Guide for Gigabyte H/Z97N-WIFI Using HD4600 or GTX 750 Ti Using Clover (El Capitan)

[neatokino]

Thank you, Stork, for your excellent guide! I had been running Yosemite flawlessly with my setup (Z97-WIFI with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2048 MB and 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5 with 16GB memory), but I met complete frustration in trying to do an upgrade to El Capitan through the App Store.

After one too many spinning beach balls on a gray screen during the attempted upgrade, I decided to start from scratch with El Capitan and followed your guide with easy complete success. The nice surprise was to see how Tonymac has incorporated Clover into the multibeast installation, making that process much simpler than it had been with Clover for the past couple of years.

After installation, I used Clover Configurator to re-input all the necessary iMessage information from my Yosemite build, and everything's working perfectly.

Great guide and thanks for the help!

 

[Stork]

Thank you, Stork, for your excellent guide! I had been running Yosemite flawlessly with my setup (Z97-WIFI with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2048 MB and 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5 with 16GB memory), but I met complete frustration in trying to do an upgrade to El Capitan through the App Store.

After one too many spinning beach balls on a gray screen during the attempted upgrade, I decided to start from scratch with El Capitan and followed your guide with easy complete success. The nice surprise was to see how Tonymac has incorporated Clover into the multibeast installation, making that process much simpler than it had been with Clover for the past couple of years.

After installation, I used Clover Configurator to re-input all the necessary iMessage information from my Yosemite build, and everything's working perfectly.

Great guide and thanks for the help!

You're welcome. I'll pass your praise about MultiBeast onto tonymacx86 and MacMan.

 

[Brachiator]

Hi Stork et al,
just wanted to chime in and report back on my success! Following your excellent guide and having the correct parts for the build, this is what I have as a result.

1. Working perfectly on El Capitan 10.11.3.
2. All USB 3 ports work as expected using your .plist modification.
3. The built-in Bluetooth on this card works natively with the Apple trackpad add-on.
4. Messages was not working, I tried the fix on this forum but had no luck, did more searching and found another way to do it on ****** . Messages now works perfectly!
5. System definitions set at 14.2.
6. Yeah Baby!

I want to thank all the people who contribute on this forum, this website and others without which we would not be running Apples OS on PC parts.

P.S. I ordered a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler to help out, it needs it!

UPDATE: Received the CPU cooler today and installed it.
While still using the Intel CPU cooler that comes packaged with it, I ran iFFmpeg and converted a video file. Then I did the same test, with the CoolerMaster.
Bottom line, an easy 20°C+ decrease at full load and 5 to 8°C decrease at idle...astonishing!

 

[Brachiator]

Hello Stork,
I have a question regarding MultiBeast 8.1 that was released today.
A new feature is the enabling of USB2 and USB3 on many different Motherboards.
Does this fix supersede our .kext and .plist fix? Or is it one and the same? Thanks!

 

[Stork]

Hello Stork,
I have a question regarding MultiBeast 8.1 that was released today.
A new feature is the enabling of USB2 and USB3 on many different Motherboards.
Does this fix supersede our .kext and .plist fix? Or is it one and the same? Thanks!

Yes. All you need to chose is:

Drivers > USB > 7/8/9 Series USB Support
Enables full USB 2.0 and 3.0 support on 7/8/9 Series motherboards. Installs FakePCIID.kext
and FakePCIID_XHCIMux.kext to /Library/Extensions.

Both of those kexts are the ones I recommended in the original post which I will update real soon now. You don't need the GenericUSBXHCI.kext.

 

[Brachiator]

And no need to modify the Clover .plist?

 

[Stork]

And no need to modify the Clover .plist?

Only if you're doing a fresh install. If you are just updating your drivers, you just need to pick your updated drivers and your config.plist file will not be changed.

 

[Brachiator]

Great, thank you!

 

[ski4evr]

I've narrowed it down to the motherboard. I swapped out components with the other functioning system and the reboot error when trying to install El Capitan (Clover USB -or- direct update from a working Clover Yosemite install) moves with the motherboard. I swapped everything, including the i7 CPU. I even pulled the bluetooth/wifi card that came with the motherboard.

----- RAM, Power Supply, Power Switch, Case Fan, Hot Swap Bay, CPU Fan, CPU (nothing else was connected)

Both motherboards are using the same BIOS settings. Both motherboards have the same BIOS versions (F8; the current one on the Gigabyte website).

Next steps/options:
1) re-flash the BIOS version on the troublesome motherboard to F8 (maybe the factory one is in error)
2) return the motherboard somehow through Amazon
3) just live with Yosemite on the troublesome motherboard and be done with it

Thoughts?

1. Low probability, but it will get you a quicker return if you do it and it fails.
2. You'll probably have to swap out the motherboard with Gigabyte (RMA). I've had to RMA a motherboard and got a replacement motherboard within two weeks. You could try to return it to Amazon, but I think you've had it too long in which case Amazon will recommend you contact Gigabyte.
3. Don't live with a product that a) you're not happy with and/or b) isn't working as it should.

Good luck! Been there, done that and glad I did.

I was finally able to install El Capitan on the second system. I got a replacement motherboard through Gigabyte RMA. I had to swap the RAM around to get it to boot on the Clover USB thumb drive, but that was the only thing that wasn't straight forward.

I deduce that these installs are moody with RAM and motherboard combinations. I had identical symptoms on my first attempt with the replacement motherboard; "Row of pluses". I switched the one stick of RAM to the other slot, and VIOLA! Install went smooth and I installed the second stick of RAM post-install with no issues. I went through the same steps on the previous motherboard I returned - just no luck. Again, I think some RAM sticks and motherboards are just moody. I've built 6 hackintoshes. Each are a little different with respect to RAM. Some needed just one stick in a certain slot, some didn't mind having both slots filled. This last one just didn't want either so I had to get the replacement board.

Thanks for the advice Stork.

 

[Stork]

Check to see if your memory is on the H/Z97N's Memory Support List. If not, that's the problem. Haswell and newer processors have tighter specs for memory and PSUs than previous generations.