Dell Precision M3800

[GWS22]

I am sure I am dreaming and the last Hackintosh I built was was a Dell Mini10 but I have access to a Dell Precision M3800 I can do whatever I want to with.  I would love to educate myself and put OSX on it.  It is a Haswell i7 machine with Nvidia Quadro K1100M GPU.

 

It has a hybrid HDD (256GB SSD and 1TB HDD).  12 gig of RAM and touchscreen.

 

Is this at all possible?

 

Thanks for helping a noob.

[dcai777]

it should be possible on 10.9, but i don't know about graphics... I also severely doubt that wifi will work, looking here:http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-m3800-workstation/pd

[theconnactic]

I hope it is, because it's a beast of a laptop, more robust that any of Apple's current offerings but (maybe) the highest-end 15'' Retina.

[shiecldk]

I'm looking forward to this laptop too. But according to this topic, the wireless card is NGFF & Intel which isn't supported by OSX.

Also, it seems there isn't any NGFF wireless card other than Intel at this time for you to replace.

[AustinSMU]

I replaced the the Wireless-AC 7260 with a BCM94352Z, and have full functionality of the M3800 (including QHD+, displayport, HDMI, etc.) running 10.10.1, and dualbooting WIndows 8.1. The only thing that doesn't work is the PCIe card reader. 

[SweNic]

Hello AustinSMU

 

I'm quite interested in knowing how you installed 10.10.1 on you're M3800. I've got the same specs that you listed and I've been trying to install from time to time without luck, both with clover and other based type. I haven't managed to get the installation past booting...

 

I did manage to install Mavericks on a M4600 and other desktops, but not this M3800.

 

 

 

Best of regards,

//Niclas

[chudux]

I am also interested in how you achieved this.  Can you post some screen grabs of your "About this Mac" and System Information?

 

Thanks!

[AustinSMU]

Hello AustinSMU

 

I'm quite interested in knowing how you installed 10.10.1 on you're M3800. I've got the same specs that you listed and I've been trying to install from time to time without luck, both with clover and other based type. I haven't managed to get the installation past booting...

 

I did manage to install Mavericks on a M4600 and other desktops, but not this M3800.

 

 

 

Best of regards,

//Niclas

 

Update: 4/6/15

Guide is up with fully automated post-installation scripts. https://github.com/AustinSMU/PRECISION-M3800-OSX

 

Have you unlocked your bios? The installation process I used for 10.10.1 and 10.10.2 were essentially identical - the primary difference being the addition of the FakePCIID injection method with 0x0a260006 platform ID instead of 0x0a2e0008, and a change to the 1st/2nd stage boot graphics glitch. Try the clover config located in the /EFI/CLOVER folder of the files I've attached.

 

I am planning to put up a vastly more detailed guide soon, but I can give you a very general look at what the process I use is. There are many inconsistent issues that arise at times that can go easily unnoticed. You will need an official 10.10.2 Yosemite download .dmg from the App Store.

 

I should preface by saying that the M3800 requires BIOS reprogramming which can result in irrevocable hardware damage if executed incorrectly. I would implore you make backups of all kexts, frameworks, roms, etc. that are to be modified throughout the process. After successful bios unlocking you will need to load the optimized defaults with the following changes:

 

disable:

• PCHLan device
• CFG lock
• USB-per-port disabling

enable

• SATA AHCI-mode
• BTHG
• XHCI Hand-off
• XHCI mode
• EHCI Hand-off
• SDD setting for both ODD and HDD (if applicable)
• PM Security
• Lake Tiny
• DVMT pre-allocation 96MB.

1. Create an installation media manually by formatting an 8GB USB 2.0 MBR-formatted drive with a 200MB FAT32 and ~7GB hfs+ partition labeled install_osx. Install Clover for UEFI Booting to the FAT32 partition, adding the OSXAptioFix and HFSPlus drivers to the defaults. Add RehabMan's branches of FakeSMC and VoodooPS2 to the 'Other' kexts folder -these are the only kexts needed during installation.  Next, clone the base binaries to the the hfs+ partition:

 

2. Prepare a USB drive with 10.10 Command Line Tools, RehabMan's fork of MaciASL/patchmatic/iasl, FakePCIID/IntelHD4600/BCM4352Z, CodecCommander, Laptop-DSDT-Patch master, NullEthernet, KextWizard, ssdtPRGen and a recent clover installation package.

 

3. Boot into the installation media via Clover using the HD4600 config.plist from RehabMan's repository, but change the Intel Graphics injection key to 'false' while booting to install. It can take several minutes for the system to boot to the language selection splash screen without graphics acceleration  - be patient.

 

4. After the installation completes, boot again using clover on the installation media, but this time press F4 at the Clover menu to dump your ACPI tables, and then proceed to the newly created OSX Volume.

 

5. Install Clover for UEFI Booting, ACPIBatteryManager/ACPiBacklight/FakePCIID/IntelHD4600/BCM94352Z/Null Ethernet/Codec Commander/MaciASL/patchmatic/iasl from RehabMan's github.

 

6. I will detail the DSDT/SSDT editing and injection in my forthcoming guide, but I have included my patched tables and Clover config.plist with the necessary kext patches for the 10.10.2 boot glitch, HDMI audio, Realtek 668 audio codec, Bcm94352 and full QE/CI support. I can also patch the tables for you if you would like, but make sure you are using the versions of iasl and MaciASL from Rehabman's githib. If you want to edit your own tables, remove the dynamically created duplicate SSDT tables denoted with the lowercase x by clover, and are almost always SSDT-4x, 5x and 6x.

 

7. Uncapping display pixel clock to allow QHD+ resolution

 

8. SwitchResX is a great tool for initial display resolution setup customization, or if you search for the manual method to edit /System/Library/Displays/Overrides/DeviceVendorID-DisplayProductID using a hex calculator and PlistEdit.

 

9. UPDD for complete touchscreen support.

 

I'll try and have a more cohesive guide put together this weekend.

[leelists]

Hi AustinSMU

 

I did flash the bios of my M3800 and now have access to the aditionnal menus.

Is it normal that initial booting take ages ?

I have the apple logo but the progress bar is barely moving ..

What did I miss ?

 

Thank's for your help

[AustinSMU]

Hi AustinSMU

 

I did flash the bios of my M3800 and now have access to the aditionnal menus.

Is it normal that initial booting take ages ?

I have the apple logo but the progress bar is barely moving ..

What did I miss ?

 

Thank's for your help

You haven't properly configured graphics acceleration. There are a few causes that are likely the culprit, which are preventing AppleIntelHD5000Graphics.kext and AppleIntelAzulFB.kext from loading. Without these, the GUI lag is unbearable.  

 

1. Have you set the the DVMT memory pre-allocation to 96MB in the bios graphics configuration?

2. Are you injecting the Intel platform ID 0x0a260006 in Clover?

3. Have you patched IOKit to uncap the pixel clock?

4. Are you loading the properly patched SSDT/DSDT?

5. Have you disabled the discrete graphics card?

4. Do you have the kext patches for the frame buffers and boot glitch graphics active in Clover?

 

All of these conditions must be satisfied for full graphics acceleration. Confirm the aforementioned steps, and if acceleration is still not occurring, post your IOReg and Clover boot.log.

 

Good luck!

[Bozster]

...

 

 

Hi Austin,

 

I just ordered (expecting delivery of the  updated Dell Precision M3800). I have a few questions for you..

 

 

So in order to access necessary bios options (like MSR unlock) and other stuff in order to be able install OSX I have to patch the BIOS per your instructions initially.. is this still relevant? Not sure if the updated M3800 is using the same bios.

 

I'm interested if you can run OSX 10.10.x with Nvidia Quadro enabled or you are running it as Intel HD4600? Is there a way to disable optimus after bios patch?

 

My version is the Ubuntu one instead of Windows (not sure if they change any hardware based on that - I doubt it but I guess it's worth of mentioning).. 

 

Haswell CPU i7 4712

16gb of RAM DDR1600

M.2 slot for the drive and SSD 2.5" 

Dell Wireless 1560 2X2 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.0 (this is Broadcom chip not Intel)

15.6" UltraSharp™ IGZO UHD Touch (3840x2160)

 

I would be interest if you could check out the new configuration and let me know if the specs look the same to yours hardware wise (i think it does)..

 

Curious about the touchpad and what you did there. 

 

Would really appreciate if you could write a more detailed guide.

[AustinSMU]

Hi Boz,

 

 

patch the BIOS...is this still relevant?

 

I have tried my best to circumvent BIOS reprogramming with the hopes of disarming concern over damaging the device. However, unless Dell decides to randomly start setting the default DVMT pre-allocation to 96MB, this will remain a prerequisite to the M3800 build. Here is a slightly more straightforward approach to modifying the BIOS:

 

1. Make sure you are currently running the most current BIOS version, and obtain the following tools:

• Dell M3800 A07 BIOS: http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER02605569M/1/M3800-A07.exe
• AMI Flash Utility: http://www.ami.com/ami_downloads/AMIBIOS_and_Aptio_AMI_Firmware_Update_Utility.zip
• UEFITool: https://github.com/LongSoft/UEFITool/releases/download/0.20.4/UEFITool_0.20.4_win.7z
• HexEdit: https://www.box.com/s/6afe2f5253e1a0d2f943

2. Use AFUWin64 by navigating to Aptio\afuwin\64\afuwin.zip, and save your current bios to a ROM file.

3. Open the dumped bios in UEFITool, expand the sections one-by-one and scroll down until you find setup in the Text column.

4. Right click on the Compressed Section just below the DXE Dependency Section, and select Extract body, save this as setup.bin (~474 kbytes).

5. Next open setup.bin in hex editor and search for 01 01 00 01 01 01 01 00 00 00.

6. Change the last three 00 to 01 so that you now have 01 01 00 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 and save as setup_patched.bin.

7. Go back to UEFITool and right-click the section you just extracted and select Replace body, select setup_patched.bin for replacement, and then save the resulting ROM file to bios_patched.bin.

8. Open a command prompt with administrative rights and execute: afuwinx64 bios_patched.bin /GAN. Reboot, and enter the bios setup via F2 and verify you have the new unlocked menus.

 

 

I'm interested if you can run OSX 10.10.x with Nvidia Quadro enabled or you are running it as Intel HD4600? Is there a way to disable optimus after bios patch?

 

Discrete graphics can't be used on a laptop build, so it must disabled in the initialization section of the corresponding SSDT that defines the PEG. I can assist with DSDT/SSDT patching if you decide to make the plunge.

 

 

I would be interest if you could check out the new configuration and let me know if the specs look the same to yours hardware wise (i think it does).

 

It would appear to be very comparable. I can't say without looking at the chip-set if the DW1560 will work out-of-the-box, but you're in a much better position than I was with the Intel Wireless-AC 7260. The screen resolution is a slight bumb from my 3200x1800, and I opted for the larger battery/512GB mSATA drive. Overall, should be nearly identical from a DSDT/SSDT standpoint to get OSX running like a beast.

 

 

Curious about the touchpad and what you did there.

 

Synaptics touchpads are supported very well by VoodooPS2Controller. Tapping, clicking and two-finger scroll work perfectly, and you can map three finger gestures using custom keyboard shortcuts in System Preferences.

 

As interest is steadily growing, it would appear my time to contribute back to the community has arrived. I'll try to have something cohesive up as time permits, but until then feel free to send me a PM or post your progress in the thread for others to learn from.

 

Best of luck!

 

Austin

[Bozster]

Hi Boz,

 

 

I have tried my best to circumvent BIOS reprogramming with the hopes of disarming concern over damaging the device. However, unless Dell decides to randomly start setting the default DVMT pre-allocation to 96MB, this will remain a prerequisite to the M3800 build. Here is a slightly more straightforward approach to modifying the BIOS:

 

1. Make sure you are currently running the most current BIOS version, and obtain the following tools:

• Dell M3800 A07 BIOS: http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER02605569M/1/M3800-A07.exe
• AMI Flash Utility: http://www.ami.com/ami_downloads/AMIBIOS_and_Aptio_AMI_Firmware_Update_Utility.zip
• UEFITool: https://github.com/LongSoft/UEFITool/releases/download/0.20.4/UEFITool_0.20.4_win.7z
• HexEdit: https://www.box.com/s/6afe2f5253e1a0d2f943

2. Use AFUWin64 by navigating to Aptio\afuwin\64\afuwin.zip, and save your current bios to a ROM file.

3. Open the dumped bios in UEFITool, expand the sections one-by-one and scroll down until you find setup in the Text column.

4. Right click on the Compressed Section just below the DXE Dependency Section, and select Extract body, save this as setup.bin (~474 kbytes).

5. Next open setup.bin in hex editor and search for 01 01 00 01 01 01 01 00 00 00.

6. Change the last three 00 to 01 so that you now have 01 01 00 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 and save as setup_patched.bin.

7. Go back to UEFITool and right-click the section you just extracted and select Replace body, select setup_patched.bin for replacement, and then save the resulting ROM file to bios_patched.bin.

8. Open a command prompt with administrative rights and execute: afuwinx64 bios_patched.bin /GAN. Reboot, and enter the bios setup via F2 and verify you have the new unlocked menus.

 

 

Discrete graphics can't be used on a laptop build, so it must disabled in the initialization section of the corresponding SSDT that defines the PEG. I can assist with DSDT/SSDT patching if you decide to make the plunge.

 

 

It would appear to be very comparable. I can't say without looking at the chip-set if the DW1560 will work out-of-the-box, but you're in a much better position than I was with the Intel Wireless-AC 7260. The screen resolution is a slight bumb from my 3200x1800, and I opted for the larger battery/512GB mSATA drive. Overall, should be nearly identical from a DSDT/SSDT standpoint to get OSX running like a beast.

 

 

Synaptics touchpads are supported very well by VoodooPS2Controller. Tapping, clicking and two-finger scroll work perfectly, and you can map three finger gestures using custom keyboard shortcuts in System Preferences.

 

As interest is steadily growing, it would appear my time to contribute back to the community has arrived. I'll try to have something cohesive up as time permits, but until then feel free to send me a PM or post your progress in the thread for others to learn from.

 

Best of luck!

 

Austin

 

Great answers.. sadly I was hoping that Nvidia Quadro was not Optimus but obviously it is.. One of the biggest reasons why I got the M3800 (I bought it I'm just waiting for delivery).  But I'm guessing for coding and Photoshop and stuff I use the most it should work fine on Intel graphics. 

 

I'll be getting it probably next week so hopefully you'll check in and help me out a bit setting it up. I'm no novice in setting up hackintoshes (I've done it on ASUS G750JX laptop and built many hackintosh desktops before) but I would try to minimize the amount of time trying to get it to work as hopefully the only real difference between our setups is the Wifi card and slight bump in display resolution.

 

One last question for now until I get it.. Is Thunderbolt 2 working for you fine? The reason why I'm asking this is because I'm considering trying to get the eGPU setup where I can have a dedicated GPU card that is connected to the M3800 via Thunderbolt 2 as I've seen some setups out there.. so when I get home I can hook it up to desktop level GPU.

[AustinSMU]

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you see the performance in Yosemite - 12k+ on Geekbench. I triple boot Ubuntu 14.04 & Windows 8.1 Pro, and it looks vastly superior in OSX. My unit is from late 2013 so I don't have the thunderbolt port, but I have to imagine that is a well supported feature given its nature. Once you get the ACPI tables modified properly, it's a very stable build. The unsupported PCIe card reader doesn't bother me at all, and the only other notable quirk is that I haven't yet figured out how to get the webcam light to turn off once the camera is turned on. Congrats on the purchase, it's a hell-of-a machine.

[Bozster]

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you see the performance in Yosemite - 12k+ on Geekbench. I triple boot Ubuntu 14.04 & Windows 8.1 Pro, and it looks vastly superior in OSX. My unit is from late 2013 so I don't have the thunderbolt port, but I have to imagine that is a well supported feature given its nature. Once you get the ACPI tables modified properly, it's a very stable build. The unsupported PCIe card reader doesn't bother me at all, and the only other notable quirk is that I haven't yet figured out how to get the webcam light to turn off once the camera is turned on. Congrats on the purchase, it's a hell-of-a machine.

 

Hey Austin, 

 

I got the laptop.. I unlocked the BIOS (patched it I have the latest version A08) and I have a TON of options in the BIOS now.. Including the ability to completely turn off integrated graphics and go discrete over SG (Switchable Graphics).. Have you tried this in order to go with Nvidia Quadro only as the primary PCI-E GPU? It looks like that Optimus can be completely switched off.

 

I am trying to install now .. your downloads (clover config file) doesn't work. So I'm trying to put together the files I need.. 

 

[AustinSMU]

Hey Austin, 

 

I got the laptop.. I unlocked the BIOS (patched it I have the latest version A08) and I have a TON of options in the BIOS now.. Including the ability to completely turn off integrated graphics and go discrete over SG (Switchable Graphics).. Have you tried this in order to go with Nvidia Quadro only as the primary PCI-E GPU? It looks like that Optimus can be completely switched off.

 

I am trying to install now .. your downloads (clover config file) doesn't work. So I'm trying to put together the files I need.. 

 

Dell has indeed concealed a great many features from us. I'm glad the BIOS patching went smoothly. I don't even need an entire hand to count the number of successful switchable/dual/discrete/etc. laptop builds that I am aware of. Even if it were the case that this particular configuration of hardware was such, it is adding unreasonable complexity and unpredictability to an already highly convoluted project. Get the machine running smoothly with the integrated chipset before exploring alternatives. There are a substantial number of kexts, patches and ACPI table modifications that must occur in a very specific order before the config.plist I posted will be of any utility whatsoever. The first step, per my instructions, is to create the installation media by the base-binary-clone method, and using the IntelHD4600 config.plist from RehabMan's OS-X-Clover-Laptop-Config repository. You will need to use the installation media again on the first reboot upon successful installation so that you can dump your ACPI tables via F4 from the Clover Menu and boot into OSX.

[vusun123]

Can you disable the Intel HD4600 from the BIOS in the M3800 model ? Because it seems the M4800 can, so I would like to know that too. Its Nvidia Quadro K2100M is native support ( only LVDS though, other ports need nvcap and dsdt patching )

[Bozster]

I will post the options of the unlocked BIOS here so everyone can see it.. I'm afraid to switch to anything other than SG (Switchable graphics) because I might not be able to get the screen to get on when I save BIOS.. I have to be super careful before I change that because Optimus goes through integrated graphics display and if I turn it off it might mess it up.

 

For everyone who is interested.. this is what laptop bios (unlocked) looks like (Bios is A08):

 

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B--jNGoYK2CFfkNPTDdISEtzSFRpOHZPM3ZqaS0tNnhDRTBvd0pjdU5NcmRhNmtuQ1g5MU0

[AustinSMU]

Guide thread moved here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/305488-guide-dell-precision-m3800-3200x1800-qhd-touch-i7-47x2hq-intelhd4600-quadrok1100m-alc668/

[Blaggah]

Hi Boz,

 

 

I have tried my best to circumvent BIOS reprogramming with the hopes of disarming concern over damaging the device. However, unless Dell decides to randomly start setting the default DVMT pre-allocation to 96MB, this will remain a prerequisite to the M3800 build. Here is a slightly more straightforward approach to modifying the BIOS:

 

1. Make sure you are currently running the most current BIOS version, and obtain the following tools:

• Dell M3800 A07 BIOS: http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER02605569M/1/M3800-A07.exe
• AMI Flash Utility: http://www.ami.com/ami_downloads/AMIBIOS_and_Aptio_AMI_Firmware_Update_Utility.zip
• UEFITool: https://github.com/LongSoft/UEFITool/releases/download/0.20.4/UEFITool_0.20.4_win.7z
• HexEdit: https://www.box.com/s/6afe2f5253e1a0d2f943

2. Use AFUWin64 by navigating to Aptio\afuwin\64\afuwin.zip, and save your current bios to a ROM file.

3. Open the dumped bios in UEFITool, expand the sections one-by-one and scroll down until you find setup in the Text column.

4. Right click on the Compressed Section just below the DXE Dependency Section, and select Extract body, save this as setup.bin (~474 kbytes).

5. Next open setup.bin in hex editor and search for 01 01 00 01 01 01 01 00 00 00.

6. Change the last three 00 to 01 so that you now have 01 01 00 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 and save as setup_patched.bin.

7. Go back to UEFITool and right-click the section you just extracted and select Replace body, select setup_patched.bin for replacement, and then save the resulting ROM file to bios_patched.bin.

8. Open a command prompt with administrative rights and execute: afuwinx64 bios_patched.bin /GAN. Reboot, and enter the bios setup via F2 and verify you have the new unlocked menus.

 

 

Discrete graphics can't be used on a laptop build, so it must disabled in the initialization section of the corresponding SSDT that defines the PEG. I can assist with DSDT/SSDT patching if you decide to make the plunge.

 

 

It would appear to be very comparable. I can't say without looking at the chip-set if the DW1560 will work out-of-the-box, but you're in a much better position than I was with the Intel Wireless-AC 7260. The screen resolution is a slight bumb from my 3200x1800, and I opted for the larger battery/512GB mSATA drive. Overall, should be nearly identical from a DSDT/SSDT standpoint to get OSX running like a beast.

 

 

Synaptics touchpads are supported very well by VoodooPS2Controller. Tapping, clicking and two-finger scroll work perfectly, and you can map three finger gestures using custom keyboard shortcuts in System Preferences.

 

As interest is steadily growing, it would appear my time to contribute back to the community has arrived. I'll try to have something cohesive up as time permits, but until then feel free to send me a PM or post your progress in the thread for others to learn from.

 

Best of luck!

 

Austin

Hi Austin, sorry to in advance for being a bit off topic relating to another model.. I noticed that you your choice for unlocking the bios is somewhat more clearer than the one required to unlock the bios on the Latitude E7250. Do you think your way would also work for me on my Dell Latitude E7250?  I've owned the machine for over a year now and I've not been able to get too far with it due to the bios not giving me the appropriate DVMT memory size. I've already got it dual booted with Windows 10 and El Capitan but my sound, screen brightness, and wifi won't work.  Any insight would be greatly appreciated.