My First Hackintosh: HP Z210 SFF

[clixt]

First of all, thank you to the awesome guys at tonymac86 forums! I learned a lot! So this is my first post after reading the forums for some time now. So I finally took the step to hackintosh my HP Z210 SFF. My first attempt was doing it the other way I can't talk about in the forums and it worked. I know that wasn't the preferred method so my 2nd attempt was to install Sierra and I followed Tonymac's guide to create an installation disk (legacy; UEFI doesn't work). Installer works great and was able to boot the Sierra install but:

Installer cannot detect my HDD's (I have 2 SSDs: Evo 850 PRO & Sandisk) and my old HDD with the other MacOS. It only detects my USB drives. I tried to install it to my 32GB USB drive and surprisingly, it went smoothly and was able to boot to my desktop. BIOS is set to AHCI+RAID mode (other option was IDE).

System Specs:
Processor: Xeon E3-1230
Chipset: Intel PCH C206
RAM: 16GB DDR3 ECC
GPU: Quadro K620
SSD: Samsung EVO 850 PRO with Windows 10 Pro
SSD2: Sandisk Ultra II
Audio: Realtek ACL261 (ACL266v2 according to DPCI Manager)


Any help or pointers is appreciated!

UPDATE: Managed to somehow made it detect my HDDs by adding AHCIPortInjector.kext and IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext at EFI/Clover/kexts/10.12 and Other. I also tweaked the config.plist with Clover Configurator by installing some drivers (will post what it was). Not quite sure what made it see my HDD.


How I made it work
(disclaimer: this is my old guide, and should be used as a reference. A lot happened in a year i was inactive)
(note: a lot of links has been removed in accordance to forum rules. Thanks Pilgrim for the warning! )

Tools You'll Need

Unibeast 7
Multibeast 9
Kext Wizard
Clover Configurator
EFI Mounter v3

Ok so like most builds, it starts with having a bootable USB drive. At first, I was using Unibeast UEFI to make it however, my z210 just won't recognize it. I gave up hackintoshing my computer.. A month or so has passed, I wanted to try it again and I thought, maybe it is legacy, not UEFI. Turns out, it supports both so this time I made a unibeast installer legacy and the rest is golden* Well sort of. I can boot the installer but I wasn't able to see my internal drives! I did some research and stumbled on this thread.

Missing internal drive fix:

I fixed it by adding AHCIPortInjector.kext and IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext at EFI/Clover/kexts/10.12 and Other.

I was finally able to install Sierra on my HDD, went through the initial setup process. Now that I'm on the desktop, I made sure that I can open apps from everywhere by doing this:

1. open terminal
2. copy paste this code: sudo spctl --master-disable

this will enable Run Apps from Anywhere. Refer to this thread.

I then installed my essential kexts such as the AHCIPortInjector.kext and IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext along with the other essential kexts with Kext Wizard. My next problem was I couldn't boot to my drive when I installed multibeast legacy (I didn't try installing the bootloader as UEFI). For the longest time, I was getting a prohibited/stop sign error when booting up. Then I tried installing Clover legacy (default settings) but got a boot0af error. I used this site as a reference to reinstall Clover on my HDD.


Bootloader fix:

Me being a noob, I didn't want to take any chances so I reformatted the drive, installed Clover bootloader again but with the following settings:

• Install Clover in the ESP
• Boot Loader -> Install boot0af in MBR
• Clover EFI -> Clover EFI 64-bit SATA

After I'm done installing Clover, I copied the config.plist from the Unibeast usb to EFI partition of HDD. Sierra should then able to boot from HDD.

NOTES:

• Make sure you install the AHCIPortInjector.kext and IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext along with the other essential kexts with Kext Wizard or you'll get a prohibited/stop sign error or KP when booting up.
• load with nv_disable=1 if it's not set by default.

II. Post installation: Tweaking the Z210 SFF

Now that I can boot into Sierra amazingly, it's time to fix the audio, graphics, and iMessage.

Nvidia:
First thing I did was I installed the Nvidia Web Drivers according to my build, which is 16B2657. Then followed Tonymac's new way of loading Nvidia Drivers or setting it up through clover configurator.

Audio (this what worked for me):

1. Installed voodooHDA 2.8.8 with multibeast then installed the voodooHDA.kext to S/L/E with KW then fixed permissions. Reboot. This only made my hackintosh detect HDMI audio so the next step was to:
2. Install a patched appleHDA kext that I found here. Then configure audio id to 12 through clover configurator or by editing the config.plist manually.

SMBIOS
Next was thing i did was played with my SMBIOS with Clover Configurator (the latest Clover Configurator has some massive updates since the original write up of this guide). The default, iMac 14,2 works just fine but I read that it is important to match the SMBIOS with your system as close as you can. iMac 12,2 was the closest but I couldn't load the GPU (probably because those iMacs came with an AMD GPU) so I stuck with iMac 13,2 instead.

That's it! That's how I made the HP Z210 SFF work. I will revise and update as I further develop my hackintosh knowledge. Right now, the only features that don't work is iMessage and Power Management (no sleep). I'll probably mess with DSDT some day. Suggestions are welcomed!

iMessage Fix
(note: The latest guide definitely made my hackintosh feel like a real mac for iMessage and Facetime works! Also it may be because that Apple finally relaxed the security on my Apple ID since i now own a Macbook Pro.)

Files (mods, just delete the files if you feel i violated the rules. These were found in the forums and compiled as a zip file)

 

[eunalp]

Hi, I am trying to install Sierra to my HP Z210 (not SFF). However I can't make it boot from my installation drive. I followed the same guide with you. Also the installation drive works with an Asus laptop. Do you have any idea? Thanks in advance.

Update: I was able to boot from USB after deleting GRUB which was installed along with Ubuntu. Then with the kext files that you listed I have completed the installation. But now, I wan not able to install Audio driver. Any help will be appreciated.

 

[clixt]

Hi, I am trying to install Sierra to my HP Z210 (not SFF). However I can't make it boot from my installation drive. I followed the same guide with you. Also the installation drive works with an Asus laptop. Do you have any idea? Thanks in advance.

Update: I was able to boot from USB after deleting GRUB which was installed along with Ubuntu. Then with the kext files that you listed I have completed the installation. But now, I wan not able to install Audio driver. Any help will be appreciated.

Hey man I haven't been on here since I finally got a MacBook Pro. I did write a step by step guide here that worked for me, but they, the mods, haven't approved still (like really? it's been a year....) anyways rant aside, here's what worked for me:

1. Installed voodooHDA 2.8.8 with multibeast then installed the voodooHDA.kext to S/L/E with Kext Wizard then fixed permissions. Reboot (I'm assuming you can also just jump right after to step 2). This only made my hackintosh detect HDMI audio so the next step was to:
2. Install a patched appleHDA kext that EDIT: I found somewhere. Then configure audio id to 12 through clover configurator (under Devices) or by editing the config.plist manually.

 

[P1LGRIM]

I did write a step by step guide here that worked for me, but they, the mods, haven't approved still (like really? it's been a year....)

Your guide was in breach of the site rules and will not be published.

Any posts or links to sites or content that violates tonymacx86 rules as defined on this page will be removed

 

[clixt]

Your guide was in breach of the site rules and will not be published.

Well duh no wonder, thanks for the heads up!

 

[uzairm]

Could you guide me on your clover changes for to get the hdds showing. I am trying to convert a z210 at work.
Also any help or guidance with respect to post installation kexts will be appreciated

 

[clixt]

Could you guide me on your clover changes for to get the hdds showing. I am trying to convert a z210 at work.
Also any help or guidance with respect to post installation kexts will be appreciated

I just updated my guide. A lot it wont make sense since i cannot post external links.

 

[uzairm]

I just updated my guide. A lot it wont make sense since i cannot post external links.

Thanks for the information. It is very helpful. I am having trouble making the hard disk show up still even with these two kexts. I am trying to install high sierra though.
In my bios the hdds are AHCI+raid

Also your guide makes a lot of sense and google helps with the rest

 

[uzairm]

i ended up using your provided kexts and got it working. thanks

 

[clixt]

i ended up using your provided kexts and got it working. thanks

Great! I'm glad you made it work! Happy Hackintoshing!