DrX_UaCaRi Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 So as requested, and as i think this is may be a nice step to make Os X fully compatible with standard machine. I will post my experience, this topic is a research purpose topic and i know people may ask why i didn't finish the OSX live project first , Let's say i've been very busy, and I don't like to be receive legal notifications ... because if there is a lot of people here that's are students, home users, etc... Let's just says there are some people who are professional and can't risk their company to that kind of things. I'm not sure to know how far this discovery can go and i will just say that is may better to save this page when it exist . First who is the so called MacBook Pro clone?????????????????????????? Parckard Bell EasyNote V7812 Here the main specification of the machine (Sorry for french but the Machine seem to be sold only here) Technologie Mobile Intel® Centrino® Duo - Processeur Intel® Core™ Duo T2300 (Mémoire cache / Bus : 2 Mo / 667 Mhz) - Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (802.11 a/b/g) SYSTEME D’EXPLOITATION Microsoft® Windows® XP Edition Familiale ECRAN Type / Taille : Matrice active TFT / 15,4’’ Diamond View Résolution : WXGA (1280 x 800 pixels) MEMOIRE VIVE Taille : 1024 Mo Type : DDR 2 STOCKAGE Disque dur : 100 Go* Lecteur 4 en 1 : MMC / SD / MS / MS Pro Graveur de DVD Dual : DVD+R9 : 2.4x ; Mode DVD+R/RW : 8x / 4x / 8x ; Mode DVD-R/RW : 8x / 4x / 8x SON Contrôleur son 16 bits stéréo : intégré Hauts-parleurs : 2 enceintes VIDEO Carte vidéo : ATI Radeon X1600 HyperMemory Mémoire vidéo : Prise en charge de 128 à 512 Mo Sortie Télévision : Oui – S/Video Port IEEE 1394 : 1 COMMUNICATION Bluetooth : Class 2, v1.2 Carte mini-PCI : 802.11 a/b/g Modem / fax : 56 Kbps V92 Port réseau : 10/100 Mbps DIVERS Batterie : li-ion (6 cellules) Dimension (L x P x H) en mm : 355 x 250 x 28-33 Poids : 2.9 Kg Ports, connexions : 1 port VGA, 1 sortie casque, 1 entrée micro, 4 ports USB 2.0, 1 port Express Card S54 Microphone : Intégré Souris : TouchPad Clavier : 87 touches SACOCHE Vendue séparément * Dont 8 Go alloués au système de restauration. Cet espace peut être libéré en créant un DVD à l’aide de l’utilitaire « Master DVD Creator » fourni. « Celeron, Celeron Inside, Centrino, Centrino logo, Core Inside, Intel, Intel logo, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside logo, Intel SpeedStep, Intel Viiv, Intel Xeon, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium et Pentium Inside sont des marques déposées ou enregistrées d'Intel Corporation ou de ses filiales, aux Etats-Unis et dans d'autres pays. » . This is from Packard Bell French site (please no post about Pacbard not selling in Us etc....) As an attachement a report form Nero info Tool if someone know a good app who can report more info just tell with links: Config_V7812.TXT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrX_UaCaRi Posted March 26, 2006 Author Share Posted March 26, 2006 This Notebook is not mine, it's a special command from one of my client. He wants a great laptop who can run Os X. I've told him that this may be potentially illegal, etc.... It's says i've bought a 99 Tiger Package, i've use only 70 so i think this is not a big deal of using an alternate version of tiger. So the quest was this : finding a laptop that can almost perfectly match the MBP. First machine choosen was the Asus A6JA-Q017H (here is the spec) II've bought that machine (eposition model but had to sent it back beacause of some Damm dead pixel and since the machine doesn't exist anymore.......I didn't know if the Bios was EFI) It's was very hard to find beacuse it's was a special offer of a departement store with great spec webcam etc... but it was out of stock... and it disapear form catalog now. So since i was disapointed by that i was shearching another machine with MBP matching spec. with low price. SO i found a Fujistu-Siemens Amilo (here) It was cheap and the spec was little diferent but not too much so i paid 50€ to reserve it and wait to go with my client the next morming to buy it. When we arrive at the Store i've show Him the 3 machine i was thinking of : Acer for 1499 euros, Packard Bell for 1399 euros and Fujistu for 1199 euros. The Dilema was huge since it's quite impossible to figure what machine will work. I already know that Wifi mau be a problem but since that client use ethernet network it was not a big issue. This main purpose of the machine is to play with Ilife 06 . The Acer had a bluetooth funny phone So i ask the vendor to power up the machine to make my final choice: the acer and the Packard bell power up , the fujistu not so the guy try i've try the machine was burn, and i've notice i was heavy with no battery, So the choice beacame between the ACER and Packard Bell. It's hard to understand that Packard seem to be always the wrong choice.? but the Graphic was great (in shop i was told that the Acer get 512 mb hypermemory and the PB 128 mb (a bios update gave me the 512 but i will explain that later). So i tought why not the PB, since it's cheaper and seem to be closer to the MBP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrX_UaCaRi Posted March 26, 2006 Author Share Posted March 26, 2006 So as a real Computer Addict, What the first thing i've made oppenning the box? I' ve read the manual in 5 sec, saw there was no Recovery disk, and the only cd was an Aol promo subsciption cd. So i've remenbered that you need to create the restore disc as your own. So i 've powered the machine enter the bios of course (and first saw there is something unsual with that bios but i was not aware about the discovery i've made later) saw that it's load very fast. I need to fullfill a lot a form from crosoft and PB, need to bypass norton configatution, metaboli, config, skype, msn, encarta, word (Easy setup they says) and Made the recovery Disc. As soon that disc was finished i reboot on the disc and test it. It was seem to work so i tought Let's party begin.......... So next step was opening the machine. Why? because i love to void warranty, and love to see what inside. Here some photo about inside the devil troath in the next post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrX_UaCaRi Posted March 26, 2006 Author Share Posted March 26, 2006 (edited) IMPORTANT ADVICE DO NOT TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN, I'M MIGHT BE CRAZY BUT I'M KNOW WHAT I'M DOING Front view and my two Assistants. Rear view Sides views Eco Bouton (Hardware Power management of the proc) Battery HDD disasembling HDD case, in fact the purpose of the picture is to find what is the rainbow connector, it's was always unplug but it's may be used for something In fact PB is nice because opening the comp is very easy. May be is due to the fact they have lot of problems in the past and the thecnical staff wanted a machine that can be opened fast General view RAM slots RAM modules 2x512Mb RAM empty slots Wifi mini pci card (Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG) Nice discovery 2 minipci slots !!! EFI bios chip or TPM chip? can someone confirm that ? Fan sytem for procesor, graphic card, and chipset The mains cores ATI x1600 chipset Intel Mobile 945PM Express Chipset I think the Intel ICH7-M South Bridge is hidden by the plastic somewhere but i don't open it too much Core duo 2300 Socket Conclusion of that part is the laptop is quite easy to open and make some upgrade like HDD, RAM, PROCESSOR, Wifi card and and feature with the other mini pci slot, so this is great You can find more info on that machine here sorry it's french but understandable: http://support.packardbell.com/fr/mypc/?PibItemNr=PB51M00002 It's may be worng something like for the DVD-RW drive wich they say it's liteon but in fact it's Phillips. Stay tuned for the next Part the EFI BIOS Edited May 12, 2006 by Hagar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lane Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 woah... i forgot they still make packard bells... how entertaining.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabr Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 Hehe, this topic is going to be interesting... Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taek4 Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 rofl, you have garbled your finger tips *gg* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 Stay tuned for the next Part the EFI BIOS Does this laptop support EFI? If so perhaps you should considering flashing the MacBookPro's EFI-ROM on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrX_UaCaRi Posted March 26, 2006 Author Share Posted March 26, 2006 Does this laptop support EFI? If so perhaps you should considering flashing the MacBookPro's EFI-ROM on it. i thing i already mess up too much the warranty, but why not and yes the laptop is EFI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suser Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Who says this machine supports EFI ? Couldn't find any proof of that. Even on the packard bell support site you can download BIOS updates and no EFI updates. BIOS and EFI are not the same, but they intend to do the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olympionex Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 To ask the obvious question, if this notebook is EFI, then I wonder how THEY got windows booting on it? (Makes me wonder if Packard Bell should have won that competition :-)) Seriously though, they must have some sort of patch that isn't the xonmac. PS. I also love how in French, Microsoft Windows is listed as the System d'Exploitation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrX_UaCaRi Posted March 29, 2006 Author Share Posted March 29, 2006 (edited) It's been several days that i'm working on the EFI article but it's something huge and with not too much doc so far, so i don't like to post incomplete info so here the proof of evidence of the EFI http://www.area86.info/efi.mp4 and If you have still doubts : http://www.insydeh2o.com/faq/ For the Windows question just read the Insyde Faq and Doc, The Use something called CSM to make windows work. I hope to finish my article about EFI in the next hours.. Edited May 12, 2006 by Hagar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amalgam Posted March 30, 2006 Share Posted March 30, 2006 Who says this machine supports EFI ? Couldn't find any proof of that. Even on the packard bell support site you can download BIOS updates and no EFI updates. BIOS and EFI are not the same, but they intend to do the same. I've never quite understood why it is that on a forum wholly dependant on the goodwill and voluntary efforts of others, some are so quick to demand "proof", or denigrate another by demanding "Who says". In any case, if "proof" were needed on your part, then a quick perusal at this page: http://support.packardbell.com/uk/item/ind...e&pn=PB51M00002 would turn up a download link for a "BIOS" update that will in turn create a bootable CD. Just a quick browse thru the files on that CD and Insyde's name pops up. I made an ISO image of the CD, it is approx 7.3 megs in size, in case anybody lacking XP wants to take a look at it. I don't know if a file that large can be uploaded to the forum, but I'll follow whatever anyone more knowledgeable suggests. It's very encouraging to know now that a near-clone *with* efi is out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hagar Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 Hi, just edited a bit so the images show as thumbnails. iirc this machine went a long way towards booting OS X with EFI, a tale I followed with excitement on IRC. perhaps DrX might have time to finish the story here some time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabr Posted May 13, 2006 Share Posted May 13, 2006 So DrX_UaCaRi? How is this project going? What's happening? I was interested in how it would turn out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts