2365 replies to this topic

[JTG78]

I went ahead and tried the lifehacker guide with a setup nearly identical to what was specified.  The only thing I'm missing is the ethernet card (it wasn't available when I originally ordered).  So aside from the troubles involved with the onboard ethernet, my system seems to be working okay. Of course, this means I can't get Time Machine to work and nothing seems to be able to get a UUID.

In any  case, my question is whether anyone using rev1.6 of the UD3P motherboards has tried using the updated FDa bios found at http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ ? (I beleive FB is the default that comes with the board.)

I went ahead and updated my bios after the initial installation and verification that everything was working properly.  It sped up the AHCI boot process significantly!  I had a couple of problems getting it to boot initially, but I redid my bios settings and eventually got everything going.  

I have had a couple kernel panics for no apparent reason, but other than that things seem to be running okay.  Admittedly, I haven't had enough time to properly test the system and use everything.  And then there's the fact that I'm still missing the network card.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?  I'm particularly worried about whether I'll have to make changes to the DSDT file, something I know very little about.

[dustonio]

scrambler_455, on Sep 18 2009, 06:09 PM, said:

This thread is for us to share our experience with the hardware configuration:

• GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
  
• Intel Core 2 Quad 3.0GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
  
• GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
  
• 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Memory x 2 (for a total of 8GB)
  
• Pioneer CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model
  
• 10/ 100/ 1000/ 2000Mbps PCI Copper Gigabit Network Adapter  (The motherboard has onboard Ethernet, naturally, but this particular  board has some problems with onboard in the Hackintosh world.)

Obviously, the case, the hard disk, and the memory don't have to be the same, but here they are for the sake of posterity:

• Antec Sonata III 500 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
  
• Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory x 2 (for a total of 8GB)
  
• Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

The lifehacker guide including hardware config can be found here, and simplified even further through the addition of an automated script here.

Kudos to Adam Pash of lifehacker for putting this together, it's quite amazing to be able to do this so cheaply and simply!

If you've spent the money to get this exact configuration, it's probably a good idea to have a single place to discuss any problems that come up in the future. So share your experience here and hopefully this awesome hack pro setup will work flawlessy untill it's time for an upgrade!

I'm getting kernel panics every once in a while. the last one showed mds. I was trying to use SuperDuper! to back up my entire hard drive at the time. I wonder if other people are having problems with SuperDuper and/or Time Machine.

Another crazy thing that happened, is that all programs will all-of-a-sudden close, as though I was shutting down. The screen would turn blue, and then after a few seconds, the Snow Leopard background image would show and my dock would re-appear. I then needed to re-open all the programs. Strange...

[martygearbox]

SkipG, on Sep 20 2009, 11:15 PM, said:

QE Status not displayed in SL. Try launching Chess. If you can move a pawn, it's working.

I saw that before (about using Chess to test QE), but I am not sure that is a valid test. I am able to move a pawn in Chess, but I still get no other QE effects (translucent menubar, widget add effects, etc) and iMovie won't start because of the lack of QE.

[SkipG]

Thanks for the pointer. I have a Rev. 1.6 board and my DSDT worked fine after upgrading the BIOS. No changes required.

[nhc]

Raiten, on Sep 21 2009, 11:35 PM, said:

It sounds like you are having the exact same problem I had. I thought the heatsink was seated properly too. I realized its really important to push down the pins opposite each other. Before, I went in a circle and even though it seemed like it was seated correctly, when I pulled it off, only half of the thermal compound was smooshed.

I would take off the heatsink and then put it back on, maybe with some arctic silver instead. I just got some, though I don't think its necessary because mine is running fine now.

i tried reseating the heat sink and immediately upon boot up i'm right back up at 90-99 C, after letting it rest and cool down over night.  The thermal compound appeared to be well spread, but will try getting some arctic silver and reseating it.  I'm afraid i'm going to do some serious damage to my machine even booting it with the chip running at these temps.  I wonder if it could be a sensor problem?  I just don't see how the chip can get so hot so fast!

[shred1now]

Stell,

       I have been working with many systems over the years and have done days of research getting my stuff up to the current builds.   I got tired and upgraded my stuff to what you recommended and followed the guide and BAM!  Best system ever!   Thanks for bringing us on board.  Hope you help us with updates.   Just wanted to say thank you very much for all of your work.  I really appreciate it.

[Raiten]

shred1now, on Sep 23 2009, 01:33 PM, said:

Stell,

       I have been working with many systems over the years and have done days of research getting my stuff up to the current builds.   I got tired and upgraded my stuff to what you recommended and followed the guide and BAM!  Best system ever!   Thanks for bringing us on board.  Hope you help us with updates.   Just wanted to say thank you very much for all of your work.  I really appreciate it.

Yeah, Stell rocks.

[ghola]

So I'm trying everything, now I'm thinking, I wonder if I switch vid cards this thing will load up to the disk util/install stage?  Sure enough useing the USB Boot Image method I get into the snow installation; BUT the "pci video card" ATI Rage 128 AIW I used to get here can't deal with large LCD screens so I can only see half of what I need to do the install.  I now need a monitor from 1906 AD to finish this.   LOL

If people just made ATI 4870 bootable images life would be so easy. Now I have to go dumpster diving for old CRT's, and I just threw 3 away this year.  ;p

[chronosteam]

I finally get my hackintosh to work. Thank you life hacker
At first i had a problem with connecting to the network, but then i got it going. I just enable both of the onboard Network adapter. I have not had any problem since.

This board is great, tons on info and a very helpful member. Thanks a million

[saciron]

First of all thanks Adam for such a comprehensive guide on creating a Hackintosh.  I'm having some issues though trying to get the network card to be recognized.

I followed this guide on Lifehacker
http://lifehacker.co...start-to-finish

Then used the "magic" install utility on this guide, to eliminate the need for terminal programming.
http://lifehacker.co...acking-required

Everything is working fine except for the network card.

It's not even shown in system profiler.

Unfortunately at the time when I purchased the components from New Egg, the Trend Net TEG-PCITXR was sold out, so I purchased the Rosewill RC-400 card which according to this website it compatible with Snow Leopard.

http://stellarola.tu...atible-hardware

I disabled the onboard LAN in BIOS as instructed and made sure all other settings were correct.

When you plug in the CAT cable to the back of the NIC, the lights come on.

Downloaded the drivers from Rosewill site, installed them to Hackintosh system.  Still no luck.

Tried moving the card physically from one PCI slot to another. No luck.

Did a bit of research and very confused.  Not really sure at this point what the issue is or where to go from here.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

JTG78, on Sep 22 2009, 12:05 PM, said:

I went ahead and tried the lifehacker guide with a setup nearly identical to what was specified.  The only thing I'm missing is the ethernet card (it wasn't available when I originally ordered).  So aside from the troubles involved with the onboard ethernet, my system seems to be working okay. Of course, this means I can't get Time Machine to work and nothing seems to be able to get a UUID.

In any  case, my question is whether anyone using rev1.6 of the UD3P motherboards has tried using the updated FDa bios found at http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ ? (I beleive FB is the default that comes with the board.)

I went ahead and updated my bios after the initial installation and verification that everything was working properly.  It sped up the AHCI boot process significantly!  I had a couple of problems getting it to boot initially, but I redid my bios settings and eventually got everything going.  

I have had a couple kernel panics for no apparent reason, but other than that things seem to be running okay.  Admittedly, I haven't had enough time to properly test the system and use everything.  And then there's the fact that I'm still missing the network card.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?  I'm particularly worried about whether I'll have to make changes to the DSDT file, something I know very little about.

Ya using the rev 1.6 of the board.  No NIC for me either.  Haven't done a BIOS update though.  Do you feel that would be necessary?

[Curvin]

Using the Rev 1.6 board here, and have no issue with the onboard NIC's, working fine .

I didn't make any changes to the Extras or DSDT files , so not sure why my NIC is working where its not for others.

BIOS rev is still FB, but I'll be updating to the latest BETA BIOS when I get a few spare minutes and report back.

I haven't pushed the system too hard, but no major problems to report so far.

[stellarola]

You can guys can use the onboard ethernet, there's just no bonjour support.

[CoHPhasor]

Adam, thank you for bringing the masses (including myself) up to speed in such a sweet way.
Stella, thanks for spending the time (and patience) on us and Adam to get this build workable and EASY!

     I understand that keeping the components in the build identical is fairly critical, but have one question.
Can I use a Q9550 instead of the Q9650?
  They're both 45nm Yorkfields with 1333MHz FSB etc, but for the .17GHz increase the price gap is $100. (50% jump!)

     I figure if I use an old case, grab the Q9550, use only 4GB RAM, and get a WD 500GB Green instead of the 1TB I'll be able to make this build for about $675 instead of $900 and still be able to safely follow your updates.

      Is that correct? Use the Q9550 without having to worry about compatability with your build?

                   Thanks in advance for your help!

[saciron]

stellarola, on Sep 26 2009, 01:17 AM, said:

You can guys can use the onboard ethernet, there's just no bonjour support.

So just remove the PCI card, reboot, go into BIOS and enable both onboard Ethernet Ports?

[irontony]

CoHPhasor, on Sep 26 2009, 07:32 PM, said:

Adam, thank you for bringing the masses (including myself) up to speed in such a sweet way.
Stella, thanks for spending the time (and patience) on us and Adam to get this build workable and EASY!

     I understand that keeping the components in the build identical is fairly critical, but have one question.
Can I use a Q9550 instead of the Q9650?
  They're both 45nm Yorkfields with 1333MHz FSB etc, but for the .17GHz increase the price gap is $100. (50% jump!)

     I figure if I use an old case, grab the Q9550, use only 4GB RAM, and get a WD 500GB Green instead of the 1TB I'll be able to make this build for about $675 instead of $900 and still be able to safely follow your updates.

      Is that correct? Use the Q9550 without having to worry about compatability with your build?

                   Thanks in advance for your help!

Yes you can use the Q9550, I have and it works great =)



Question for anyone out there using this install with UD3P

Have any of you tried using Firewire yet?

[machinist]

saciron, on Sep 26 2009, 09:13 AM, said:

So just remove the PCI card, reboot, go into BIOS and enable both onboard Ethernet Ports?

Yes, but if you desire full compatibility, including bonjour, apply dsdt lan and/or gige fixes to your dsdt and install a startup script incorporating Becker's promiscuity enabler (http://www.stanford....stuff/#ifconfig).  (Eliade has written one already, available at http://www.insanelym...owtopic=181903).

[irontony]

@ machinist

I noticed in your sig that you are using ATI 3870.
Are you running Snow Leopard?

I ask as I could not get 10.6 to install, boot, work with my 3870

I changed to a 9800GTX and Snow Works great...

but if I can get the 3870 to work, I might keep it.


Kind regards

[machinist]

irontony, on Sep 26 2009, 07:55 PM, said:

@ machinist

I noticed in your sig that you are using ATI 3870.
Are you running Snow Leopard?

I ask as I could not get 10.6 to install, boot, work with my 3870

I changed to a 9800GTX and Snow Works great...

but if I can get the 3870 to work, I might keep it.


Kind regards

The 3870 does "work" in Snow with rotation and resolutions, but as yet no hardware acceleration.  I've only seen one "report" of "renaming" it to a 4870 and achieving QE on a French OSX board, but the author has not responded to my inquiry, and it might of course be a translation problem.  My French is merde.

The 3870 will never be compatible with OpenCL according to Netkas, so I'll likely ditch mine, just before Apple releases new code enabling hardware acceleration, which is all I want since there isn't even a screensaver written for OpenCL.  MacPro users report diminished performance with the 3870 in SL compared to 10.5.x, so it's not a Hack specific issue.

I think the 3870 could have hardware acceleration with a patched (Megalodon) framebuffer, or flashed with an altered efi-rom, as I can get to a blue screen followed by black and white jumbled squares with vanilla 10.6.1 and evoenabler.  Patched framebuffers for the 48xx do not work for the 3870.

As you have another card in your first slot, would you try putting your 3870 into the second pcie slot and seeing if it works?  MacPro users have discovered that if an Apple approved card is in their first slot any Mac compatible card, (like your PC version of the 3870), will be recognized and fully functional in another slot.  If this works then perhaps all that's needed is to construct a "dummy" or virtual card?

[Tuad'Dib]

Okay, so I have the exact same components as the guide, except I am using an older nVidia 7600gt card (which should be compatible with OSX).  Boot up goes to the apple logo and then goes to a light blue screen... Then nothing.

Is it something to do with the resolution of the graphics card and I'm just not able to see the full screen to install... or could this be something else?  I am using a new ASUS 24' monitor, for what it is worth.

Any ideas are appreciated.

[irontony]

machinist, on Sep 27 2009, 01:54 PM, said:

The 3870 does "work" in Snow with rotation and resolutions, but as yet no hardware acceleration.  I've only seen one "report" of "renaming" it to a 4870 and achieving QE on a French OSX board, but the author has not responded to my inquiry, and it might of course be a translation problem.  My French is merde.

The 3870 will never be compatible with OpenCL according to Netkas, so I'll likely ditch mine, just before Apple releases new code enabling hardware acceleration, which is all I want since there isn't even a screensaver written for OpenCL.  MacPro users report diminished performance with the 3870 in SL compared to 10.5.x, so it's not a Hack specific issue.

I think the 3870 could have hardware acceleration with a patched (Megalodon) framebuffer, or flashed with an altered efi-rom, as I can get to a blue screen followed by black and white jumbled squares with vanilla 10.6.1 and evoenabler.  Patched framebuffers for the 48xx do not work for the 3870.

As you have another card in your first slot, would you try putting your 3870 into the second pcie slot and seeing if it works?  MacPro users have discovered that if an Apple approved card is in their first slot any Mac compatible card, (like your PC version of the 3870), will be recognized and fully functional in another slot.  If this works then perhaps all that's needed is to construct a "dummy" or virtual card?

Thanks for that. I understand that CL only works for the 4xxx series ATI but it was good to know that 3870 should work on a normal standard level. When Im free I will try test it in the spare slot thanks.


On a side note...

Has anyone tested firewire yet on this board running 10.6?


Kind regards
Anthony