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Lenovo ThinkPad T420 with UEFI Only

K0gen

By K0gen,
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trifero
trifero
Posted
Posted

Hi Everyone,

 

I spent a lot of time researching what notebook would fit my needs as a hackintosh and ended up with the T420 with the 1600x900 screen. I also know that searching the forums before asking a question comes first, but this time I'm lost. I have not yet bought my T420 but I'm already searching for a suitable WiFi card that could work if I flash a modded BIOS with the whitelist removed.

 

Which WiFi card should be the best? Is there any difference between the Broadcom BCM94322HM8L and the Atheros AR5BHB92?

By difference I mean easier installation, or features like AirDrop not working, etc. If you cold point me to a guide, list, wiki or topic where I can find the answer that would be great.

 

My goal is to find the WiFi card that's the best for this Machine and El Capitan in terms of easy install and features.

 

Thank you.

I m using a BCM94322HM8L now, a Dell DW1510. Native support. it works out of the box as the original one. Also  I have ordered a BCM94360HMB that is a wifi/bluetooth card, just to see if i can enable Handoff and Instant Hotspot.

 

 

BCM94322HM8L works like a charm. I you need one, just let me know cause I have two more that i´m not using and i can send you one. Also i have the soft to get rid of the white list. 

post-355016-0-22338200-1452063256_thumb.jpg

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Somez
Somez
Posted
Posted

I m using a BCM94322HM8L now, a Dell DW1510. Native support. it works out of the box as the original one. Also  I have ordered a BCM94360HMB that is a wifi/bluetooth card, just to see if i can enable Handoff and Instant Hotspot.

 

 

BCM94322HM8L works like a charm. I you need one, just let me know cause I have two more that i´m not using and i can send you one. Also i have the soft to get rid of the white list.

 

Thanks!

In this case I might want to do some more research on cards that support handoff and the other latest features.

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tluck
tluck
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@vusun123 - Thanks for clarifying the Optimus situation. If you and others could provide some steps and details (and/or files) to what is needed to make the Nvidia card work well. i.e DSDT/SSDT edits, kext mods or config.plist mods... or whatever is needed, I can merge that information, configuration and instructions into the guide and zip file. But not having such a card, i generally am able only post what is working for me. at one point i did have the config.plist drop MCFG table in support of Optimus -  but then i removed that item as i recall some side effect if you don't have the card - but i cant remember the details!

 

wifi - i have been using the Atheros 9280 AR5BHB92 cards for quite awhile (put them in 3 hacks - i just stayed with what i know since one often has to mod the firmware to fix locale and country code). Airdrop works but i show up under "legacy" type on my wife's new macbook air. but i hardly ever use that. at home, shared folders seems so much easier.

 

anyway it connects at 300 Mbps.  - as we all know, the built-in BT is only v3 so doesn't support the new features. 

 

en1:

  Card Type: AirPort Extreme  (0x168C, 0x8F)

  Firmware Version: Atheros 9280: 4.0.74.0-P2P

  MAC Address: 48:5d:60:77:61:af

  Locale: FCC

  Country Code: US 

  Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g/n

  Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165

  Wake On Wireless: Supported

  AirDrop: Supported

  Status: Connected

 
 
 
always great to hear what is working and what others are doing to improve and modify the T420. HD screens, mSata drives, external gfx, BT alternatives, etc.
 
so Trifero, please keep us posted as to how the new BT works out for you!
 
 
for me right now, the only thing that i am working on is PS2 - not sure if its a El Capitan thing or what. but my TrackPad and PS2 key board have been acting up lately - sometimes disappearing or appearing after sleep. i think i will revert to the older rev to see it behaves differently.  i am running the 11.3 beta so it could be something with that.
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vusun123
vusun123
Posted
Posted

I don't own that machine anymore, so everything related to it is lost, but can be made again. I can remake those files if you are in need of it, but we need tester ( it's been a while since the last time I owned a Nvidia GPU laptop so it could take some time )

 

Edit: found the DSDT for the V1.42 bios for the Quadro 1000M model, if someone want to get it, drop a reply here and I will attach it. Also, I see tluck's sign has the M4800 with AMD GPU, were you able to get the AMD GPU to work ?

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plympton
plympton
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I'd be interested in your DSDT file, pm me or email plymptonia at yahoo dot com

 

Does anyone have any advice on fan control? It appears to be working, but is very aggressive. I'd like to control it mor finely than is happening now. Dsdt work perhaps? I don't know where to start.

 

Thx!

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plympton
plympton
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I'd be interested in your DSDT file, pm me or email plymptonia at yahoo dot com

 

Does anyone have any advice on fan control? It appears to be working, but is very aggressive. I'd like to control it mor finely than is happening now. Dsdt work perhaps? I don't know where to start.

 

Thx!

 

I haven't found an easy way to control the fan through the DSDT, but found a way to change the behavior of the Blue ThinkVantage button.  You can change the speed at which it sets.

 

       Scope (PCI0.LPC.EC)

        {
            Method (_Q19, 0, NotSerialized)
            {
                Name (FANS, One)
                Store (HFSP, FANS)
                XOr (FANS, 0x80, Local0)
                If (Local0)
                {
                    Store (0x80, HFSP)
                }
                Else
                {
                    Store (0x02, HFSP)
                }
            }
        }
 
The last Store(0x02, HFSP) was changed from 0x07 (I remember this from TPFanControl - 7 is the "max speed".  2 is a constant speed of 3500 rpm, which is reasonable.  I'm going to set it to 1 and see what the speed goes down to, if it's normally stable, etc.
 
Speed 0x01 takes it down to a really really pleasant 2000 rpm.  Hitting the blue button will take it to the 0x80 mode, which is auto.  You could have the first item 0x01 or 0x02, and the 2nd be 0x80, and I presume that would make the default quiet, and blue be auto.  probably better the other way around though.  I'm running around 69-70 degC at the moment.
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tluck
tluck
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yup. that is the same thing thats implemented in the T420 DSDT. normally it is set to AUTO (bios) by default. and if one hits the Blue Think Vantage sets Fan speed to Max (level 0x7) which is around 4500 RPM on the T420. hitting the button again toggles back to Auto (0x80) which idle is about 1900-2000 RPM on LCD only.  

 

one certainly could implement more levels with a little more coding. there may be some programs that would work to provide more control.  i use Mac Fans Control app on my old MPB6,1 (real mac) since it gets too hot without some manual fan control. 

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trifero
trifero
Posted
Posted

 

@vusun123 - Thanks for clarifying the Optimus situation. If you and others could provide some steps and details (and/or files) to what is needed to make the Nvidia card work well. i.e DSDT/SSDT edits, kext mods or config.plist mods... or whatever is needed, I can merge that information, configuration and instructions into the guide and zip file. But not having such a card, i generally am able only post what is working for me. at one point i did have the config.plist drop MCFG table in support of Optimus -  but then i removed that item as i recall some side effect if you don't have the card - but i cant remember the details!

 

wifi - i have been using the Atheros 9280 AR5BHB92 cards for quite awhile (put them in 3 hacks - i just stayed with what i know since one often has to mod the firmware to fix locale and country code). Airdrop works but i show up under "legacy" type on my wife's new macbook air. but i hardly ever use that. at home, shared folders seems so much easier.

 

anyway it connects at 300 Mbps.  - as we all know, the built-in BT is only v3 so doesn't support the new features. 

 

en1:

  Card Type: AirPort Extreme  (0x168C, 0x8F)

  Firmware Version: Atheros 9280: 4.0.74.0-P2P

  MAC Address: 48:5d:60:77:61:af

  Locale: FCC

  Country Code: US 

  Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g/n

  Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165

  Wake On Wireless: Supported

  AirDrop: Supported

  Status: Connected

 
 
 
always great to hear what is working and what others are doing to improve and modify the T420. HD screens, mSata drives, external gfx, BT alternatives, etc.
 
so Trifero, please keep us posted as to how the new BT works out for you!
 
 
for me right now, the only thing that i am working on is PS2 - not sure if its a El Capitan thing or what. but my TrackPad and PS2 key board have been acting up lately - sometimes disappearing or appearing after sleep. i think i will revert to the older rev to see it behaves differently.  i am running the 11.3 beta so it could be something with that.

 

tluck , sure i will.

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trifero
trifero
Posted
Posted

Meanwhile, maybe some other one is interested on this. I had tried with some PCMCIA cards to USB 3.0, patched, and the performance was very poor. I have just received and tried this one, works out of the box, no patches.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/350600627667?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D350600627667%26_rdc%3D1

 

and these are the results, on the the native USB 2.0 and with this card. Tried on my TDK USB 3.0 external SSD. For a few bucks, I think it´s worth.

 

Hope it helps.

 

 

 

 

post-355016-0-43879300-1452169532_thumb.jpg

post-355016-0-16800000-1452169542_thumb.jpg

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uucp
uucp
Posted
Posted

I encountered a problem during the installation of El Capitan on T420. 

 

Firstly I followed the latest installation instructions and succeeded, I get everything running, display, sound card, wireless (TL W823N); then after that, I tried to put T420 on the docking station and connected it with the external display (Benq), it worked too. But I didn't like the font display effect on the Benq display and tried to enable HiDPL from Xcode. It worked too. (Great thanks to the guys who contributes this topic :-))

 

The problem came out when I scrolled in the display resolution window of Benq display. I should have clicked one impossible resolution, then the display turned black. I tried then to disconnect the Benq display from the docking station, and also tried to disconnect the docking station, but nothing happens, still stayed with black screen no matter if it's a restart ( in restarting case, i can see the apple logo displayed on the first several seconds, then the display turns black)

 

I decided then to do a clean El capitan installation again on T420 (by deleting all the partitions on the hard disk of T420), the installation process went smoothly as before, but if I followed the following step, 

"Install by going into the  EFI/CLOVER/kexts folder and by running the included shell script _kext-install.bash"

 

then after restarting, I got the black screen again. 

 

If the above step is ignored and only the EFI folder content is copied, then I can get the display back, but it turns permanantly back again if I try to install a wireless driver package (all realtek el capitan ready). 

 

Who else has the same like this and has a solution? 

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uucp
uucp
Posted
Posted

@ tluck, 
"@uucp - when you get to this "black screen", can you increase the brightness by Fn+Home or Pause (which is mapped to F15)"

:thumbsup_anim: You are genius!!! it works now! 

Great thanks to you! If possible, could you let me know how you could come to this hint? 

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vusun123
vusun123
Posted
Posted

Just curiosity... anyone has upgraded the CPU with a quad Core? I have read a lot through the web and it seems to have a serious heat dissipation problem.

Don't even try it. Imagine this: the T420s - sibling to the T420, has serious throttling issue even when it use a dual-core CPU, same kind of CPU as the T420. While T420s has one fan and T420 has two, I don't think it will be enough to solve the heat issue when you put a quad-core CPU in it. There's a W520 out there for that kind of matter

@ tluck, 

"@uucp - when you get to this "black screen", can you increase the brightness by Fn+Home or Pause (which is mapped to F15)"

:thumbsup_anim: You are genius!!! it works now! 

Great thanks to you! If possible, could you let me know how you could come to this hint? 

Easy, you will notice that the brightness will slowly decreasing. That means backlight is being controlled

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