[GUIDE] Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma, Sequoia, Tahoe on HP EliteDesk 800 G4/G5 Mini - The perfect MacMini8,1 Hackintosh

[deeveedee]

Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope that your 2025 is happy and healthy!

[HerrOtttesen]

On 1/2/2025 at 7:41 PM, deeveedee said:

Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope that your 2025 is happy and healthy!

Happy New Year @deeveedee!!

Same to you!

[deeveedee]

I haven't been the most attentive to BIOS updates for the HP EliteDesk Minis, so I may have missed someone's earlier post.  The HP support site for EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini 35W shows the latest BIOS version as 2.27.  I just performed a BIOS update from within BIOS Setup and my EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini 35W detected and downloaded version 2.29.

 

Just to confirm, I downloaded the HP BIOS update in Windows 11 and started the update from within Windows.  The BIOS updater detected my BIOS version as 2.29, while showing the latest version as 2.27.

 

Anyone else seeing this?

 

EDIT: I have updated my HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini 65W BIOS to 2.21.  My G4 and G5 Mini hacks running BIOS 2.29 and 2.21 respectively are running macOS without issues.  I'll update the BIOS requirements in the first post of this thread.

Edited January 20, 2025 by deeveedee

[ird]

5 hours ago, deeveedee said:

I haven't been the most attentive to BIOS updates for the HP EliteDesk Minis, so I may have missed someone's earlier post.  The HP support site for EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini 35W shows the latest BIOS version as 2.27.  I just performed a BIOS update from within BIOS Setup and my EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini 35W detected and downloaded version 2.29.

 

Just to confirm, I downloaded the HP BIOS update in Windows 11 and started the update from within Windows.  The BIOS updater detected my BIOS version as 2.29, while showing the latest version as 2.27.

 

Anyone else seeing this?

 

EDIT: I have updated my HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini 65W BIOS to 2.21.  My G4 and G5 Mini hacks running BIOS 2.29 and 2.21 respectively are running macOS without issues.  I'll update the BIOS requirements in the first post of this thread.

 

I have 2 HP G4 800 minis, one 35W running macOS and the other 65W running Linux. Only the Linux 65W had 2.29 available for download and update while the 35W strangely is still on 2.27 on the website. Other than having LAN connected to the computer at boot (that I don't), not sure how to pull in 2.29 for the 35W mini. Any advice or download links?

[deeveedee]

@ird Maybe HPs support site still needs to catch-up to the latest BIOS update.  In order to update my EliteDesk 800 G4 35W minis to 2.29 (with connected Ethernet), I opened BIOS settings (F10) and updated BIOS.  2.29 was detected as the latest version.

 

EDIT: I don't know how to pull 2.29 without connected Ethernet.

Edited January 20, 2025 by deeveedee

[CloverLeaf]

6 hours ago, deeveedee said:

@ird Maybe HPs support site still needs to catch-up to the latest BIOS update.  In order to update my EliteDesk 800 G4 35W minis to 2.29 (with connected Ethernet), I opened BIOS settings (F10) and updated BIOS.  2.29 was detected as the latest version.

 

EDIT: I don't know how to pull 2.29 without connected Ethernet.

 

You can download the latest update through HP Support Assistant (on Windows). I have mine updated already, doesn't see/feel anything different.

[deeveedee]

@CloverLeaf HP's support site for EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini 35W still shows BIOS version 2.27 for me.  If I try to use the "auto-detect drivers" feature on HP's site, it shows no BIOS updates.  I tried clearing browser cache and using different browsers to manually download, but still don't see version 2.29 (latest is still 2.27).  

 

When I performed my manual search, I selected OS as Windows 11.

Edited January 21, 2025 by deeveedee

[ird]

4 hours ago, deeveedee said:

@CloverLeaf HP's support site for EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini 35W still shows BIOS version 2.27 for me.  If I try to use the "auto-detect drivers" feature on HP's site, it shows no BIOS updates.  I tried clearing browser cache and using different browsers to manually download, but still don't see version 2.29 (latest is still 2.27).  

 

When I performed my manual search, I selected OS as Windows 11.

Selecting Windows 11 or Windows 10 is the same: shows 2.27 as the latest.

[deeveedee]

I would like to update the BIOS configuration guide (PDF document) attached to Post #1.  My draft is attached and includes the changes below.  If anyone has time to review and suggest changes before I attach the new version to Post #1, I'd appreciate your help.  If the attached document is good, just like this post.  If the attached document needs changes, please propose your changes.  Thank you!

 

The attached guide includes the following changes from the previous version

• TPM: Hidden -> Hidden or Available
• VTd: unchecked -> checked

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini BIOS Configuration.pdf

[ird]

7 hours ago, deeveedee said:

I would like to update the BIOS configuration guide (PDF document) attached to Post #1.  My draft is attached and includes the changes below.  If anyone has time to review and suggest changes before I attach the new version to Post #1, I'd appreciate your help.  If the attached document is good, just like this post.  If the attached document needs changes, please propose your changes.  Thank you!

 

The attached guide includes the following changes from the previous version

• TPM: Hidden -> Hidden or Available
• VTd: unchecked -> checked

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 Mini BIOS Configuration.pdf 61.95 kB · 2 downloads

 

This attached list looks good.

 

Sharing my experience where I have not observed any side effects of the options below (not requesting any changes in your list per se, but just FYI):

 

1) BIOS Sure Start: enabled

2) Intel SGX: SW Control

3) Intel TXT: Enabled

4) HP Sure Recover: enabled

5) SATA 0: unchecked (dGPU version, so don't plan to use external SATA)

6) Unique Sleep State Blink States: enabled

[deeveedee]

 Well, the HP support site has skipped BIOS 2.29 and is now providing 2.30.

 

EDIT: At the time of this post, the support site does not include BIOS version 2.29 in the BIOS revision history.  This is not the first time that HP's BIOS version releases are confusing.

 

HP has synchronized the BIOS versions of the EliteDesk 800 G4 and G5 Minis.  A new BIOS is also available for the G5 Mini and is also numbered 2.30.

 

EDIT2: Note that, at the time of this post, the BIOS version available via BIOS setup (F10) is still 2.29, while 2.30 is available for download from the HP support site.

Edited January 29, 2025 by deeveedee

[ird]

11 hours ago, deeveedee said:

 Well, the HP support site has skipped BIOS 2.29 and is now providing 2.30.

 

EDIT: At the time of this post, the support site does not include BIOS version 2.29 in the BIOS revision history.  This is not the first time that HP's BIOS version releases are confusing.

 

HP has synchronized the BIOS versions of the EliteDesk 800 G4 and G5 Minis.  A new BIOS is also available for the G5 Mini and is also numbered 2.30.

 

EDIT2: Note that, at the time of this post, the BIOS version available via BIOS setup (F10) is still 2.29, while 2.30 is available for download from the HP support site.

 

I'm curious if this is just a version number change or a much bigger merge for G4 and G5. Two questions that I'm curious about:

 

1) Per your previous assessment G4 could not support any "true" 9th gen CPUs. Does that change now?

 

2) Per your previous assessment, G4 did not impose any PL1/2/3 CPU power limits and allowed good performance scaling of 65W CPUs in 35W Elitedesk SKUs but the G5 put a limit. Does that change now?

[deeveedee]

@ird Great questions.  The way that someone could perform a quick-and-dirty test without much effort would be to 1) install an i7 or i9 9th gen CPU in the G4 Mini motherboard  2) Run GeekBench CPU test to see if the results change.  My guess is that the BIOS packages for G4 and G5 Minis are still different except for the version number, so the answers to your questions should still be No and No.  Looking forward to test results  

Edited January 30, 2025 by deeveedee

[ird]

48 minutes ago, deeveedee said:

@ird Great questions.  The way that someone could perform a quick-and-dirty test without much effort would be to 1) install an i7 or i9 9th gen CPU in the G4 Mini motherboard  2) Run GeekBench CPU test to see if the results change.  My guess is that the BIOS packages for G4 and G5 Minis are still different except for the version number, so the answers to your questions should still be No and No.  Looking forward to test results  

 

I'll have to wait for someone to test as well as I don't have any of those CPUs at hand unfortunately.

 

Edit: I'm also struggling to upgrade BIOS without windows. The USB way of putting the .bin files in EFI/HP/BIOS/new somehow doesn't seem to work. Out of ideas here...

Edited January 30, 2025 by ird

[deeveedee]

@ird I'm not familiar with the "EFI/HP/BIOS/new" method.  See this to see if it helps.

[ird]

4 hours ago, deeveedee said:

@ird I'm not familiar with the "EFI/HP/BIOS/new" method.  See this to see if it helps.

Thank you! Looks like I need a Windows installation no matter what for BIOS installation. I'll give it a try.

[deeveedee]

@ird After I upgraded BIOS to 2.30 on my EliteDesk G4 Mini 35W, I ran GeekBench 6 CPU benchmark.  My results here.

[deeveedee]

I have uploaded the latest BIOS configuration document as an attachment to Post #1.  This latest version enables VTd and includes ird's comments here.

[deeveedee]

Open Core 1.0.4 has been released.  I don't see anything in the OC release or updated Acidanthera kexts that is important for our HackMini8,1, so I won't be providing an OC 1.0.4 EFI any time soon.  I hope everyone is enjoying this hack.  I think the title of this thread nails it - it truly is the perfect HackMini8,1.

[deeveedee]

As I mentioned before, there is nothing that I see in Open Core 1.0.4 or the latest Acidanthera kexts that improves our EFI over my Open Core 1.0.3 EFI.  That said, I have upgraded to Open Core 1.0.4 and have uploaded my new EFI as an attachment to Post #1.

 

The changes from my OC 1.0.3 EFI to OC 1.0.4 EFI are as follows:

 

• Upgrade BOOT/BOOTx64.efi
• Upgrade OC/OpenCore.efi
• Upgrade OC/Drivers/*.* (except HfsPlus.efi)
• Upgrade OC/Tools/*.*
• Upgrade OC/Kexts
  • AppleALC.kext 1.9.3 -> 1.9.4
  • VirtualSMC.kext 1.3.4 -> 1.3.5
• OC/config.plist
  • Add Booter > Quirks > ClearTaskSwitchBit (Boolean, False)
  • Enable Kernel > Quirks > ThirdPartyDrives

[deeveedee]

EDIT: VirtualSMC.kext 1.3.6 has been officially released here

 

-----------------------------------------

 

If you are experiencing high PerfPowerServices CPU utilization after upgrading to Sequoia 15.4, Acidanthera has fixed this with a new VirtualSMC.kext 1.3.6 that will be released soon.  If you want an early version of this kext, login to GitHub and download the Artifacts from here.

Edited April 9, 2025 by deeveedee

[deeveedee]

A new Open Core EFI is attached to Post #1.  I have upgraded VirtualSMC.kext to version 1.3.6 in this updated Open Core EFI.  VirtualSMC.kext 1.3.6  fixes the PerfPowerServices high CPU utilization observed in macOS Sequoia 15.4+.

[InfiniteBSOD]

Hello all,

I previously made a topic / thread in the "New Users Lounge" since I lacked the necessary posts to reply to this one.
Now that I have the prerequisite posts under my belt I wanted to reply here instead (to keep troubleshooting for this OC-config in its parent thread) instead of continuing on in my thread.

Attaching my specs in this reply to keep everything somewhat tidy:
Desktop computer: HP EliteDesk 800 G5 Desktop Mini PC (w. 3* DP; 2* DP natively and 1* DP through HP Flex IO)
Type of connection PC > Monitor: Displayport (inserted into the HP Flex IO DP-port) to HDMI-cable (inserted into my monitor)
CPU: Intel i5-9500T [COFFEE LAKE]
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 630
MBOT: HP 8595 motherboard (Q370 chipset)
RAM: 16GB RAM (2* 8GB C4-21300 DDR4 SDRAM Samsung M471A1K43CB1-CTD)
SSD: SAMSUNG MZVLB256HAHQ-000H1 [256GB, NVME M.2 SSD] Western Digital Black SN850X 1TB NVME SSD
WIFI: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200. VEN_8086&DEV_2723
BT: Integrated with "AX200" above? VID_8087&PID_0029
BIOS: R21 Ver. 02.22.00

 

Setup of OpenCore USB - EFI-partition:
1) Downloaded OpenCore (OC1.0.4-EFI-R02.zip) config from the post here
2) Used "OpenCore Legacy" to create a bootable OS X installer with Sequoia

3) Used "MountEFI" to mount the hidden "EFI"-partition of the newly created bootable OS X installation USB and copied the "EFI"-folder to the root of that directory.
4) Used "GenSMBIOS" to generate well...SMBIOS for "Macmini8,1", instructions below from Dortania's "OpenCore Install Guide":
"The Type part gets copied to Generic -> SystemProductName.
The Serial part gets copied to Generic -> SystemSerialNumber.
The Board Serial part gets copied to Generic -> MLB.
The SmUUID part gets copied to Generic -> SystemUUID.
We set Generic -> ROM to either an Apple ROM (dumped from a real Mac), your NIC MAC address, or any random MAC address (could be just 6 random bytes, for this guide we'll use 11223300 0000."
^ I set "ROM" to my actual MAC-address (of my Intel ethernet NIC on my intended Hackintosh

 

Original issue:
When selecting "Install Mac OS X" after initially have selected "Reset NVRAM" (and rebooted) I get the following behavior:
* The Apple logo is visible

* The progress bar appears, loads until perhaps 15% and then my monitor goes black, I get "No input" / "Check source".
** If I force my monitors input to the correct source - "HDMI 1" - I still get the same message on my monitors OSD. I need to do a hard shutdown of the HP to get it showing video once again.

 

Potential fix:
* Known issue with Samsung SSDs; Swapped it against a WD Black SN850X 1TB (which is detected by BIOS); No change - same issue.

 

Question:

Since I use a DP > HDMI-cable and not a DP > DVI-adapter which this OC is assuming (?) I started looking into alternative settings for "graphics" ("Device Properties" > "Add"...) in "config.plist".

I found a post on another forum (tonymacx86) containing other graphics-settings for the "config.plist" ("Device Properties" > "Add"...) and HP EliteDesk 800 G4/G5, some of which the author of this thread - @deeveedee - even created
Now I don't want to discuss the aforementioned post or the various configs since it is a post on a forum which can't be discussed here due to rules but I am wondering if these configs are uploaded here as well.
The author of this thread created one of those configs so that wouldn't be material from that forum but rather her own material which is uploaded here as well.
 

[deeveedee]

@InfiniteBSOD You shouldn't be using Open Core Legacy Patcher to create your macOS USB installer. Are you following the instructions posted in this thread? Search for 'create macos usb installer' and follow Apple's directions.

 

Also, always post your EFI with any questions.

 

EDIT: Please follow the instructions here.  Note my link included in the instructions for creating the macOS USB installer.

Edited April 27, 2025 by deeveedee

[ird]

Also, is it possible to connect to your monitor from one of the onboard DP ports instead of the FlexIO port? I think that may need a separate FB configuration that I’ve probably not seen anyone use in this thread before. Going to one of the motherboard integrated DP ports will help rule out config issues.