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Lenovo ThinkPad T420 with UEFI Only

K0gen

By K0gen,
in Installation Guides

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gromalle
gromalle
Posted
Posted

Just want to inform you guys: never buy T420/Mboard for T420 with Nvidia card or you will find yourself in hell with hellish problems: Display Port works only on Nvidia-only mode, but T420 cooling system is not designed to work in this mode (works fine in Intel-only mode), instead of videos on Youtube you will watching system shutdowns. That was said about work on Windows, bear in mind that you cannot boot or work in OS X in this mode at all. 

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emet
emet
Posted
Posted

I have experienced those problems as I have the nvidia board. Everything is fine as long as I specify the onboard graphics in the bios. It has even worked on optimus. I can see the nvidia card mentioned the system profile but it is not in any way accessible  In regard to this I did experience problems when I went into the advanced graphics settings on the modified bios. I changed to nvidia and then in advanced I messed with the graphics settings (it is under System agent in the advanced settings). I think I specified PCI in the primary display setting. Anyway, after that I could not get back to integrated in the basic settings. I would think I had put it back, then boot, crash, check the setting and it would be set to nvidia again. I thought I might have messed up the card or the bios when I flashed it. Everything went back to fine when I put the advanced graphics setting port back to the one right one which is IGD (auto might work also but pci and PEG don't)

Interestingly I saw a video with someone using the optimus and being able to switch graphics cards. Anyone have any ideas about that? 

 

Also my fan always runs at at least 3000. In windows it would often be off. Is there any way to get its speed to vary more. I think it would preserve its life and save battery.

thank you

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jenyunhuang
jenyunhuang
Posted
Posted

Hi emet

 

The fan speed can setting by this this

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/285678-lenovo-thinkpad-t420-with-uefi-only/?p=2222311

You can try it.

 

I have experienced those problems as I have the nvidia board. Everything is fine as long as I specify the onboard graphics in the bios. It has even worked on optimus. I can see the nvidia card mentioned the system profile but it is not in any way accessible  In regard to this I did experience problems when I went into the advanced graphics settings on the modified bios. I changed to nvidia and then in advanced I messed with the graphics settings (it is under System agent in the advanced settings). I think I specified PCI in the primary display setting. Anyway, after that I could not get back to integrated in the basic settings. I would think I had put it back, then boot, crash, check the setting and it would be set to nvidia again. I thought I might have messed up the card or the bios when I flashed it. Everything went back to fine when I put the advanced graphics setting port back to the one right one which is IGD (auto might work also but pci and PEG don't)

Interestingly I saw a video with someone using the optimus and being able to switch graphics cards. Anyone have any ideas about that? 

 

Also my fan always runs at at least 3000. In windows it would often be off. Is there any way to get its speed to vary more. I think it would preserve its life and save battery.

thank you

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jenyunhuang
jenyunhuang
Posted
Posted

Hi

 

My Notebook is X220 I5-2540m, it is no usb3.0.

Now I am get pci exresscad usb3.0 54mm for nec chip.

And using the GenericUSBXHCI.kext for OSX on 10.11.4.

It can work, but have one problem.

It is the first plug the usb flash or usb hd, system not show the usb disk.

But if pull the disk and plug it again.

Now it work, and the pci expresscard usb3.0 is perfect work.

The speed is usb3.0, it read/write speed > 80MB/s for my usb3.0 flash disk.

I am change the other pci expresscard usb3.0 for asmedia chip.

It same result.

 

So have any solution?

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tluck
tluck
Posted
Posted

i don't know of a solution for these chipset (NEC, Renassas, Asmedia etc) - unless these card providers update their driver for El Capitan. for this reason, I switched to a Fresno Logic based USB3 PCI express card to get native support.

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vusun123
vusun123
Posted
Posted

i don't know of a solution for these chipset (NEC, Renassas, Asmedia etc) - unless these card providers update their driver for El Capitan. for this reason, I switched to a Fresno Logic based USB3 PCI express card to get native support.

For ASMedia use CalDigit kexts from Lacie; for NEC/Renesas use PXHCD.kext from Pandora v3. But they still have weakness ( for ASMedia hot plugging won't work; for NEC/Renesas shutdown issues and won't recognize drives over 32GiBs )

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oxconan
oxconan
Posted
Posted

@tluck

 

I upgraded success El Capitan from Yosemite.  Thanks you!

I got an issue: when I shutdown computer, all power turn off (includes of LAN signal...) So I cannot use WAKE UP LAN for next time. 

 

Regards,

oxconan

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tluck
tluck
Posted
Posted

@oxcanan - well i don't use this feature so can't really advise. but i thought WOL is wake from sleep ? i didn't know there was a start from LAN. did this work before the upgrade? 

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Tetonne
Tetonne
Posted
Posted

i bought a Crucial BX200 Disque Flash SSD Interne 2,5" 480 Go SATA III last week, i will receive it this week and replace my hd with it.

Any spécial advice to set it regard to TRIM? i read that I need to use a software to protect the sud such as Chameleon SSD Optimizer.

--

i will make it dual boot, with win 10 (even if my old minitab doesn't work on it :( ) first

then OS X 10.11 on a 2nd partition. and clover 

then restore from my HD with CCC

I know clean install is better  but longer (after copy /Users and my /Apps folder i will have to install many apps again to make them work

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tluck
tluck
Posted
Posted

since there is manual control for TRIM (came in at 10.10.4 - so not that new :) ... maybe it is best to take the trim patch out the config.pist - which to my understanding is to disable the check for Apple SSD and turn on TRIM for any SSD

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trifero
trifero
Posted
Posted

since there is manual control for TRIM (came in at 10.10.4 - so not that new :) ... maybe it is best to take the trim patch out the config.pist - which to my understanding is to disable the check for Apple SSD and turn on TRIM for any SSD

 

It works like a charm with your guide. Do you think it can be better?  I really get great transfer speeds the way it is now, and no signs of speed degrade...

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tluck
tluck
Posted
Posted

TRIM is not about speed - it is about freeing up unused disk blocks. if you disable the config.plist TRIM patch and use the trimforce enable command, I believe you end up in the same place - TRIM supported by OSX. so it's not really better - just thinking it provides more control if for whatever reason you don't need or want OSX TRIM.

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fakybaby
fakybaby
Posted
Posted

hi,

 

i do have a T420 with a HD+ Display (1600x900) and i am planning to upgrade the display to a full hd display.

if i would switch to a Samsung LTN140HL02-201 display - would it work with the t420 and would it work together with osx? 

 

is the display i choose a good decission or is there a better alternative for the job? 

 

and to all supporters of this thread: thank you for your passion to let all this happen! i really do love my osx t420!

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superkwn
superkwn
Posted
Posted

@Tluck My x220 is running 10.11.4 now. There is one issue I do not know how to solve. When viewing pictures in Safari or viewing pdf files, sometimes I got distorted views, like to screenshot I enclosed. Do you know how to solve it?

post-990459-0-18837700-1460992194_thumb.png

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tluck
tluck
Posted
Posted

@superwkn -

 

well it looks like the graphics artifacts that was plaguing me a few short weeks ago.

- did you update your config.plist that sets CsrActiveConfig to 0x43

- slide=0 boot arg

- and use the standard graphics kexts - vs any rollback etc.

- how much memory do you have - 8 GB seems ideal.

 

also, you could try using OsxAptioFixDrv-64.efi (needs 0x43 setting) instead of the "Fix2Drv" 

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gromalle
gromalle
Posted
Posted

hi,

 

i do have a T420 with a HD+ Display (1600x900) and i am planning to upgrade the display to a full hd display.

if i would switch to a Samsung LTN140HL02-201 display - would it work with the t420 and would it work together with osx? 

 

is the display i choose a good decission or is there a better alternative for the job? 

 

and to all supporters of this thread: thank you for your passion to let all this happen! i really do love my osx t420!

 

Nope, FullHD display will not work on T420. That's impossible without fullhd upgrade kit/converter, which also not functional for T420, from China guys from ebay, but seems they are dropped this idea also: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ThinkPad-T420s-T430s-FHD-1080p-upgrade-kit-beats-93P5685-1600x900-ips-LED-/231665072220?nma=true&si=G1vdLGRhLNFDUwPaSm22%252BKqWqeM%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

1600x900 -- unfortunately, this is the maximum that you can have on T420.

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