Contribute
Register

[Guide] Install High Sierra or Mojave on the Dell Optiplex 7010 / 9010 Desktop PC - Revision II

Status
Not open for further replies.
In the UK and just waiting on a 7010 MT bought on eBay for £34 incl delivery. No HDD, 2gb ram, very low spec processor. From a refurbisher. Seem to be at least 2 companies that have intermittent but frequent stocks of 7010's (and occasionally hp8300's) at least some of which they downgrade the hardware and they generally sell between 20-£40. With a Buy It Now for an i3 and 4Gb ram @£50.

dell 7010 for sale | eBay

Find great deals on eBay for dell 7010. Shop with confidence.
www.ebay.co.uk
 
Last edited:
nicksoph said:
In the UK and just waiting on a 7010 MT bought on eBay for £34
Click to expand...
Super deal. Are you going to put a new PSU in it and an RX570 m-ITX version ? You've got many of those low spec, low power GT 710s but how about some real graphics power ? After the mining bubble has broken those can be found dirt cheap on Ebay these days.

rx570 itx for sale | eBay

Find great deals on eBay for rx570 itx. Shop with confidence.
www.ebay.co.uk

On the US version of Ebay you can get an RX570 4GB for $79. Compare that to the prices of $350 + just a few years ago !
www.ebay.com

Asus Radeon RX 570 4GB Strix Graphics Card GPU AMD. Excellent Condition | eBay

Asus Radeon RX 570 4GB Strix Graphics Card GPU AMD. Excellent Condition. Condition is Used. May have different s/n.
www.ebay.com
The length of these would prohibit their use in the MT Dell Optiplex case. You have to use one with the SFF motherboard mentioned above (post #844) + a 550W or greater PSU. I know, they have likely been used for mining bitcoin. But the BIOS is still stock, the seller has fully tested them out and has a good reputation. At just $79 not much risk involved.
 
Last edited:
Just succeeded in enabling ME/AMT on a 7010 that was factory ME Disabled (a big 3 on the white label inside). This seems to be needed to get the HD4000 going properly on this build. I basically followed the instructions on the win-raid forum but it took a little sifting through to get to the point that I was confident to give it a go. Luckily it worked. So for anyone wanting to try this also, the thread is over at the win-raid forum. Or the simple version is to follow the instructions below - At Your Own Risk. Basically I downgraded the firmware to A25 first as that was the matching ME/AMT-Enabled ME section of the firmware that I had. I dont think you strictly need to do this and whether you do or dont, the firmware can be reflashed to A29 (current as of today) in order to get both the latest BIOS and ME versions back to latest. If you struggle with this then the best bet is probably to ask over at win-raid as I dont have any expertise in this; I was just the guinea pig.

You will need to locate the Service Mode jumper on the motherboard (in different places depending if you have a MT/DT or a SFF). I do not know if the USFF has a Service Mode jumper as I do not have that machine, but the other 3 definitely do.

Credit to the win-raid forum and plutomaniac in particualar and others who worked out how to do this.

Here is what I did and the necessary files are attached:

1. Flash BIOS to A25
2. Reboot
3. Reset BIOS to defaults
4. Shutdown
5. Set jumper to Service Mode
6 Have a FREEDOS Boot USB ready with "fpt.exe" and "fparts.txt" files (Flash Programming Tool from Intel ME System Tools v8.3) on it
7. Have the "me.bin" file also on the FREEDOS Boot USB ready
8. Boot the FREEDOS USB (F12) and flash the ME area of the firmware ONLY using "me.bin" via the command "fpt -rewrite -me -f me.bin"
9. Perform ME reset via "fpt -greset"
10. Shutdown
11. Set Service Mode jumper back to normal mode (Jumper Off)
12. Set the Clear CMOS jumper (may be marked RTCRESET on some models)
13. Switch on and allow CMOS to clear
14. Switch off and put Clear CMOS jumper back to normal
15. Switch on and AMT should now be operational
16. Adjust BIOS settings as necessary
17. Update BIOS to latest as desired

Once again, try this at your own risk, although it seems relatively safe as we are only changing the ME region, which is currently disabled anyway - but having said that........
 

Attachments

  • ME_AMT_7010.zip
    2.7 MB · Views: 216
@jed2 You are a brave man. Thanks for testing this out for the community.

I'm curious as to how much improvement you are seeing in the boot times. Also what has changed in terms of your HD4000 function from the way if functioned before in the fully disabled state ?
 
trs96 said:
@jed2 You are a brave man. Thanks for testing this out for the community.

I'm curious as to how much improvement you are seeing in the boot times. Also what has changed in terms of your HD4000 function from the way if functioned before in the fully disabled state ?
Click to expand...

Haha bravery is a relative concept :) TBH I haven't put the 3245 into this machine yet as its still in the HP, but when I do I'll let you know. The PC just behaves exactly as it did before although there is ME/AMT stuff which could now be accessed/played with, which i dont really feel that interested in, so for my purposes, its just as it was.
 
trs96 said:
Super deal. Are you going to put a new PSU in it ...?
Click to expand...
Might do. Bought to make it quiet and possibly my main machine. Don't really need a fast GPU but have a full height AMD HD7770 that I might try (low power draw but 6 pin power adaptor needed). The other main machine option, is a build based around a GA H81 board and an i5 4440 which Im still trying to get stable.
EDIT: Got the 6pin graphics power adaptor and read up a but more on the card and found people are having problems with getting power management to work - put card in and got yellow screen and spinning colour circle, unplugged and left as it was. Sleep is important for this build and may revisit some other time.
 
Last edited:
nicksoph said:
Bought to make it quiet and possibly my main machine.
Click to expand...
I'll be interested in seeing how that goes. Seems that the main challenge is to get PWM function to work. Those bleeping proprietary 5 pin Dell fan headers make that difficult when using non Dell branded fans. If you come up with a solution to that I'd like to hear about it.
 
@trs96 I think the low noise adapters are just resistors in line (even using pwm) - found a couple of references to fans and suggesting a range between 20 and 50 ohms - may have a play with putting a variable resistor in line and see if running fans slowly will be allowed by the bios fan control.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Copyright © 2010 - 2024 tonymacx86 LLC
Back
Top