Asus N550JV-DB71 10.9 Install

[c490340]

I got an Asus N550JV-DB71 two weeks ago.  I've been trying to boot Mavericks on it since I got it.  I've followed every guide that I could find for any computer that was remotely similar to mine (unfortunately it seems that no one has written about installing OS X on my exact computer).  The closest computer I could find any information on was this one, and I couldn't get his procedure to work at all.  I've never had any luck with using Clover on my desktop, and it didn't work any better on my new laptop.  Since I couldn't get anywhere with Clover, I tried Chameleon 2.2 r2286 since that's what I've had the most luck with on two different desktops and my old laptop.  It shows the most promise, but always does the same thing.  When I boot without -v it starts loading for a couple of seconds and then the system resets.  When I boot with -v it loads kexts from S/L/E for about a minute before the screen goes completely black for a second and the computer resets.

I've tried just about every combination of boot flags, different DSDT mods, and different bios settings (I'm using an unlocked UEFI bios so I can disable a lot of things that the stock bios hides), but it hasn't made even the slightest difference.  Chameleon just loads kexts for about a minute and then resets.  EVERY SINGLE TIME.  I've tried searching for a solution but nothing works.  It's especially frustrating because I've gotten OS X 10.6 - 10.9 to work on several different computers over the last four years, and while I ran into various issues with all of them, I've always been able to figure out the problems.

I wish it was a simple kernel panic because then I'd have some clue as to what is causing it to fail.  At first I thought that it could have something to do with the Optimus graphics, but I've completely disabled the nVidia chip in the bios and it didn't make any difference.  I've also disabled VT-x and VT-d, but still nothing.

 

This is the KP I was getting with Clover:

 

This is the last thing that Chameleon displays before resetting (it goes by very quickly, so I had to get a screen shot from a video):

[iFIRE]

this is a problem with the configuration section ACPI in config.plist in clover, set all config to false

 

well, your cpu is haswell, then you need patched kernel to Haswell, take a look in the section downloads or in guides.

 

 

this is  from your guide link!!!! you forget this part 

 

IMPORTANT: Launch Terminal and give these command (change YOUR_Partition!):

cp /mach_kernel "/Volumes/YOUR_Partition/mach_kernel"

 

++++++++++++++++ THEN RENAME mach_kernel to mac_kernel  --> mv mach_kernel mac_kernel

++++++++++++++++OR goto your folder of EFI bootloader(EFI-> CLOVER -> Config.plist) and change

mac_kernel to mach_kernel

 

- Reboot into OS X (not installer) using without caches.

[c490340]

 

IMPORTANT: Launch Terminal and give these command (change YOUR_Partition!):

cp /mach_kernel "/Volumes/YOUR_Partition/mach_kernel"

 

++++++++++++++++ THEN RENAME mach_kernel to mac_kernel  --> mv mach_kernel mac_kernel

++++++++++++++++OR goto your folder of EFI bootloader(EFI-> CLOVER -> Config.plist) and change

mac_kernel to mach_kernel

 

I did that initially, but got the same error.  The KP picture is from just one of many boot attempts.

[c490340]

I FINALLY got it to boot correctly last night.  It still needs a lot of tweaking, but it seems like the trick to getting it to boot was changing the CFG lock setting in the bios to Disabled.  I also disabled USB 3.0, but I haven't messed with it enough yet to see if that was absolutely necessary or if I can get it to work with a kext or by changing some settings.  I never could get it to work correctly with Clover, so for now I'm booting it with a Chameleon flash drive.  I will post any progress that I make so that it might help anyone else who is trying to run Mavericks on this laptop model.

 

This is the setting that I had to disable to make it boot correctly:

 

As I stated in my first post, my BIOS is unlocked, so I'm not sure if this is a setting that can be changed on the standard BIOS or not.  If anyone needs a copy of the BIOS, I can upload it with instructions for flashing it.