Help needed to install OSX on my PC - Lenovo ThinkCentre M91p

[luis.serraller]

Hi there,

First of all thanks so much for your web! It's fantastic!

I've been reading lots of your posts and guides but I got stucked...

I have a Lenovo Thinkcentre M91p
Intel core i5 (2nd Gen) 2400/3.1GHz
Chipset Intel Q67 Express
16GB RAM (2 8GB modules)
Crucial SSD 250GB
Seagate HDD 1TB
Nvidia Geforce GT 610 (recently installed as I saw the integrated Intel HD 2000 was not supported by OSX). Would this card be good for installing OSX or should I better go for a different one?

Maybe I aimed to high and tried installing OS X El Capitan. Is there another OS X version which would fit better my desktop?

The farthest I could get after getting lots of errors when trying to boot from the USB, and playing with different flags was to get to the OSX installer and complete the first part but after rebooting I was never able to load from HDD with El Capitan. Ah, and after this then my Windows 10 installation stopped working and I haven't been able to boot it again so I just reinstalled it (already got to this point 3 or 4 times...)

Could you also let me know how to customize my USB to save the proper flags so I don't have to change them each time I'm booting from it?

Thanks so much in advance and again thanks for your fantastic work!!!

 

[Annettex86mac]

Hi there,

First of all thanks so much for your web! It's fantastic!

I've been reading lots of your posts and guides but I got stucked...

I have a Lenovo Thinkcentre M91p
Intel core i5 (2nd Gen) 2400/3.1GHz
Chipset Intel Q67 Express
16GB RAM (2 8GB modules)
Crucial SSD 250GB
Seagate HDD 1TB
Nvidia Geforce GT 610 (recently installed as I saw the integrated Intel HD 2000 was not supported by OSX). Would this card be good for installing OSX or should I better go for a different one?

Maybe I aimed to high and tried installing OS X El Capitan. Is there another OS X version which would fit better my desktop?

The farthest I could get after getting lots of errors when trying to boot from the USB, and playing with different flags was to get to the OSX installer and complete the first part but after rebooting I was never able to load from HDD with El Capitan. Ah, and after this then my Windows 10 installation stopped working and I haven't been able to boot it again so I just reinstalled it (already got to this point 3 or 4 times...)

Could you also let me know how to customize my USB to save the proper flags so I don't have to change them each time I'm booting from it?

Thanks so much in advance and again thanks for your fantastic work!!!

Dear Luis,

If you compare the specs of the Lenovo M91p and the HP Elite 8200, they are very similar,
and use the same Intel Ethernet controller, both have 10 USB 2.0 ports, both use the same
generation i5s, both use the Realtek ALC662 codec, and all four of these are poorly
supported in El Capitan. I've installed El Capitan on the HP 8100 and think that these
problems can be overcome, but I'm a noob so so take my advice with an extra grain of salt.
Intel considers the super serial controller version to be OEM, not their responsibility, and support
from HP is based on Windows 7 executables.

I have successfully used the PNY GeForce GT610 for DVI and HDMI video, but I cannot get
the Nvidia GF119 audio codec to be utilized for HDMI audio (at least so far). My workaround
is to use a $10 external USB dongle for 24-bit 48,000 sps SPDIF stereo digital audio, microphone,
and analog audio out in Mac mode. I'm not sure if the internal audio is fully Windows 10 compatible,
but the internal mic jack works with Cortana.

My advice is to install Windows 10 on one drive and OS X on a second drive, unplugging one drive
while using the other. Display settings and date settings may be misinterpreted at first when
switching operating systems.

With the HP Elite 8100, the XHCI drivers cause problems for the USB 2.0 ports. Internally, IOJones
reports the ports names are somewhat non-standard EUS1 and EUS2. Clover shows various boot
options but the ports get disabled early, the boot volume entry from the dictionary cannot be found,
and the normal install hangs. See pictures on 8100 pages here for the hang graphics.

I followed Rehabman's advice and obtained an Inateck USB 3.0 card that is OS X compatible. The card
is natively recognized early in the boot from Clover but not before presentation of the Clover
boot options. The low profile card has two back panel ports and two internal ports on a 20 pin header,
so get an accessory to connect the 20 pin header for two additional ports.

With the 8100, you can install by plugging your USB installer into a front USB 2.0 port, waiting for
boot options from Clover, and selecting your USB installer to boot. If you have to change
BIOS options or Clover options at boot, you can use a PS/2 keyboard or USB 2 port, but the USB3
port becomes active later. Once boot starts from Clover, pull the USB stick out of the front USB port
and plug it into a USB 3.0 port on the Inateck instead. Clover finds the boot media there and
proceeds with booting the installation media.

You probably need your USB installer prepared for legacy booting, and the GT610 requires Inject Nvidia.
My 8100 responds differently if the GT610 is in the x16 PCIe slot or in the x4 PCIe slot. In the x16 spot,
it replaces the onboard Intel HD video with the card video, no BIOS options involved. In the x4 slot, it
works in conjunction with the onboard video, and you have additional onboard video BIOS options. If
I understand the 8200 it has HD2500 video, still problematic.

If most of the boot is OK but it fails to start graphics mode and restarts after DSMOS arrives in verbose boot,
add the option nv_disable=1 at Clover boot time. The graphics will boot and run slowly with lots of tearing
in transitions, but the system is usable until you get your config.plist and other settings corrected.

On the RHS of the Clover config.plist editor Devices menu, some combination of inject/force HDMI/useIntelHDMI
may be needed to start up with an HDMI monitor. I get odd behavior with my DVI and HDMI ports
connected in the wrong way (so that only the DVI monitor goes black if the HDMI is plugged in),
but no problems if connected in a preferred way.

I find with the 8100 that it works better with almost all New Way fixes checked. I am not able to
fix HPET or focre HPET according to the boot log.

I hope this helps.

 

[house03]

Kind of bringing up the past with this thread, but I just did a pretty clean El Capitan install on a M91P. I was pressed to find any good info on it, but I wanna post somewhere, in hopes that somebody else may use it as a reference.

I have a M91P with a GTX 750 TI, factory Ramaxel RAM (2x4GB), and a 1TB WD blue desktop HDD.

I used Unibeast to make a legacy EFI bootable drive, used nvda_drv=1, and it installed almost flawlessly. The only thing I had to do was install the GTX drivers once OS X installed, install the proper kext for the ALC662, and ran Multibeast.

One problem though, I still can't find a kext for the ALLC662 that gets rid of the buzz/fuzz when at idle. With something playing, it's no big deal, and is drowned out.

Other than that, it was actually way easier than my Asus P8H61-M Rev 2.0 build I did a few months back, with a PNY GT710.

Posting this on the M91P right now.