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[GUIDE] Asus N550JV - El Capitan - UEFI only with Clover


Tberdy
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ASUS N550JV 

 

 

 

asusN550_4.jpg

 

 

I'd been working on this computer since of the beginning of 2014 and I can say that OS X is pretty stable on it with El Capitan 10.11.4 biggrin.png

 

[EDIT] Some news about Sierra

 

Well...

In June 2017 I finally cross the line and I bought the MacBook Pro 14,3 dropping my N550JV, that's why I'm not gonna help you with Sierra.

However, since Apple hardware seems to be buggy sometimes (or bad luck ?), my MacBook Pro motherboard died after only 3 months. Not so good for a 3000€ laptop...

Student, but also freelance web developper, I need my (working) laptop everyday. But Apple seems to considerate that paying a product 3000€ is not enough to get a free replacement device ASAP when a failure happens. The warranty will take the motherboard replacement fees, but my MacBook won't be available during 6 or 7 days : what a loss of income !

 

That's why I told the vendor that I have no choice but returning to Hackintosh to be able to work. And I decided to try to boot my Time Machine backup on my N550JV. After some ajustements, it worked and I'm now running my MacBook image on the N550JV. I fixed QE/CI, touchpad and wireless, but I still miss the TouchBar...

 

I have no time to explain the steps to make it work but you can find the clover folder I used to run 10.12.6 right here. You just have to install the updated versions of BrcmPatchRam and VoodooHDA in /S/L/E to have Bluetooth and Audio.

This work is dirty but I hope it will help you to get Sierra running on the N550JV.

 

Components (submodel N550JV-CM193H)

 

  • CPU : Intel i7-4700HQ
  • IGPU : Intel HD 4600
  • DGPU : Nvidia Geforce 750M 4GB DDR3
  • Chipset : Intel HM86 Express
  • WLAN + Bluetooth : Qualcomm AR9485 b/g/n 1x1x1 Mimo (HalfMiniPCIe) + AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0 (USB interface)
  • LAN : Realtek RTL8168/8111
  • Sound : Realtek ALC 668
  • Touchpad : Elan Touchpad (v4 ?)
  • Screen : 15.6" - 16:9 Resolution 1920 x 1080 + Touchscreen (Elan)
  • Webcam : USB 720p by AzureWave
  • SD Card reader : RTS 5139
  • Optical : Blu-Ray reader / writer

 

Notes

  • I replaced the optical drive with an SSD (Crucial M550 512Gb)
  • I replaced the AR9485 with the BCM94352 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4/5Ghz Wifi 2x2x2 Mimo -> needed to get WLAN working and after all, 2.4Ghz + 802.11n sucks when you try 802.11ac + 5Ghz :D

 

Current State 


Working :

  • Intel i7-4700HQ (near all P-States)
  • Intel HD 4600 with native screen resolution and GFX acceleration
  • Sound - Realtek ALC668
  • Sleep 
  • USB ports
  • Ethernet
  • WLAN with BCM94352
  • Bluetooth
  • Elan touchpad 
  • Keyboard
  • Battery (about 2h30 but my computer is near 3 years old)
  • Touchscreen 
  • Webcam

 

 

Not Working :

  • Nvidia Geforce 750M (disable by DSDT because the card is not connected to the screen or external ports)
  • SD Card reader (no drivers but passthought with VMware Fusion and Windows is working)

 

 

Not checked :

  • Sound on HDMI
  • Bluetooth Handoff (should be working)

 

Installation process (to complete)

  1. prepare OS X installer (Vanilla)
  2. install Clover EFI and use my clover folder (config + dsdt + kexts..)
  3. after installation, install BrcmFirmwareRepo and patchRam2 + VoodooHDA on /S/L/E
  4. config.plist is not completed. You have to add the serial number to get iCloud, iMessage, etc.. to work. I cannot share mines. Looks for TODO in the plist.

 

CPU Section 

  • near all P-States are working (800Mhz to 3.4 Ghz in Turbo Boost)
  • all cores work properly
  • OEM CPU SSDT are dropped by clover
  • SSDT is generated at boot by clover
  • DMAR table is dropped so you can let VT-d activated

 

IGPU Section

  • Full QE/CI at native resolution thought internal screen (LVDS or eDP ?)

  • Handled correctly my 2560 x 1440 monitor throught the Mini Display port

  • HDMI is working fine to but seems to lock at max 1920 x 1080

  • Brightness is working (levels are defined in PNLF Device of DSDT)

  • Config :

    • ig-platform-id : 0x0a260006

    • FakePCIID_IntelHD to get the drivers attached to the device

    • _DSM Method in DSDT 

    • Inject Intel : true (redondant)

  • Bugs :

    • Glitch at boot

    • Glitch on installer screen : close and open the lid

    • Glitch on external display connection : close and open the lid or put the computer to sleep at least once before connecting the external display

       

DGPU Section

  • The Nvidia card is connected to the IGPU (Optimus setup), but this configuration is not supported by OS X, so we can't use this card.
  • disabled at boot and on wake by the DSDT
  • no problems for the moment 

 

Sound Section 

  • 4 speakers with an EADP + 1 subwoofer 
  • I'm not convinced by AppleHDA sound quality at this time
  • I'm using VoodooHDA 2.8.8 with a custom config and all is working great
  • I'm not using the subwoofer so I can't say if it is working
  • Bugs :
    • sound stops for 3 seconds sometimes (quite rarely)
    • There is no sound from internal speaker is you reboot from Windows or shutdown with fastboot enabled.  -> can be fixed with codec Commander (mandatory kext if you choose to use AppleHDA)
  • I didn't check sound on HDMI or DP 

 

USB Section

  • USB ports take me a lot of time after the El Capitan update
  • USB setup :
    • 3 external USB 2 ports (inside USB 3)
    • 3 external USB 3 ports 
    • 4 internal USB 2 ports :
      • Webcam
      • Touchscreen
      • SD Card Reader
      • USB interface for bluetooth on the MiniPCIe port
    • With 10 ports we are under the 15 limit, so I decided to get away FakePCID_XHCmux
    • EHCI drivers are not loaded by OS X, all is handle by the stock XHCI drivers : there is no EHCI routing at all, like we are used to see these time.
  • All is handle in the DSDT, on the XHC section with a complete rewrite of the _UPC name, following the ACPI specs
  • No mods are needed in Apple files
  • Stay away from Android File Manager or patch it because it have a bad effect on USB drivers, even on real Macs

 

 

Battery Section

  • Battery registers are patched on DSDT following the Rehabman post
  • AppleSmartBatteryManager kext to read the values from ACPI 

 

Sleep Section

  • sleep works fine by closing the lid or waiting for the laptop to sleep
  • I disabled the wake from network option because I'had some problems with it, and I don't use it
  • Power nap is disabled too for me but it should work
  • I didn't check sleeping with Apple Icon -> sleep
  • Stay away from Android File Manager or patch it because it have a bad effect on USB drivers and this can affect sleep

 

WLAN + Bluetooth

  • AzureWave AW-CE123H HMB (Broadcom BCM94352 chipset)
  • _DSM method to enable it
  • 5 ghz working with clover patch + cosmetic patch
  • Bluetooth enabled using  BrcmFirmwareRepo and BrcmPatchRAM2 (installed on /S/L/E for best results) to upload the proprietary firmware at boot and on wake
  • bluetooth works most of the time but sometimes the firmware upload fails and you have to restart to fix it
  • BT Handoff should be supported but hasn't been checked

 

ACPI Section

  • I used Bios v208 (latest)
  • DSDT and SSDT(s) are merged together because I'm too lazy to edit them separately
  • All oem ssdts are dropped at boot -> could be change later
  • Patchs (some of them) :
    • add DTGP, B1B2 (for battery)
    • rename GFX0 to IGPU
    • rename EHC1 and EHC2 to EH01 and EH02 (not useful) 
    • patch XHC section to match the hardware (_UPC)
    • replace _Q0E and _Q0F + add SKBL and GKBL for the touchpad and the FN keys -> see the EMlyDinEsH post
    • add _DSM to IGPU, ARPT (BCM94352), PS2K, LPCB, EHC1, EHC2, XHC
    • add MCHC, IMEI, SMCD, BUS0, PWRB 
    • patch HPET, RTC, TIMR, HDEF, HDAU 's IRQ
    • disable DGPU at boot and at wake
    • patch OS detection
    • patch battery register -> see Rehabman post (B1B2, etc...)
  • ​fix some warnings errors and warnings : WMI device and OEM _BCM method
  • remarks : method serialized, _T_x to T_x 

 

TO DO

  • complete the guide
  • clean DSDT
  • switch to AppleHDA 
  • bios patch to enable Haswell Lake Tiny

 

 

Thanks

 

A big thanks to all the people who have worked on it, like amokk - he has done most of work on the DSDT to get it fine for Mavericks. I edited it for Yosemite and El Capitan. 

I'm not the creator of the kexts or dsdt patch I used. We have to thank :

- Rehabman

- PikerAlpha

- EMlyDinEsH

- slice

- Mieze

- and all the others

N550JV-OSX.zip

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  • 3 weeks later...

hello 

i can't open your dsdt file with maciasl

can you post your dsl file ?

thank you

 

I'm using ACPI 6.1 so check your compiler  :)

Here is the .dsl file if you need it

Hi.

 

Thanks for this. I'll try it on my N550JV.

 

Are you able to control Keyboard functions such as, brightness, sound and so on?

 

Regards,

 

Brightness works thanks to DSDT patch with PNLF device with brightness levels definition. Then, you can use the FN keys to change it (and all the other functions) thanks to AsusNBFnKeys.kext.

However, the WLAN FN keys seems to be broken sometimes : WLAN shutdown but doesn't restart until reboot. Bluetooth shutdown and restart is working.

DSDT.dsl.zip

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Here is my original ACPI DSDT/SSDT from bios 208 (the latest).

I'm working on a new version of the DSDT, slimmed down as possible. We don't need all the method in the PEGP device, only the one for shutdown down the card. 
Moreover, many methods in ATKD are never used. 

I'm not doing this just for fun ; sometimes something happens because of ACPI code and I want to know why. So I'm slimming down the code to see what is useful and what's not. I use ACPIDebug.kext from RehabMan and I look for some variables at different times like after / before sleep, etc...

We may need more documentation to understand all of this...

The main problems I want to fix are the need to close and open lid for proper display when you connect an external screen after cold boot, and the loss of touchpad after some days of use.

 

If you have some advises, I'll be glad to know :-)

N550JV-origin-bios208.zip

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  • 1 month later...

Hi, I never reboot since this can cause some problems with the Realtek Audio Card.

With my Crucial M550, I cold boot in 15s maximum from Clover boot screen and I shutdown in 10-15s. El Capitan's sleep is far more stable than Yosemite, I advise you to upgrade, except if you use a lot of strange USB devices. 

 

BTW I started to work on Sierra. For the first try, install works fine as well as QE/CI. But WLAN doesn't work as this time with the BCM4352. Touchpad has a strange behavior too, I'll try to use the updated version.

 

hi ,im n550JV user too!, but i5 version, im waiting for the complete guide,btw good job!

 

Since I don't have a lot of time because of my work, I'm not going to write the complete guide. You should find by yourself on the forum how to create a vanilla installer (there are a lot of great tutorial like this one : http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/298027-guide-aio-guides-for-hackintosh/page-2?do=findComment&comment=2030113) . Then use my Clover folder and install the other kexts in /S/L/E.  

If you are new to osx86, look on the forums, there are many posts that explain how to do that. Good luck !

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello. 

 

I know that you are busy and everything but If you have the time could you please please make a full guide? 

 

Thanks 

 

 

Tbh im mostly confused on just where to put each file inside osx. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

 

ASUS N550JV 

 

Well...

In June 2017 I finally cross the line and I bought the MacBook Pro 14,3 dropping my N550JV, that's why I'm not gonna help you with Sierra.

However, since Apple hardware seems to be buggy sometimes (or bad luck ?), my MacBook Pro motherboard died after only 3 months. Not so good for a 3000€ laptop...

Student, but also freelance web developper, I need my (working) laptop everyday. But Apple seems to considerate that paying a product 3000€ is not enough to get a free replacement device ASAP when a failure happens. The warranty will take the motherboard replacement fees, but my MacBook won't be available during 6 or 7 days : what a loss of income !

 

That's why I told the vendor that I have no choice but returning to Hackintosh to be able to work. And I decided to try to boot my Time Machine backup on my N550JV. After some ajustements, it worked and I'm now running my MacBook image on the N550JV. I fixed QE/CI, touchpad and wireless, but I still miss the TouchBar...

 

I have no time to explain the steps to make it work but you can find the clover folder I used to run 10.12.6 right here. You just have to install the updated versions of BrcmPatchRam and VoodooHDA in /S/L/E to have Bluetooth and Audio.

This work is dirty but I hope it will help you to get Sierra running on the N550JV.

 

Thanks you for Update about Sierra. I'll try to install it.
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  • 1 year later...

I managed to install all of the files. Now the only problem is weird graphical glitches in some apps. I just opened Spotify and just moving through stuff. While doing that screen goes crazy.

 

 

++++

Trackpad settings menu is empty. And gestures and stuff doesn't work. I can use it as a mouse. Even touch to tap isn't working.

 

Edited by Apatay
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  • 4 weeks later...

I've fixed my previous issues. How can I remove the touchpad related parts from DSDT file? I wanna try out the smart touchpad kexts but changes won't apply. I guess it interference with DSDT file.

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