Acer Aspire Q6600 M5630

[temna]

I picked this machine up at Best Buy when it was $550. I figured it would make a nice base for an OSx86 box. I see on the 10.5.1 hardware list it should work. I have been beating myself with my keyboard trying to figure out what this limited bios needs changed. Could the person who posted (or anyone else who got it to work) point me in the right direction? Just to clarify, I did do a search but all I got was a guy asking about 10.4.1? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Machine specs if they can help with figuring out the issues:

• Acer EG31M motherboard
  
• Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz
  
• Corsair Twin2X2048-6400C4 RAM *
  
• EVGA 8600GTS Superclocked 256MB *
  
• LiteOn DH16A1S SATA DVD Burner
  
• Western Digital SATA 500GB boot drive
  
• 2 x Seagate 750GB SATA data drives *
  
• Antec 430watt Tru II power supply *
  

* - upgrades done, not original

[temna]

Ok, I decided to write down the errors the install attempt gave me:

 

panic (cpu 0 caller 0x004314FF): "Unable to find driver for this platform : \"ACPI\".\n" @/Volumes/disk1s2/leo_xnu/xnu-1228/iokit/Kernel/IOPlatformExpert.cpp : 1376

 

Debugger called : <panic>

 

Black trace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)

 

0x2eb1fdd8 : 0x12b0e1 (0x4579bc 0x2eb1fe0c 0x1332a3 0x0)

 

etc, etc..

 

Does this information help? I thought I had disabled power management in the bios like the supported hardware wiki suggested. Any help would be appreciated.

[cjam]

I would also appreciate more information on this... In the hardware list it says that someone got all the cores to work, anyone have a more detailed description of what they did?

 

The description from the hardware list is here:

 

Install Method: Must Do Aitkos-r2 with r3, Both Patches!! With no Hpet SSE3.

Need to do Disable APIC. (currently trying to find a work around. definitely for install)

BIOS sucks I Agree but do the no hpet sse3 kernel, remove the two kexts, and netkas smbios

Runs All four corse. type "sysctl machdep" to make sure

Onboard LAN works out of the box. But there is a driver to make it work bettter *shrugs*

Built in Media Reader works out of box

Firewire works out of the box.

Onboard video works but only 1024X768 res. Get a new card if 2400hd. I got an nvidia

Issue with System profiler I'm going to try the new appleSMBIOS. by netkas.

Audio works with y default. havn't played with to much else of it

Doesn't seem to be able to play off the shelf DVD movies, It might have some goddamned DRM craps built into the DVD drive. That was what I thought at first, the DRM. But turned once I replaced the ATI HD2400 pro with a PNY Geforce 7300 gt, got that going, it plays DVDs.

However, if you see a " ?? 10960 " error like that, it's a Leopard bug, has nothing to do with the hack.

It might also because it's a Blue-Ray/HD DVD drive. Seems to burn fine tho. Will try to install an regular PATA DVD drive. . . .

Don't buy this machine for OS X unless you are willing to put in a lot of work to get it going. ..

But it's worth it. . .

 

I haven't ever seen the iATKOS r3 version, r2 doesn't even seem to want to boot...

 

Thanks

[BigReg]

So I eventually punked out and bought a cheap motherboard to jam in the original case. I bought the GIGABYTE GA-G31M-S2L and its nearly perfect. Its actually slightly smaller than the OEM motherboard and fits perfectly. Saw all 4 cores immediately. Trashed the HD 2400 Pro video card for a cheap 7300GT. I'm very pleased at the result. Running 10.5.2 quite nicely, including some seriously CPU intensive stuff.

 

Oh and by the way, not all of the Best Buy specials included a BluRay/HD-DVD drive Mine is a generic Liteon DH16A1S.

[naddy69]

You can get it to install by using cpus=1, however this results in only 1 core being used by OS X. This is how I have it running on my Aspire M5620, and it runs fine.

 

The guy who got it to run - he goes by the name TheMacHacker on the irc channel, but I haven't seen him post here - had someone hack his BIOS. There is someone on the irc channel who will take your BIOS image and make changes to the ACPI tables so all 4 cores can be used. You then reflash your BIOS with this new image. I had the opportunity to do the same thing but I passed - seems pretty risky to me.

[bubblex]

I done the bios update http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?s=&...st&p=646588

 

and just ENABLED the XD SETTING in the bios

now all works using LEO4ALL v2 ,,,,,,,,,,,but dont pick a kernel in the dvd customise section

KALYWAY v2 works too but i'm still testing different configs

[lpc2100]

I done the bios update http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?s=&...st&p=646588

 

and just ENABLED the XD SETTING in the bios

now all works using LEO4ALL v2 ,,,,,,,,,,,but dont pick a kernel in the dvd customise section

KALYWAY v2 works too but i'm still testing different configs

 

BIOS update? Seems that there is not yet any BIOS update available for AM5620 or AM5630 in this thread, Where did you get it from ?

[bubblex]

I thought I should post my specs and up the bios. its an AMIBIOS modded from R01-A4 bios. beware you must have this bios. and set everything to default setting before flashing. for me that was pressing f9 to reset to defaults.

 

Model Identifier: Aspire M5630

Processor Name: Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q6600 @

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Graphics Card: 860GTt Overlocked 512MB

RAM: 4GB of patriot viper 800mhz

 

 

P.S. sleep works too. Is there anything thats not working?

 

 

Attached File(s) R01_A4_mod.zip ( 640.9K ) Number of downloads: 46

 

post#13

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?s=&...st&p=646588

 

I Updated to this modded bios for my M5630 , now running all cores,with the sleep kernel in kalyway 2,every thing now works,xbench at 172,AS I SAID I CHANGE THE XD SETTING IN THE BIOS TO ENABLED,and the dvd boots perfect,and the install too

note i did have orignal bios R01-A4 before the mod update, as stated above so if you have an older bios you may need to update that first,found mine at acer europe...

[lpc2100]

I thought I should post my specs and up the bios. its an AMIBIOS modded from R01-A4 bios. beware you must have this bios. and set everything to default setting before flashing. for me that was pressing f9 to reset to defaults.

 

Model Identifier: Aspire M5630

Processor Name: Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q6600 @

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Graphics Card: 860GTt Overlocked 512MB

RAM: 4GB of patriot viper 800mhz

P.S. sleep works too. Is there anything thats not working?

Attached File(s) R01_A4_mod.zip ( 640.9K ) Number of downloads: 46

 

post#13

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?s=&...st&p=646588

 

I Updated to this modded bios for my M5630 , now running all cores,with the sleep kernel in kalyway 2,every thing now works,xbench at 172,AS I SAID I CHANGE THE XD SETTING IN THE BIOS TO ENABLED,and the dvd boots perfect,and the install too

note i did have orignal bios R01-A4 before the mod update, as stated above so if you have an older bios you may need to update that first,found mine at acer europe...

 

Didn't saw it sorry ... searched for AM2620. I Will have to wait until someone find a way to patch this one because it is not the same as AM5630 (AM5620 is Bios R01-A0 instead of R01-A4 )

[fleebailey33]

hey guys. im "tehmachacker"

 

the first one to test the bios. changed to my usual nick and the one i use on irc. I'm glad people got my bios working. well kabyls. anyway. anyone have luck with the alc888? it's a {censored} on the computer for me. i got 6 ports enabled. but no sound.......

[clayjar]

VERY FAST Mac OS X 10.5.5 in VMware Workstation 6.5.1 on Acer Aspire M5630 (Intel Q6600)

 

N.B.: Please buy a Leopard license before using this. This is strictly for educational purposes to show that it can be done on a virtual machine.

 

1. *Significant improvement with graphics

2. Much faster disk access (thus, faster boot-up time)

3. Host to/from Guest clipboard copy & past

4. Tolerable sound

5. Shared Folders working flawlessly (only with root access)

 

(* It isn't like DirectX-native Windows XP running as VM, but most of visual effects flow pleasantly)

 

It's been an arduous exercise in futility to load a working OS X on this machine. I've simply come back to this arena to run xcode for some new sdks. And I have not been successful, because I have yet to climb to the ranks of the almighty OSX86 geekhood, where one could wield EFI strings as well as a puppeteer would with his puppets.

 

In the beginning, I thought it would be much faster to simply surf and try to garner the harvests of others, but in the process I quickly found myself having to climb the Mt. OSX86-lympus. Of course, I am far away from reaching the playground of gods, and I'm deeply indebted to have made this far--running it on VMware at a very high speed. I guess virtualization of devices is much easier route than trying to figure out some of the seemingly impossible details for this darn machine. At last, a workable OSX86.

 

I couldn't think of a better place to post the links, procedures, and resources than on this thread. This is simply an epitome of things I followed to get it working, and all of this information can be found elsewhere. I'm posting this not for experts but for an idiot like me. Thanks to PCWIZ and all other generous souls!

 

Acer Aspire M5630 / Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz / 4 GB Memory / Acer EG31M Motherboard (Intel 82801G (ICH7) Chipset) / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT & GeForce 6200 / Creative X-Fi / Windows Vista Home Premium

 

* Please note that you do not need to follow referenced instructions exactly, and that this may not be as detailed as you'd like.

1. Install Leopard on VMware (per PCWIZ's instruction)
   
2. Upgrade to 10.5.5 (per I-SlashDot's instruction)
   1. 
      
   2. I used this instruction to get xcode working, but I advise you to be careful and heed the warnings of experts when updating using other methods.
      

• At this point I have my VM set to use 2048 MB of memory and 2 processors.
  

[*]Get darwin.iso for VMWare Tool

1. Download VMWare Fusion 2.0.1 (mine had a suffix of -128865) and install it.
   
2. E-mail yourself darwin.iso.
   
3. Sign your ISO files (per Donk's instruction/files).
   • BEFORE you go through with Donk's script make sure you invoke command-line console with administrative privileges. You can do this easily by pressing on Windows key, type CMD and then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. If you have a UAC prompt, click Alt+C to enter the command-line land.
     
   • DO NOT use Donk's darwin.iso (900 kb); use the one you just e-mailed yourself, which, for me, has 3,637,248 bytes.
     
   • Donk's script updates the files automatically, assuming that you have your VMWare Workstation installed on the default directory.
     

[*]Mount darwin.iso and install VMware Tools.

[*]Create ServerVersion.plist & script (per rectalogic's instruction)

1. Invoke touch /System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist
   
2. Create the LaunchDaemon script to have it deleted on login and reappear at shutdowns.
   

[*]Reconfigure VMWare Settings

1. Close VM tab, open up .vmx file and change 'guestos' variable to 'darwin-64'. (Question 1: Does PCWIZ's image actually run in 64-bit under 32-bit host machine?? I'm guessing no.)
   

[*]Run the VM and savor it.

Notes

1. I've "turned off" any possibility of VMWare debugging (I've lost the reference).
   

Tips

1. DO NOT use Pause, because it becomes terribly sluggish after you resume. It might be reorienting itself to the system environment.
   
2. Allow automatic update of time, because it occasionally acts silly.
   
3. DO NOT have too many apps open or daemons running on the host machine. VMWare defaults to "some swapping" of memory, so you'd get a performance hit if memory starts to run out. Besides, don't be so scatter brained, most of us, the older guys, don't have a brain structure to even support such multitasking effectively anyway--why waste system resources? Oh, how I miss the good ol' DOS days... (j/k)
   

Some issues

1. Networking: I had to remove and add NIC every time I boot under Preferences -> Network to get DHCP. I had used ifconfig and route, but for the life of me, I could not figure out how you could get DNS to stick. A perfect solution eluded me on this until after installing VMWare Tools and few reboots after (not specifically to solve this) the settings remained! I'm not sure exactly what made it work, but on the last "refresh" attempt, I "locked" the settings. But I tried that before and it didn't work, so I don't think that's what made it work, but oh well, it works fine now even after a reboot.
   
2. Autofit: It doesn't work. Darwin.iso was created for Mac OS X, so it uses lower level access for this and above.
   
3. Quartz Extreme/Core Image [QE/CI]: I'd be surprised if it worked under VMWare running in Vista. Besides, 3d Acceleration option on VMWare only supports DirectX 9.0c right now, and I doubt anyone, including VMWare folks, would go as far as creating an optimized layer to have it run natively.
   
4. I have a Microsoft USB wired keyboard (Erg 4000 to be exact), and occasionally a key or two would repeat itself for about a half second. This is annoying and reminds of me of old Microsoft wireless issue with Linux machines where a warning message kept coming up for unrecognized scan code (used dmesg to turn it off).
   

Question 3: Is it possible to disassemble ROM files for the purpose of reprogramming to add more features to the BIOS? Does it use 8086 instruction set? Would I be able to use regular DOS assembler? This computer seriously lacks some important features in the BIOS.

[Synaesthesia]

NICE! How fast does it run? Graphics wise? Do you have Quartz Extreme? Core Image?

[clayjar]

NICE! How fast does it run? Graphics wise? Do you have Quartz Extreme? Core Image?

 

With very little host apps and a couple of host daemons running, it runs at 1680x1050x32 relatively fast enough to have smooth viewings of YouTube videos with some clipping. Most of visual effects flow well enough to be pleasant to the eyes.

 

Compare to the DirectX-native Windows XP running as a guest, of course, it would be described as slow, but after all, Apple doesn't support DirectX and only naifs would think QE/CI would be supported under VMWare running on Windows any time soon. Please excuse me for shattering the dreams of some, but I'm just thinking out aloud here. I'm pretty sure this is as far as you're going to get, even with direct machine-code translation to DirectX, and I don't think VMWare would allow a guest OS to access the HW directly, though that would open up some decent possibilities.

 

P.S. 1: I don't like long threads, so I'll just keep updating my previous post instead of trying to answer your questions in Q & A fashion. Of course, you're free to ask questions, but don't expect me to reply with a post, look up at my previous post for your answers. I hope that's all right with you.

 

[kazmo]

I picked this machine up at Best Buy when it was $550. I figured it would make a nice base for an OSx86 box. I see on the 10.5.1 hardware list it should work. I have been beating myself with my keyboard trying to figure out what this limited bios needs changed. Could the person who posted (or anyone else who got it to work) point me in the right direction? Just to clarify, I did do a search but all I got was a guy asking about 10.4.1? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Machine specs if they can help with figuring out the issues:

• Acer EG31M motherboard
  
• Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz
  
• Corsair Twin2X2048-6400C4 RAM *
  
• E *
  
• LiteOn DH16A1S SATA DVD Burner
  
• Western Digital SATA 500GB boot drive
  
• 2 x Seagate 750GB SATA data drives *
  
• Antec 430watt Tru II power supply *
  

* - upgrades done, not original

 

I have the same system I got the retail version 10.5.6 to work.!!

 

Did you get VGA 8600GTS Superclocked 256MB to work? if yes what did you use?

[mierski]

I have the same system as well and I got it to work, too (not talking about any "Drivers"). But awfully the needed BIOS-flash to modded R01-A4 made USB2.0 support disappear. Means that there is something missing in the BIOS setup to enable it, so there's no USB2.0 anymore even in Windows XP.

 

Does anyone have the same problem?

[stereovision]

I have the same system as well and I got it to work, too (not talking about any "Drivers"). But awfully the needed BIOS-flash to modded R01-A4 made USB2.0 support disappear. Means that there is something missing in the BIOS setup to enable it, so there's no USB2.0 anymore even in Windows XP.

 

Does anyone have the same problem?

 

Hmm, anyone else have this problem losing the USB 2.0 support? Im thinking about flasing my BIOS today and trying the Kalyway 10.5.2 install on my Asprie M5630. What patches if any should i be using? Also do i have to use the custom BIOS or can i just update to R01-A4 from Acer? I think im on R01-A3 right now PS - i tried installing iDeneb last night without success.

[clayjar]

Can someone upload/post a backup copy of original BIOS for AM5630-U5209A (US)? I think the version was R1A3. For some strange reason, my backup wouldn't work as it used to--I think I've accidentally corrupted it when I was playing with it using my hex editor. Thank you!

[clayjar]

I have the same system as well and I got it to work, too (not talking about any "Drivers"). But awfully the needed BIOS-flash to modded R01-A4 made USB2.0 support disappear. Means that there is something missing in the BIOS setup to enable it, so there's no USB2.0 anymore even in Windows XP.

 

Does anyone have the same problem?

 

No, but under Windows Vista, my Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 (USB) only works intermittently, and my second PCI video card (8400 GS) has stopped working under all together. I think it has to do with how the modded BIOS interacts differently with the chipset. However, under OS X, they work just fine.

 

Any inputs from those of you out better informed about this would be much appreciated.

[dsp]

Anyone found OSx86 Firewire drivers for M3630 / M5630 ?