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[Guide] Install Catalina on the Dell Optiplex 7010 and 9010 Desktop PC

Thank you for your observation Dean 2013.

The plot thickens.

I had not yet removed the computer itself as the source of the problem, so I installed 10.15.5 onto an SSD in a Optiplex 9010 I had. Boot time: 17 seconds, no stalls.

Put that SSD into the original 7010: still over a minute.

One last question in my mind: could there possibly be a difference between a 7010 and 9010? I had a venerable 7010, one I bought back in 2012. I pulled it out of the retirement home, put in some RAM and the SSD, booted it: 17 seconds.

There is clearly some kind of marginal hardware problem in the original 7010. My question now is: Is there any way to determine if this is a motherboard or a CPU issue?

Thanks for any assistance.
 
Thank you very much! I am new to Hackintosh, but I managed to install Catalina on Optiplex 9010 using a separate 1 TB HDD. By the way, VGA cable works like a charm and I don' have to use HDMI or DVI :)
 
Yes, GeForce GT 730 4GB DDR3.
However, I noticed some weird behavior on Sound device. After first login, while all sound devices were detected (even my A4Tech Bluetooth Headset), but I had no sound on neither of them! I thought this is why you have mentioned in your video that we can only use HDMI or DVI. So I connected HDMI cable to a Sony Projector to use its built-in speakers. It worked! Right after that, the sound worked on all other devices as well.
 
I have successfully completed the install on a 9010 USFF. Only one glitch. Every time I boot up the computer clover wants to boot to the Recovery partition. I have to manually select the MacOS volume. Is there a simple fix?
 
I have just completed my first Hackintosh build using this guide. Thank you to Tony Mac and the various contributors to this thread. I purchased a high spec. Amazon refurbish programme Dell 7010 i7 3770, 16GB Ram, 240SSD (Windows 10 Pro 64 bit installed), 2TB HDD. It cost £278 in the UK and came with a USB Wireless dongle that works fine on Windows10. Very solidly built machine.

Whist it is up and running using the on board HD4000 I plan to look into upgrading to an XFX R7700 card that I have. I tried it prior to the build with Windows 10 but couldn’t get it recognised. I also need to work out how to get working WiFi as an ethernet connection is not ideal for the configuration available in my house as I’d like to put it in a room without a hard wired connection. Powerline connectors may be an option but we are finding them unreliable and dropping out frequently on our Windows set up.

A few observations from my build.

  • I upgraded the BIOS to A29 using Windows and that went smoothly.
  • I did the first 2 of the recommended steps in the High Sierra/Mojave guide – 1. Replacing CMOS battery, 2. Replacing processor thermal compound. No issues.
  • Unfortunately, I didn’t read the full thread prior to purchase and didn’t see the notes about Password Protect MEBx until it was too late – purchase already made. When I check the cover it had the unwanted ‘3’ MEBx disabled at factory setting. The Dell was built 2013. I couldn’t get the Dell to recognise a XFX R7700 graphics expansion card I was hoping to use to get round the MEBx disabled status of the Dell. I tried various ‘fixes’ found on the Internet without success. Now I have the build I may try again. The card was basically not recognised in the BIOS and neither was another that I tried as an alternative.
  • I used the instructions on post 1932 of the High Sierra/Mojave guide (with some trepidation) but it went smoothly and Password Protect MEBx was re-enabled. Thank you ‘rhhousehold’.
  • I currently have no WiFi or Bluetooth and plan to research the options from this thread/site to try to get a solution there.
  • I installed the MacOS onto a spare 160GB drive I had formatted using my son’s MacBook.
  • My son built me the USB Catalina USB Stick Installer following the instructions in the guide to the letter again using the MacBook.
  • At 08:21 in Part 1 video of the guide when I selected the UEFI option there were no devices shown and that threw me. Again I tried various ‘fixes’ from the Internet. I expected to see the various drives listed (3 are installed) and other options but there were none. At this stage I had not put the Catalina USB stick installer into a USB port and after doing so – luck not judgement – it showed on the boot options in UEFI and I was able to progress.
I am looking forward to using the Hackintosh as I’ve become fed up with Windows 10.

Thanks again for this terrific site and everyone’s contributions.
 
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