jditto_51 Posted May 17, 2008 Share Posted May 17, 2008 Hey guys I have the following setup: Biostart P4M890-M7 SE MOBO VIA P4M890+VT8237A Chipset Intel Core Duo E2140 (oc'd currently to 2.2ghz) 2GB Corsair Ram PC5300 PNY Nvidia 7300GT 256mb Video 1-80GB IDE Hitachi HD 1-80GB Maxtor SATA HD 1-Lite-on DVD-R/RW Leo4All v2 with Vanilla Kernal 9.2.2. Onboard LAN is working with the viarhine.kext. However, no matter what I try I cannot get the onboard audio to work, I've tried all of the drivers from the Kalaway and Leo4All disk. I've spent hours searching this forum and I've got nothing. This is the audio chipset: Realtek ALC861 6-Channel HD Audio I currently have the OS installed on the IDE drive b/c that was the only thing the install disk would detect. When I start the computer is sees no SATA drives (it took me about 6 installs to get this all right) I'm on a clean install right now, but before when I would try the "AppleVIAATA" kext, it would recognize my drive, then I would go to format it and the computer would lock up, and then never see the drive again. What do I need to do to get this working? It's ok on an IDE drive, but for instance, right now I'm installing Logic Studio, and it's estimating 5 hours to complete the install, and that's just not acceptable for speed! Ideally, once I get the correct drivers, I would like to clone my IDE onto any SATA disk, and then boot from that from now on. If anyone can help me I would be forever greatful. If all goes well, I will have made this entire computer (recognized as a Mac Pro) for less than $400. Not bad eh? I'll help anybody I can with what I know (not much!) but right now I really need help with this! Anybody have any suggestions? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
data10 Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 Hey... I have the exact same mobo and am working thru the same issues you are, so maybe we can help eachother... I DO have my audio working and have an install package at home on my Mac that should help you out if you still need it (i'm at work). The Line Out and Speaker Out work but the Mic input does not work. I tried to get the Mic port to work but finally gave up and installed a 20 dollar USB mic and now have Audio out and Mic in... Let me know if you still need it and I'll provide the package for you... As well, I can't seem to get the SATA to work but we are trying a few things and I'll update you if I get it working. We have a VIA chipset and I found this link today: http://www.insanelymac.com/lofiversion/index.php/t89320.html At the bottom of the post, someone states 'You have to remove the AppleGeneric ata kext for it to work!' but I don't know if that is true or not. --data10 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-755361 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jditto_51 Posted May 22, 2008 Author Share Posted May 22, 2008 hey man! I got my audio working a few nights ago, using "aclinject" and the ac97 kext. HOWEVER, I cannot adjust the audio slider, so I'm stuck at one volume level. If you used a different set of kexts let me know! Also what install did you use? I've installed this a few times now (leo4all), and before I could get the Sata drive recognized with "viaata.kext", but if I tried to format the SATA drive it would lock up the computer, and then not recognize the drive again. I'm just glad I found someone with the same MOBO! I got this thing in a case with an E2140 CPU and a Power supply for $200. The ram, hd, and dvd drive I already had. So if I get this going for that cheap it will be awesome! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-755664 Share on other sites More sharing options...
data10 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Hey... I just confirmed that my audio slider works (tested in Itunes). I used the AzaliaAudio.pkg and my audio works great. I'd be glad to get this in your hands, PM me if you want and we can either communicate via email, skype, msn or ftp... I would like to get ahold of your solution you used to get your onboard LAN working because I never was able too, I installed an old 3com 10/100 nic card I had laying around. I'm having a problem where my computer falls off the network when I put heavy traffic on it. I work for a software company and there are about 4 of us who built hackintosh's. 2 of us have the same mobo, so between the 3 of us maybe we can solve the remaining issues! --data10 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-755890 Share on other sites More sharing options...
data10 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I just got my NIC working with the ViaRhine.kext file, thanx! I still can't get the SATA up and I give up for tonight but tomorrow we're gonna give it another shot at work. I have the AzaliaAudio.pkg.zip file w/ me on my external drive. I sent you my email via PM so we can pass files back n forth. We'll still update the forum, as its nice to help others with the same mobo... --data10 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-755932 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jditto_51 Posted May 23, 2008 Author Share Posted May 23, 2008 hey you can email me at jditto_51@hotmail.com, I would appreciate it! Also, my network card is working, but it drops the connection from time to time, especially when I use the Software update feature. I just ordered a card I found on the HCL for network, as soon as it gets in I'll tell you about it. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-756352 Share on other sites More sharing options...
data10 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 jditto, I'm emailing you the driver for the Audio shortly. Regarding the network, we are having the same issue with our mobo's as well (3 of us). We have tried 3 Realtek Cards (2 different chipsets), a 3-Com card (3c905b) and the on board NIC (thanx to you). I can reproduce the issue by putting heavy load on the card. For example, start a bit torrent program, google earth and browse the web. The network completely dies, you cant ping or anything and stopping and starting the network interface doesn't fix it - only a complete system reboot. Right now in our lab we are trying to re-create the issue by simply copying large amounts of data across the network to see if its NOT an internet issue but a networking issue - I'll let you know. Earlier, some tests seemed to prove that dropping the MTU from 1500 to 1000 made the connection last longer under heavy load but I need to re-do the tests again to see if it wasn't just a fluke. And even so, that is not a long term fix... I know you built your system off of Leo4all and I built mine from Kalyway and we are both having the same issue. A guy I work w/ also built his off Leo4All and he is reporting the same issue. I have a new wireless card coming in today and I'll do tests on that card as well, but based on the fact that I've had so many LAN cards show the same symptoms my wireless will do the same. Hope we can figure this one out! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-756471 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jditto_51 Posted May 23, 2008 Author Share Posted May 23, 2008 Yep that's the same problem I had. To test it, I opened software update and only checked 1 update, it would DL one update at a time with no problem, but if I tried to download all of the updates it would fail within 10 minutes, and I would need to restart to regain internet connectivity. I just ordered a 3com card from ebay, its the first card on the 10.5.2 HCL components list, I'll see if it works and then get back to you. BTW, my audio works beautifully, I use Logic Pro regularly, and having this onboard working will save me from using my portable recording rig as a sound card now! For those interested: To get sound on the P4M890-M7 SE motherboard with Realtek ALC861 6-Channel HD Audio, you need to download AzaliaAudio.pkg. To get the onboard LAN card working, you need to use the ViaRhine.kext. Copy it to your extensions folder and repair permissions. Anyone who is having luck with SATA on this board, please let us know! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-756557 Share on other sites More sharing options...
data10 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 So... I have a solution to make the network stable with our motherboard... We have been doing controlled tests all Afternoon on the Realtek mobo in our lab, attempting to move 20 gig of data across the network. Here are the conditions that Fail with the onboard Realtek Card in our lab: 10mbit 100mbit dropping the MTU from 1500 to 1000 (though it seems to last longer) half-duplex full-duplex I also have a 3-com 3c905b card in a PCI slot and it does the same thing (though it was not put thru all the tests). Our testing also shows that the file transfers seem to take a long time under all the conditions noted above. Meaning... the % of the file transfer in the amount of time that occured before failure was not very much... So far, the ONLY solution that seems to work 100% is.... (drum role) Change the cpu's from 1 to 2. That sucks because you end up w/ a single core system but the network is really stable and fast. I have an ASUS wireless card showing up this afternoon from fed-x and hopefully it will fix the issue, but what if its not a NIC issue but rather a mobo issue (i.e via chipset)... I will update the forum with the results of my ASUS wireless card (btw was 22.00 u.s. at pcuniverse.com). To change the cpu's to 1 temporarilly, F8 at boot prompt and enter: mach_kernel cpus=1 (replace mach_kernel w/ the kernel you are using). To change permanently, copy the com.apple.boot.plist file to temp location and in the <string></string> parameter add the cpu value in the middle to read like this: <string>cpus=1</string>. The com.apple.boot.plist file is located in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration. (you must copy and paste it back from the temp location...) Wish me luck with the ASUS card... --data10 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-756711 Share on other sites More sharing options...
data10 Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 Well.... It turns out that the ASUS wireless card produced the same issues, NIC card went down after about 3 minutes of heavy traffic. So, I read on another forum that someone else had the same issue and just got a motherboard with an Intel chipset versus VIA and the problems went away. For 55.00, I think that's where I'm leaning. The good news is that the mobo runs perfect configured as Single Core - but that's not good enough for me! Unless something magical happens over the weekend, this motherboard is going back to tigerdirect and I'm going to order a replacement board. I'll update if I find a solution or if I swap the mobo... --data10 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-756891 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jditto_51 Posted May 24, 2008 Author Share Posted May 24, 2008 SATA is now working! I worked on it today and now my sata drive is detected and working great! Here's what I did. In the bios, I turned sata to "RAID", NOT IDE. Then I went to my extensions folder and deleted all of the other ATA related drivers. After that, I installed the AppleVIAATA.kext, flushed my kext cache, repaired permissions, and rebooted and now it works! I'm cloning my IDE driver over to the sata to see if I can successfully boot from it, if that happens I'm purchasing a newer, larger SATA drive ASAP. The only thing left is this LAN issue, if we can just fix that, I'll be super happy. For those wondering, our LAN connection drops randomly, mainly when under a heavy load, and the only fix is to restart the computer, or to set the computer to only use one core...which makes the thing pretty well useless to me. If we can fix the LAN, we can add this MOBO to the HCL as completly working! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-757786 Share on other sites More sharing options...
data10 Posted May 25, 2008 Share Posted May 25, 2008 That is great news about the SATA. Our other mobo requires SATA if we decide to keep them. Your post motivated me a bit more to try to solve the NIC issue... Last night I went thru the BIOS looking for anyway to adjust the PCI timing parameters. I was just theorizing that maybe the clock cycles of the CPU when Dual Core is enabled are a bit off with the PCI bus, causing the NIC card to go out to lunch with heavy traffic. I made 8 different setting changes to retard the PCI bus with Dual Core enabled and it always failed under heavy network traffic. At this time, we have tried over 8 NIC cards (5 Realtek's, 1 3Com and 1 ASUS) and all 8 die when put under heavy traffic when Dual Core is enabled. I was also thinking that maybe the VIA kext file might have something to do with it, as it controls the chipset on the mobo (I think). I already tried the IONetworkingFamily.kext file from the 10.5.0 disk and that stopped me from getting on the network all together. If anyone has any idea what would cause the NIC to fail under stress with dual cpus are enabled, please speak up! --data10 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-758276 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jditto_51 Posted May 26, 2008 Author Share Posted May 26, 2008 I'm considering the VIA kext file as the culprit...let me tell you why. I got my SATA drive working and attempted to clone my IDE drive, first to the SATA drive, and second to an IMAGE using SuperDuper. Both times the clone failed. I think the VIA kext is not handling the system bus properly, and not capable of moving large information PERIOD (not just LAN related) without causing hicups. My computer does not lock up, but SuperDuper locked up on more than one occasion. So I'm starting to think its with the VIA kext file. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-759218 Share on other sites More sharing options...
data10 Posted May 26, 2008 Share Posted May 26, 2008 That sucks! I would really like to solve the issue with this mobo... I bought 2 of them (still have 15 days to return them) and one of my friends has the PM4800 versus the PM4890 model and he has the exact same issue as us. He's the one who convienced me to try this and I followed his recipe for hardware but couldn't get the PM4800 any longer so I purchased the PM4890. I browsed around looking to see if anyone had reported similar issues and found another post containing this about the PM4800: ******** Post ******** How I solved this issue... Had the network drop problem myself with the onboard LAN on Kalyway Leopard 10.5.1. I could use the network for a while, then it'd stop working and I'd find it had a self-assigned IP. I added a Realtek 8139 based network card thinking that it was my onboard LAN causing the issue. No dice, still had the same exact network drop with the Realtek card. Next I had a hunch that it was related to the Via chipset on my current motherboard (ECS P4M800Pro V2), so I picked up a board with an Intel chipset (ECS 945GCT-M V1). I swapped out the motherboards, and didn't change a thing with Leopard. (Pay attention here - I didn't change a thing to Leopard. Same install, same kexts. No reinstallation was performed...) Guess what....ethernet now works, and has been for a week and a half without any drops. Both onboard LAN and the Realtek card work flawlessly on the new Intel-based board with the same exact install of Leopard. Though this was successful for me, YMMV. ******* Post ******* I PM'd the guy who made the post to see if he's still happy or has other input and I'll let you know. I found the mobo on Tiger for 55.00 and if all checks out, I'm going to return mine and purchase this one if I don't have it solved in the next 5 days. I agree though, it must be something to do w/ the VIA chipset. I'd love to solve the issue with this mobo, but not sure we can.... --data10 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-759396 Share on other sites More sharing options...
data10 Posted May 28, 2008 Share Posted May 28, 2008 Sad to say... I just purchased a new Intel based mobo for 69.00. It supports 4 gig of ram, Quad Core (even though I have dual core), Gigabit NIC and has PCI-E x 16. It also has more advanced Overclocking settings in the bios (if I even want to mess w/ those). The replacement mobo is a: ASUS P5B-MX http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...p?Sku=A455-2801 It will be here tomorrow and I'll let everyone know how things turn out. From what I read, I should be able to drop my pre-built hdd on this mobo and it should just boot up and work. It uses an Intel Chipset and has excellent ratings on the osx project web site. Should use the same sound card kext, LAN, SATA, IDE should work out of the box. Sorry to bail on this mobo, I just was running out of time and wanted to return the other mobo before I was stuck... --data10 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-761763 Share on other sites More sharing options...
data10 Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Tonight I installed my new mobo, P5B-MX and simply moved my 10.5.2 pre-installed IDE hard drive and booted up w/ 2 cpu's and it came up running solid as a rock. I moved 3 simutanious 4 gig files, jumped on my vpn and browsed the web without a hitch. Only tested USB, IDE and Sound (plug and play with the Azalia driver - still no MIC). I see that SATA does work for this board, I just dont have an SATA drive to test here at home... Ii would say this does prove that the problem is something w/ the mobo (or kext files)... Good luck, I still believe it's w/ the VIA chipset... If someone gets a handle on this, we still have 1 of these mobo's we'd love to get working. --data10 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-763656 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jditto_51 Posted May 30, 2008 Author Share Posted May 30, 2008 Well I actually gave in a few days ago and ordered the ECS MOBO from the post you linked a few messages back. This Biostar board is just doomed for now I suppose. I'll stick it in another case and make a nice little windows box for my wife...or perhaps a wireless media server for my modded XBOX to read files from. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/105420-biostart-p4m890-m7-se-mobo-title-edited/#findComment-763693 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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