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nForce OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) RETAIL INSTALL GUIDE on a Series 6 or 7 nForce chipset / Intel CPU MOBO


verdant
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Snow Leopard on nForce + Intel CPU MOBO in Desktop  

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  1. 1. Have you successfully installed a working, bootable Snow Leopard system?

    • Yes, on a Series 7 (750i, 780i, or 790i) nForce chipset Intel CPU MOBO, using the USB flash drive installer method
      34
    • Yes, on a Series 6 (650i or 680i) nForce chipset Intel CPU MOBO, using the USB flash drive installer method
      50
    • Yes, on a Series 6 (610i or 630i) nForce chipset Intel CPU MOBO, using the USB flash drive installer method
      18
    • Yes, on a Series 7 (750i, 780i, or 790i) nForce chipset Intel CPU MOBO, using verdant's nForceSLBoot132DVD installer method
      14
    • Yes, on a Series 6 (650i or 680i) nForce chipset Intel CPU MOBO, using verdant's nForceSLBoot132DVD installer method
      13
    • Yes, on a Series 6 (610i or 630i) nForce chipset Intel CPU MOBO, using verdant's nForceSLBoot132DVD installer method
      6
    • Yes, on a Series 7 (750i, 780i, or 790i) nForce chipset Intel CPU MOBO using OSInstall.mpkg method from Leopard to another HDD/volume
      10
    • Yes, on a Series 6 (650i or 680i) nForce chipset Intel CPU MOBO, using OSInstall.mpkg method from Leopard to another HDD/volume
      9
    • Yes, on a Series 6 (610i or 630i) nForce chipset Intel CPU MOBO, using OSInstall.mpkg method from Leopard to another HDD/volume
      8
    • No, none of the above methods has worked for me
      35
    • I have sold or plan to sell my nForce chipset MOBO to go over to the "light" side....Intel chipset MOBO.....
      10
    • I have sold or plan to sell my nForce chipset MOBO to buy a "real" Mac
      6
  2. 2. Would you say that your Snow Leopard system is working to your satisfaction (e.g. compared to Leopard)

    • 100%
      60
    • 90%
      53
    • 80%
      20
    • 70%
      19
    • 60%
      4
    • 50%
      6
    • <50%
      18
    • Are you running 10.6.1 successfully , having auto-updated without any problems
      21
    • Are all the standard Apple applications running OK
      12
  3. 3. Is your Snow Leopard system working 100% on

    • SATA HDD
      173
    • SATA DVDRW including burning disks
      47
    • PATA (IDE) HDD
      42
    • PATA (IDE) DVDRW including burning disks
      51
    • Video
      146
    • Onboard LAN (Ethernet)
      131
    • USB devices (mounting/unmounting), plus USB keyboard and USB mouse
      161
    • Firewire
      54
    • PS/2 keyboard and mouse
      42
    • Audio including Front Panel headphones and microphone
      63
    • Audio except Front Panel headphones
      38
    • Audio except Front Panel microphone
      27
    • Sleep including waking from sleep
      24
    • PCI NIC
      24
    • eSATA
      20
    • Bluetooth
      41
    • WiFi
      38
    • Time Machine
      53
    • Overclocking
      35
    • Auto Software Update e.g. to 10.6.1
      90


2,142 posts in this topic

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Does anyone else have really laggy QE/CI after 10.6.5??? Menu bar isn't transparent either??

 

After updating I have no problems with QE/CI and my top menu bar is transparent like my About This Mac and the Dashboard "ripples" when adding widgets........... :mellow:

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Thanks for your reply verdant. i can boot into 64bit fine. no inernet network tho. only in 32bit.

 

i thought by booting into 64bit with all 4cores would solve the freezing i get due to my motherboard. but it seems to have not. you have any knowledge on this?

 

much appreciated.

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That is good news..........glad for you........ :unsure:

 

When updating to 10.6.5, loss of audio and USB functionality seem to be the main issues.........fortunately, both are fixable by rolling back to pre-10.6.5 AppleHDA and IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass kexts in my case........i.e. back to 10.6.2 AppleHDA.kext and the 10.6.4 IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass kexts........

 

Try CPUTest v0.2..........

 

Now that I have had a chance to play around with the system I sometimes experience an infinite spinning beach ball. The dock will freeze and I won't be able to click anything however my mouse will still move around.

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Thanks for your reply verdant. i can boot into 64bit fine. no inernet network tho. only in 32bit.

 

i thought by booting into 64bit with all 4cores would solve the freezing i get due to my motherboard. but it seems to have not. you have any knowledge on this?

 

much appreciated.

 

Regarding networking, eno's latest nForce kexts from release version 0.64.3 onward have 64bit support built in apparently......

 

Without knowing more about the nature of your freezes, i.e. under what circumstances, any logged error messages etc. it is difficult to comment further.........

 

Now that I have had a chance to play around with the system I sometimes experience an infinite spinning beach ball. The dock will freeze and I won't be able to click anything however my mouse will still move around.

 

Without knowing more about the nature of your freezes, i.e. under what circumstances, any logged error messages etc. it is difficult to comment further.........I assume you rolled back to pre-10.6.5 AppleHDA and IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass kexts.....?

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Regarding networking, eno's latest nForce kexts from release version 0.64.3 onward have 64bit support built in apparently......

 

Without knowing more about the nature of your freezes, i.e. under what circumstances, any logged error messages etc. it is difficult to comment further.........

 

 

 

Without knowing more about the nature of your freezes, i.e. under what circumstances, any logged error messages etc. it is difficult to comment further.........I assume you rolled back to pre-10.6.5 AppleHDA and IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass kexts.....?

 

 

I didn't roll back any kexts. I didn't know I had to. No error message or anything pop up when the freeze occurs.

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frezzing without a KP is may be a Spotlight indexing problem. When i have spotlight enabled my system is pretty unstable and frezzes like every 10 min. When it's disabled i have no problems.

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When updating to 10.6.5, loss of audio and USB functionality seem to be the main issues.........fortunately, both are fixable by rolling back to pre-10.6.5 AppleHDA and IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass kexts in my case........i.e. back to 10.6.2 AppleHDA.kext and the 10.6.4 IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass kexts........

 

As for Spotlight indexing generated KPs, often it is a result of the attempted Spotlight indexing of a mounted NTFS volume..........

 

In which case, look out for

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: mds

as mds is the metadata server. It serves all clients of the metadata APIs, including Spotlight.......also look for

com.apple.filesystems.ntfs(3.3)@0x14de000->0x153dfff

indicating a NTFS filesystem support issue........

 

You can drag your NTFS volume into the Privacy window by going to System Preferences >>>> Spotlight >>>> Privacy............this will prevent Spotlight from trying to index it..........

 

Antivirus software may also trigger mds when searching for viruses.....

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The beach ball of death was coming up anytime I tried to search for something so spotlight is a good place for me to start searching for the problem. I have turned it off completely for both my NTFS and HFS formatted drives. So far I have not gotten the beach ball of death since. I'll do somemore tests after I get back home on Monday.

USB ports are working fine after my update to 10.6.5 and for audio I'm using a Sound Blaster Audigy ZS which also is working without a problem after the update so I am assuming there is no reason for me to roll back my drivers at this point.

 

 

 

 

When updating to 10.6.5, loss of audio and USB functionality seem to be the main issues.........fortunately, both are fixable by rolling back to pre-10.6.5 AppleHDA and IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass kexts in my case........i.e. back to 10.6.2 AppleHDA.kext and the 10.6.4 IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass kexts........

 

As for Spotlight indexing generated KPs, often it is a result of the attempted Spotlight indexing of a mounted NTFS volume..........

 

In which case, look out for

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: mds

as mds is the metadata server. It serves all clients of the metadata APIs, including Spotlight.......also look for

com.apple.filesystems.ntfs(3.3)@0x14de000->0x153dfff

indicating a NTFS filesystem support issue........

 

You can drag your NTFS volume into the Privacy window by going to System Preferences >>>> Spotlight >>>> Privacy............this will prevent Spotlight from trying to index it..........

 

Antivirus software may also trigger mds when searching for viruses.....

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Regarding networking, eno's latest nForce kexts from release version 0.64.3 onward have 64bit support built in apparently......

 

Without knowing more about the nature of your freezes, i.e. under what circumstances, any logged error messages etc. it is difficult to comment further.........

 

hmm.. ive try eno's nforce installer 0.64.6 and the nForce Lan kext only seems to work in x32.

 

As for the nature of my freezes. they only occur when i load a heavy program or copy a large file. you have mentioned more cpu cooling but i cant really add more.

 

im using cpus=1 at this present time but i hopfully be able to use all 4 core with x64.

 

i will check my logs to see if anything pops up after freezing but i dont this there was in the past.

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hmm.. ive try eno's nforce installer 0.64.6 and the nForce Lan kext only seems to work in x32.

 

As for the nature of my freezes. they only occur when i load a heavy program or copy a large file. you have mentioned more cpu cooling but i cant really add more.

 

im using cpus=1 at this present time but i hopfully be able to use all 4 core with x64.

 

i will check my logs to see if anything pops up after freezing but i dont this there was in the past.

 

I was having this same problem and disabling spot light has seemed to fix it.

 

On another note. I'm working on my overclock again now that my system seems stable but anytime I try to boot into OSX while overclocked CPUPowerManagement.kext kernel panics. Is there anyway around this without using NullCPUPowerManagement.kext or disabler.kext?

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I was having this same problem and disabling spot light has seemed to fix it.

 

On another note. I'm working on my overclock again now that my system seems stable but anytime I try to boot into OSX while overclocked CPUPowerManagement.kext kernel panics. Is there anyway around this without using NullCPUPowerManagement.kext or disabler.kext?

 

@ RaMDay

 

According to David Elliott, who wrote the NullCPUPowerManagement.kext:

Another problem for OS X running on non-Apple hardware (virtual or otherwise) is the AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement kernel extension which tends to either panic the machine or spew endless debug messages to the console regarding the HPET and its relationship to the CPU.

 

which seems to suggest that AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext may need to be disabled when using an OC'd CPU on a OS X PC hack.......

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  • 2 weeks later...

I recently swapped my MSI P43-C51 (Intel P43) chipset that runs SL 10.6.5 gracefully with a high-end Dell XPS730 Nforce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard (refurbished).

 

I am using the iATKOS S3 Version 2 Snow Leopard 10.6.3 Install DVD.

 

I encountered many problems to do a fresh install and the main problem is I can't enable HPET because there is no option to enable/disable in bios. Everytime I boot in 32-bit, safe mode, cpus=1 and maxmem=2048, I will get KP with ElliottForceLegacyRTC.kext

 

I haven't tried with vanilla install yet and will try it soon. So as preparation I've studied this thread from the very first page.

 

Luckily I haven't deleted the working installation with my MSI P43-C51 and I've deleted the ElliottForceLegacyRTC.kext and placed AppleNforce.kext, AppleNForceATATest nForce Drivers into /Extra . Booted with <key>arch</key> <string>i386</string> in boot.apple.plist and voila! everything works just like before except for GTX285.

 

I connected the Snow Leopard harddisk to e-SATA port with AHCI and it is more stable than using NforceATA ports.

 

Audio works (ALC888 using VoodooHDA)

USB works (faster detection than MSI P43)

e-SATA works (faster detection than MSI P43)

Firewire disabled (caused error but no KP).

GTX285 revived after injecting the bios rom with Chameleon control panel. OpenGL and OpenCL works just like before.

DDR3-1333 detected as DDR2-800 but that's not much the issue for me

Intel Q6600 using 4 enabled cores (detected as Intel Xeon)

Sleep didn't tried it yet - not important

Shutdown works and swift.

 

I got freezing without KP when I tried to access NTFS and Spotlight might has caused the problem. See if I can follow the solution as described above :D

 

Already back up the current working partition. Now to see what else it can't do :D

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I recently swapped my MSI P43-C51 (Intel P43) chipset that runs SL 10.6.5 gracefully with a high-end Dell XPS730 Nforce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard (refurbished).

 

I am using the iATKOS S3 Version 2 Snow Leopard 10.6.3 Install DVD.

 

I encountered many problems to do a fresh install and the main problem is I can't enable HPET because there is no option to enable/disable in bios. Everytime I boot in 32-bit, safe mode, cpus=1 and maxmem=2048, I will get KP with ElliottForceLegacyRTC.kext

 

I haven't tried with vanilla install yet and will try it soon. So as preparation I've studied this thread from the very first page.

 

Luckily I haven't deleted the working installation with my MSI P43-C51 and I've deleted the ElliottForceLegacyRTC.kext and placed AppleNforce.kext, AppleNForceATATest nForce Drivers into /Extra . Booted with <key>arch</key> <string>i386</string> in boot.apple.plist and voila! everything works just like before except for GTX285.

 

I connected the Snow Leopard harddisk to e-SATA port with AHCI and it is more stable than using NforceATA ports.

 

Audio works (ALC888 using VoodooHDA)

USB works (faster detection than MSI P43)

e-SATA works (faster detection than MSI P43)

Firewire disabled (caused error but no KP).

GTX285 revived after injecting the bios rom with Chameleon control panel. OpenGL and OpenCL works just like before.

DDR3-1333 detected as DDR2-800 but that's not much the issue for me

Intel Q6600 using 4 enabled cores (detected as Intel Xeon)

Sleep didn't tried it yet - not important

Shutdown works and swift.

 

I got freezing without KP when I tried to access NTFS and Spotlight might has caused the problem. See if I can follow the solution as described above :D

 

Already back up the current working partition. Now to see what else it can't do :D

 

Glad the guide helped you.......... :D

 

I assume you are now using a RTC patched DSDT to fix the CMOS reset issue?

 

Sleep is unlikely to work as the SleepEnabler.kext causes a KP..........

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Glad the guide helped you.......... :(

 

I assume you are now using a RTC patched DSDT to fix the CMOS reset issue?

 

Sleep is unlikely to work as the SleepEnabler.kext causes a KP..........

 

 

Yes :P . In the future I want to test dual GPU (perhaps a GTX460 sitting next to GTX285). :P

 

The BIOS setting is just funny. Looks like HPET is enabled by default after I checked Nvidia performance setting in the Nvidia ESA interface.

 

Because the motherboard's ATA isn't true AHCI, it seems like I can't set Privacy setting in the Spotlight configuration. I've used terminal command to disable it, but only affect harddisk connected to the Jmicron e-Sata ports. :(

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Yes :D . In the future I want to test dual GPU (perhaps a GTX460 sitting next to GTX285). :P

 

The BIOS setting is just funny. Looks like HPET is enabled by default after I checked Nvidia performance setting in the Nvidia ESA interface.

 

Because the motherboard's ATA isn't true AHCI, it seems like I can't set Privacy setting in the Spotlight configuration. I've used terminal command to disable it, but only affect harddisk connected to the Jmicron e-Sata ports. :)

 

Invariably on nForce MOBOs with a BIOS that does not have an explicit SATA Controller Mode with an AHCI mode setting, enabling RAID but disabling each SATA RAID channel in BIOS (assuming that you are not using a RAID setup) implicitly enables AHCI mode........

 

See the 790i BIOS OS X BIOS settings.......downloadable template link is post#1..........

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verdant i need your help.

 

specs nforce 750i, core 2 duo, 4gb ram, 9800 gt nvdia card

 

I used your boot 132 cd method to install snow leopard successfully, booted into snow leopard and installed 3 kexts, voodhoohda, nvkush, and nforcelan. The only thing that doesn't work are my external usb storage drives. I launched auto update for snow leopard and rebooted the computer. in the prompt i typed -v -f to boot and i get a blank screen, i boooted with -x and I can see the login screen but my mouse and keyboard don't work, help please.

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verdant i need your help.

 

specs nforce 750i, core 2 duo, 4gb ram, 9800 gt nvdia card

 

I used your boot 132 cd method to install snow leopard successfully, booted into snow leopard and installed 3 kexts, voodhoohda, nvkush, and nforcelan. The only thing that doesn't work are my external usb storage drives. I launched auto update for snow leopard and rebooted the computer. in the prompt i typed -v -f to boot and i get a blank screen, i boooted with -x and I can see the login screen but my mouse and keyboard don't work, help please.

 

When updating to 10.6.5, loss of audio and USB functionality seem to be the main issues.........fortunately, both are fixable by rolling back to pre-10.6.5 AppleHDA and IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass kexts in my case........i.e. back to 10.6.2 AppleHDA.kext and the 10.6.4 IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass kexts........

 

Have you re-run NVkush installer after updating to 10.6.5? If that does not work, see post #1 for nVidia graphics card "driver" options..........

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When updating to 10.6.5, loss of audio and USB functionality seem to be the main issues.........fortunately, both are fixable by rolling back to pre-10.6.5 AppleHDA and IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass kexts in my case........i.e. back to 10.6.2 AppleHDA.kext and the 10.6.4 IOUSBFamily and IOUSBMassStorageClass kexts........

 

Have you re-run NVkush installer after updating to 10.6.5? If that does not work, see post #1 for nVidia graphics card "driver" options..........

 

okay cool so how do i install the kext if i can't access the computer because the mouse and keyboard freezes.

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okay cool so how do i install the kext if i can't access the computer because the mouse and keyboard freezes.

 

Via Windows and TransMac is an easy way if you do not have a backup pre-10.6.5 OS X system on the PC.............

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wait i dont understand? i already have the kexts backed up on my email. snow leopard is the only operating system on my computer

 

Then boot from an OS X install distro and use the Terminal to replace the 10.6.5 kexts with the backed up kexts on your OS X HDD..............

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