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

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With new BIOS update released yesterday got this issue during macOS boot:

apfs_module_start:1393

Any ideas?

Or how-to downgrade BIOS.
Thanks


Ok. Dumped ACPI origin and re-patched again. Working
 
Ok. Dumped ACPI origin and re-patched again. Working
Hi, could you be more specific? I guess you are talking about BIOS 1.07. What you mean by dumped, you deleted the origin folder from the EFI drive? And did you re-patch anything else then the DSDT file?
 
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Hi, could you be more specific? I guess you are talking about BIOS 1.07. What you mean by dumped, you deleted the origin folder from the EFI drive? And did you re-patch anything else then the DSDT file?


Nope.

Razer Blade Advanced early 2019 2070 Max-Q.
BIOS update 1.04 released May 21.

BIOSv0104

https://dl.razer.com/drivers/BladeC2/Razer Blade 15 2019 Advanced - BIOS Updater Version 1.04.pdf

1. Booted from external USB drive. Removed /Volumes/EFI/EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/origin
2. Reboot from original drive
3. On Clover boot screen press F2, F4 for ACPI export
4. Boot in to macOS
5. Re-apply ACPI patches. In my case patches to enable battery and trackpad, disable dGPU.

dGPU and battery same like for this model.
Trackpad very different: https://github.com/alexandred/VoodooI2C/issues/171#issuecomment-485423537
 
I have looked into the cpu power management as I want my laptop to be silent in macOS at all times. With the initial configuration the cpu newer seems to drop below 1.2GHz. What I found out was that the one-key-cpu-friend https://github.com/stevezhengshiqi/one-key-cpufriend works wonders here. When you execute it choose the 800MHz option and in the second menu the maximum power saving mode. This makes sure that the system newer uses more than 20W on the cpu and stays silent all the time. If you want more performance then some of the other power modes might do the trick. Along with the one-key-cpu-friend I use VoltageShift to undervolt the cpu. Hope this helps someone. This might also help with battery life, but I didn't test it.
 
Updated to the latest VirtualSMC.efi and haven't had issues booting since.

I have a similar issue. First it happened rarely, now almost every second time. When my 2018 model starts, at some point it eater tears the apple logo apart for a split second and starts up, or the loading bar gets slower and slower till I end up at the messed up apple logo. If you get a fix for that, let me know.
 
Nope.

Razer Blade Advanced early 2019 2070 Max-Q.
BIOS update 1.04 released May 21.

BIOSv0104

https://dl.razer.com/drivers/BladeC2/Razer Blade 15 2019 Advanced - BIOS Updater Version 1.04.pdf

1. Booted from external USB drive. Removed /Volumes/EFI/EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/origin
2. Reboot from original drive
3. On Clover boot screen press F2, F4 for ACPI export
4. Boot in to macOS
5. Re-apply ACPI patches. In my case patches to enable battery and trackpad, disable dGPU.

dGPU and battery same like for this model.
Trackpad very different: https://github.com/alexandred/VoodooI2C/issues/171#issuecomment-485423537
Thank you so much!!!! Now it runs again.
By the way, the support gave me the BIOS 1.0.7 upgrade in order to fix the trackpad and cam in windows. The trackpad got fixed, the cam still doesn't work. Now I even don't need the Trackpad patch as well in my Hackingtosh. Good news so fare. The bad part is, the laptop makes now staring noises while starting High Sierra. But I can live with that I assume.
 
Hi guys, almost every kext now have been updated, some of them multiple times. Does anyone know if there are any significant changes for us in those updates? Can’t really tell...

For example VirtualSMC changelog:
  • Removed exposed REV, RBr, RPlt keys from I/O Registry
  • Minor EFI driver compatibility improvements
  • Synced RVUF, RVFB with REV from booter keys
  • Fixed prebuilt revisions for GEN 3 chip emulation
  • Dropped custom prebuilt revisions in favour of loader inject
Or Lilu:
  • Lilu now uses OpenCore NVRAM variable GUIDs
  • Add support for 0x3E980003frame id for CFL refresh
 
Ok. Dumped ACPI origin and re-patched again. Working
That's great!

I have looked into the cpu power management as I want my laptop to be silent in macOS at all times. With the initial configuration the cpu newer seems to drop below 1.2GHz. What I found out was that the one-key-cpu-friend https://github.com/stevezhengshiqi/one-key-cpufriend works wonders here. When you execute it choose the 800MHz option and in the second menu the maximum power saving mode. This makes sure that the system newer uses more than 20W on the cpu and stays silent all the time. If you want more performance then some of the other power modes might do the trick. Along with the one-key-cpu-friend I use VoltageShift to undervolt the cpu. Hope this helps someone. This might also help with battery life, but I didn't test it.
Undervolting doesn't really seem to help unfortunately... and I've applied some rather aggressive undervolting too (-220mV on core voltage!). Note that I also have the same profile applied on Windows and the difference there is (as one would expect) huge. This further supports my belief that it's the NVMe SSD that draws excessive amounts of power due to PM not being implemented on macOS and not our CPU.

As for CPUFriend, I'd still prefer native PM over this... You will indeed draw less power but I suspect the difference will be minuscule, so much so that dropping native PM is unjustifiable.

Hi guys, almost every kext now have been updated, some of them multiple times. Does anyone know if there are any significant changes for us in those updates? Can’t really tell...

For example VirtualSMC changelog:
  • Removed exposed REV, RBr, RPlt keys from I/O Registry
  • Minor EFI driver compatibility improvements
  • Synced RVUF, RVFB with REV from booter keys
  • Fixed prebuilt revisions for GEN 3 chip emulation
  • Dropped custom prebuilt revisions in favour of loader inject
Or Lilu:
  • Lilu now uses OpenCore NVRAM variable GUIDs
  • Add support for 0x3E980003frame id for CFL refresh
I have seen no real difference. That said, when using the latest Lilu + AppleALC you will boot every time but, unless you're plugged in, you'll end up with no working audio most of the time. With the previous ones I was getting stuck at boot regularly though, so I'd still call that an improvement... Note that I'm running on the latest kexts and everything's working as expected on Mojave 10.14.5.
 
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That's great!


Undervolting doesn't really seem to help unfortunately... and I've applied some rather aggressive undervolting too (-220mV on core voltage!). Note that I also have the same profile applied on Windows and the difference there is (as one would expect) huge. This further supports my belief that it's the NVMe SSD that draws excessive amounts of power due to PM not being implemented on macOS and not our CPU.

As for CPUFriend, I'd still prefer native PM over this... You will indeed draw less power but I suspect the difference will be minuscule, so much so that dropping native PM is unjustifiable.


I have seen no real difference. That said, when using the latest Lilu + AppleALC you will boot every time but, unless you're plugged in, you'll end up with no working audio most of the time. With the previous ones I was getting stuck at boot regularly though, so I'd still call that an improvement... Note that I'm running on the latest kexts and everything's working as expected on Mojave 10.14.5.

I have measured the battery life to be around 5.5 hours with medium screen brightness and moderate web browsing. Sounds ok to me. I don't know what the battery life is without the undervolt and CPUFriend, but from what I read it seems to be more like 3-4 hours.

EDIT: I use the Samsung 970 EVO 1TB SSD and Mojave 10.14.5
 
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