My Hackintosh is struggling with a 2 year hibernation

[Cosmix]

I’m going to assume that this is the culprit right here, should have a replacement by Saturday.

Thanks guys!

They are universal, (CR 2032), get a brand (Duracell, Varta, etc) lithium ..

 

[Edhawk]

If your Skylake system has been in storage for some time and it was moved about before and after being in storage I would recommend you do the following:

1. Remove all the peripheral devices, HDD/SSD/PCIe cards/fans etc. from within the case.
2. Clean out the case with a hairdryer set on cold, to remove any dust.
3. Remove the CPU cooler, clean any thermal paste from the cooler and CPU.
4. Apply new good quality thermal paste/grease to the CPU before reseating your CPU fan/cooling block.
5. I personally would do the same regarding renewing the thermal paste on the Nvidia GPU, but that is your call.
6. Check that all the cables are fully seated in the connections on the motherboard and in each device.
7. Check that none of the cables have been pinched, bent or damaged in any manner.

Your system should then have a clean bill of health regarding device connections and cooling.

Thermal paste and cleaning solutions can be bought from Amazon.

I use Artic Silver Thermal paste cleaning solutions.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arctic-Silver-Arcti-TIMENT-Remover/dp/B07DCWHY7F/?tag=tonymacx86-21

But use SYY-157 Thermal paste.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SYY-Compound-Processor-Performance-Interface/dp/B079DRBC92/?tag=tonymacx86-21

The kit that comes with the SYY-157 paste is handy for application to different devices.

 

[ejmaroney]

Thanks, it’s not looking so bad considering 7 years, here’s the graphic card. Will give it a “tuneup” as you suggest.

Battery arrives today, fingers crossed…

 

[Edhawk]

GPU fan blades look clean, but the thermal paste will be 7+ years old. So replacing the old paste would be beneficial.

When the Battery arrives and you install it in the motherboard, do the following:

Use the Bios Defaults option to set your system bios.

Then use the settings below to reconfigure your bios for running macOS.

1. Virtualisation : Enabled
2. VT-d : Disabled
3. XHCI Hand-Off : Enabled
4. Legacy USB Support: Auto/Enabled
5. SuperIO/SerialPort : Disabled
6. Network Stack : Disabled
7. XMP Profile : Auto / Profile 1/Enabled
8. UEFI Booting set to Enabled and set Priority over Legacy
9. Secure Boot : Disabled
10. Fast Boot : Disabled
11. OS Type: Other OS
12. Wake on LAN : Disabled

Dedicated Graphics + Integrated graphics card:

1. Integrated Graphics : Enabled
2. Graphics: PEG/PCIe Slot 1
3. Initial Display Output : PEG/PCIe 1 Slot
4. DVMT Pre-Allocated : 128M or higher

 

[ejmaroney]

So, battery arrived, but apparently they are not universal?

I’ve tried, gently, to make the new one (left) fit, but I don’t think it will.

Does anyone recognize these formats?

Are they the same and I just need to be less gentle?

Thanks

 

[P1LGRIM]

Clearly they are not the same but it should only take a few moments to splice the right end onto the new battery.
Or you can just order the correct item.

 

[ejmaroney]

Yes, I’ll just get another from a local shop. Traveling this week, once I get back we’ll get it working!

Thanks

 

[wstrohm]

Random suggestion: Update from Sierra to High Sierra, version 10.13.6, Build 17G14042, and install nVidia graphics driver ("WebDriver") version 387.10.10.10.40.140. That is the latest version of MacOS and matching graphics driver that will run a nVidia GTX 970. That combination will also run a Pascal-architecture nVidia graphics card such as a GTX 10xx in case you ever consider a graphics upgrade.

If you wish to stay with nVidia graphics (either Maxwell or Pascal), you are stuck with no later a MacOS version than the above. If you want to update Mac OS beyond that, you would need to change to a supported AMD graphics card, or downgrade to your internal graphics.

[Edit: FYI, if you ever decide to upgrade to High Sierra, go here and scroll down to the "10.13.6" link in the "Use the App Store" section. Click that and you will be taken to a page that looks like this:

if you click the blue "Get" button on that App Store webpage, hopefully you will be allowed to download a full High Sierra installer, and it should be the version I listed above, namely 10.13.6 Build 17G14042. If you install that, you will then need to update your nVidia graphics driver. The nVidia Device Manager should let you know that the correct driver is available. If not, there is a current version available here on tonymac, or post back here and I'll link you to it.]

 

[ejmaroney]

Greetings again.

So, I got back, picked up a new battery, and...

Now it's caught in a restart loop. It turns on, goes for a couple seconds, then restarts... again and again and again.

I put the old battery back in (I could boot up into Windoze before), but same thing.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Edhawk]

It sounds like your Main bios is borked.

You may need to download and copy the latest bios to a FAT32 formatted USB pen drive, and see if you can get the motherboard to boot in to the Q-Flash bios updater, by spamming the Del, F8, F12 or End key when you first power on the system.

I can't remember how you force the system to automatically boot to the Secondary (Dual) bios chip on a Gigabyte motherboard, so trying to manually upgrade/re-flash the bios may be your best option.