Is my System suppose to be as unstable Post installation?

[spammster]

Hey Guys,

 

I've always loved reading the stuff you all are doing. I've been reading for a while so I decided to jump in. I'm not a Mac user but I know my way around PCs and with the help of this forum I was able to put together a pretty good OSX86 machine. Here are my specs:

 

Processor:Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

Motherboard: Gygabyte G-EP45-UD3R

Graphics: eVGA GeForce 9800GTX

HDD: Western Digital 1TB Sata

Mem:Corsair 4GB DDR2 (PC8500)

 

Install Medium: iPC OSx86 10.5.6 Universal PPF5 (Final).iso

 

I made sure my Bios has been set to AHCI and Native mode.

Set the ACPI to S1(POS)

 

 

The install took a while because it kept crashing.

I Figured out the exact extensions to add so it completes:

 

Kernel: Vanilla, no kernel selected

Video drivers: 9800GTX

Chipset drivers: Intel ICH10 SATA

Audio: non selected (ALC889a is suppose to work but it doesn't and I have an external card that works so I didn't care to figure it out)

Ethernet: Non Selected (natively supported by OSX)

USB drivers: Patched USB drivers

Fixes, patches: Shutdown/Restart fix

DSDT patches: patch DSDT with HPET support

AppleSMBIOS patch: SMBIOSResolver

Bootloaders: nothing

 

 

So now:

 

My machine boots up fine. my VGA works fine(Quartz enabled). processor cores are detected. I can put it to sleep; reboot, and shutdown with no issues.

 

The problem is; the machine keeps freezing. It's not doing it all by itself but when I start "using it" (surf the net; explore folders; play music; plug in a usb device sometimes) it works for a while and then the mouse gets stuck and that's it! I have to reboot.

 

I really want to figure this out: I think the specs are pretty good and everything looks fine. I decided to use iPC OSx86 10.5.6 because I hear it's the most complete distro to date. Did I make the wrong choice?

I'm ultimately going to be using this PC for Logic 8 and Final Cut Pro (really system intensive apps) so I really need to get this working.

 

Has anyone come accross this before?

Is it hardware or software you think?

 

Any Ideas guys?

 

 

Thanks for reading and keep up the awesome work!

[LatinMcG]

im not a pro but my 2 cents on prior experience for audio apps go vanilla!. as in retail install method. reason is i did a non retail vanilla and it would not let me install a driver for Mbox2 usb on protols 8 with 10.5.3.. required 10.5.4 or higher. so i did update.. and it worked. sorta postcript this and that... short story kernel panics installing protols and usb device. updates were not installed properly to a "distro"

 

i use instahackintosh by stlvnub to make a dvd with chameleon 2RC1 install and if it doesnt boot i use dfe 132 boot cd to boot from 80 or 81 device and then dload chameleon 2 RC1 pkg and install.. fixed! but with the chameleon 2 in dvd it automaticaly detects osx in guid disks and lets me boot them no more typing 80 or 81

[spammster]

im not a pro but my 2 cents on prior experience for audio apps go vanilla!. as in retail install method. reason is i did a non retail vanilla and it would not let me install a driver for Mbox2 usb on protols 8 with 10.5.3.. required 10.5.4 or higher. so i did update.. and it worked. sorta postcript this and that... short story kernel panics installing protols and usb device. updates were not installed properly to a "distro"

 

i use instahackintosh by stlvnub to make a dvd with chameleon 2RC1 install and if it doesnt boot i use dfe 132 boot cd to boot from 80 or 81 device and then dload chameleon 2 RC1 pkg and install.. fixed! but with the chameleon 2 in dvd it automaticaly detects osx in guid disks and lets me boot them no more typing 80 or 81 :censored2:

 

Hey LatinMcGyver75,

 

thanks for the reply;

I'm not doing MAJOR music production; I'm using an M-Audio Fast Track Pro. I've already been able to get it connected and Logic works with it.

 

I think my stability problem is related to my Graphics card. I have an eVGA 8900GTX. I followed a bunch of forums on how to get it fully working. I'm able to get good resolution on my 22" monitor and Quertz was enabled BUT Quertz Extreme shows as not supported (when its supposed to be) and when I use OpenGL extension viewer, it says that my Graphics vendor is Apple (Not NVidia) the Rendor is software and I have 0mb when I should have 512mb.

 

Can any reader here shed some light? There are many forum posts on exactly how to get the 9800GTX to work but so far none of them have really done the trick for me...

[Lanceomni]

Try using the boot-flag:

maxmem=2048

If your system doesnt hang anymore you most likely are having issues due to memory. Lots of people are having issues when memory usage goes past 3.2GB. This is due to 32bit memory addressing in your ATA kext. This can happen even doing simple tasks. You can open Activity Monitor's memory tab to see at which point you machine seems to hang.

 

Fixes: Fix #1 generally does the trick :censored2:

 

*1. There are some community modified 64bit ATA kexts which work pretty well. Im using one myself. Check this thread: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=127611

 

2. If none of the modified kexts work you can use the maxmem flag on boot and add it to com.apple.Boot.plist located in: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

 

The syntax goes something like this:

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>

maxmem=****

</string>

Replacing **** with the amount of memory to use. Many people have reported 3456 (3.38gb) works well. I have pushed mine to 3584 (3.5gb) and have not been able to make it freeze.

This is also where you put other flags such as "-v -s -l". If you are using any of these the syntax is:

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>

maxmem=3456

-v -s</string>

Each time I increased the speed I would open up Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab. I would then open Photoshop and and do something that would tax the system. On my computer when I went over the threshold it would freeze and I could read how much memory had been used. (Other people have mentioned that their computer would reset instead of freeze.) I ran that computer 24/7 and used Photoshop heavily and never had a memory related problem at 3.5GB.

[spammster]

Try using the boot-flag:

maxmem=2048

If your system doesnt hang anymore you most likely are having issues due to memory. Lots of people are having issues when memory usage goes past 3.2GB. This is due to 32bit memory addressing in your ATA kext. This can happen even doing simple tasks. You can open Activity Monitor's memory tab to see at which point you machine seems to hang.

 

Fixes: Fix #1 generally does the trick

 

*1. There are some community modified 64bit ATA kexts which work pretty well. Im using one myself. Check this thread: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=127611

 

2. If none of the modified kexts work you can use the maxmem flag on boot and add it to com.apple.Boot.plist located in: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

 

The syntax goes something like this:

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>

maxmem=****

</string>

Replacing **** with the amount of memory to use. Many people have reported 3456 (3.38gb) works well. I have pushed mine to 3584 (3.5gb) and have not been able to make it freeze.

This is also where you put other flags such as "-v -s -l". If you are using any of these the syntax is:

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>

maxmem=3456

-v -s</string>

Each time I increased the speed I would open up Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab. I would then open Photoshop and and do something that would tax the system. On my computer when I went over the threshold it would freeze and I could read how much memory had been used. (Other people have mentioned that their computer would reset instead of freeze.) I ran that computer 24/7 and used Photoshop heavily and never had a memory related problem at 3.5GB.

 

Hey Lanceomni;

You were totally right! I dropped it down to 3.5gb and now it's stable!!!Much thanks~!

 

THe only Problem I have now is: My eVGA Geforce 9800 GTX. Unlike most; My card is being discovered. My monitor reaches resolutions up to 1680X1050. The issue is that I can't enable QE (quartz extreme) and without it, Logic 8 won't install. I've read the forums up UPnDoWN. I followed the instructions that Acqua-Mac put togther (http://tinyurl.com/dfst7l) I know it's supported work because people have been able to do it. I've actually installed logic 8 on my Netbook (with 1.6Ghz and 2Gb ram )

I mean; I could use it like this but I put this whole thing together for the sake of Logic Studio 8. Can anyone help? Thanks again!!!!

[spammster]

Hey Lanceomni;

You were totally right! I dropped it down to 3.5gb and now it's stable!!!Much thanks~!

 

THe only Problem I have now is: My eVGA Geforce 9800 GTX. Unlike most; My card is being discovered. My monitor reaches resolutions up to 1680X1050. The issue is that I can't enable QE (quartz extreme) and without it, Logic 8 won't install. I've read the forums up UPnDoWN. I followed the instructions that Acqua-Mac put togther (http://tinyurl.com/dfst7l'>http://tinyurl.com/dfst7l) I know it's supported work because people have been able to do it. I've actually installed logic 8 on my Netbook (with 1.6Ghz and 2Gb ram )

I mean; I could use it like this but I put this whole thing together for the sake of Logic Studio 8. Can anyone help? Thanks again!!!!

 

Hey Guys;

 

So I'm super excited because I've gotten this to work PERFECTLY!

 

I changed my 2x2GB Ram sticks for 3x1Gb sticks. (now it's REALLY stable!)

 

I used the instructions that Acqua-Mac put togther (http://tinyurl.com/dfst7l) to get my 9800GTX working just right after I rebuilt the box. As it stands I can run Logic 8 really smoothly on it now. Everything is working great!!!!

 

Thanks to everyone for helping me get this done!!

 

CHEERS!