iDeneb 1.5.1 10.5.7 on Latitude D410 - works, but very slow

[hillbilly moon]

I just installed iDeneb 1.5.1 10.5.7 on my Dell D410 notebook, following the instructions that Krautzen Douce wrote regarding the installation on his Dell D610.

 

I resorted to iDeneb because I couldn't get the iPC iso to boot. The iDeneb iso booted perfectly the first time.

 

The install went fine, BUT everything is very very slow. The spinning beach ball comes up even when I click on a Preference Pane!

I have 2GB of memory installed and I know it's good, as I'd used it with XP for months.

 

I installed the standard iDeneb package and the extras that Krautzen Douce reported as working well on his D610. From what I've seen the hardware is the same on the D610 and the D410, so I used his recommendations.

I have also seen elsewhere that installation of Leopard on the D410 works well when you choose the same options as for the D610.

 

Anyway, the extras I chose to install:

- Kernel 9.5.0 Voodoo

- video: GMA900 (even though the D410, like the D610, has GMA915). One note: under System Profiler graphics shows up as GMA 950.

- chipset: Apple Generic PCATA

- wireless: Broadcom

Audio: AC97 - I chose the whole AC97 folder, BUT I HAVE NO AUDIO. Shows as No Built-in Audio.

*Any recommendations?

- fixes: Seatbelt, and Voodoo battery manager.

 

Trackpad and keyboard work.

I still have to install my new Dell 1390 wifi card, which people say is Airport compatible.

 

Any suggestions re.

 

1) speeding the system up? Maybe installing different Extras?

Quick question: if I wanted to try different Extras (Audio, etc.), can I just boot from the iDeneb DVD and update/change installed Extras? Should I remove the Extras manually, then reboot and install from DVD?

 

2) Audio. Different install?

 

Many thanks.

[dothacker]

Psst... i'll tell you what your problem is... it's your graphics chipset being circa 1900's... but i remember making my D610 running fine on leopard... had to inject a modified AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext and a modified GMA950 that works on GMA900.

 

And as for the audio... it's the AzaliaAudio... not AC97.

[hillbilly moon]

Psst... i'll tell you what your problem is... it's your graphics chipset being circa 1900's... but i remember making my D610 running fine on leopard... had to inject a modified AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext and a modified GMA950 that works on GMA900.

 

And as for the audio... it's the AzaliaAudio... not AC97.

 

Okay, thanks.

 

Would you have the modified kext, or know where I can download it?

 

As to the audio, at this point can I just manually remove the AC97 and copy the AzaliaAudio? Or do I run the install again and update the Audio?

 

Thanks.

[dothacker]

that's up to you... and no, i dont have the kexts. it's been 4 years since i've used the D610.

[hillbilly moon]

that's up to you... and no, i dont have the kexts. it's been 4 years since i've used the D610.

 

Okay, thanks anyway.

 

It's a shame about the slowdown. The D410 is actually pretty snappy at times. I checked under Activity Monitor and at times there's 95% CPU usage, even when I'm doing next to nothing - like opening a Preference Pane, which can take CPU usage up to more than 90%. With the Activity Monitor window open, when I see that CPU usage goes down to "normal", e.g., 2-3%, the computer is definitely usable, 10x faster than when CPU usage hits a bottleneck.

 

I don't have any of the video/graphics problems or slowdowns or mouse tearing, etc., that people talk about. Video is crisp and clean, no artifacts whatsoever.

 

Does the slowdown, with incredibly high CPU usage, seem like an Extension or Kext problem, where something is hogging CPU speed even when I'm not doing anything very CPU intensive?

 

The processor is a Pentium M 1.6 Ghz and there's 2GB of DDR 667 RAM.

 

NOTE: I just checked RAM and found that 1 of the 1GB banks is listed as having a speed of 0 MHz, though its Status is OK. The other is listed at 667 MHz and OK.

They are both listed as 1GB DDR SDRAM.

 

Could this be causing a slowdown? Why would speed be listed as 0? Any way to remedy?

 

Thanks.

[dothacker]

dead ram?

[hillbilly moon]

dead ram?

 

The RAM shows up as 2GB under both Leopard and XP and in both systems it passes the checks. Both banks are listed as 667 Mhz under XP. Strangely, under Leopard one bank is listed as 667 and the other as 0 Mhz. In Activity Monitor all 2GB are listed and total RAM available to and used by the system is 2GB.

No idea what's wrong. Or why the system has the slowdowns.

[hillbilly moon]

Here's a weird one.

 

I was trying different install options for my Dell D410 notebook, trying to speed it up a little bit with Leopard. I'm using the iDeneb 1.5.1 10.5.7 install.

 

As I wrote above, the first install went okay, but the system was incredibly slow, basically unusable. I also had no Audio.

As an example of how slow it was, just opening up a preference pane resulted in a spinning beach ball.

But the slowdown was evident right after installation, as the Leopard Welcome screen came up and was really jerky, as if moving in slow motion.

 

I rebooted, reformatted the hard disk and prepared to reinstall Leopard.

Different from the original install, I selected:

i) Audio: AC97 (that is the listed sound card in Diagnostics)

ii) Chipset: unfortunately I didn't write it down - it wasn't LegacyAppleIntel (which wasn't available) or GenericPCATA. I'll have to reboot and check which option I chose.

Just found the CHIPSET setting I used: ICHx Fixed (which was described as for Intel).

-- Possible problem here may have been installing both ICHx Fixed and ACPI Fix --.

ii) Fixes:

ACPI Fix

seatbelt

voodoo battery manager.

 

With this install, I booted into a Kernel Panic 3 times. I got to the point where I couldn't even boot from the iDeneb DVD any more.

 

Frustrated, I burnt an XP boot CD and booted from it, hoping to check the HD and reformat it.

It wouldn't boot at first either.

 

I hit F5 a few times and the Dell booted into the APPLE boot screen! Weird.

It booted up really fast and then, weirdly, the Leopard Welcome screen appeared!

And it was super fast, just like if installed on a Macbook, for instance.

The audio was fantastic and the graphics were perfect! Then the setup screen appeared and I completed setup.

 

I didn't have trackpad or keyboard, so I installed the PS2Fix1054 using an external KB/mouse.

 

Upon reboot, though, I got a Kernel Panic again.

 

So, it looks as though the D410 might be fast enough to effectively use Leopard. I am still surprised at how fast and fluid both graphics and audio were on the Welcome screen.

 

So now I will reinstall Leopard, HOPING to remember exactly what different options I chose.

The good: system speed improved tenfold.

The bad: the kernel panic.

 

I'm googling for info at the moment, hoping to cut down trial and error time with the installation configuration.

If not, I'll just go by trial and error.

 

======

 

Update: I re-installed iDeneb and the system is slow, like the first time.

My install options:

 

Intel GMA900

Broadcom wireless

Apple Generic PCATA

Generic AC97 Audio

Kernel 9.5.0 Voodoo

Voodoo Battery Manager

Seatbelt fix

Voodoo PS2 Trackpad

IOPCMCIA family

CPUS+1_Fix

 

Audio is perfect, can also use volume button on keyboard.

Trackpad preference is installed. I can select click-drag and speed, etc., but even though 2-finger scrolling is available as an option, it doesn't work.

 

Slow system response, spinning beachball opening apps, etc.

 

I'd like to try to see if it's the CHIPSET setting that speeds things up or slows them down.

Any recommendations?

 

Any ideas re. trying Chipset: ICHx Fixed? without the ACPI Fix.