB) for installation.

  7. Format the drive using GUID partitioning as we will be using Clover EFI
    Note that if you have the mid-tier model and replaced the 32GB mSATA SSD with something larger you can create a raid 0 (Striped RAID) with 128KB block size.

  8. Continue the OS X installation as normal.
    Once it prompts to restart, press F12 again to boot from the USB installer stick, your newly installed OS X should now show up in the selection menu.

    Boot into the new OS X installation, note that it can take quite some time after the bluetooth controller message for the desktop to show.

    This is because there is no acceleration activated yet and it will enter non-accelerated VESA graphics mode.
 
Unlocking the BIOS

In order for the Intel HD 4600 graphics to work with the 3200x1800 QHD+ screen, a BIOS unlock is needed.
I hope another way can be found around this problem, but I have been unable to find any other method.

Additional bonus is though that the MSR 0x02 register can also be unlocked through the BIOS unlock.

** WARNING **
Unlocking the Bios is at your own risk and can brick your entire laptop permanently! Do the following steps at your own risk.

​

  1. Ensure you are updated to the latest bios (Currently Rev. A05) (http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/555/product-support/product/xps-15-9530/drivers)

  2. Download the AMI Flash Utility (AFIWin 4.xx link on the page)

  3. Use AFUWin64 to save your current bios to a ROM file

  4. Download UEFITool by CodeRush

  5. Open the dumped bios and scroll down until you find "Setup" in the module column

  6. Right click on the "Compressed Section" just below the "DXE Dependency Section", and select "Extract body as", save this as "setup.bin" (474,524 bytes in size)

  7. Next open setup.bin in a hex editor and search for "01 01 00 01 01 01", note that there will be only one match.

  8. Update this to 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 (11 times 01), which will enable all menus.

  9. Save this to "setup_patched.bin"

  10. Back in UEFITool right-click the section you just extracted and select "Replace body" and select "setup_patched.bin" for replacement.

  11. Save the resulting ROM file to "bios_patched.bin"

  12. Open a command prompt with administrative rights and execute: "afuwinx64 bios_patched.bin /GAN"

  13. After rebooting enter the BIOS with F2, and see the new menu structure.

  14. Navigate to "Advanced" -> "CPU Configuration" -> "CFG Lock" and update this to "Disabled". This will unlock MSR02 for OS X XPCM power management.

  15. Navigate to "Chipset" -> "System Agent (SA) Configuration" -> "Graphics Configuration" -> "DVMT Pre- Allocated" and update this to "128M". This will allow OS X enough memory to drive the 3200x1800 display at full resolution.
​

Credits for this procedure to JRandomHacker (http://forums.mydigitallife.info/th...io-UEFI-Advanced-Menu-Unlock-Bonus-MSR-unlock)
 
Installing Clover Bootloader

If you have a OS X compatible USB wifi stick, now is a good time to install the drivers for it. I am using an RTL8129SU chipset USB stick which works great. Also the Toshiba Dynadock U3 (DisplayLink) USB3 gigabit ethernet works after installing the DisplayLink drivers.


  1. Start "Disk Utility" and determine your bootup drive identifier, e.g. /dev/disk0

  2. Open a terminal prompt and type "diskutil mount /dev/disk0s1", this should mount the EFI folder

  3. Use the downloaded default Clover setup and extract it to "/Volumes/EFI/EFI/CLOVER"

  4. Add the following kexts to the Clover kexts/Other folder:


  1. Now reboot and load Clover from the installation drive using the F12 boot menu.
 
Enabling QHD+ in OS X Mavericks

The Sharp QHD+ panel in my Dell XPS 9530 reports in its EDID that it only supports 1 resolution, 3200x1800 which is driven at a pixel clock of 373.25 Mhz.

Any other resolution, refresh rate or pixel clock will give a blank screen.
Problem is that OS X (up to 10.9.4 at least) locks the maximum pixel clock somewhere around 250 Mhz (used to be
165 Mhz).
So we need to unlock the maximum pixel clock.

Unlocking the maximum pixel clock requires patching the IOKit Framework kext.
I could not find a way to binary patch framework kexts through Clover, so we will have to do it on disk.

Download macPixelClockPatcher.command (Credit https://code.google.com/p/mac-pixel-clock-patch/)
Through terminal execute sudo macPixelClockPatcher.command, a backup of IOKit named IOKit.bak should automatically be created.
If no output is generated that means your version of IOKit was not recognized for some reason, currently 10.9.0 until 10.9.4 should be supported.

Once IOKit is patched it needs to be codesigned in order to be loaded correctly:
sudo codesign -f -s - /System/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Versions/A/IOKit

Now prepare Clover to patch an existing framebuffer, mount the EFI volume of your boot disk and open Clover config.plist, add the following kext patch:

Code: 
<dict>
    <key>Comment</key>
    <string>Enable 128MB for Azul framebuffer 0x0a2e0008</string>
    <key>Find</key>
    <data>
    CAAuCgEDAwMAAAAE
    </data>
    <key>Name</key>
    <string>AppleIntelFramebufferAzul</string>
    <key>Replace</key>
    <data>
    CAAuCgEDAwMAAAAI
    </data>
</dict>

Next enable injection of ig-platform-id in Clover

Code: 
<key>Graphics</key>
<dict>
    <key>Inject</key>
    <dict>
      <key>ATI</key>
      <false/>
      <key>Intel</key>
      <true/>
      <key>NVidia</key>
      <false/>
    </dict>
    <key>InjectEDID</key>
    <false/>
    <key>ig-platform-id</key>
    <string>0x0a2e0008</string>

Additionally rebuild your kernel cache using "Kext Utility".
Now reboot and cross your fingers, if all goes well you should be greeted with a QHD+ QE/CI accelerated OS X at 3200x1800 .
 
DSDT Patching

In order for OS X to properly communicate with the devices in the laptop, the BIOS/ACPI DSDT information needs to be patched.

Take the following steps:


  • While in the Clover boot selection menu press F4 to save the original DSDT and SSDTs to disk

  • In OS X, determine the boot drive identifier through Disk Utility, e.g. /dev/disk0.

  • Mount the EFI volume in Terminal using the following command: diskutil mount /dev/disk0s1.

  • Navigate to /Volumes/EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/original and copy DSDT.aml and SSDT*.aml from there to ˜/Documents/DSDT.

  • Download iasl and execute iasl -da ˜/Documents/DSDT.

  • Download Maciasl and add the following patch sources:

  • Apply the following patches to DSDT.dsl:

    • [1.8] Fix PARSEOP_ZERO Error
    • [1.5] Fix ADBG Error
    • [2.12] Rename GFX0 to IGPU
    • [3.2] 7-series/8-series USB
    • [4.01] Acer Aspire E1-571
    • [7.01] IRQ Fix
    • [7.02] SMBus Fix
    • [7.03] RTC Fix
    • [7.05] Shutdown Fix v2
    • [7.06] HPET Fix
    • [7.07] OS Check Fix
    • [7.08] AC Adapter Fix
    • [7.09] Add MCHC
    • [7.11] Fix _WAK Arg0 v2
    • [7.14] Add IMEI
    • Audio HDEF


  • Apply the following patches to SSDT-9.dsl:

    • _BST package size
    • [2.12] Rename GFX0 to IGPU


  • Apply the following patches to SSDT-11.dsl:

    • [2.12] Rename GFX0 to IGPU
    • Intel HD 4600
    • [2.11] Brightness fix (Haswell)


  • Apply the following patches to SSDT-12.dsl:

    • [2.12] Rename GFX0 to IGPU


  • Apply the following patches to SSDT-14.dsl:

    • Remove invalid operands
    • [2.12] Rename GFX0 to IGPU
    • Disable Nvidia card (Non-operational in OS X)


  • Compile DSDT.dsl and all the SSDT*.dsl files, place the resulting *.aml files in /Volumes/EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched

  • Reboot
 
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