[Guide] Razer Blade 15 (2018) Detailed Install Guide High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G2208-17G5019)

[mr-prez]

With the latest version of High Sierra or Mojave your issue with the Nvidia card being enabled and not having HDMI working is what is to be expected. But the reason why it's only showing up as "Display" in the System Info is because you have the macOS Graphics Driver set to be the default and not the Nvidia driver. Once you enable the Nvidia Driver in System Preferences and reboot, you will see the Nvidia Card loaded properly in the System Info.

Is your sleep issue related to removing SSDT-10-OptTabl? Or is it the same if you have it enabled or disabled? I do not have this sleep issue and it's also the first time I'm hearing of it. Having it go to sleep and the fans and keyboard staying lit for 30 seconds to a minute after that is normal. Sometimes the very first time the laptop is set to go to sleep it goes to sleep for a few seconds with the white LED and then it wakes itself back up. But it should wake up to your normal login screen. After that putting, once you put it to sleep it should stay asleep until you wake it up.

It is interesting that removing SSDT-10-OptTabl has fixed the 3 minute black screen issue for you. I'll do some testing with this myself. But they shouldn't be related.

Sleep definitely seems to be SSDT-10-OptTabl related. When it's removed, I can boot properly with backlight *every* time but sleep is broken. The only way to use the computer again is to hold the power button and restart. When it's present sleep behaves like you described, but the backlight issue returns.

 

[vettz500]

Sleep definitely seems to be SSDT-10-OptTabl related. When it's removed, I can boot properly with backlight *every* time but sleep is broken. The only way to use the computer again is to hold the power button and restart. When it's present sleep behaves like you described, but the backlight issue returns.

I'm testing this now without SSDT-10-OptTabl and sleep is still working normally for me

 

[mr-prez]

I'm testing this now without SSDT-10-OptTabl and sleep is still working normally for me

That's weird. But I think sleep is still broken either way for me. I stepped away to do something and it went to sleep by itself. But when I turned it on I got a blank screen. It's not a no backlight issue; there's not even an image with the flashlight. I had just tested it by manually sleeping it and it worked fine. Sleep in general just isn't working properly I guess. It's just slightly less broken with the SSDT?

EDIT: So after I hard reset it, I was hung on the loading screen. I didn't have verbose mode on, but I bet it was that ACPI Battery warning I was getting earlier. That always clears out after I restart again.

EDIT 2: Laptop went to sleep automatically without power plugged in and sleep was fine. Going to try it with power.

 

[vettz500]

That's weird. But I think sleep is still broken either way for me. I stepped away to do something and it went to sleep by itself. But when I turned it on I got a blank screen. It's not a no backlight issue; there's not even an image with the flashlight. I had just tested it by manually sleeping it and it worked fine. Sleep in general just isn't working properly I guess. It's just slightly less broken with the SSDT?

EDIT: So after I hard reset it, I was hung on the loading screen. I didn't have verbose mode on, but I bet it was that ACPI Battery warning I was getting earlier. That always clears out after I restart again.

EDIT 2: Laptop went to sleep automatically without power plugged in and sleep was fine. Going to try it with power.

Did you disable hibernation as outlined in the first section of Post Installation?
Also make sure Power Nap is disabled in Energy Saver settings.

I would set your config.plist to always boot verbose for the time being.

 

[mr-prez]

Did you disable hibernation as outlined in the first section of Post Installation?
Also make sure Power Nap is disabled in Energy Saver settings.

I would set your config.plist to always boot verbose for the time being.

Yeah, I just made that change actually. I did not have power nap disabled but I've also not had another issue with sleep since that last failure. That happened after I added the SSDT-10-OptTable again. Seems like the first boot after I make changes will have something wrong with it. I'll go ahead and disable power nap. And yes, I did disable hibernation.

Booting isn't consistent though. After my last post, I restarted and got the ACPI battery hang again. I've found that once I have that happen, I won't be able to boot unless I remove power. So I restarted again without power and I booted with the backlight issue. Then I restarted with power and got the ACPI battery hang. Restarted again with power (didn't try without power) and it somehow booted properly *with* backlight.

Something is extremely finicky here without me even changing the files. I have yet to find a reliable pattern. I should have the same errors every time, but that's not the case. I'll post another dump of my system in it's current state (nvidia disabled). And I guess sleep is one of those "fail horribly bad only once" sort of things because I haven't had another issue with it since. ACPI is still screwed in some way though

EDIT: On a side note, shouldn't there be a thunderbolt device in System Information?

 

[vettz500]

Yeah, I just made that change actually. I did not have power nap disabled but I've also not had another issue with sleep since that last failure. That happened after I added the SSDT-10-OptTable again. Seems like the first boot after I make changes will have something wrong with it. I'll go ahead and disable power nap. And yes, I did disable hibernation.

Booting isn't consistent though. After my last post, I restarted and got the ACPI battery hang again. I've found that once I have that happen, I won't be able to boot unless I remove power. So I restarted again without power and I booted with the backlight issue. Then I restarted with power and got the ACPI battery hang. Restarted again with power (didn't try without power) and it somehow booted properly *with* backlight.

Something is extremely finicky here without me even changing the files. I have yet to find a reliable pattern. I should have the same errors every time, but that's not the case. I'll post another dump of my system in it's current state (nvidia disabled). And I guess sleep is one of those "fail horribly bad only once" sort of things because I haven't had another issue with it since. ACPI is still screwed in some way though

EDIT: On a side note, shouldn't there be a thunderbolt device in System Information?

I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the ACPIBatteryManager. If you look in the Console app while the laptop is on and on battery you will see the same ACPI Warning there, it's just reading out that it's discharging, it's supposed to do so. I bet if you boot and have this hang again, if you wait and watch it, you will see a FrameBuffer error thrown after a minute or two.

You could try dumping your DSDT and repatching a fresh one and adding it in. Sometimes that helps clear things out, especially after changing some things around.

 

[vettz500]

@mr-prez did you by any chance unlock your BIOS and change your DVMT settings as I outlined in a previous post?

 

[mr-prez]

@mr-prez did you by any chance unlock your BIOS and change your DVMT settings as I outlined in a previous post?

Yes, I unlocked the BIOS. I just dumped my DSDT and repatched. Also redid the SSDT-10_OptTabl for good measure. So now I'm getting the ACPIBatteryManager warning over and over. Power isn't even plugged in. I also see the AppleIntelFramebuffer reference you mentioned earlier. It's been sitting here spitting out that same error for about 2 min now. I guess i'll let it sit for a while longer since it's not a KP but I don't think it's going to do anything until I force restart.

EDIT:

I force restarted. First boot, like usual, had backlight. Every boot after doesn't. There have been zero sleep issues though, so there's that.

I saw in a youtube video that some of the early Razer Blades had an issue where they'd just go black. Unable to restart to get the screen to turn on, but the keyboard chroma would still be shifting. Do you think it's possible Razer made a minor hardware revision to fix that? Or maybe a newer BIOS changes some things? Also, do you have the 60Hz or 144Hz monitor?

 

[vettz500]

Yes, I unlocked the BIOS. I just dumped my DSDT and repatched. Also redid the SSDT-10_OptTabl for good measure. So now I'm getting the ACPIBatteryManager warning over and over. Power isn't even plugged in. I also see the AppleIntelFramebuffer reference you mentioned earlier. It's been sitting here spitting out that same error for about 2 min now. I guess i'll let it sit for a while longer since it's not a KP but I don't think it's going to do anything until I force restart.

EDIT:

I force restarted. First boot, like usual, had backlight. Every boot after doesn't. There have been zero sleep issues though, so there's that.

I saw in a youtube video that some of the early Razer Blades had an issue where they'd just go black. Unable to restart to get the screen to turn on, but the keyboard chroma would still be shifting. Do you think it's possible Razer made a minor hardware revision to fix that? Or maybe a newer BIOS changes some things? Also, do you have the 60Hz or 144Hz monitor?

It was more than likely a BIOS update that fixed that. You can check to see if you're running the most current version by checking the Razer site. If you do need to update, make sure you flash your original BIOS first and then update it.

In the mean time, go into your BIOS and double check that the DVMT actually changed to the 64MB max this laptop supports, just to be sure.
Also I would go into /Library/Extension and delete both Lilu and WhateverGreen and then re-install fresh copies of them and rebuild kextcache. Just to be sure it isn't a hiccup with any kind of driver.

I have the 144Hz screen.

 

[mr-prez]

It was more than likely a BIOS update that fixed that. You can check to see if you're running the most current version by checking the Razer site. If you do need to update, make sure you flash your original BIOS first and then update it.

In the mean time, go into your BIOS and double check that the DVMT actually changed to the 64MB max this laptop supports, just to be sure.
Also I would go into /Library/Extension and delete both Lilu and WhateverGreen and then re-install fresh copies of them and rebuild kextcache. Just to be sure it isn't a hiccup with any kind of driver.

I have the 144Hz screen.

Well I do remember seeing a minimum DVMT allocation and the max of 256mb. My minimum was 32 so I changed that to 64. Then the max was 256 but I think the lowest I could set was something like 128MB so I ignored that one. I'll go back and double check that and the BIOS version now. I don't think it's the Lilu and WhateverGreen. I've replaced those and rebuilt the kextcache twice now.

One good thing is I was able to let the laptop sleep all night without issues. Only lost 1% of battery.

EDIT: So it turns out I actually have a *newer* bios than what's on the razer site. I have 1.06 and the razer updater is for version 1.05.