[Guide] HP 6300 Pro / HP 8300 Elite - A 100 percent Working and Easily Affordable CustoMac

[namrokb]

In my hp elite 8300 i7 sff, high sierra runs very nice. The only problem is to fix iMessage. Clover can’t generate a valid serial number accepted by Apple. I buy my computer in Germany.

serial number actually has to be invalid

 

[batela]

I have ethernet on en0 and my ID is valid. In my macbook pro I can access to iMessage.

In the http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/ my serial number are in a recognisable format.

The site https://checkcoverage.apple.com/ say me that:

"We're sorry, but this serial number is not valid. Please check your information and try again"

I think this is a good new.

I run two times iMessageDebug (before and after reboot) and the output is the same.

But every times I run iMessage in my HP Elite I found that message: "Could not sign in to iMessage. An error occurred during activation. Try again."

In my log I found: AppleKeyStore: operation failed (pid: 75 sel: 75 ret: e00002ce '-536870194', -1, 100000)

 

[P1LGRIM]

I'm not sure, but I think that you are wrong (sorry). My error message in the site https://checkcoverage.apple.com/ are

We're sorry, but this serial number is not valid. Please check your information and try again

If you see the message "We're sorry, but this serial number is not valid. Please check your information and try again" and the Serial Number has passed verification at everymac.com then it is OK to use this Serial Number for your config.plist.

This is so important that it is worth repeating :
You need a Serial Number that everymac.com confirms is in the correct format and that Apple says is not valid.
It does not mean that it is not a valid Serial Number - It means that it is not already registered.

 

[namrokb]

I have ethernet on en0 and my ID is valid. In my macbook pro I can access to iMessage.

In the http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/ my serial number are in a recognisable format.

The site https://checkcoverage.apple.com/ say me that:

"We're sorry, but this serial number is not valid. Please check your information and try again"

I think this is a good new.

I run two times iMessageDebug (before and after reboot) and the output is the same.

But every times I run iMessage in my HP Elite I found that message: "Could not sign in to iMessage. An error occurred during activation. Try again."

In my log I found: AppleKeyStore: operation failed (pid: 75 sel: 75 ret: e00002ce '-536870194', -1, 100000)

Try again then. Sign out from iMessage and iCloud and start from the scratch. I found this http://www.fitzweekly.com/2016/02/hackintosh-imessage-tutorial.html more helpful for me.

 

[DanielKS]

I successfully installed High Sierra with out any major problems following this guide. Thanks for the detailed guide!

Currently trying to get Airdrop to work but so far it's not appearing in Finder (or Finder's preferences). I'm using the TP-Link WN725N for wifi and GMYLE BT V4.0 adapter for bluetooth. I haven't been able to find a clear answer as to Airdrop working with USB wifi. Anyone have this setup working with Airdrop?

Thanks for this detailed guide! I used it pretty much verbatim (except using UniBeast 8.1) to install High Sierra 10.13.1 from scratch to an APFS formatted 120GB SSD, in an i5 8300 + GT 710.

The only snag was that clover had the option "Set Nvidia to VESA" set by default, which causes the boot to freeze up after a while. Once I manually disabled that, it booted into the installer.

There was also some confusion about which disk to boot from during the multiple reboots during the install, but if a selection failed to boot I could reboot and try again and the install would continue.

Everything seems to work fine, except iMessages which I haven't been able to get working. I can log in but every message recipient comes back as "not registered" with iMessage.

Update: I updated to 10.13.2, but I had to first copy FakeSMC.kext to efi/clover/kext/other, otherwise the update would stall. I also managed to get iMessage/Facetime working by cloning the ROM/MLB values from a real Mac (an old 2006 mini).

Thanks for sharing this, I ran into the same snag with clover having "Set Nvidia to VESA". If you don't disable this setting you'll get the message "Service exited with abnormal code: 1" when attempting to load the High Sierra installer. Hit spacebar at the Clover boot options to disable.

 

[taskrov]

Can you also replace the power supply fan with one of these on a 8300 Elite SFF?

==============

+ 1 for this fan recommendation for sure. Esp. for the CPU (front) fan which is pointing right at you if it's under your monitor etc. I have also just bought new versions of these stock fans on Ebay (a bit cheaper if buying in bulk) and found usually they are quieter than older fans (and are still ball bearing hi-Q fans) - but kind of luck of the draw, some of the stock fans are very quiet, some buzz like little bees, same with the used machines. Actually a little bit of creative lubrication can make a huge difference if you're mechanically inclined. But even at same dB, the Noctua seems to be a little more "pleasant" noise (basically sounds like a fridge running across the room - not enough to be distracting). It still comes to life if you encode video etc. lol, but that's to be expected. Definitely agree if it's task will be to do pro server stuff (reasonable for this hardware actually), just install the Noctua fans and call it a day.

FYI the 3 pin version of the Noctua (with a sharp pocketknife and some work on the connector) can still work - but good tip to get the 4 wire version - I'd not found that option actually.

Also the i5 / i3's are definitely a little cooler / quieter with less cores. For daily driver desktop (non-gaming) duties, those processors make considerably more economic sense as well and you won't notice a darn bit of performance hit for 99% of daily driver tasks.

I bought this fan https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAADY4B02552&cm_re=Noctua_A-Series_NF-A6x25-_-1DR-002N-00002-_-Product before I measured the one that came in my 8300 Elite SFF, which is 90 mm! Are people mounting the 60 mm in the case somehow? I am asking before I either return it or set it among my many "spare" parts.

 

[trs96]

I bought this fan https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAADY4B02552&cm_re=Noctua_A-Series_NF-A6x25-_-1DR-002N-00002-_-Product before I measured the one that came in my 8300 Elite SFF, which is 90 mm! Are people mounting the 60 mm in the case somehow? I am asking before I either return it or set it among my many "spare" parts.

That 60 MM fan is only for the USFF or Ultra Small 8300 not the SFF. USFF is the smallest one in this picture. 2nd from left.

As the saying goes "measure twice, buy once."

 

[luckyearl]

LuckyEarl:
If HD4000 didn't work natively on the USDT from first boot then something didn't go right with the install, unless your monitor is ................................ The ASUS has been very sturdy for me, no flakiness. USB2.0 port is fine for bluetooth. Probably a front port if you want the best range.

Thank you jsdoc for elaborate reply, all working fine.. was silly of me, trying to get it working on VGA, and the Displayport to HDMI not plugged in

Thank you trs96 for this brilliant write up. Cheers

 

[batela]

The CD/DVD burner don't works. Is there a way to fix that.

 

[trs96]

The CD/DVD burner don't works. Is there a way to fix that.

Depends on whether it is a hardware or software problem.