Driver compatibility for Dell Studio 14z (Successful OSX install!)

[lancorp]

I wonder if having different cpu's affects the DSDT file? Mine is T6600, what is your model?

 

Mine is a T6400. I'm keeping a sharp eye out for a good deal on a P-series, like a P8600 or P8700.

The lower wattage should keep the fan off more and run cooler, plus extend battery life.

 

Is there something in the DSDT file that hard codes the CPU model?

[glitchbit]

Mine is a T6400. I'm keeping a sharp eye out for a good deal on a P-series, like a P8600 or P8700.

The lower wattage should keep the fan off more and run cooler, plus extend battery life.

 

Is there something in the DSDT file that hard codes the CPU model?

 

That very well may be the issue for your cpu not showing up, I believe these DSDT files are not only specific to the model but the cpu as well. So it looks like I may need people to submit their own DSDT file for the various cpu's, T6400, P8600 and P8700 and then I can compare those with my original DSDT file and it should fix any discrepancies.

[amartins02]

hey guys i tried getting a snowosx distro and I cant boot from it. It tries and then just restarts again. I went and got the retail copy and used boot132 and it will start to boot but then the screen goes black and nothing. Any ideas? I tried - v - x for safemode and nothing.

[glitchbit]

hey guys i tried getting a snowosx distro and I cant boot from it. It tries and then just restarts again. I went and got the retail copy and used boot132 and it will start to boot but then the screen goes black and nothing. Any ideas? I tried - v - x for safemode and nothing.

 

What do you mean you can't boot from it? It installs and then Kernel Panics when trying to boot up or what? You are being too vague. Also did you install it as GUID or MBR? I am personally using MBR, and I am dual booting with Windows. If you google SnowOSX and install guides you will find some good guides out there. I cannot recall what I customized with my install if anything, but I know I did look at it and clicked on whatever appeared to make since based on what kext files I knew that I needed. Although I pretty much had load in DSDT files from here and later created my own DSDT, and I loaded kext files that I found in this forum.

 

Also just to let everyone know I tried to fix the usb issue some more and found the DSDT file for the Macbook Pro 13" model which is eerily similar to ours and so it was relatively easy to copy over a lot of its code with minor modifications, but I still have not fixed our problem. I also found a fix for the IOUSBFamily.kext (AppleUSBEHCI.kext), that appeared like it might fix our issue so I downloaded the source code for that file and recompiled it... once again our issue with usb storage adapters disconnected on sleep is still there. As bcc9 commented somewhere else the issue appears to be more low level than the normal DSDT fixes for this issue. I think the solution is still in the DSDT, but just higher up the chain... I am thinking it has something to do with the power management of the PCI device in the DSDT.

[amartins02]

Sorry. I have a boot 132 cd. booted (off of usb external dvd drive), took cd out and put retail disk in, hit enter. I see darwin start to load and then the screen just goes black. It seems like the pc is still on but I just have nothing on the screen. I tried the same thing with SnowOSX and with that disk I get stuck in a reboot loop. Mind you I haven't gotten to the actuall install screen yet.

 

i have an old hackintosh at my moms house but for some reason I can't get the damn thing to recognize a USB flash drive so I can't try that method. No tv's here have an HDMI port so i can't try that to see if video is working that way.

[glitchbit]

hmm I seem to recall people awhile back saying that they had issues loading dvd's of the - format I think. Are you using a DVD-R? Have you ever burned out an OSX distro on that brand/format before successfully? Although I thought that issue had more to do with dual layers and not single.

 

Personally I like - for dvd movies because older players seemed to like them more than +. I can't help you with the boot132 method, you'll just have too crawl around for those answers if you want them sooner rather than later imo.

[amartins02]

Well i finally got the retail image onto a usb drive. I forgot to make it bootable but thats not problem. I'm just using boot132 and then pointing it to the usb drive. But, I'm getting the same problem...no video. My screen just blacks out and thats it. It seems like the system is running because the keyboard lights up and I can hear it running but there isn't any video. My parents don't havve any hdmi tv's or monitors so I can't hook the 14z to get output. Is there a paramter that I can state in the boot: field in order to specify parameters for the video or some kind of safe mode? I have the 900p screen btw.

 

Thanks.

[glitchbit]

Well i finally got the retail image onto a usb drive. I forgot to make it bootable but thats not problem. I'm just using boot132 and then pointing it to the usb drive. But, I'm getting the same problem...no video. My screen just blacks out and thats it. It seems like the system is running because the keyboard lights up and I can hear it running but there isn't any video. My parents don't havve any hdmi tv's or monitors so I can't hook the 14z to get output. Is there a paramter that I can state in the boot: field in order to specify parameters for the video or some kind of safe mode? I have the 900p screen btw.

 

Thanks.

 

I think you need to read this thread from the beginning. You can boot into safe -v -x and at that point you need to place one of the DSDT files we have posted here in the Extra folder in the root of your drive and that alone would resolve your 900p video issue.. placing the kexts in Extra\Extensions will fix most other problems.

[glitchbit]

I may have fixed the USB sleep/removal error. Surprisingly this fix does not appear to come from any DSDT fixes, well it could partially, but first I want yall to try this and report back. If this alone does not fix it, then I will release my current DSDT for the 14z, otherwise I am going to give it more time to bake on my system before I put out a possibly buggy DSDT that has no obvious benefits.

 

Here is what you do

1. Boot up and press F2 to go into your BIOS Setup

2. Go to Advance (I think) -> Then Disable "USB PowerSharing" -> F10 (Save)

3. Boot into OSX with -v, if it freezes during the boot up this is fine, just hold down the power button and repeat this step.

4. Once OSX boots up then it might be necessary to go into sleep, but I am not certain, because this is just what I did personally. You will find that without PowerSharing OSX will go to sleep and then wake right back up, this is normal, because now it is time to restart.

5. Go back into the BIOS Setup by pressing F2.

6. Go to Advance (I think) -> Then Enable "USB PowerSharing" -> F10 (Save)

7. Boot into OSX again with -v, and don't be surprised if it freezes again and you need to repeat this step like before.

8. Once OSX has loaded try to go to sleep again and see if you have success and Please let me know!!

 

P.S. I may have just found one limitation, this fix does not work on the hybrid eSata/USB port.

[lancorp]

I may have fixed the USB sleep/removal error. Surprisingly this fix does not appear to come from any DSDT fixes, well it could partially, but first I want yall to try this and report back. If this alone does not fix it, then I will release my current DSDT for the 14z, otherwise I am going to give it more time to bake on my system before I put out a possibly buggy DSDT that has no obvious benefits.

 

Here is what you do

1. Boot up and press F2 to go into your BIOS Setup

2. Go to Advance (I think) -> Then Disable "USB PowerSharing" -> F10 (Save)

3. Boot into OSX with -v, if it freezes during the boot up this is fine, just hold down the power button and repeat this step.

4. Once OSX boots up then it might be necessary to go into sleep, but I am not certain, because this is just what I did personally. You will find that without PowerSharing OSX will go to sleep and then wake right back up, this is normal, because now it is time to restart.

5. Go back into the BIOS Setup by pressing F2.

6. Go to Advance (I think) -> Then Enable "USB PowerSharing" -> F10 (Save)

7. Boot into OSX again with -v, and don't be surprised if it freezes again and you need to repeat this step like before.

8. Once OSX has loaded try to go to sleep again and see if you have success and Please let me know!!

 

P.S. I may have just found one limitation, this fix does not work on the hybrid eSata/USB port.

 

If you don't mind, could you briefly say what the USB sleep/removal error is? I'm sure it's stated somewhere in the past 8 pages of posts, but I'd certainly be willing to test it if I knew what the problem was and if I have it, without spending hours rereading posts...

 

FWIW, my 14z sleeps/wakes up fine, even with a USB thumb drive in...

[glitchbit]

If you don't mind, could you briefly say what the USB sleep/removal error is? I'm sure it's stated somewhere in the past 8 pages of posts, but I'd certainly be willing to test it if I knew what the problem was and if I have it, without spending hours rereading posts...

 

FWIW, my 14z sleeps/wakes up fine, even with a USB thumb drive in...

 

Basically my 14z would give me an improper eject error on my usb storage devices, flash drives and usb hard drives after going to sleep and waking back up. The USB flash drives and hard drives do not prevent sleep in any way, you'll just get a removal error upon waking up. If you plug in your usb flash drive into the eSata/USB hybrid port I am almost certain you will get the error, but it is interesting if you are saying that your other 2 usb ports do not give you an eject error upon waking up. I know all of my usb ports were giving me this error consistently, until toggling USB PowerSharing off and back on.

 

Also this issue seems to affect most other MCP79 chipsets.

[amartins02]

Sorry if I am not catching on or explaining properly. I don't even have snow leopard installed. I am trying to boot off of the disk and the screen goes black. I am under the assumption that people have been able to install and then go into the install after the fact and place the proper DSDT file and kexts. What I'm asking is this a known problem in installing Snow Leopard in the first place? The black screen I mean? Will the HDMI work but not the screen meaning I need an external monitor to do the initial install?

 

Thanks

[glitchbit]

@amartins

 

There is only so many different things that can cause your problem and imo you need to be asking yourself these questions.

 

1. Is your DVD-/+R really good?

2. Is your external DVD burner/reader really reading the disc properly?

3. What Firmware are you using? (Although here people have installed OSX on A01 and A04 firmwares, but it couldn't hurt to upgrade if you aren't)

4. What are the settings in your BIOS? Is SATA set for AHCI or ATA (legacy?)? It ought to be set for AHCI, however other laptops have had to been set for ATA to work. This laptop is very similar to the current MacBooks so for us AHCI works very well.

 

Also there is probably somewhere in the BIOS that will set everything to the defaults and the defaults ought to work fine. To avoid Firewire from spamming your Console log you might want to disable PC Card & 1394 though.. the expressCard slot will still function properly. At least for SD card readers.. SATA expressCards may not work with it disabled.

[lancorp]

Sorry if I am not catching on or explaining properly. I don't even have snow leopard installed. I am trying to boot off of the disk and the screen goes black. I am under the assumption that people have been able to install and then go into the install after the fact and place the proper DSDT file and kexts. What I'm asking is this a known problem in installing Snow Leopard in the first place? The black screen I mean? Will the HDMI work but not the screen meaning I need an external monitor to do the initial install?

 

Thanks

 

I used the process of using Disk Utility on a Mac to "image" the SL DVD onto a USB Flash drive. I could never get the USB flash drive to boot, though. I tried MBR and GUID, neither would boot. I discovered (and I never saw this in any of online guides I read) that you needed a bootloader on the USB drive. So, I put the Chameleon V2.0 bootloader on the USB drive, and it works properly now.

 

I also found out that a thumb drive that worked on a Mini 10v does not boot/work on the 14z.

[amartins02]

Yea Firewire is disabled and I have AHCI set properly. I know its booting the DVD because when I choose it it spins up. Also its not a dvd-r its an actually retail snow leopard disk. I did image the retail disk to a usb drive and obviously it wasn't booting so I used Boot 132 disk to get darwin going and then pointed to the usb drive and it starts to load files then goes black. Same thing whether I use the usb or external dvd drive.

 

When you put chameleon on it that after the disk image right? So all the files are there and chameleon adds additional files?

 

I didn't upgrade the bios yet so I'll try that next. Sorry for all the posts. I'm not new to this but I was under the assumption that installing retail didn't require any kexts to get it installed...only afterward to get things running smoothly. That's why I'm a little perplexed as to why the screen goes black the way it does.

 

I'll update later.

[lancorp]

Yea Firewire is disabled and I have AHCI set properly. I know its booting the DVD because when I choose it it spins up. Also its not a dvd-r its an actually retail snow leopard disk. I did image the retail disk to a usb drive and obviously it wasn't booting so I used Boot 132 disk to get darwin going and then pointed to the usb drive and it starts to load files then goes black. Same thing whether I use the usb or external dvd drive.

 

When you put chameleon on it that after the disk image right? So all the files are there and chameleon adds additional files?

 

Correct. I wish I could remember exactly what I did! I imaged that SL disk so many times that day, trying this and that, that now I cannot keep straight exactly what I did!

 

I didn't upgrade the bios yet so I'll try that next. Sorry for all the posts. I'm not new to this but I was under the assumption that installing retail didn't require any kexts to get it installed...only afterward to get things running smoothly. That's why I'm a little perplexed as to why the screen goes black the way it does.

 

Same here. Most of what I read inferred that an unmodified SL image would boot, install, and mostly work, with just a few items that needed cleaning up. After a whole day messing with it, it was clear that wasn't the case.

[tamorgen]

I'm having issues installing SL on my new Dell Studio 14z. I've installed SL before using Boot-132 on an Inspiron 1720, but after rebooting my 14z, all I get is a beach ball for 15 minutes. I don't have access to a Mac right now to create a USB boot, as was mentioned in this thread at one point. Any ideas? I've started with -x -v and I didn't see any kernel panics... it just seems to hang.

[tamorgen]

I'm having issues installing SL on my new Dell Studio 14z. I've installed SL before using Boot-132 on an Inspiron 1720, but after rebooting my 14z, all I get is a beach ball for 15 minutes. I don't have access to a Mac right now to create a USB boot, as was mentioned in this thread at one point. Any ideas? I've started with -x -v and I didn't see any kernel panics... it just seems to hang.

 

Okay, I used another boot CD and actually got into the OS. I used Lizard to install Chameleon and apply gbit's DSDT file. I'm hoping that's the one I should be using.

 

I've rebooted, and now again, I'm getting the beach ball. I've booted into verbose mode, and I'm getting a ton of FireWire GUID ffffffffffffff is invalid! Anybody know what this is about? I'm not even sure if I'll ever get past it.

[lancorp]

Okay, I used another boot CD and actually got into the OS. I used Lizard to install Chameleon and apply gbit's DSDT file. I'm hoping that's the one I should be using.

 

I've rebooted, and now again, I'm getting the beach ball. I've booted into verbose mode, and I'm getting a ton of FireWire GUID ffffffffffffff is invalid! Anybody know what this is about? I'm not even sure if I'll ever get past it.

 

I think it was mentioned a few posts back to disable (in the BIOS) the Firewire and PC Card. Now, mine is enabled, and I don't have any issues, but then again, by Ethernet doesn't work, and everyone else's does, so it doesn't seem that all SL installations on the 14z react the same.

[tamorgen]

I think it was mentioned a few posts back to disable (in the BIOS) the Firewire and PC Card. Now, mine is enabled, and I don't have any issues, but then again, by Ethernet doesn't work, and everyone else's does, so it doesn't seem that all SL installations on the 14z react the same.

 

Yeah, I tried that. Still getting beach ball and long boots, if it boots at all. Only truly successful way to boot is from the CD. My ethernet port doesn't appear to work either, although my 1515 N card does.

 

What is considered the most reliable DSDT file out there now? It's hard to wade through 15 pages of posts and remember everything that's changed.

 

What I'm considering doing is at least getting it up with a boot CD (into the OS) and creating a USB install with the correct DSDT file and kexts, but from my experience with the Insprion, I should just be able to play around with the kexts to get it up and running. Any thoughts?

 

I stand corrected. Ethernet is now working, although it calls itself Airport.

 

I still can't get OSX to boot on it's own without a boot CD. I'm using Chameleon build RC4-r684. I'm half wondering if it doesn't like it when I unplug the eSATA DVD drive.

[tamorgen]

It occurred to me that when I said "most reliable DSDT", it probably depends on your specs.

 

Mine:

 

Dell Studio 14z

Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53GHz processor

5GB DDR3

Back Lit Keyboard

900P 14" HD display

Dell 1515 Wireless

Bluetooth 365 (In the mail)

WWAN 5300 (In the mail) :censored2:

 

I may be better off pulling my own DSDT file, but I've never ventured into that territory.

[amartins02]

Maybe its my external dvd drive then. Have some of you guys actually booted off the the retail disk with nothing else needed?

[mulletman13]

Couple of quick questions, I'd appreciate if anybody could help me out.

 

Is SpeedStep/Sleep supposed to work out of the gate?

 

I installed SnowOSX v3.6, and am using the DSDT posted as the "good audio fix" one. I'm running BIOS A04 on default settings. I removed the colored kexts in the Extensions folder, and only installed the kexts in glitch's zip file in my Extras/Extensions folder.

 

Speedstep does not seem to work when checking it with Cpu-i, and the computer fails completely when going to 'sleep'. The fans stay on and the screen goes black, and nothing happens when I hit the power button.

 

Finally, what kext do I need that will enable the trackpad preference pane?

 

er... finally, finally: I have the Disk Utility error that will not allow me to repair permissions. SnowOSX does not have the BSD.pkg that I need to reinstall, so could somebody either post that up here, or let me know of another way? I feel like any kexts I am installing aren't getting installed properly.

 

Edit: T6400 @ 2.0ghz, 720p screen, Wireless G card

[lancorp]

Couple of quick questions, I'd appreciate if anybody could help me out.

 

Is SpeedStep/Sleep supposed to work out of the gate?

 

I installed SnowOSX v3.6, and am using the DSDT posted as the "good audio fix" one. I'm running BIOS A04 on default settings. I removed the colored kexts in the Extensions folder, and only installed the kexts in glitch's zip file in my Extras/Extensions folder.

 

Speedstep does not seem to work when checking it with Cpu-i, and the computer fails completely when going to 'sleep'. The fans stay on and the screen goes black, and nothing happens when I hit the power button.

 

Finally, what kext do I need that will enable the trackpad preference pane?

 

er... finally, finally: I have the Disk Utility error that will not allow me to repair permissions. SnowOSX does not have the BSD.pkg that I need to reinstall, so could somebody either post that up here, or let me know of another way? I feel like any kexts I am installing aren't getting installed properly.

 

Edit: T6400 @ 2.0ghz, 720p screen, Wireless G card

 

Not sure if it's just the nature of the beast, but my 14z will, randomly, freeze during a shutdown/restart/sleep. Black screen, seems like it's about to power off, but never does. Fan keeps running. Have to hold the power button for a few seconds to turn off.

 

I'm not sure about SpeedStep, as I don't have the CPU-i program (where do I get it?)

 

Lastly, I use the Kext Utility that glitchbit had in one of his posted archives. It does all the permissions things for you for both the EE folder and SLE folder.

 

How's your wired Ethernet working?

[tamorgen]

I installed SnowOSX v3.6, and am using the DSDT posted as the "good audio fix" one. I'm running BIOS A04 on default settings. I removed the colored kexts in the Extensions folder, and only installed the kexts in glitch's zip file in my Extras/Extensions folder.

 

Which post was that ? There are a few DSDT files out there. The one I tried isn't working. I can't seem to boot without a boot CD, and it's really starting to frustrate me.

 

Also, are the DSDT files different depending upon the display or network card? I have the 900p display and the Dell 1515 wireless card.