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Alienware M17X


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PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ EVERYTHING CAREFULLY FIRST

Updates

 

-3/28: Major Revisions and Corrections. Organized it a little better and corrected the Snow Leopard Install Section

 

-5/3: Small Update on Dual Boot for Snow Leopard and Windows 7: You don't need to hit F12 and go into Boot Options. Instead, you can just hit any key and it will load properly. However if you don't do anything, it will still have the same problem.

 

-5/3: Small comment in the introduction regarding other config's (Core i7 and SLI's) different from mine.

 

-5/9: Renamed the introduction section "Compatibility" and expanded it a bit further.

 

-5/12: Added another external sound option at the bottom as per a recommendation from Seoscrero.

 

-5/16: Thanks to Morpheus__, WE GOT SOUND FOR LEOPARD!!! Check the sound section at the bottom.

 

-5/18: Thanks to Morpheus__ and Seoscrero, Bluetooth Support has been added. I created a New Section for it and the bottom underneath the "Sound" Section.

 

-5/21: Thanks to Morpheus__ (dude is like a godsend), WE GOT SOUND FOR SNOW LEOPARD!!! Check the sound section at the bottom for instructions.

 

-5/21: Added more info about Updates. Check the Conclusion for details.

 

- 6/20: More info on updates. Don't update Snow Leopard if you have SleepEnabler.kext installed. You need to delete it before you update.

 

This is how I got OSX (Leo and Snow Leo) to install on the M17X. Mostly everything is working. The only problem right now is that for the Snow Leopard install, internal sound and dual boot have their respective issues. I'll expand more on that later.

 

Compatibility

 

This is the Alienware I have:

 

Alienware M17X R1 (The first Dell Version)

2.4 Intel Core 2 Duo

GTX260m (single)

250 GB HDD

300 GB HDD

4 Gigs Ram

 

I understand there is a lot of confusion regarding the different revisions Alienware has for the M17X. For a while, I thought I had the Second Revision. But it turns out I have the first. The second revision comes with Core i7's and usually ATI graphics cards. Nevertheless, as long as you have a Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, and a GTX 260 or 280, this guide should work fine for you.

 

If you computer differs from that, I'm not sure if this guide will help you. I think the Core i7's should be okay. Also a GTX260 or 280 SLI config should be fine to. But since I don't have those, I can't say for certainty.

 

I understand a lot of the R2 and Core i7 Alienware's come with ATI's nowadays. Unfortunately, I really can't help you with that. It's a completely different beast. All I can say is the key to getting your Hackintosh to work is getting your graphics card's up and running. So, try searching the forums for drivers or kexts that might help you. Having said that, there are people who have gotten their i7 computers with ATI GPU's to work. So, it's not impossible. Good Luck.

 

BTW, for those of you that have the M15X, I have heard people mention that iAtkos v5i worked for them

 

OSX Installation

 

You have two options to install OSX. The first option is to install Leopard and the second is to install Snow Leopard. However, you need to have two hard drives to install Snow Leopard. In addition, the dual boot for SL and Windows isn't perfect. It works, but its kind of annoying. I talk more about that later.

 

Option One: Download and Install iAtkos7 (Leopard 10.5.7) and burn it to a DVD at the slowest speed. Place the disk in your computer and when it starts, press F12 to go to boot options and boot the CD. When the setup eventually loads, go to disk utility and partition your drive. I'm doing to dual boot with Windows, so with my 250gig HD, I set aside approx. 50 gigs for OSX and approx. 200 for Windows. Make sure under options you select MBR. Make the OSX partition "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" and the Windows partition "FAT32"

 

(I understand a lot of other guides ask you to install Windows first, but if your Vista or 7 install disc is like mine, we can't do the repaired install that would be required later in that sequence, so we are going to install OSX first)

 

After that's finished, close out of disk utility and continue with the installation. However, before you click "Install" click customize.

 

(I'm doing this from memory, so I might not be completely right, you may have to do this again until you get it right for your system. It took me five installs)

 

In the customize menu (i think that's what it was called...maybe called Options), you want to select the "9.7.0 Kernel Voodoo" under /X86/Kernel/9.7.0 Kernel. You also want to go to Drivers/system/ps2 mouse keyboard/ and check "voodoo with trackpad" Don't touch anything for VGA or Network. We'll take care of the graphics thing later and wifi will work anyways. BTW, in case you don't know, DON'T SELECT MORE THAN WHAT YOU HAVE TO, otherwise, it won't work.

 

After that's finished, go ahead and start installing. You can skip the check dvd thing, it doesn't really do anything. Make sure you stay nearby and move the mouse every couple of sec so it doesn't freeze up.

 

After the install is finished, the computer will restart. To load OSX, you need to hit F12 to go to Boot Options and select Harddrive. That should take you to the chameleon boot screen where you just select the Mac Partition and OSX will load. I'll talk about the other fixes below, but in this section, I'm going to skip ahead to installing Windows. (Either Vista or 7...both are the same way)

 

To install Windows, pop in your Install CD and boot it by select it from the F12 Boot options. Delete and Format the Windows FAT32 partition we made earlier in disk utility. Windows should install. If it doesn't, you probably forgot to check MBR (Master Boot Record) and you probably have GPT partition that windows can't install in. Sometimes, if you forgot to make the Windows partition FAT32 and instead kept it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), it might not be able to format it. (That's been either hit or miss for me)

 

Once windows is installed, you need to install Easy BCD. This is what allows you to dual boot OSX and Windows.

 

This video kind of shows you how to do it:

 

 

It's not exact, but that part where it shows the installation and use of EasyBCD is all you need to know.

 

 

Option Two

The other way to install OSX is by using Empire EFI alongside a legit Snow Leopard disc (only like 30 dollars). Here is the link:

 

http://prasys.co.cc/2010/02/empire-efi-v1-085-r2-is-out/

 

As mentioned earlier, in order to install Snow Leopard, you need two Hard drives, unless you don't want Windows. (If you don't know, the M17X has two harddrives slots) The reason you need that is b/c SL can only install on a GPT partition. As mentioned in previous section, Windows can't install on a GPT partition.

 

If your M17X didn't come with a second harddrive, you need to make sure that in-addtion to the SATA Harddrive you purchase, you also need an interposer and a harddrive bracket. I don't know why they designed the laptop so you need it, but an interposer is this small attachment that connects the harddrive to the open slot inside the laptop. The bracket, if you don't already know, is this thing that holds the hard-drive safely in place. It's not entirely necessary, but it's not recommended to go without one. The good news is that you can call Alienware and they will usually ship it to you for free.

 

There are more detailed instructions on Prasys's site, but the installation is pretty straight forward. You boot your computer using the ISO image he provides and then swap that disc with the actual snow leopard disc when it tells you to and just install.

 

The only problem is that this install requires a lot of patience and waiting. There are many many times when it seems like this install has frozen. While installing using this method, I was stuck on one line of code for like 10 minutes and then when the Snow Leopard installer loaded, I was stuck another 10 minutes on the language menu screen. Eventually, it will start back up again, but you have to be patient. Honestly, I'd say wait an hour of nothing happening before you retry or give up.

 

After it installs, you have to boot Snow Leopard using the empire efi disc (it can be a pain to swap discs b/c of our of the way our DVD drive is set up, but just keep on trying (restart a couple times or whatever, it eventually comes out).

 

Eventually, OSX will load. On prasys' disk is a folder that contains a program called Myhack. You need to use that to install the bootloader and other settings. In its customize menu, make sure you check graphicsenabler and ps2 controller. UNCHECK FRAMEBUFFERDISABLER (Very important). Leave everything else as is.

 

After it installs, restart and install Windows on the other harddrive (unless you haven't already). Once that's finished, go into the BIOS and change your boot options so that the Mac Harddrive is the primary harddrive.

 

Here is the problem I have (as of 3/28). I can't get the dual boot to work flawlessly. Basically, you will be using the Mac Bootloader to boot into either OSX or windows. The problem is that in order to get to the bootloader, you have to hit F12 everytime the computer starts and manually select harddrive any key on the keyboard before it starts loading the Harddrive. You have to do this Every time you restart or boot up. If you don't, the computer will either restart, show you a really F*cked up version of the bootloader where you can't really do anything, or it just won't recognize the harddrive and give an error message.

 

I put a post up asking for help at: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=213946. If you guys have any ideas, please let me know.

 

 

Graphics Card Installation

 

This is actually really really simple. The thing about our laptops is that we have this onboard 9400m chip that's only there to conserve battery life when unplugged. Unfortunately, OSX sees both that and the discrete card and it gets confused. So, we have to disable the 9400m. To do that, go into the BIOS. Find the graphics section and disable BOTH hybrid graphics and integrated graphics.

 

Once you do that, go to com.apple.Boot.plist. Its in Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration. You can't edit the file in that folder. So drag it to the desktop, where it will make a copy. Open it using TextEdit and add this:

 

<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>

<string>Y</string>

 

You add those lines to that middle indented section. Once you do, save it and move it back to the systemconfiguration folder to replace the one that was already there with the once you just edited.

 

One you do that, Download and install the universal injector from netkas

 

http://netkas.org/?p=374 (updated link)

 

You also need to install PC EFI 10.5. You can get that also from Netkas at

 

http://netkas.org/?p=271

 

Find the boot.efi file in the download. You will need to replace the boot file in the Macintosh HD drive with this one you just downloaded. To install it just drag and replace it. However, the original boot file might be hidden. In you did option one and installed Leopard, just go to utilities and click the show/hide files icon. If you did option two and installed Snow Leopard, just follow the directions in this link to show hidden files:

 

http://artofgeek.com/2009/09/16/toggle-dis...board-shortcut/

 

Once that's finished. Go into disk utility and repair your disk permissions. Then Restart your computer, and the graphics card should work.

 

Sound

 

For LEOPARD (option one) NOT FOR SNOW LEOPARD

 

Thanks to Morpheus__, we have an audio solution for Leopard (Option One).

 

Download the Attachment "Sound Leopard IDT...." In the attachment, there are three kexts that will get sound working. If you don't know, Kexts are basically drivers. To install them, go to this site: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=140647 and download the latest "Kext Utility" Program

 

To use it, basically drag one of the kexts you downloaded onto the kext utility icon. That will open the program and prompt you for the password. (BTW, make sure you have a password. Sometimes "blank" passwords won't work, so just have something) Once you type in its password, it will automatically start installing it. It does take sometime, so you will have to be patient. Once its finished, do the same for the other two kexts.

 

After that's finished, go into utilities and open disk utility. Select your Hackintosh disk and click repair disk permissions. Once its finished, restart your computer and your sound should work.

 

NOTE: I actually haven't tried this, since I don't use Leopard anymore. So basically, if you have any questions, ask Morpheus__. ;) I'll try to help if I can.

 

For SNOW LEOPARD (option two) NOT FOR LEOPARD

 

As of 5/21, we have an internal audio solution for Snow Leopard thanks once again to Morpheus__.

 

Download the Attachment "Snow Leopard Sound" Unzip the package and you'll find 5 files including a detailed set of instructions.

 

This solution isn't a 100% perfect. The speakers don't work, so you'll need to use headphones with either the Green or Black headphone jacks. But aside from that, its pretty awesome and certainly better than VooDooHDA. (BTW, you can go ahead and happily delete that kext from /System/Library/Extensions)

NOTE: Leopard and Snow Leopard kexts are usually different and mostly incompatible. In case your wondering, I tried to install the Leopard solution onto Snow Leopard and I couldn't boot into SL again. I had to use a program called MacDisk on my Windows OS and manually delete those kexts in order to get Snow Leopard working again.

 

These external sound options aren't necessary anymore, but in case you're interested, here you go:

 

Creative Blaster X-FI USB (Model #SB1090): I bought this at Best Buy for 50 dollars and it works somewhat well. There are two major problems. The first is that there is no volume control. The sound is always blasting at full volume. You have to attach external speakers if you want to control that. Also, its looks a lot like an small external harddrive.

 

Creative Blaster X-FI Expresscard (Model #SB0950) This is the best option I've seen so far. I guess its the same brand as the one listed above, but its sooo much better. Unlike the other one which is a lot like a mini external Harddrive, this one is an Expresscard. It works immediately and sound can be controlled. You still need to use headphones, but it does have the ability to connect wirelessly to external speakers. Unfortunately, for that to work, creative wants you to buy an their wireless receiver, which is just as expensive. Another catch is that this thing isn't sold in stores. You have to buy online. Dell.com had the whole package for a $100. I bought the expresscard from Ebay for 42 dollars (including shipping)

 

DIAMOND XSTU21 USB 2 Channels Stereo Sound Tube This is a recommendation from Seoscrero. Its seems pretty nice. It uses USB and it looks as small as a flashdrive. Here is the link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...SID=skim292X457

 

Bluetooth

 

Thanks to Morpheus__ and Seoscrero, we have a Bluetooth solution and it's really really easy. Simply download the attachment, "Bluetooth.zip" and unzip it. You should find two files. Select and open the install package. After you finish installing that, open the terminal file and let it do its thing. (I'm not sure if that last one is necessary, but why not?)

 

Then repair your disk permissions and restart.

 

Also, you need to make sure the bluetooth radio is on. I just went into Windows and turned it on using the Bluetooth Utility.

 

I tested it using my phone with Snow Leopard and it worked pretty good.

 

Conclusion

As far as updates go, You can use the regular Software Update from Apple. As of right now, You can update to 10.5.8 and 10.6.4 for Leopard and Snow Leopard Users respectively. The only thing to keep in mind is that SL users should backup the AppleHDA.kext before updating as mentioned in the Snow Leopard Sound Instructions. Also, if you use the sleepenabler kext (found in the posts below), you need to make sure you delete it before you update.

 

In case you do try to update with sleepenabler installed (like I did by accident), you won't be able to boot back into OSX. It will crash every time. In order to fix it, you will need to find a way to get into the harddrive and manually delete the kext from /system/library/extensions. The best I know to do this is to use MacDrive on Windows.

And that's it. Hopefully, this helped you guys. And if you have any recommendations or solutions, please don't hesitate to add them.

 

Good Luck!!

Sound_Leopard_IDT_92HD73C1X5.zip

Bluetooth.zip

Snow_Leopard_Sound.zip

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  • 2 weeks later...
What about the voodoo xnu kernel?

 

 

I don't know. Are you sure that's for sound? Voodoo makes a lot of stuff for a whole bunch of different things, like processors, battery, PS2 (keyboard,mouse), etc.

 

I'm not completely sure (I'm still fairly new to this whole scene), but I think XNU might be for something else.

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The voodoo sound is only for the mac partition correct?

And tell me if you find a better sound kernel.

 

yea, whatever you do with the Mac Partition has no effect on the windows one.

 

I have an alienware m15x, I tried using empire efi, but it always fails at the point when I swap the dvd and its about to load the snow leopard installer all I get is the system uptime nanoseconds hang time.

 

I guess you could try searching the forums for help with Empire EFI.

 

If you can't get that to work, there's this guy on youtube that has the M15X. He says he used iAtkos5

 

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Youngplay,

 

Also, keep in mind that Empire EFI has a lot of spots where it seems like it hangs or is stuck. I just installed it and it just stayed on this one line of code for like 10 minutes before it finally did something and loaded the installation. Then i had to wait another 10 minutes to get past the language selection screen.

 

Also, I don't know if this was coincidence, but when it did get stuck the first time, I hit enter a couple times and it seems to help.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I am working on OSX86 and the Alienware M17x for weeks.

Got mostly everything working, the only things which doesn't work are the Laptop Battery and Shutdown,Restart and Sleep.

 

I will post a Guide when i figured out how to fix the rest..

Did you guys got the Laptop Battery working?

 

I am running OS X 10.5.8 with Vanilla Kernel.

 

Greets

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  • 2 weeks later...
I am working on OSX86 and the Alienware M17x for weeks.

Got mostly everything working, the only things which doesn't work are the Laptop Battery and Shutdown,Restart and Sleep.

 

I will post a Guide when i figured out how to fix the rest..

Did you guys got the Laptop Battery working?

 

I am running OS X 10.5.8 with Vanilla Kernel.

 

Greets

 

 

The battery, shutdown, restart, and Sleep worked for me right out the box. Maybe, you didn't pick the right options when Installing iAtkos. Take a look at my guide. I think I listed all the options that I used in the setup menu.

 

Shutdown and Restart worked just fine for me, but Sleep actually doesn't work. For Battery, if you mean the battery meter, yea, that doesn't work. But the computer does run on Battery power. Albeit, not that long.

 

But please tell me how you got sound.

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  • 2 weeks later...
do you think the m17x R2 will work?

 

its has i7 which macosx now supports

 

I know sli isnt really supported... but I saw that it might work in another thread

 

I wouldn't worry about SLI. Even in windows, SLI is really only supported for the programs that utilize it. It should work just fine in OSX. It will just read one of the two graphics card and use that. It will recognize the other one, but won't use it.

 

As far as the i7, I think it should be fine. I'm pretty sure the methods I used both support it, but since I don't have one, I can't be sure. But I would think it would work, especially since the new Macbooks have it.

 

 

Anyone have audio working properly yet?

 

Not yet. But until something comes up, I recommend using the creative X-FI Expresscard as listed in my guide.

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Hang,

 

Dual graphics cards are a no go. Could not Empire EFI to boot at all with both in. I had to take one out. I finally got it to boot... None of the drivers worked. I then tried to use '[url=&quot;http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/&quot;]#####[/url] ATI 2.' This installs just like Empire EFI does... This time the ethernet worked. I updated to 10.6.3 as in the [url=&quot;http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/&quot;]#####[/url] tutorial. After restart, the LAN stopped working.

 

I do not understand all the details about kext files. I definitely need to read up on it. I figured after I installed 10.6.3 it would detect my i7 720 as a quad processor. It did not.

 

Ill just wait till 10.6.4 comes out... That way i know the processor is supported.

 

Im a novice. I'll wait till someone else attempts that knows what they are doing

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Hang,

 

Dual graphics cards are a no go. Could not Empire EFI to boot at all with both in. I had to take one out. I finally got it to boot... None of the drivers worked. I then tried to use '[url=&quot;http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/&quot;]#####[/url] ATI 2.' This installs just like Empire EFI does... This time the ethernet worked. I updated to 10.6.3 as in the [url=&quot;http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/&quot;]#####[/url] tutorial. After restart, the LAN stopped working.

 

I do not understand all the details about kext files. I definitely need to read up on it. I figured after I installed 10.6.3 it would detect my i7 720 as a quad processor. It did not.

 

Ill just wait till 10.6.4 comes out... That way i know the processor is supported.

 

Im a novice. I'll wait till someone else attempts that knows what they are doing

 

Are you sure Empire EFI didn't work? It's just that a lot of times, it looks like its frozen from the DOS-like boot up screen to the language selection screen.

 

Also, can you tell me your exact specs? Maybe I can point you in the right direction.

 

As far as the i7 Goes, I just looked at Prasys's site and he said that with the announcement of the Core i7 Macbook Pro's and the anticipated release of 10.6.4, he will probably redo his image to provide better support.

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Empire EFI worked after I removed the second GPU... with two in it i get rambled video..

 

my specs

 

i7 720QM 1.6

dual ati 4870

4 GB ram

500 GB x2 (i also removed the win7 HD while installing macosx)

5.1 sound (not sure what audio) (seems to be ati high definition audio device)

RGB LED screen

Intel 6300 wifi card

Not sure what motherboard is in it... only thing i can find is Intel PM55 express chipset lpc interface controller... do im guessing PM55

 

I saw that update... maybe its best if i wait. Either way... could you help me finding the right drivers?

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Empire EFI worked after I removed the second GPU... with two in it i get rambled video..

 

my specs

 

i7 720QM 1.6

dual ati 4870

4 GB ram

500 GB x2 (i also removed the win7 HD while installing macosx)

5.1 sound (not sure what audio) (seems to be ati high definition audio device)

RGB LED screen

Intel 6300 wifi card

Not sure what motherboard is in it... only thing i can find is Intel PM55 express chipset lpc interface controller... do im guessing PM55

 

I saw that update... maybe its best if i wait. Either way... could you help me finding the right drivers?

 

 

Unfortunately, the ATI is something I don't really know anything about. The hardest part of this entire thing is getting the GPU's to work and I've really only figured out the NVIDIA 260 and 280. Also, I don't think Apple has ever really supported Crosswire, which makes it tougher.

 

Aside from that and the i7, i think everything else is still the same as the ones I have. So, WIFI should work, but Sound will be a problem without an external solution. (Although, I think I'm somewhat close to finding an internal solution).

 

BTW, I found this post:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=125297

 

You may have to download iatkos7 and use leopard for now. Good Luck Man.

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Unfortunately, the ATI is something I don't really know anything about. The hardest part of this entire thing is getting the GPU's to work and I've really only figured out the NVIDIA 260 and 280. Also, I don't think Apple has ever really supported Crosswire, which makes it tougher.

 

Aside from that and the i7, i think everything else is still the same as the ones I have. So, WIFI should work, but Sound will be a problem without an external solution. (Although, I think I'm somewhat close to finding an internal solution).

 

BTW, I found this post:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=125297

 

You may have to download iatkos7 and use leopard for now. Good Luck Man.

 

Thanks for the info... I might just wait it out... I put the other card back in... dont feel like trying to fiddle with it... maybe after exams

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Hangampalli thank you so much for your guide and continuing updates.

I got everything to work thanks to you.

One question, when we boot the M17x on battery it automatically switches to the integrated GPU (9400m) and OSX cant start, do you know how to fix this? (Snow Leopard)

The sound works great with this USB sound card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...1-004-_-Product

 

Seoscrero.

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Hangampalli thank you so much for your guide and continuing updates.

I got everything to work thanks to you.

One question, when we boot the M17x on battery it automatically switches to the integrated GPU (9400m) and OSX cant start, do you know how to fix this? (Snow Leopard)

The sound works great with this USB sound card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...1-004-_-Product

 

Seoscrero.

 

 

Your very welcome and I'll add your sound card to my tutorial.

 

As far as battery mode is concerned, you just have to go back into the BIOS settings and manually turn off the 9400 again.

 

I don't know if you can turn the automatic switching off, since that setting is built into the BIOS. To be honest I kind of like it. Its a quick way to get the most battery life. 3 hours is pretty awesome for a laptop this big and powerful.

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Hangampalli thank you so much for your guide and continuing updates.

I got everything to work thanks to you.

One question, when we boot the M17x on battery it automatically switches to the integrated GPU (9400m) and OSX cant start, do you know how to fix this? (Snow Leopard)

The sound works great with this USB sound card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...1-004-_-Product

 

Seoscrero.

 

which system do you have the m17xr1 or the m17xr2? the r1 has 2 cores the r2 has i7 procc

 

also what video card do you have?

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