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ASUS N56VM / N56VZ / N76VZ Hackintoshable?


wilsoxu
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Hey all,

 

I've been wondering for quite some time and I've done my research. I have been searching everywhere for answers about these laptops whether they are hackintosh able and I cannot find any answers at all. I have previously hackintoshed my pc but I really want to buy a laptop now and prefer these as they are almost of the same specs as the apple Mac book pros. Thank you all.

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You can buy a HP Probook with an I7 with a dedicated Nvidia Quadro card for that price and it would put laps around a real MacBook Pro at the same price. Not sure how you can say that they don't have the options your looking for but that is just my opinion.

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  • 4 weeks later...

For ASUS N46, N56, N76...

 

I've installed and quite easy to have Ivy Bridge (Intel HD 4000) working full QE/CI.

 

However, for now.. nVidia and wifi has not working yet.

 

But if you want to buy a new laptop, probably try take a look for new S46, S76 series or ZenBook U500, almost equal specs but with Ultrabook advantages.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Due to may Dell M1530, which the GPU has burned I was in search for an hackintosh replacement.

This Asus N56VM performs well also after some tweakes and searching the web. I found this website:

http://ukrainianiphone.com/forum/ind...st=20&start=20

 

Proof:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o70fr8h6zLM&feature=plcp

 

Which provide all the necessary information about running OSX 10.8.1 ;-) thanks to marklangovoi who did a lot of research!

My ASUS is running very well, 2hours on full battery!

 

IMPORTANT; use an MBR harddisk configuration instead of GPT! otherwise the HDD or SSD won't be recognized by the BIOS! use 2 partition by dual boot, first OSX, 2nd Windows 7.

 

Working:

- Intel HD 4000 Q/E full HD 1920 x 1080

- Wifi with changing the original to an AR9285 half sized card

- Bluetooth with Asus usb BT21 dongle (now also use of my Magic mouse) + Airdrop!

- Battery indicator works!

- Sound, speakers, mic, earphones!

- USB 2.0 (usb 3.0 didn't used so far…)

- Function keys (only sound keys; FN + F10,11,12)

- Trackpad (only cursor, not scrolling with two fingers)

- restart, shutdown

- DVD burner

 

Not (yet) working:

- Sleep

- Full Nvidia GT630m

- SD card reader

- Webcam, only light flashes but doesn't turn on by photo booth

 

Files: http://www.osx86.net...do=file&id=3212

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So what is a the consensus here? I'm contemplating getting a new laptop on this model is at the top of my list. Can we or do we have the 650m working? Will Optimus screw things up? I've read on another thread here that if you don't have the ability in the BIOS to disable the HD4000, that it will screw things up. Is there anything to that comment?

 

If you guys think it's a winner, I'm ready to get one and help get it working.

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  • 2 months later...

hello,

 

I want to report that I've succefully installed ML10.8.2 on an N56vj, with only HD4000 working, and still waiting for the elan v4 trackpad driver to be fully developped.

 

the install :

 

In bios : set graphic memory to 64MB, disabling Secure Boot and "allow CMS booting".

 

I remove the original HDD to replace it with a nice Seagate ssd/hd hybrid disk (optimus XT).

 

- format the new disk with another ML install on my desktop computer : MBR and mac os journalised.

-download the image "Asus_N_install" proposed on the russian forum:

http://ukrainianipho...&st=20&start=20

 

-download "R-Drive Image" ( http://www.r-tt.com/...DriveImage5.exe) and run it in a win 7 virtual machine; the file downloaded before is a drive image (.arc), so in R-Drive, select "restaure image to disk" or something like this... choose the .arc file as source, then your HHD as dest. (I am using an USB hdd case, so in VMware Fusion, i can choose to plug it to the virtual machine)

 

-install the HDD in your N56, then boot...That's all, you will arrive to the screen you get after the second boot after a usual osx install, enter Icloud, name, password and so on registration data, you will just have to deal for this step with russian langage.

 

-One time your ML is started, go to system/pref/langage and text and set your own langage, restart finder, you're done.

 

With this last image proposed on the russian forum, there is no need to install Kext of the "post install" folder, they're all already correctly installed.

AppStore will propose you an update (10.8.2 supplement, about thunderbold and other thing) : do not install it for the while, or you will have probleme at reboot, related at least to a new AppleHDA.kext, but to other kext too (acpi...not sure).

 

FN keys are working (screen luminosity/contrast, sound up and down, keyboard backlight (only on or off, no steps) and screen on/off.

Bluetooth working, but WIFI not (ar9485 card not supported by OSx), I replaced it by a ralink wifi dongle.

A man is working on a driver for the trackpad (elan V4), for the while still buggy.

Sound working after installing "VoodooHDA-v2.7.4.r63.pkg"

Subwoofer not working.

Camera work when you use it to take a picture for user avatar, but not start in photobooth or facetime (?)...

I'm using the DSDT provided with the image, my model (n56vj) seems to be very the same than n56vm/vz.

 

If you get no/black/splitted screen at boot, try to add "HD4000PlatformId=3" at boot, try different number (9,5,3...)

 

To use the elan v4 driver, you will have to remove VoodooPS2, ApplePS2 and AppleACPINub..

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

hey, I tried the same method and it is definitely the easiest method I've seen to install an OS, probably easier than Windows itself :P

Just write the image to a partition, reboot, enter details, done!

There's also an English image now, for the non-russians out there.

I would thank that m-dudarev guy but I can't find out how to register to that ukrainian site!

 

So, I confirm that pretty much everything except wifi is working, even problematic stuff like volume control or keyboard backlight.

I just had a little hiccup at the first boot where it complained it couldn't install VoodooBattery, VodooHDA and AsusNBWMI, but copying them on the desktop and installing them with Kext Utility worked fine.

It even works with USB drives and iPods! (the very reason why I had to reinstall - needed the iPod).

 

The single big problem that remains with this notebook is the disk though: it can become VERY slow, as in '98 slow...

I ran some tests and I discovered that the disk is slower and at the same time much heavier on the CPU.

 

-sequential writes/reads (ie. big files) have consistently less than half of the bandwidth than on Windows, although without heavy CPU usage.

-random writes/reads can really stop the thing for tens of seconds! The bandwidth is abysmal and if the random pattern continues the disk stops responding and spins the CPU to 100%. Just open 50 tabs in chrome and see.

 

So yeah, it won't still make a good work-horse OS as Windows is going to be heaps faster... at least until this is fixed.

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I discovered something more:

the disk is actually fast, the hiccups are due to something else... but not using Chrome solves a lot of the slowness, and nearly anything else can be used without problems.

 

Also, it uses the HD4000 via GraphicsEnabler=Yes, but AFAIK using EFI Injection is much better: just enter Chameleon Wizard, uncheck Graphics Enabler, check Device Properties and paste this string:

5e0000000100000001000000520000000100000002010c00d0 41030a000000000101060000027fff04002c00000041004100 50004c002c00690067002d0070006c006100740066006f0072 006d002d006900640000000800000004006601

I have the "feeling" that it is faster now, but I can't be sure.

 

And if you get "Still waiting for root device", start with -f!

 

Does anyone know how to enable SpeedStep? The CPU can only run at 1188 or 2277 Mhz right now and I guess that's another major slowness reason.

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Just an update: the russian guy has made speedstep and turbo-boost 100% available!

And I've discovered that disabling paging makes everything WAY more fluid and responsive - because disk accesses spin-lock the system.

In addition with SS and TB, the experience is no more sluggy at all :)

 

When both changes are integrated in a new 10.8.3 image, this notebook might as well be one of the better working notebooks out there!

The only outstanding problems are the wifi, which might never be supported, and the disk that locks up the apps every time it spins up.

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Hi Tom89,

I installed now the 10.8.2 english version. It works very well as you said. Do you mean speedstep and turbo-boost are now available in the new 10.8.3 version the guy posted? This would be great. Must have a look again :-). Many thanks for your comments.

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Installed again. Nice working 10.8.3. Only the USB port doesn't work. Disk Utility sees it but says it cannot mount it. This worked in the previous version. I'll see if installing PXHCD.kext separately does it. Anyway it is a great work from the ukrainian!

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hi..

installed with succeful but:

-no sound (will fix it later i'll use voodo but i'll patch appleHDA later i have little knowlage)

-wifi for the moment cz i have intel centrino unsupported(will change with ar9285 or compatible)

-fn don't work (will see it)

-but the probleme is HD4000 it shows 384Mb?????

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...

-fn don't work (will see it)

-but the probleme is HD4000 it shows 384Mb?????

 

VIDEO: use 'HD4000PlatformId=3' as boot flag

fn keys should work with kext provided on the ukrainian forum, or with the one proposed by osxlatitude forum (kext for elan touchpad are here too)

regards.

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