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Dell XPS Studio 9000 Resource Extravaganza


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My last new computer was the fabled Dell XPS 410. I received it in September 2006. Yes, it's the same computer from my last thread, the Dell XPS 410 Resource Extravaganza (http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=28138). In november of 2009 I blindly bought another Dell with the hopes it will work fine with Snow Leopard. Heck, my last one turned out great, aside from the Ethernet NEVER working.

 

The new box is a Dell XPS Studio 9000. I'll start out with what I know about my new computer...

 

Standard Components:

X58 chipset

ICH10 disk controller

Realtek RTL8111/8168B Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)

Realtek ALC1200 audio chip

JMicron Technology Corp. IEEE 1394 Host Controller

475watt Power Supply

 

Optional Components in my machine:

i7 920 CPU, 2.66 GHz

640GB hard drive

16x toshiba DVD -+ RW drive

16x toshiba DVD-ROM drive

OEM Dell GeForce GTX 260 1792MB video card, built to order

 

Of the components in this machine all of them have proven to be fairly compatible except the OEM Dell GeForce GTX 260 1792MB built to order video card. This card has been an absolute nightmare. I can't get it to work no matter what I try.

 

EFI strings? No dice. ATY enabler? Nope. Natit and the like? Nada. Nothing worked.

 

It would go to the point where SL would want to initialize the graphics subsystem and it would hard lock. Like REALLY hard lock. I would have to hold in the power button and wait for it to turn off kind of hard lock :(

 

DO NOT order this card if you want to run Snow Leopard. It is an OEM custom made card for Dell, it bears no traceable markings to find out who originally makes this card (I thought maybe a bios update might help, but no luck finding a bios). My advice is to purchase the intro level ATI card option from dell and use it OR replace it with a known working after market Nvidia or ATI card of your choice. I repeat, the OEM Dell GeForce GTX 260 1792MB built to order video card DOES NOT work with SL. Or at least not that I can figure out.

 

I ended up using my trusty old GeForce 8800 512mb in the meantime while ordering a eVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896 MB PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card. I'm still waiting on my new video card to get here. I pray it works.

 

** UPDATE JAN/5/2010 **

My thoughts about the OEM Dell GeForce GTX 260 card were correct. My eVGA 260 came in the post today. After removing my 8800 512MB and installing the eVGA card it worked without a hitch. no installing anything for it to work under 10.6.2. At this point I would avoid the OEM Dell GeForce GTX 260 1792MB built to order video card in the meantime.

 

Reserved for installation instructions.

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Did you try using GraphicsEnabler=Y -pci1 when using pc_efi v10.5

 

Yes, I just did. and... It does the exact same thing. Hard Locks right before the graphics initialize.

 

I'm not real worried about getting the current GeForce 260 to work as I have another on the way. After everything I've tried I'm pretty certain this particular card is not going to work. Although it does work great under linux.

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  • 5 weeks later...
Yes, I just did. and... It does the exact same thing. Hard Locks right before the graphics initialize.

 

I'm not real worried about getting the current GeForce 260 to work as I have another on the way. After everything I've tried I'm pretty certain this particular card is not going to work. Although it does work great under linux.

 

Hello,

What did you use for enabling the sound?

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With the recent price drops on these machines I am thinking about picking one up at some point.

Was there any parts of the install that were tricky? Obviously I would buy another graphics card but other than that how do things run?

 

In particular ;

 

SPIDIF - optical audio

 

Firewire

 

Ethernet

 

Also how do you find your choice of graphics card?

 

Cheers.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

Just thought I might add my info here and it might help somebody out. I have a XPS 9000 with the GTS 240 (2 DVI and 1 s-video out) and i7 266GHz and it worked fine out of the box. VoodooHDA took care of sound control (thanks to an updated version posted in these boards).

 

I used Empire EFI 1.085r2 and retail 10.6.3. I am a complete noob at this, so if I can do it, anyone can. Added second drive (1TB WD) just for OS X.

 

Only issues so far:

 

Empire EFI comes up with 3 icons on boot, apple disc, generic disk, and PC disc. PC disk will not load ("No Boot Loader") so i just use F12 if I want Windows, Apple disc loads fine (automatically if you just leave it) and the generic disc will **** you up if you choose it...LOL Not sure what that is about so just don't do it (boot 0 error which I could not recover after messing with terminal etc so just re-installed).

 

DVI to HDMI will not work (blank screens at bootup) but apparently this is pretty common from what I read, even with "real" Macs. Dual DVI works fine., DVi to SVGA works fine, have not tried s-video port.

 

System profiler shows as mac mini (LOL), most items do not come up properly. I assume this has to do with what they used to build the EFI, does not appear to affect performance. I have been looking at some mods to make all this functional, but everything is so stable hate to mess with it.

 

Have not tried eSata port yet. Firewire, ethernet, usb ports (+hubs and devices), card readers all work out of the box...system is fast and stable, QE works, etc.

 

If anyone wants more info, or to run performance tests etc let me know and I will try to help. Steep learning curve here, trying to gather as much as I can (long time Mac user, kinda annoyed with the ignoring of their desktop line and long time supporters in favour of the iPhone, iPod, iPad and all the other iStuff).

 

Hope that helps.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Very nice. I'm thinking of doing the same thing, and I'm also a n00b. Question - by throwing the Mac OS onto another HD, did it allow you to leave your windows system untouched? Sounds like the way to go, so you can have Windows any time you need it. Was there anything major that needed fixing or took you lots of time?

 

Thanks

Ben

 

Just thought I might add my info here and it might help somebody out. I have a XPS 9000 with the GTS 240 (2 DVI and 1 s-video out) and i7 266GHz and it worked fine out of the box. VoodooHDA took care of sound control (thanks to

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Very nice. I'm thinking of doing the same thing, and I'm also a n00b. Question - by throwing the Mac OS onto another HD, did it allow you to leave your windows system untouched? Sounds like the way to go, so you can have Windows any time you need it. Was there anything major that needed fixing or took you lots of time?

 

Windows disc is untouched. Empire brings up a log in screen that shows available discs but on mine the windows one won't load from there. Easy to just fit F12 on reboot and select the drive you want as boot device if you want windows. Empire defaults to OS X disc on boot, so if you do nothing (or miss the F12 command) you just end up in OS X again.

 

First time took a while as wasn't sure what I was doing, after that its easy. Sound was my only real issue, easily fixed with research and help from others. I was going to write a small guide but the info is already out there, youtube even has a video of somebody installing OS X on a XPS 9000, but the version shown in that video did not work for me.

 

That video will show you how, will also list the other things you need (EFI Studio to enable video card, Kext helper for installing sound kext if required, kext utility for rebuilding permissions) and the extra kexts you may or may not need.

 

First time you do it, Empire will seem to stop partway through with the white command lines on black background while booting off CD...don't freak, just leave it alone for a while, after about 30 seconds it carries on and boots machine for you. These are the little things nobody tells you, its possible the other versions might work as well as perhaps I stopped them too soon but I do know the 1.085r2 works good (there are two, use the one that says for laptops and also desktops with GTxxx cards...").

 

Also, when you restart after installing OS X it will be real choppy and slow, skipping etc. This is because you need to use Studio EFI to select 9800GT as your video card..until that point it doesn't work real great. Once enabled you are rocking.

 

Dell BIOS is A15 I think (have to check). Also a guy has to think about installs that might alter the Bios, as far as I know that is the only thing that will affect both systems at once (ie, turn off you windows autoupdate because it might install something and kill the effort).

 

You can't drag and drop from one disc to another, not sure if that is an OS issue or (I think it is since the discs are formatted differently)...?? I plan to try that out with a third disc with OS X on it and see how that goes.

 

Oh yeah, don't have wireless card so can't say if that will work either, just FYI.

 

Good luck

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just a couple tidbits. Installed third drive and put OS X on it and it works like a charm. Drag and drop no issues between the OS X discs, all is well. Very nice. Computer is pretty fast, 8600 (give or take, seems to vary a bit) on Geekbench 64 bit.

 

Plan on adding wireless shortly

 

I see Dell just released a new BIOS for the XPS 9000, A16. Not sure I am going to upgrade, this thing has been rock solid since last post, don't want to mess with it (said something about intel microcode on description).

 

Also, there is no provision for overclocking on this machine, Dell has that locked down with very basic BIOS...

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  • 4 months later...
  • 7 months later...
The Dell OEM card is most probably not recognized by the NVidia drivers. I had a similar problem with my HP OEM GTX-260 card. You need to enter the device ID into 2 kexts.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=...99&start=22

 

It's been a while and sorry to resurrect a (mostly) dead thread but I am doing your method right now. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks , robo.

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