Insidiator's Grow-Into-It Build: Core i7-3770k - GA-Z77X-UD5H - 32GB RAM

insidiator · Apr 26, 2013

Insidiator's Grow-Into-It Build: Core i7-3770k - GA-Z77X-UD5H - 32GB RAM - Intel HD4000

'About This Mac' Screenshot

System report showing my Ethernet ports

System report showing my USB device tree

System report showing my audio devices.

Buying Your Parts

If you can, buy all of your parts for your Customac by clicking on the referral links found in posts on this forum because doing so will support the maintenance of this website and the further development of the tools that have made all of our hackintosh dreams come true. If time is not of the essence you will probably be able to stretch your budget the furthest by waiting until Black Friday sales in November. The best example from my own build is my memory, which I bought for $117 (including shipping) at Newegg during a Black Friday sale in 2012 and is now (May 5, 2013) selling for $245 ($128 savings). Occasionally there might also be the odd local computer store deal that might tear you away from this site’s referral links. For example, I bought my i7-3770k from the Micro Center in Boston, which sells it for $229 (in-store only); ~$100 savings compared to Newegg or Amazon. Just remember, if you do end up buying from Newegg or Amazon, to add the items to your basket using the referral links.

The Significance of DVI
My build is different from most of those using the i7-3770k and the GA-Z77X-UD5H because I did not purchase a discrete graphics card (I plan to use the HD4000 for as long as possible).

Before going any further I feel I should state: if all you have is a VGA monitor, go out and buy a DVI monitor!!! Based on personal experience and hours of searching these forums, you will not be able to fully use the features of this motherboard and CPU if all you have is a VGA monitor. Period. Don’t even try because you’ll just waste your time (as I did). It is also worth mentioning that a DVI-to-VGA adapter will not work because the DVI port on this motherboard is a DVI-D, which does not send out an analog signal (by contrast, a DVI-I port has four additional pins that carry an analog signal).

The whole ‘boot flags’ business[/SIZE]
I like to think of myself as a technically competent person, but to be honest I found some of the setup directions confusing (a lot of it is technical jargon that I had never heard before). So, in case you are like me and find the highly-detailed setup instructions provided by others on this forum confusing (in retrospect they are all 100% correct, it’s just hard to appreciate that when you are a newbie and don’t understand the language of hackintoshing), here is my quick-and-dirty understanding of them: boot flags are last-minute modifications to the functionality of the motherboard that can be made independently of the BIOS and before all the major extensions load.

To enter a boot flag, simply press any key at the Chimera screen (when you get to choose which operating system to boot from; this instruction is given on the screen, but you might not notice if you are in a panic of why the thing isn't working) and start typing them in. You can have as many as you want, just put a space between them. It is important to note that some have a ‘-‘ in front while others do not. Below is a list of boot flags that I used at some point or other:

‘-v’: Verbose mode. Entering this boot flag will let you see all the gorey details of the booting procedure; it’s like opening the hood on your car so you can watch and listen to the engine run in an effort to figure out which part of it is not working as it should.

‘-x’: Safe mode. This disables all but the most basic extensions (all extensions?) and should allow you to reach the desktop, albeit with most bells and whistles disabled (remember holding down the ‘shift’ key way back in Mac OS 7.x-9.x for the same purpose?). When all else fails, use this to get to the desktop so you can undo whatever changes (installed kexts, etc) you made during the previous session.

‘GraphicsEnabler=No’: This turns off the hardware acceleration provided by the integrated graphics processor. People with discrete graphics cards use this setting because they don’t need the integrated graphics. This setting will also let you get to the desktop if you have a VGA monitor plugged in, but you will only have 64mb of graphics memory and you will not be able to change screen resolution (plus the boot time is really long, even with a SSD).

‘GraphicsEnabler=Yes’: This turns on the hardware acceleration provided by the integrated graphics processor. People without a discrete graphics card use this, but if this setting is used while a VGA monitor is plugged in the computer will not boot. Seriously, don’t bother trying (unless you’re brilliant and can find a workaround, in which case please tell us all how you did it). This setting is not without its faults, the primary of which I will get to later.

Setup Problems and Solutions

Problem 1: After using MultiBeast 5.3 to install just the basic extensions (2 Ethernet drivers), the computer did not boot; it kept getting stuck at something having to do with an Airport handshake.

Solution 1: This ended up being related to me using a VGA monitor. When I set ‘GraphicsEnabler=No’ I was able to boot. Using a VGA monitor seemed to make an awful lot of problems for me initially…

Problem 2: After using MultiBeast to install the Without-DSDT Realtek 898 extension (after I had gotten the computer to the point that it would boot to the desktop) my computer stopped booting. It got stuck somewhere around Airport Handshake again. I also received an error that the AppleHDA kext ‘was improperly installed’ when (just for the heck of it) I ran KextBeast (I didn’t actually DO anything with the program; just ran it to see what it did). I noticed that if I booted in safe mode and replaced the newly installed audio kexts with the backups I’d made of my original ones, it booted just fine, indicating that there was something wrong with the drivers themselves.

Solution 2: I think this ended up being a corrupted MultiBeast 5.3 download. After multiple unsuccessful cycles of deleting the AppleHDA.kext and HDAEnabler1.kext files (in System/Library/Extensions), repairing permissions and then reinstalling the Without-DSDT Realtek 898 drivers from MultiBeast, I re-downloaded MultiBeast 5.3, deleted the offending kexts one more time, repaired permissions, installed again from the new Multibeast download, repaired permissions AGAIN and was relieved upon restart to see not only a system that completely booted, but one that had functional (3 ports on the back and the headphone jack on the front; I have not tested the microphone jacks) audio! There is still room for improvement (my HDMI audio does not work yet, but that isn’t important right now), but at least the major bells and whistles worked.

Problem 3: My Intel HD4000 was not recognized in Mac OS X Mountain Lion. My ‘System Report’ showed graphics as being 64mb of shared VRAM, not the 512MB Intel HD4000 that it was supposed to. In a way this was not surprising because I configured my chameleon.boot.plist file to always have ‘GraphicsEnabler=No,’ but up until that point I had to have that setting just to get the darned thing to boot completely.

Solution 3: Changing my display from the VGA one that I started with to a DVI-capable HDTV I had in my living room (which I moved to my desk and connected via DVI-D cable) and then setting ‘GraphicsEnabler=Yes’ made most of the difference. Not only did my system boot successfully, but rather than taking a good 25 seconds to get to the desktop after the Chimera screen, it took just about 10 seconds! Of course then I found another problem…

Problem 4: I could not change the resolution of my monitor from the default highest-resolution setting to any of the smaller ones without the signal getting scrambled (it looked like there were 5 or 6 iterations of my Finder offset by a few inches and interlaced between themselves; very confusing).

Solution 4: After spending a good couple of hours on Google and the forums here I finally found the solution! I don’t really understand what the problem actually is, but the solution has something to do with specifying to the GraphicsEnabler function exactly what layout of video ports you have. A more complete explanation can be found in dta's excellent post here. The short version of what is actually a longish story is that I systematically tried each of the possibly configurations mentioned in dta's post (although supposedly the new version of Chimera is supposed to render this solution moot) and finally found that only configuration 5 allowed me to change my resolutions.

Screenshot of the portion of my org.chameleon.Boot.plist file with the lines of code immediately following GraphicsEnabler that let me change my screen's resolution in a stable manner.

BTW, to see and switch between different resolution options you must first click on ‘scaled’ in the Display system preference pane (the radio button under 'Best for built-in display'; coming from Snow Leopard I found this confusing at first).

Problem 5: At first, I was unable to connect to the App Store to download anything (it gave me an error that I don't remember)

Solution 5: After deleting the NetworkInterfaces.plist file located in Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration as suggested here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...3-icloud-mountain-lion-issue-unable-sign.html and elsewhere, I was able to login and download updates and other software.

Problem 6: At first, the front panel power buttons and LEDs on my case did not work (for almost a week I had to use the internal power button on the motherboard).

Solution 6: This ended up being a loose connection of the ribbon cable going from the motherboard to the front panel unit in the top of the case. The loose connection appeared to be caused by poor application of hot glue at the factory (I think as it cooled it expanded and popped the connector off the pins).

Final Thoughts
There you have it. At some point in the future I'll try to get some screenshots of my BIOS settings up to provide some under-the-hood context to the rest of this. I hope this slightly expanded post helps other people who buy similar/identical hardware and plan to primarily use the integrated graphics processor; there seem to be precious few builds like mine (most use dedicated graphics cards) and there are therefore subtle differences in the setup process.

I want to send out a HUGE thank you to the tonymacx86 founders and community for the wealth of information available through this site! Six months ago I had never heard of a hackintosh/customac, and through this process I have learned a lot. I look forward to continuing to learn from this fantastic community as well as to contributing to it through my own experiences!

Edit log

May 6, 2013
-Simplified the narrative
-Added screenshots of MultiBeast and System Report windows
-Added 'Problems and Solutions' section
-Added 'Buying your parts' section
-Added a section on boot flags
-Added a screenshot of the 'device-properties' code that enabled resolution changing on my display
-Changed the display I used in the 'Previously Owned' list.

Miaouss · Aug 21, 2013

Just -> Thank You

I had this Vga issue (same build), your post helped me so much ! Just plugged an hdmi monitor on the hackintosh, and now everything goes wright !

D-an-W · Aug 25, 2013

Hi Insidiator, can I ask if you use the front headphone port on your case and what Rev. your motherboard is (1.0 or 1.1)?

I have been trying to find someone with similar hardware to mine and it looks like you do...

insidiator · Aug 27, 2013

Hi D-an-W,

I have revision 1.1 and have in fact gotten my front headphone port to work. Interesting, it doesn't actually show up in my list of audio devices in the audio preferences unless my headphones are plugged in. Have you tried varying how hard your headphones are plugged in? I discovered that the plug on my case is super picky about how far in the headphone jack is pushed. Too far and i hear a loud buzzing noise; not far enough I hear and I hear nothing; just the right amount and it's pretty good sound.

insidiator · Aug 27, 2013

Hi Miaouss,

I'm Glad you found this helpful! I had a really hard time getting Hackintosh running because I wasn't able to find anyone else who had done a similar build and left detailed instructions (most who get this motherboard and CPU combo also use dedicated graphics cards). I hope when you post your 'successful build' story you explain all the problems you ran into and the ways you fixed them. The more knowledge we share the easier it will be for others to replicate our successes!

D-an-W · Aug 28, 2013

insidiator said:
Hi D-an-W,

I have revision 1.1 and have in fact gotten my front headphone port to work. Interesting, it doesn't actually show up in my list of audio devices in the audio preferences unless my headphones are plugged in. Have you tried varying how hard your headphones are plugged in? I discovered that the plug on my case is super picky about how far in the headphone jack is pushed. Too far and i hear a loud buzzing noise; not far enough I hear and I hear nothing; just the right amount and it's pretty good sound.

Thanks, the headphone socket works great as does "auto detect & mute". The problem I have is after waking from sleep headphones are detected when not there but only for a split second (This can be seen occurring in System Preferences > Sound) which causes the audio to cut out. I thought I had fixed this by using iMac13,2 as a System Definition but never tested sleep until recently. With headphones connected, all is well before and after sleep.

I am currently trying to figure out how to disable auto detect & mute by editing Platforms.xml.zlib but I ran out of talent so it's taking longer than hoped

Filled up with talent and got my head round the guides from Toleda VCH888, I now have separate Internal Speakers and Heaphones as a choice in System Preferences and it works a treat before and after sleep.

insidiator · Jan 29, 2017

Update:

My rig has been working nicely for the last almost 4 years, but I have upgraded a few parts and figured I should post a list of updates and if the functionality changed.

1) Added NVidia GeForce GTX 770 4GB video card (no issues)
2) Upgraded power supply to Corsair RM650 (no issues)
3) Upgraded to Mac OS X 10.9.5 (no issues that I remember; it's been a while)
4) Upgraded the mSATA drive to a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB. My intention was to clone my existing drive to the new drive (I assumed using Disk Utility), but it ended up being a little more complicated. Final list of steps below:

Step 1: Bought replacement drive (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TGIVTP2/?tag=tonymacx86com-20).
Step 2: Ordered an external mSATA to USB adapter (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N6BYLBP/?tag=tonymacx86com-20) and installed the new drive.
Step 3: Plugged the new drive in using the provided USB 3 cable and erased it using Disk Utility (selected GUID Partition Table).
Step 4: Re-downloaded the 'Install Mac OS Mavericks' app from the App Store.
Step 5: Created a new Unibeast flash drive (Unibeast 5.2.0 since I'm using Mavericks).
Step 6: Downloaded Chimera 4.1.0 by itself.
Step 7: Booted from the Unibeast drive (I had to use the GraphicsEnabler=0 boot flag for some reason) and opened Disk Utility.
Step 8: Unmounted the partitions for my source drive and destination drive, selected the volume containing the partition with my existing boot drive and clicked the 'Restore' tab (this automatically put the existing boot drive in the 'Source' field).
Step 9: Dragged the volume containing my new drive to the 'Destination' field and clicked 'Restore.' Make sure to double-check that the correct source and destination drives are selected...
Step 10: Waited about 15 minutes while the restore process did its thing.
Step 11: Re-booted into my original boot drive, ran the Chimera installer and selected the new drive as the installation destination.
Step 12: Re-booted into the new drive to test and then physically swapped the new drive (initially in external housing) with the old drive (mSATA slot on motherboard).
Step 13: Re-booted using new drive (now in motherboard's mSATA slot) to confirm functionality of the new drive in the mSATA slot.
Step 13: Gloat about having won.

Stork · Jan 30, 2017

Hi, insidiator!
Don't forget to update your OP. :thumbup:

I took the liberty to update the formatting in your build description due to the way BBCode editor is implemented by our new forum software which we changed over to last year.

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