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Dell DW1820A Compability


vusun123
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Hello,

Recently I have a friend brought up the issue of installing MacOS onto the new Asus G501VW - Skylake generation. Sure, everything works well as I expected, except for the WiFi card. The stock one is an Intel DualBand AC-8260 ( M.2 ), surely not compatible. I was careless and look around for the Dell DW1820A ( Broadcom BCM94350ZAE ) since this one has the same chipset as the new Retina MacBook. Pop it in, boot into Windows, install the driver that came with Apple's Bootcamp, works flawlessly.

Now into MacOS, the OS sees the card, Device ID is correct ( 14E4:43A3 ), WiFi icon shows up, but it can't be turn on whatsoever. Tried booting Windows then restart into MacOS, no miracle happened. Tried the combinations of Rehabman's FakePCIID + FakePCIID_Broadcom_Wifi and FakePCIID alone without FakePCIID_Broadcom_Wifi, no better results came in.

I have been doing my research, and it seems the people with Dell XPS 9x50 ( Skylake ) are also suffering the same fate. A few handful of people who's lucky enough to have it partially working by doing a workaround of booting Windows then restarting into MacOS. But that trick doesn't work on this Asus. A deeper view into the matter, it seems the DW1820A has a different firmware ( proprietary ? ) from the one that can actually work on MacOS, or maybe was there a SMBIOS whitelist ( only the Retina MacBook use them ) ?

Anyone have a better understanding of the situation ? As I see since the ID shows up in stock Apple drivers, there has to be a way to get it fully working. I don't want to waste the money on a BCM94352Z right now ( I know it works ) and dealing with changing parts maybe not that easy in certain countries ( mine doesn't, this Asus's warranty is voided ).

I will post the necessary files needed if anyone ask. Thanks in advance

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  • 3 weeks later...

This card cannot be powered up correctly in XPS 13 9350(may need binary patch?).

 

But, it can be powered up correctly on XPS 15 9530/Precision M3800 under 10.11.x. But, in 10.12 dp1, DW1820A in M3800 cause kernel panic randomly....

 

 

syscl

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Doesn't look like there's a SMBIOS whitelist. Can you post a IOReg dump? I wonder what would happen if you faked the card as a BCM4360.

Haven't try that yet, will do it once I get back home from the business trip

 

This card cannot be powered up correctly in XPS 13 9350(may need binary patch?).

 

But, it can be powered up correctly on XPS 15 9530/Precision M3800 under 10.11.x. But, in 10.12 dp1, DW1820A in M3800 cause kernel panic randomly....

 

 

syscl

So problem has to be in its firmware I think. It's the same as Thunderbolt controllers a while back ago

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