Dell Vostro A860 w X3100 drivers working fix

[bart00]

Remember the good old days of being able to use a paper clip on VGA pins 6 to 12 to work around the laptop external video issue on OSX86, found it didnt work on Dell laptops as others here have noted as well. I had the idea to make a VGA dummy plug to simulate an external monitor and holy {censored} - IT WORKED.

 

So I have a working VGA dummy plug for my $350 Dell Vostro A860 (and likely any other Dell Laptops).

 

Pins-

 

1-6

2-7

3-8

 

these should each have a 25 ohm resistor between the pins. I got them on ebay.

 

Then -

pins 10-13

and 10-14

 

with a 600 ohm resistor

 

Next thing is to make it pretty, but its a working VGA dummy plug, no monitor required. I made a video of it booting and put it on You Tube at

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA1QyLhabPM

 

So I have Dell Vostro A860 running Iatkos 10.5.6 with everything.

 

No more external monitor required for the intrepid Dell users. Next project is to turn the VGA dummy plug into a beautiful lady. Well maybe just a beautiful compact dummy plug.

[super_engine]

can it work with a ATI radeon X1350 ???

I am desperate becouse with this kind of card i cannot have internal display working

Can you help me ???

[Nick14]

dsdt might fix your Vostros screen

[bart00]

dsdt might fix your Vostros screen

 

I checked the DSDT info you mentioned and found it was the same version of kext i had installed on this vostro. I think the problem on the A860 vs other X3100 chipset pcs is its native monitor resolution of 1366 x 768. i think thats why this laptop screen goes black when it boots unless an external monitor is attached. since i posted the youtube video i was able to make a new adapter.

 

What I did was took a male vga to female DVI adapter plug, got 1/2 watt resistors instead of 5 watt ones, and stuck them right in the appropriate pins. Two sets of resistors, two pins with overlapping, but its working great. When i got it working i wrapped it up in electrical tape and now the thing looks great, fits in a laptop bag no problem so the pc can be used anywhere without an external monitor.

 

For those who care, the pinouts on the Male VGA to Female DVI converter to make this work - it only took the adapter and 5 resistors to make a dongle. I would expect this dongle solution should would on ANY manufacturer of laptop or motherboard that has had the problem of no booting on osx86 without VGA monitor attached. I would bet this solves every dell problem for example. Please prove me wrong if im wrong but this plug is working great no problem on multiple reboots so until they can write a native booting 1366x768 kext for AppleIntelGMAX3100 / 950 chips i think this will have to me my workaround, not a bad trade for a fast 350$ OSX laptop. I was watching starwars theatrical release episode 4 1977 and the bluray x264 of the dark knight in full 1080p on it for example and it ran at full resolution. a bit of choppiness and some audio probs but the graphics chips handled it and im sure software can be improved. all lower resolution videos worked perfect under 1080p of course, and all mame works great with joystick sound etc full screen. most important, gotta be able to play donkey kong on any system i run.

 

 

PINOUTS:

Loop these with a 25 ohm resistor between - working for 1/2 watt resistors (99c for 6 at radio shack and small)

 

VGA Pins

1 - 6

2 - 7

3 - 8

 

also loop these pairs with a 600 ohm 1/2 watt resistor

 

10 - 13

10 - 14

 

(yes use 10 twice)

 

I built this and it worked video of it booting on U tube.

 

Then I took the MaleVGA-FemaleDVI adapter and toned out the pins and found that:

VGA Pin 1 = right square block TOP LEFT pin as you face it - too lazy to look it up but top left corner on the 4 pin pattern on the right side of the DVI plug

VGA Pin 2 = TOP RIGHT pin on square block on right side

VGA Pin 3 = Lower Left pin on square block on right side of DVI plug

VGA Pin 6 = flat horizontal slot at center on right side of DVI plug

VGA Pin 7 =flat horizontal slot at center on right side of DVI plug

VGA Pin 8 = flat horizontal slot at center on right side of DVI plug

( yes thats right - in my limited skillset when i toned these with a test meter they all went there, almost like a common neutral or something. i knew i should have became an electrical engineer instead of a computer dork).

 

VGA pin 10 = Pin 7 from left on center row of main DVI 3x18 pin grid array

VGA pin 13 = Lower Right Pin on square block on right side of DVI plug

VGA pin 14 = Pin 8 from left (last one) on top row ('top row' meaning 'top' when the flat slot is aligned on the right side of the pins as you face it)

 

So again on the DVI adapter I saw twice pins being used over on the same link with the flat slot pinout. I connected it that way anyway and jumped the pins using the info above, tested it once, then smooshed it down real good and wrapped it up in electrical tape so it would stay intact for the life of the laptop. nice little trick.

 

Working great, doesnt get hot or anything, i just boot the vostro A860, hist Fn-F8 to switch to the external switch when the boot menu pops up, screen goes black, it starts booting, a few seconds later or any time afterward its safe to remove the vga dongle until the next reboot.

 

When a native booting 1366x768 kext becomes available and i dont have to do this i will be very happy, but in the meantime at least im not reliant upon an external monitor being available to boot this supercheap laptop up into a monster osx box.

 

I have to say thanks btw to all those who have pioneered this path before me getting things so far along that any idiot can get osx running native on a dell laptop.

[super_engine]

Ehi burt00 can you help me about my ATI X1350 ???

[bart00]

Ehi burt00 can you help me about my ATI X1350 ???

 

 

If this is an Intel GMA 965 X 3100 Chipset graphics driver it should work. If you require a laptop to boot with an external monitor the dummy plug can bypass that requirement and switch it back to the laptop screen. If you have an ATI X1350 video card in a standard desktop/tower PC this is not a proper fix, the ATI NATIT.kexts are probably a better bet.

[mars1]

So I have Dell Vostro A860 running Iatkos 10.5.6 with everything.

 

hi

i have th same laptop and also using iatkos 5i and would like to know which opsions you took when instaling the dvd

which drivers did you use to get the wireless atheros,trackpad and pcmcia card reader working

i can get some of the stuff working but not everything

thanks

[Brendan09]

I believe you can also do this with one paper clip, bridging to pins. The pins should be paperclip: pin 6 to pin 12. You can use a really small cut paperclip in the shape of a U that is almost flush with the laptop. Its also easlily removable. This is what i and many others used as the osx86 scene developed back in the early intel tiger days. I successfully used this method on a dell inspiron 6000 for months, which is the thread that this trick originated in.

 

hope it works for you

[brainbone]

I checked the DSDT info you mentioned and found it was the same version of kext i had installed on this vostro.

 

You need to build your own DSDT.

 

I followed similar instructions to the ones in this post. This works on 10.5.7 without the sleep trick, or external monitor.

 

Starting here:

DSDT

 

9. Grab the DSDT patcher by fassl ( http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=133683 ). Version 1.0.1e by the time of writing.

10. Doubleclick the DSDT Patcher file.

11. Open the dsdt_fixed.txt file in the debug folder.

12a. Find all lines containing AGP. Remove them (4)

12b. Remove the entire Device (AGP) declaration (around 214 lines)

12c. Remove the Scope(\_SB.PCI0.AGP) declaration (around 33 lines)

12d. Remove the vid2 declaration (a few lines)

12e. Under Device(VID) remove the Device(TV) dec (24)

12f. Under Device(VID) remove the Device(CRT) dec (24)

12g. Under Device(VID) remove the Device(DVI) dec (24)

13. Compile the new DSDT file using ../Tools/iasl -ta dsdt_fixed.txt

14. Copy the new DSDT file to the filesystem root using sudo cp dsdt.aml /

15. Reboot & enjoy!

 

Note: Before you do the above, make sure you have not booted with a DSDT.aml from another system (delete any DSDT in the root of your HD), or your resulting DSDT will be a derivative of that DSDT, not the one in your a860's bios.

[fsniper]

I've found an interesting way to make Dell Vostra a860 v8 work with internal monitor.

After install (iAtkos v7 - 10.5.7 ) screen blinked a blue and got lost.

After music started I tried fn-f8 to no use. But after trying fn-f1 and go to sleep, powering up made the computer start with internal lcd monitor

 

Now to find a way to make network work.

[mars1]

to bart00

 

could you post a tutorial of how you got everything working on the dell a860 including your bios settings

thanks

mars

[cptvenom]

You need to build your own DSDT.

 

I followed similar instructions to the ones in this post. This works on 10.5.7 without the sleep trick, or external monitor.

 

Starting here:

 

 

Note: Before you do the above, make sure you have not booted with a DSDT.aml from another system (delete any DSDT in the root of your HD), or your resulting DSDT will be a derivative of that DSDT, not the one in your a860's bios.

 

 

Can you upload your .aml file? When I run through your steps, I don't have some of the references listed in the file and get a bus error when compiling.