SMBIOS Model Change

[greenhobby]

Hi,

I've been using 14,2 as the Model number for years on my Hackintosh (specs are in bio). I've upgraded to Mojave and changed my GPU from a Nvidia 970 to a Sapphire R580. Everything is working great except:

1. Slight pauses when using some apps (only lasts a second or two). Different from the Nvidia GPU acceleration issues.
2. Preview doesn't always work. Either PDF files or other attachments. Same happens with files on disk.

I noticed that some are recommending that a change to the SMBIOS Model to something closer to what I have will fix these issues. With the new GPU and everything else, my Hackintosh is almost exactly a 18,3 model.

My question: I have iMessages, iTunes movies etc all working. What will the system do if I just change the model number from 14,2 to 18,3 (iMac (Retina, 5K, 27 inch, 7700, etc)? I have a good cloned disk et al in case things break, I'm just curious what to expect.

thanks, gh

 

[Nyctalopia]

The 1 second slowdown could be from using APFS on 3rd party SSD with Trim disabled. I'm not sure about the iMessage retaining its functionality after changing your SMBIOS but for starters save your config.plist with the changed SMBIOS next to the 14,2 one so you can change configs on boot if your system fails to boot.

In my case, changing SMBIOS logged me out of iCloud so i'm not sure if that impacts iMessage as well, i never 'fixed' mine to begin with.

 

[pastrychef]

Hi,

I've been using 14,2 as the Model number for years on my Hackintosh (specs are in bio). I've upgraded to Mojave and changed my GPU from a Nvidia 970 to a Sapphire R580. Everything is working great except:

1. Slight pauses when using some apps (only lasts a second or two). Different from the Nvidia GPU acceleration issues.
2. Preview doesn't always work. Either PDF files or other attachments. Same happens with files on disk.

I noticed that some are recommending that a change to the SMBIOS Model to something closer to what I have will fix these issues. With the new GPU and everything else, my Hackintosh is almost exactly a 18,3 model.

My question: I have iMessages, iTunes movies etc all working. What will the system do if I just change the model number from 14,2 to 18,3 (iMac (Retina, 5K, 27 inch, 7700, etc)? I have a good cloned disk et al in case things break, I'm just curious what to expect.

thanks, gh

Just create new Serial, Board Serial, and UUID to use with your new SMBIOS and you should be fine. I've done the same in the past and my iMessage, iTunes, etc continued to work.

 

[greenhobby]

Thanks much guys!! Worked great (Yes, I kept the old config.plist right next to the new one). No more delays and preview works a treat!!! I did have to re-assign a manual IP address to my 10Gb Nic, but easy... -gh