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Q6600 CPU Not Recognised as Intel - causing app install probs


imacken
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My Q6600 is not being recognised as such. Shows up as 'Unknown' in 'About this Mac' and there is no 'Processor Name' in System Profiler.

This is stopping me installing certain apps that need an Intel CPU.

I've tried various SMBIOS settings from doing searches, but nothing I try seems to work.

Any ideas?

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Apps not installing has nothing to do with the cpu not being recognized. I have the same processor as you, reported in about this mac as unknown and 0 issues installing, final cut, adobe CS4 masters collection, ilife, iwork, etc. as the processor branding is purely cosmetic. Check your installation. Also if u want About this mac to report your correct cpu model check here.

 

Processor Branding - InsanelyMac

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Apps not installing has nothing to do with the cpu not being recognized. I have the same processor as you, reported in about this mac as unknown and 0 issues installing, final cut, adobe CS4 masters collection, ilife, iwork, etc. as the processor branding is purely cosmetic. Check your installation. Also if u want About this mac to report your correct cpu model check here.

 

Processor Branding - InsanelyMac

 

Thanks but I'm afraid you're wrong there. Parallels or VM Fusion will not install unless it sees the system reporting an Intel CPU.

 

That is why I need to get the System Profiler to report correctly on the Q6600.

 

It's not what it says in 'About This Mac' that's important - via OSXTools that now states my CPU correctly - it's what is shown in System Profiler, and at the moment there is no 'Processor Name'. That is the problem.

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Im running Fusion without problems.

Glad to hear it! I can only presume that in System Profiler your Q6600 is correctly being reported.

Mine isn't, and Fusion and Parallels won't install as they just give a message about 'can only be installed on an Intel CPU'.

I got Parallels working by a workaround posted in various places, but I would still like to get this sorted out.

Can you post your SMBIOS.plist file?

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Glad to hear it! I can only presume that in System Profiler your Q6600 is correctly being reported.

Mine isn't, and Fusion and Parallels won't install as they just give a message about 'can only be installed on an Intel CPU'.

I got Parallels working by a workaround posted in various places, but I would still like to get this sorted out.

Can you post your SMBIOS.plist file?

 

 

Here is my smbios.plist.

smbios.plist.zip

 

But my system profiler says nothing about having a Q6600. Im sure you are missing something else.

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Here is my smbios.plist.

smbios.plist.zip

 

But my system profiler says nothing about having a Q6600. Im sure you are missing something else.

Well, I don't understand what's happening here. I changed my Gigabyte On Board Controller to AHCI from IDE to resolve another issue with BootCD, and now the apps install OK.

No more 'can only be installed on Intel processors' errors!!!!

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Well, I don't understand what's happening here. I changed my Gigabyte On Board Controller to AHCI from IDE to resolve another issue with BootCD, and now the apps install OK.

No more 'can only be installed on Intel processors' errors!!!!

 

I told u it has nothing to do.... try to install the microsoft silverlight plugin...if it installs then your are all set.

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I told u it has nothing to do.... try to install the microsoft silverlight plugin...if it installs then your are all set.

 

False dawn, I'm afraid.

 

Tried Silverlight, and just get 'Silverlight 2 may not be installed on PowerPC'.

 

So, it's back to square one.

 

I'm afraid the more I see of this problem, the more I'm convinced it has to do with the fact that System Profiler isn't reporting the CPU correctly.

I loaded up my 10.5.8 install, and the CPU is reported correctly in SP. I have no problems installing Silverlight or Parallels or Fusion in Leo.

This is obviously significant. What is weird is that both SL and Leo are being booted from the same Chameleon boot partition with the same Extras folder with the same DSDT, boot.plist, etc. etc.

Where does OS X get the processor info from?

I might try a reinstall of SL although I don't want to do a wipe of my existing one for various reasons. Can I install on top of the existing one?

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S i was investigating your issue and the silverlight installer actually does a query for CPU type. this query exactly

 

system_profiler SPHardwareDataType -xml | grep "Intel"

 

If you open a shell and run system_profiler SPHardwareDataType – what does it report for “Processor Name”?

 

If you know for a fact (obviously you do but just checking) that you are on Intel and want to complete the install, it is fairly easy to disable the checks done by the installer (the steps are somewhat dependent on which browser you are using so I’ll just paste these in to get started but let me know if you need more info).

1. Download the package of your desire for Mac OS X.

2. Let the .dmg file execute.

3. Go to the folder where you downloaded the Silverlight plugin.

4. Right click on .pkg file " and choose the "Show Package Contents" menu item.

5. Double click on the "Contents" folder.

6. Double click on the "Resources" folder.

7. Drag and drop the file "InstallationCheck" to the trash.

8. Close out the folder you're working in.

9. Finally double click on the " package, and it should install fine now.

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I really appreciate your input here - this is driving me mad!!!

 

OK, I know about the install workaround, but I really would like to sort this CPU thing out.

 

On my system, I have a Leo 10.5.8 install on one HDD, and a Chameleon boot partition and SL on another HDD. (I also have Windows installed on a 3rd drive, but we'll ignore that.)

The Chameleon partition is used to boot both SL and Leo.

I ran your command for both the Leo and SL installs.

I also ran sysctl -a | grep cpu on both.

 

The results are shown below:

 

1) SL Install

 

i) From 'system_profiler SPHardwareDataType' :

 

iains-p35c-ds3r:~ Iain$ system_profiler SPHardwareDataType

2009-09-19 09:07:57.003 system_profiler[227:903] Error loading /System/Library/SystemProfiler/SPiPlatformReporter.spreporter: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=3585 UserInfo=0x1005190a0 "The bundle “SPiPlatformReporter†couldn’t be loaded because it doesn’t contain a version for the current architecture." (dlopen_preflight(/System/Library/SystemProfiler/SPiPlatformReporter.spreporter/Contents/MacOS/SPiPlatformReporter): no suitable image found. Did find:

/System/Library/SystemProfiler/SPiPlatformReporter.spreporter/Contents/MacOS/SPiPlatformReporter: no matching architecture in universal wrapper)

Hardware:

 

Hardware Overview:

 

Model Name: iMac

Model Identifier: iMac8,1

Processor Speed: 3 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 4

L2 Cache: 8 MB

Memory: 4 GB

Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz

Boot ROM Version: IM81.00C1.B00

SMC Version (system): 1.13f3

Serial Number (system): INSERTYOURSHERE

Hardware UUID: B9971346-D2E6-35FE-8DDC-2C87B27B3B36

 

 

ii) From 'sysctl -a | grep cpu' :

 

machdep.cpu.vendor: GenuineIntel

machdep.cpu.brand_string: Intel® Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz

machdep.cpu.family: 6

machdep.cpu.model: 15

machdep.cpu.extmodel: 0

machdep.cpu.extfamily: 0

machdep.cpu.stepping: 11

 

 

2) Leo Install

 

i) From 'system_profiler SPHardwareDataType' :Hardware:

 

Hardware Overview:

 

Model Name: Mac

Model Identifier: iMac8,1

Processor Name: Intel® Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @

Processor Speed: 3 GHz

Total Number Of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB

CPU Features: FPU VME DE PSE TSC MSR PAE MCE CX8 APIC SEP MTRR PGE MCA CMOV PAT PSE36 CLFSH DS ACPI MMX FXSR SSE SSE2 SS HTT TM SSE3 MON DSCPL VMX EST TM2 SSSE3 CX16 TPR PDCM

Memory: 4 GB

Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz

Boot ROM Version: MP31.88Z.006C.B05.0802291410 (Apple Inc.)

Serial Number: W1234567890

 

ii) From 'sysctl -a | grep cpu' :

 

machdep.cpu.stepping: 11

machdep.cpu.extfamily: 0

machdep.cpu.extmodel: 0

machdep.cpu.model: 15

machdep.cpu.family: 6

machdep.cpu.brand_string: Intel® Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz

machdep.cpu.vendor: GenuineIntel

 

 

Things I found interesting:

1) the error in the SL i) report. Not seen in the Leo one. All the Leo reporting is correct and I have no issues with any app installs.

2) the different reporting of the Boot ROM Version, and serial number. I thought that info would all have come from the smbios.plist in the Chameleon/Extra folder.

3) the grep output is correct for both.

 

Any further thoughts?

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Im having the same problem with my Q9450.

 

Was first reported as Unknown in about this mac and there is no information about the CPU type in system profiler.

 

Just tried to install Windows Office 2008 and its asking me to install rosetta!!

 

This is a serious problem as the system thinks its PPC or something.

 

Not having a really had a great time on SL, im also getting random lockups and freezing when im multitasking meaning i have to hard boot.

 

 

All running on a GA-X48-DS5, Q9450 and GTX260.

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Just tried to install Windows Office 2008 and its asking me to install rosetta!!

 

This is a serious problem as the system thinks its PPC or something.

I never thought about that when installing Office!

A workaround could be to remove the InstallationCheck in 'Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac.pkg' within Packages.

Do you have a similar situation to the one I posted 2 posts up?

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Well I know for a fact that the way System Profiler gathers the data in Snow Leopard changed from Leopard. IDK really why you machine fails. but maybe it has something to do with this error u get and i dont

 

2009-09-19 09:07:57.003 system_profiler[227:903] Error loading /System/Library/SystemProfiler/SPiPlatformReporter.spreporter: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=3585 UserInfo=0x1005190a0 "The bundle �€œSPiPlatformReporter�€� couldn�€™t be loaded because it doesn�€™t contain a version for the current architecture." (dlopen_preflight(/System/Library/SystemProfiler/SPiPlatformReporter.spreporter/Contents/MacOS/SPiPlatformReporter): no suitable image found. Did find:
/System/Library/SystemProfiler/SPiPlatformReporter.spreporter/Contents/MacOS/SPiPlatformReporter: no matching architecture in universal wrapper)

 

Did u replace the SPPlatfromReporter.spreporter in SL with the one from Leo??? If u did. Undo the changes and try again.

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Did u replace the SPPlatfromReporter.spreporter in SL with the one from Leo??? If u did. Undo the changes and try again.

 

You could be on to something here, but don't you mean SPiPlatformReporter.spreporter? (as per the error message)

 

I don't remember changing it, but when I look at the contents of S/L/SystemProfiler all the files have a date of May-June 2009 EXCEPT for SPiPlatformReporter which has a 2007 date!

 

I don't think that file should be there at all after checking my other SL install. So, I removed it and now the Terminal error has gone, but the original problem is still there.

 

This is driving me crazy!

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Update:

I managed to get System Profiler to report the correct info by this method:

 

Navigate to: System/Library/SystemProfiler.

 

Right click SPPlatformReporter.spreporter. Click Show package contents. Double Click Contents/Resources/English.lproj or whatever language your computer is set to. Drag a copy of "Localizable.strings" to your desktop. Open it up with "TEXT EDITOR.

 

Add info in as I have done below:

 

SPHardwareDataType = "Hardware";

 

hardware_overview = "Hardware Overview";

machine_name = "Model Name";

machine_model = "Model Identifier";

cpu_type = "Processor Name";

current_processor_speed = "Processor Speed";"3.02 GHz"="3 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme™";

minimum_processor_speed = "Minimum CPU Speed";

 

It must be exact. For instance System Profiler shows my system as having a processor running at 3.02 GHz, there fore to change info you have to put "3.02 GHz"= "followed by whatever info you want to show";

 

That was from a Aquamac site. The method works as System Profiler shows up the correct info as does the Terminal prompt from posts above, BUT the problem is the same. Silverlight just doesn't like it - still thinks it's a PowerPC.

 

Where do we go from here?

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Update:

I managed to get System Profiler to report the correct info by this method:

 

Navigate to: System/Library/SystemProfiler.

 

Right click SPPlatformReporter.spreporter. Click Show package contents. Double Click Contents/Resources/English.lproj or whatever language your computer is set to. Drag a copy of "Localizable.strings" to your desktop. Open it up with "TEXT EDITOR.

 

Add info in as I have done below:

 

SPHardwareDataType = "Hardware";

 

hardware_overview = "Hardware Overview";

machine_name = "Model Name";

machine_model = "Model Identifier";

cpu_type = "Processor Name";

current_processor_speed = "Processor Speed";"3.02 GHz"="3 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme™";

minimum_processor_speed = "Minimum CPU Speed";

 

It must be exact. For instance System Profiler shows my system as having a processor running at 3.02 GHz, there fore to change info you have to put "3.02 GHz"= "followed by whatever info you want to show";

 

That was from a Aquamac site. The method works as System Profiler shows up the correct info as does the Terminal prompt from posts above, BUT the problem is the same. Silverlight just doesn't like it - still thinks it's a PowerPC.

 

Where do we go from here?

U just manage to change the cosmetics of System Profiler. Thats not how real macs report the name of the processor. I really dont know whats wrong. My hack doesnt report the processor name either but it works :/

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U just manage to change the cosmetics of System Profiler. Thats not how real macs report the name of the processor. I really dont know whats wrong. My hack doesnt report the processor name either but it works :/

Thanks again. I'm going to try posting this in another forum and see what happens.

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The Office 2008 installer and the older version of the updater require Rosetta. Office itself is Intel.

 

When messing around with bootloaders in the past if I remember correctly I had an issue when the bootloader was hosed and my already installed CPU (VT-x) wasn't detected. Have you tried installing Chameleon on the SL partition and making that partition active?

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The Office 2008 installer and the older version of the updater require Rosetta. Office itself is Intel.

 

When messing around with bootloaders in the past if I remember correctly I had an issue when the bootloader was hosed and my already installed CPU (VT-x) wasn't detected. Have you tried installing Chameleon on the SL partition and making that partition active?

Thanks but Office isn't really the issue. The easiest way to check is to try and install Silverlight. I get the 'Can't install on a PowerPC' message - simliar with Parallels and Fusion. All software can be installed with the well-documented workaround but it's the principle here. Something isn't right!

As I have said before, my 10.5.8 install (from the same boot partition) works perfectly and doesn't have this issue at all.

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Screenshot from my 10.5.8 vanilla install. Core 2 Duo E8500 @ stock freqs, all CPU features except CPUID Limit enabled in the BIOS, model identifier is iMac9,1. Using Chameleon 2.0 RC3.

post-188427-1253635862_thumb.png

CPU-x and CPU-i shows everything correctly.

System Profiler shows neither "CPU features" nor "Processor Name", and the "Processor" pref pane from Xcode shows no CPU at all!

 

I have the same problem with the Silverlight installer thinking it's a PPC, and Adobe.com offering the PPC version of Shockwave.

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Well here is my screenshot from my 10.6.1 vanilla install also no, CPU Features (real macs dont display them anyway) no processor, name. CPU-x reports correct name. CHUD Processor Pref Pane Reports correct cpu family of Mac Pro 2,1. and so im happy :P

 

post-22356-1253636909_thumb.jpg

 

PS. Hey Beerkex'd can you post a link to cpu-i? Ive been looking for it but cant find it.

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