ASUS P5 nForce 650i SLI/chipset INSANITY - solved 3/2009!

[TinaBecker75]

Hey guys, i've learned a lot since the last two month ..and finally found a solution ..it was mad.

UPfront i wanna thank all the OSX86 supporters out there who get thru this info-system-jungle.

 

Quickinfo: With the (problematic) nForce chipset mentioned above i had system freezes with

iDeneb 10.5.4 + 10.5.5. //Somehow many things just didn't help much. Installing special kext

versions (read tips below/links etc) or tweaks like reducing memory (maxmem=2048) just did

not help the problem (freezes on dataload/copying lots of little files/osx freezes out of the blue).

 

Quicksolution: With the "installation knowledge" of 5 different systems, i grabed the latest

XxX_10.5.6_OS and pulled out the kexts which seem important for this motherboard chipset.

These are the following: "AppleVIAATA.kext", "JMicronATA.kext", "AppleNForceATA.kext" (..just

checkout the XxX installer list) and DO include the so called "4GB fix". You CAN find these kexts

seperate, but i had no luck using them (maybe i mixed them together and got lost). All kexts

are installed plain in the extension folder (no need to be installed inside another IO kext).

I also installed the "NullCPUPowerManagement.kext" which seems to be a good problem solver

even for different things (read the developer infos). Maybe this changed everything, maybe not.

The pCmAc (iDeneb 10.5.5/3GB/2TB/Voodoo) runs relieable without the onboard nForce LAN!

(i use USB-ethernet 100, not the onboard LAN 1000//latest driver did not help//it's fast enough)

MacOSX is on SATA, data lies on an IDE/drive. Maybe that's also part of the trick. (no HD freezes)

(and actually benchmark says ATA is faster then SATA//2xSeagate//old ATA seems not bad at all)

 

Quicktips: While installing and testing, 3 tools appeared to be very useful: The problem solver

"applejack" (kinda "deep level" disk-utility /no gui/before booting), the time problem solver

kext "Localtime-Toggle.pkg" by Zephyroth (no more time changes on dual boot machines=

windows time was always minus 1 hour) and "Chipmunk" (finds all doubled files on the drive=

which is perfect during testing because files get quadra-doubled and things get out of focus).

 

Maybe these tools are helpful for others too. Thanks.

 

Tina

 

edited: ======================OLD TEXT BELOW=======================

I own a QuadCore PC with an ASUS P5 Board (Vegas2) ..all tech details are below! HEAVY LOADS

OF DATA (VIDEOEDITING) FREEZES THE MACHINE EVER SINCE. FILES GET CORRUPTED, EVEN

DATA GETS UNREPAIRABLE LOST. A computer which can't properly read data is simply not working.

 

Does anybody has a realworld tip on that TOPIC ? ALL KEXT patches for the "nForce problem" etc

seem NOT to work on that ASUS board. I know it is a problem, the whole SATA/IDE topic seems full

of nForce trouble shooting.

 

Please come up with something recent tips: "Watch tip XYZ" from 2007 won't help ..yes, and i might

have tried everything/everykext which was posted as a solution on this board. I again want to point

out that OSX (iDeneb 10.5.5) is working ..but not properly. The system gets freezes on data load

after a while which are corrupting the drives. (Never had problems with emails and internet, but

that's just not what OSX is capable of)

 

My X86 enthusiasm harshly comes to an end, there's is no solution yet. Nothing REALY works, it's

just a madness which kills time. My last attempt was to put all DATA on external USB drives and

let the sytstem just to be on an internal. That didn't helped the problem. Also maxmem=2048 is

not a solution (system freezes on data transfer with many files /f.e. recovering deleted files etc)

 

I have to test internal IDE drives for booting yet, maybe it's the way to go. I guess it freezes again

when loading data from SATA drives (video-editing). Someone mentioned harddisk controllers for

PCI to get around that onboard nForce terror ? (or is it Jmicron terror ?)

 

Thanks for any help. My pMac deserves it, since it seems i'm formating "it" forever soon :-/

 

Thanks for tips&tricks, Tina

 

ps: Mainboard specs below. I'm running iDENEB 10.5.5 on a Vodoo Kernel. Newer systems like

10.5.6 won't solve the problem, i'm running these kext right now. It's still not working properly.

 

info: the same computer + exactly the same drives running 100% fine under Win XP on heavy

dataload + data revovery. It's no faulty hardware, nor faulty drives. It's an OSX86 nForce issue.

 

________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Vegas 2/ASUS P5-E SLI

 

 

* ATX

* 30,5 x 22,9 cm

 

CPU

 

* Sockel LGA775

* Intel Core 2 Quad

* Frontside Bus 800/1066/1333 MHz

 

Chip

 

* nVidia nForce 650i SLI (# not working on data load)

 

Memory

 

* 4 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DIMM-Socks

* DDR2 533 / DDR2 667

* 3 GB (#just 3 GB, not 4)

 

Audio

 

* Realtek ALC 883 Audiocodec (# just AUDIO OUT WORKING)

* High Definition Audio-Subsystem

* 5.1 Surround

 

Network

 

* Marvell® 88E1116 PCI GB LAN-Controller (# not working at all)

* 10/100/1000 Mbit

 

Extensions

 

* 2x PCI-Express 16X (nVidia 8800 GTX Grafic)

* 1x PCI-Express 1X

* 2x PCI

 

HD

 

* 4 SATA

* 2 IDE

* 3 USB

* 1 Firewire

[Volcacius]

Have you tried slashack AppleNForceata.kext or maxmem=2048 flag?

[verdant]

@ TinaBecker75

 

Check out my blog install guides, e.g iPC 10.5.6 on nForce + Intel CPU MOBOs and my Pre-Series 7 nForce + Intel CPU MOBOs thread......

[thorazine74]

Have you tried setting up ahci mode in bios (if available)?

[TinaBecker75]

edited: ======================OLD TEXT BELOW=======================

@ ale§

thanks! No i haven't tried AppleNForceata.kext or maxmem=2048 flag

(how do i set up the maxmem=2048 flag ?)

 

 

@ verdant

I will check your blogs, thanks.

 

 

@ thorazione74

AHCi Mode might be activated in the BIOS. Wasn't it via the RAID activation ? (Not shure) Plain AHCI is not available

 

 

What i have done:

I managed to run a directory replacement just when the drive locked up (what else). That destroyed the structure

of the bootdrive that much, the system is gone. All tools can't cope with that problem ..and are crashing.

Reorganizing + fixing the Boot drive (from another installation on a USB drive) put me where i am. Without nothing.

"That is truly kinda amazing" (..this "trick" could have been invented by apple themself.

 

What i recognized:

Don't know if that is any helpful but i recognized that it's not big files that are freezing the machine ..it's amount of data.

After copying 1000-2000 files (around 15-20 gb) the system freezes. That was the case more than 5 times. (drives

are new and okay /Barracuda 256 GB+500 GB)

 

The system:

iDeneb X.5.5 with "medevil AppleATA 103 kext" + the new original "JMicron 106" (check Jmicron) inside the IOATFamily.kext (exchanging JMicron.kext with an extended "VIAAT etc" kext made no difference)

 

Übermorgen:>

Maybe >IDE/ATA drives only< is the way to go ..checking the tips did not help much (again).

[thorazine74]

I'm afraid the southbridge chipset of your board is MCP51 and is not AHCI compliant so my suggestion most likely will not work.

[TinaBecker75]

edited: ======================OLD TEXT BELOW=======================

 

Hi new Forum

 

@ thorazine74

>>i think the board has a nVidia MCP55 bridge. If AHCI was listed in the BIOS it is switched on<<

 

Now i'm coming back to god ol' iDeneb :-) after a docent iPC 10.5.6 installations without success

BUT a lot of new kexts. >>actually iPC has problems recognizing a NVidia GTX8800 properly. It

has to be installed wth the GTX9800 drivers, else nothing works. But then still no Quartz Extrem!<<

 

Also the virtual way (iDeneb + Virtualizer Soft) didn't turn out to what i wanted. (no sound is an

issue when you wanna do at least light video conversion or video playback ..also no Quarz Extrem!)

 

 

SO :-) I'm starting from scratch on iDENEB 10.5.5 because i need the Mac for ProRes Videofiles.

 

Therefore again, simple Question: Which drivers work with the ASUS P5N-E SLI MOBO? +how?

At the moment i'm running the new Voodoo_Kernel_Release_1.0_Rev_A (which i've done before).

Two Kexts(AppleNForceATA+JMicronATA from iPC 10.5.6) sitting inside the IOATAFamily.kext what

seems to work. (EDIT: not actually it is not working properly)

 

-nForcEthernetDriver for the Marvell 88E1116 produces Kernel panics. Does any other work?

-AzaliaAudio (only 2 Audio out//no in) is the only one working with the Onboard Sound (ALC 883)

-Graphic works very well with full QE support. I'm wondering it doesn't work with iPC the same way.

 

Thanks for any help. This QuadCore has to burn with full OSX one day, it can't be long anymore.

[rafatribe]

Hi,

I've got an asus p5n-e sli and IPC x86 10.5.6

Did a lot of research, testing, installation to finally kill my Sata Hd.

Did an installation on a good old IDE and get rid of "applenforceata : found 0 units" errors.

The boot time is quicker than it was on my sata (1:30 before 35 sec now).

USB 2.0 works only if the USB legacy is disabled in bios

I've had some freezing but "the maxmem tip" seems to have work, i'm still testing though.

I'm using Stage XNU Kernel 9.4.0 right now. Voodoo gave me Kernel panics but maybe it was caused by my suffering sata drive.

I gave up onboard lan cause i thought that was the cause of my freezes, i'm using a wifi dongle which is working pretty good. The onboard lan working kext is the latest NforceLan.

AppleNforceAta Test is working for me, other versions don't mount or read DVD.

I never use any JmicronATA kexts.

ALC883 kext from IPC 10.5.6 is working perfectly.

Hope it helps.

[takumikun999]

Hi new Forum

 

@ thorazine74

>>i think the board has a nVidia MCP55 bridge. If AHCI was listed in the BIOS it is switched on<<

 

Therefore again, simple Question: Which drivers work with the ASUS P5N-E SLI MOBO? +how?

At the moment i'm running the new Voodoo_Kernel_Release_1.0_Rev_A (which i've done before).

Two Kexts(AppleNForceATA+JMicronATA from iPC 10.5.6) sitting inside the IOATAFamily.kext what

seems to work.

 

-nForcEthernetDriver for the Marvell 88E1116 produces Kernel panics. Does any other work?

-AzaliaAudio (only 2 Audio out//no in) is the only one working with the Onboard Sound (ALC 883)

-Grafic works very well with full QE support. I'm wondering it doesn't work with iPC the same way.

 

Thanks for any help. This QuadCore has to burn with full OSX one day, it can't be long anymore.

 

Could you try using maxmem=2048 as the boot option? I also have an Nforce mobo. I got 4 gbs of ram with Voodoo 9.5.0 Kernel. I've gotten no kernel panics since using maxmem=2048 boot option. Although this limits you to using only 2 GBs of ram, it's better than nothing.

 

Installation: IPC 10.5.6 with all 5 patches.

Installed on sata harddrive through sata DVD drive.

 

My Specs for your reference:

680i LT Evga

Q6600

8800GTS 320MB

Marvell 88E1116 Ethernet

ALC885 with AzaliaHDA

 

Kexts used (Don't remember the names):

ALC885

AzaliaHDA

Eno's NforceEthernet http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofiversi...hp/t125569.html

AppleNForceSata

NVDarwin 2.2

[TinaBecker75]

edited: ======================OLD TEXT BELOW=======================

@takumikun999 ("Could you try using maxmem=2048 as the boot option?) >>thanks!

I did try the maxmem=2048 on boot, BUT the problem with freezes stays. OLD Problem,

nothing new (see details below). maxmem=2048 won't work, i'm changing back two 3gb

after another two freezes.

 

@rafatribe ("Did an installation on a good old IDE..") >>thanks!

System installation (cloning?) onto an internal IDE drive! That's an option i did not try yet.

BUT when the system is finally running (on IDE) i guess the data transfers from and to SATA

(video-editing) will freeze it again. Now it does it boting via USB. What do you think? Maybe

go all IDE 100% for the Macstuff and use the SATA on the PC side?

 

My PC (iDeneb 10.5.5 - Vodoo) freezes while i try to recover a

full 500gb harddrive with the Boomerang revovery software (in

Demo Version). It never ever finishes and crashes/freezes

(even with maxmem=2gb)

It seems to happen more and more when it scanned around 160

-200 GB. I did this 5 times now and have to give up on this even

when if the data (on the healthy drive) is not revovered. Is this

mac insane or what ?

 

Thanks and Regards, Tina

 

edited: ======================THANKS AGAIN=FIN=====================