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"nohwid" issue with Popcap games for Mac


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I used to play those Popcap games on my Macbook, and recently I noticed the release of the sequel of Zuma, "Zuma's Revenge," and wanted to try it out on my newly built Hackintosh.

 

I downloaded the demo, but when I'm trying to run the application this error message comes up: "Please contact customer service. (nohwid)"

 

So I went ahead and contacted Popcap, and got this email response:

 

"Hello,

 

Thank you for contacting PopCap Games Customer Support.

 

Unfortunately, it seems the “nohwid” error indicates that your system has been modified from that of a standard Mac to the extent that it is no longer a supported system for our games. We regret that we will not be able to advise you on how to run Zuma’s Revenge due to this issue."

 

So here I am seeking help from the good people on Insanelymac: Is there a way around this?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm getting the same issue on my i7 hackintosh. I believe this is because my system doesn't have a "built-in Ethernet adapter". The OS sees the on-board Ethernet port as an add-on port.

 

Based on other messages where users are editing the game's .plist file, it appears to be keyed on the computer's built-in Ethernet address as the key. Since my computer doesn't have this, it reports "nohwid" (no hardware ID).

 

As far as I know, there is no way around this. I've tried creating a virtual interface for the built-in Ethernet (fail) and even poking around in the Popcap game executable files, but short of hacking them, I don't see any way to get this to work. Damn shame, too, since I purchased several Popcap games.

 

-Aaron-

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I'm getting the same issue on my i7 hackintosh. I believe this is because my system doesn't have a "built-in Ethernet adapter". The OS sees the on-board Ethernet port as an add-on port.

 

Based on other messages where users are editing the game's .plist file, it appears to be keyed on the computer's built-in Ethernet address as the key. Since my computer doesn't have this, it reports "nohwid" (no hardware ID).

 

As far as I know, there is no way around this. I've tried creating a virtual interface for the built-in Ethernet (fail) and even poking around in the Popcap game executable files, but short of hacking them, I don't see any way to get this to work. Damn shame, too, since I purchased several Popcap games.

 

-Aaron-

 

 

 

I have a gigabyte ep45-ud3p MB and my ethernet is the builtin interface. I still get the same nohwid error, so I dont believe it is the network interface.

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  • 3 months later...
I'm getting the same issue on my i7 hackintosh. I believe this is because my system doesn't have a "built-in Ethernet adapter". The OS sees the on-board Ethernet port as an add-on port.

 

Based on other messages where users are editing the game's .plist file, it appears to be keyed on the computer's built-in Ethernet address as the key. Since my computer doesn't have this, it reports "nohwid" (no hardware ID).

 

As far as I know, there is no way around this. I've tried creating a virtual interface for the built-in Ethernet (fail) and even poking around in the Popcap game executable files, but short of hacking them, I don't see any way to get this to work. Damn shame, too, since I purchased several Popcap games.

 

-Aaron-

 

 

I dont think so either. I have played game when I first get my hacintosh to work. but it report the same error" nohwid" after I get my video to work.

 

have no idea.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

This is a post I've just added to a very similar thread: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=187991

 

"Well, this is an old post, maybe noone will ever look here again... but this issue has had me wondering. I'm on Snow Leopard, and made a retail install following an excellent guide by Blackosx specific for his board, which is very similar to mine and worked flawlessly. The thing is, due to it working so flawlessly, I was confident that all major DSDT edits were in place, among them, the most common culprit of some programs not working as they should: the ethernet built-in issue. So I was really surprised to find that, while TimeMachine was working, Popcap's Zuma's Revenge wasn't. A look in IORegistryExplorer confirmed that my ethernet card was not recognized as builtin. I set the Chameleon bootflag "Ethernetbuiltin" to yes via com.apple.boot.plist, to no avail. I changed my BIOS, my DSDT, etc... nothing.

The final finding was that, as I was using an EFIString for my video card, apparently the Chameleon boot option for the ethernet did not work, so I used the formerly common fix of another EFIstring for the ethernet fix... and voilà: IT WORKS!

 

As this is a rather old fix, which has been superseded by better methods, here's just a short recap of how I did it: I used OSX86Tools to create the EFIstring for my ethernet, and saved it as a hexfile. I cut and pasted my video string from my com.apple.boot.plist and saved it as a plain text file with extension .hex from textedit. Then I used OSX86Tools to merge the two strings. I then replaced my device properties string from com.a.b.p with the output from OSX86Tools and rebooted: result was both video working and ethernet built in.

 

Another method is to use the graphics enabler and ethernetbuiltin boot options from Chameleon, and NOT use any device-properties strings in c.a.b.p. For me it was a matter of preference using strings for my video card, as it shows the proper name in About this Mac, which is why I also had to use the ethernet string.

 

Hope this helps someone!"

 

So, for you, champro: it's quite likely you got your video to work with an EFIString in device-properties. That would have been my case, too, and then the ethernetbuiltin option from Chameleon seems to have stopped working (at least for me), and as a consequence some Popcap games. And you, Wowzer42, maybe just THINK that your ethernet shows up as built in, because Time Machine works and you have done the DSDT and Chameleon stuff, but... the place where you have to check whether your card REALLY is detected as builtin is in IORegistryExplorer, find your Ethernet card (IOEthernetInterface), and look for the property IOBuiltin, that its value is True, not False. That made the trick for me!

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Ah ha! So it IS a Ethernet built-in issue. I feel vindicated. :unsure:

 

(going to work on the fix from Sergio right now...)

 

-Aaron-

 

Edit: Sure enough, that worked! I actually followed the instructions on this thread to do the same thing, since OSX86Tools don't work properly in Snow Leopard:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=114349

 

How did I know it was tied to the Ethernet issue? Because the registration file for Plants vs. Zombies (and other PopCap games) has the Ethernet MAC address as the "HWID" (hardware ID). The message "nohwid" means "no hardware ID", meaning it couldn't determine the MAC address of the BUILT-IN Ethernet adapter. Suck it, haters. :D

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Ah ha! So it IS a Ethernet built-in issue. I feel vindicated. :D

 

(going to work on the fix from Sergio right now...)

 

-Aaron-

 

Edit: Sure enough, that worked! I actually followed the instructions on this thread to do the same thing, since OSX86Tools don't work properly in Snow Leopard:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=114349

 

How did I know it was tied to the Ethernet issue? Because the registration file for Plants vs. Zombies (and other PopCap games) has the Ethernet MAC address as the "HWID" (hardware ID). The message "nohwid" means "no hardware ID", meaning it couldn't determine the MAC address of the BUILT-IN Ethernet adapter. Suck it, haters. :P

 

I'm glad it worked for you! Just one short question mark: I've read in several places that OSX86Tools doesn't work properly in Snow Leopard, and that it does not report the PCI Root properly... yet I've tested it a few times and it seems to work correctly for me. It definitely gave me the right PCI path for my network card, and the string it generated (both for the ethernet on its own and when merging the video and ethernet strings) was correct... whatever method you follow: I hope you enjoy your Popcap games as much as I do!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Another method is to use the graphics enabler and ethernetbuiltin boot options from Chameleon, and NOT use any device-properties strings in c.a.b.p. For me it was a matter of preference using strings for my video card, as it shows the proper name in About this Mac, which is why I also had to use the ethernet string.

The EthernetBuiltIn boot option worked for me!!! Finally I was able to load Plants vs. Zombies without that annoying " nohwid" message!

Thank you so much!!! :P

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