Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R?

[SunLizard]

Greetings all,

 

I have had the devil's own time getting my new Hackint0sh running with this board. I ordered the GA-EP45-DS3R from the 'egg with a brand new Q6600 Quad-Core and 4 gigs of Gskill 8500 RAM to replace my aging AMD Hackint0sh. (the simple reason being Intel guys tend to get things first and don't have to fudge with Marvin's AMD utility to support most of of the groovier apps released commercially. So I decided to take the intel plunge.

 

I've built Hackint0shes in the past (my first was with JaS 10.4.6) so have run into a whole gambit of problems that have got themselves worked out in the forums so I decided to post my results of my latest build here, as someone will probably glean some useful info out of it.

 

Duhhhh! Section

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

Here are some mistakes I made initially with my setup. (Chaulk these up to excitement and not reading the freakin' directions)

#1 Installed the memory in adjacent slots (ie DDR_2_1 and DDR_2_2 vice DDR_2_1 and DDR_2_3). This will cause your memory to read all 4 gigs at single speed vice optimizing for dual speed. It may have an effect on performance but I never made it that far as running an OS on it.

 

#2 Used PATA/IDE DVD-drive to try to istall OSX to SATA HDDs. I don't have a SATA DVD drive so I figured it wouldn't matter. It does. I kept getting read errors (at least with the NEC drive I was using.) Save yourself the headache and go off USB-CDROM if you don't have a SATA DVDrom.

 

#3 Keyboard/Mouse. Depending on your install type (Kalyway/iDeb/iAtkos) you may have issues with these devices. Save yourself headache and go with USB mouse and keyboard.

 

Go Figure Section

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

#1 If you try to use this setup, get the thing working using the BIOS settings provided. Remember if you flash the BIOS on this board it may change the settings a bit or reset them completely. Its always a good idea to reverify settings after re-flash.

 

#2 Although I had issues installing from IDE DVD to a SATA drive, I plugged in my IDE HDD from my old AMD system and disable all SATA, just to see what it would do. Damn thing booted right up, recognized all hardware. The only strange effect came with a reboot and reconnect of the SATA (with AHCI protocols enabled). the OS saw the SATA as plug-in devices... weird but worked. What did not work was trying to SuperDupe the original (old) drive onto the SATA (new) and make it bootable (the snag came with SuperDuper making it bootable - keep in mind the old drive came out of an AMD based machine... so no real surprise there.

 

Way Forward

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

Now that I've put some distance between my problems and myself (and done some forum reading) I'm going re-engage tonight. In a fit of panic I did install an inferior OS on the machine (to make sure all my new parts worked) I'll wipe that tonight and have a go at doing it properly.

 

I would like to get away from the Hackint0sh DVD builds and use the 10.5 retail I have (I'd love to be as pure as possible) I'll let you all know whether I'm beating my head against the wall or the proud owner of a new GigaMac.

 

pax

 

S_L

 

GigaMac: GA-EP45-DS3R (rev1.0) w/F9

Brains: Q6600 Kentsfield Quad-Core

Mem: 2x2 Gig Gskill PC-8500 DDR2

Video: Sapphire ATI HD 2600 XT (PCI-E) (Natit HD 2XXX kexts)

Wireless: Belkin Wireless G Desktop (Broadcom Kexts)

Keyboard/Mouse: MX5000 Bluetooth Wireless Desktop

[MaaseyRacer]

Hello, Im using the attached file for ALC889A audio and works fine,

use Kexthelper to installit

Does your system profiler recognize an audio device?

[peach-os]

Sounds like this is a great board once you get AppleHDA patched. 6 working SATA (AHCI/native) ports, working and bootable IDE, quad-core, Firewire . . . awesome. I read above that 4x2GB memory runs stable, too, right? Anyway, I have a key question:

 

Has anyone been able to run two graphics cards in the two PCIe x16 (x8 really) slots? That would make this a killer.

 

here working on this board: 2 x 7300GT gfx-cards with strings - three monitors connected

[Alan Garza]

Does your system profiler recognize an audio device?

Yes it does.

[teknojunkie]

I have AHCI turned on as it is, I am running 10.5.4 and it is kinda bugging me knowing that I have one machine running 10.5.5 no hassle and this one is not. AHCI drivers work well, however, audio is still not working right.

 

Many of my boots hang at the "Verifying DMI pool data screen".

 

My DDR2 1066 shows as DDR2 800. Then again on my P5K-VM it shows as 667.

 

I am going to try some 10.5.5 stuff today, as well as audio stuff. Will post my results, but I would love to figure out this DMI pool hang up. I am running BIOS F10.

 

Update:

10.5.5 Successful!!!! I installed it through the Terminal

cd /Volumes/<volume name>
./usr/sbin/installer -pkg /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ 10.5.5\ Update/MacOSXUpd10.5.5.pkg -target ./

 

I then booted with -x -v -f

it reboots, and then I booted with the same set, -x -v -f

Repaired disk permissions and rebooted everything seems to almost be good.

 

New Issues:

Sound drivers gone (HDA was not working and I had no audio device in system profiler, but I had sound and volume control)

 

Other thoughts:

Is anyone who is running EFI-X having audio issues? Does HDA work?

 

yeap here 100% after 10.5.5

[MaaseyRacer]

Does audio show in the system profiler? I really want to see a screen shot of audio working in someone system profiler, I can get sound to play but I cannot get an audio device to register in the system profiler. My only issues are audio to register in the system profiler and my 8800GT is buggy when I first boot, but I hope to resolve that shortly.

[gyasih]

Anyone care to share their overclock settings? When system is using fail-safe or optimized settings i can install programs (i.e. iLife). When I try to oc this board the system shuts down during the install process. I do have Arctic Freezer Pro 7 heatsink. Memory take 1.8-2.0V and it Geil memory. Thanks.

[jnabe71]

Does audio show in the system profiler? I really want to see a screen shot of audio working in someone system profiler, I can get sound to play but I cannot get an audio device to register in the system profiler. My only issues are audio to register in the system profiler and my 8800GT is buggy when I first boot, but I hope to resolve that shortly.

 

I am not home now to grab a screenshoot for you but yes Audio does how up in the System Profiler. I had this problem also (sound working but not showing up in the System Profiler) but the solution I believe (off the top of my head as I recently did it - yesterday) is to add the HDAEnabler.kext.

 

I am using the 10.5.4 Retail install using the Boot-132 method with the hidden 200MB EFI partition. I think I added that kext there but will double check for you.

 

I will try to get a screen-shot soon for you if you really want to see it. I will just have to figure out how to do that when I get a chance.

 

This is my first post by the way. I am also using the 8800GT and do not see any issues with it.

[SunLizard]

After a bit of beating the noggin, I finally gave up on Boot132 + Retail and begrudgingly pulled out the iAtkos v4 disk.

 

I did update to F10 BIOS from Gigabyte's site. For those wondering about Bios Settings, I disabled most of the On Board features, the exception being enable the 'AHCI' (setting Native Mode to disabled - but that didn't matter] turned off Serial/Comm/LAN and left AZAILIA to Auto, I did leave IDE enabled as I don't have a SATA dvd drive... My rational for disabling almost everything so was to deal with issues one at a time...

 

My GigaMac has 2 750 Gig Seagate Barracuda SATAs, both for OSX even though I do intend to run XP in parallels once set up. Both were formatted GUID Partitions.

 

As I have had issues with graffix cards in the past (I stick with ATI) I installed with -v (verbose) -x (safe mode) flags set.

 

As for driver install, I went with bare-bones [iAtkos core, Darwin Bootloader, SMBIos, SATA] support selected from the iAtkos disk. Install finished. Clean boot (no flags) ultimately gave me graffix problems so I rebooted with -v -x again and finished setup.

 

Even though I didn't include any special drivers for my wifi card (Belkin which works with Broadcomm chipset drivers) the system found my card and connected right to my wireless network which was useful as I had issues with the JMicron controller which prevented seeing my DVD drive after install.

 

My first task was to resolve Graffix issue, so after install I grabbed clean Natit.kext from netkas site (Feb 26). Following standard steps on his site, installed it, made sure my ATI HD 2600 XT device ID was correctly reflected in ATIRadeon2000.kext (it was) fixed permissions and rebooted with no flags set. Success (as expected) QE/CI/OGL all working. No surprise there. (I will say this on previous installs using the Natit.kext from the iAtkos disk, I had problems getting the Video at all. Not sure if there was something modified in the Natit.kext on the disk or not, but the clean one worked.)

 

Next task was sound. Following guides here was able to replace AppleHDA.kext (with the one posted ALC889A.zip) and get the sound working with no issue. I did a manual install vice using the kext Helper, but either will work.

 

My next couple of tasks may break the system so I stopped for the evening and am making a Clone image of what I've got so far. As I see it, my next few tasks are (1) Getting ICH10R properly recognized (2) Get On board LAN working (or verified as its not yet turned back on in BIOS yet) (3) See if I can get IDE devices working with system (is there a replacement for JMicron controller?) and perhaps (4) updating to 10.5.5

 

Overall I'm very pleased with this board and will zip up all the kexts which provided functionality to the board and post em here once done.

 

Very good purchase.

 

I'll post more as I work through my issues.

 

S_L

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

GigaMac: GA-EP45-DS3R (rev1.0) w/F10 | ALC889A working

Brains: Q6600 Kentsfield Quad-Core

Mem: 2x2 Gig Gskill PC-8500 DDR2

Video: Sapphire ATI HD 2600 XT (PCI-E) (Natit HD 2XXX kexts) working

Wireless: Belkin Wireless G Desktop (Broadcom Kexts) working

Keyboard/Mouse: MX5000 Bluetooth Wireless Desktop

[MacUser2525]

(1) Getting ICH10R properly recognized

 

I posted that fix on the third page of the thread.

(2) Get On board LAN working (or verified as its not yet turned back on in BIOS yet)

 

Works out of the box if you want time machine then I have attached a fixed IONetworkingFamily that you replace in the Contents/MacOS folder of the IONetworkingFamily.kext.

 

(3) See if I can get IDE devices working with system (is there a replacement for JMicron controller?)

 

Try the attached .kext it is supposed to be fixed don't have any IDE devices attached to check it with though so can't say for sure.

 

Overall I'm very pleased with this board

 

I'm undecided either my chip has lost the ability to overclock or the BIOS is junk...

IONetworkingFamily.zip

kext_for_JMicron_ATA.zip

[SunLizard]

MacUser2525,

 

Thanks, I'll give both a try this evening (at work atm.)

 

I haven't attempted OC under OSX + F10 bios yet, have you tried reverting bios to F8/F9 to OC? There isn't much data out ther on F10...

 

BTW - off topic a bit here, what method did you use to get your Retail disk to boot. I've tried DFE-Grub, Kably's 132, and Generic 132, I kept getting loop back to boot options screen after installing Chameleon...

[JaE-V]

My board has been awesome. I'm sitting very stable with my Q6600 @ 3GHz.

My install is perfect, however my sleep doesnt work. Dont use it anyway.

 

MacUser2525,

 

Thanks, I'll give both a try this evening (at work atm.)

 

I haven't attempted OC under OSX + F10 bios yet, have you tried reverting bios to F8/F9 to OC? There isn't much data out ther on F10...

 

BTW - off topic a bit here, what method did you use to get your Retail disk to boot. I've tried DFE-Grub, Kably's 132, and Generic 132, I kept getting loop back to boot options screen after installing Chameleon...

 

Go F10, i dont know what proc you have but make sure after you raise your multiplyer or etc you take your ram out of "turbo" mode and put it in "normal". Thats the only way i was able to find stability. I also upped my voltage to 1.35. Put your pci-e on 100mhz of course. Go buy a good heatsink, i dropped a few dollars on an coolermaster.

[drummerdb]

Anyone ever had this issue? I put in the generic.iso, boot up, load the 10.5 cd (bought, not bootlegged). It gives the the apple logo and the spinning thing, and then goes to a gray screen telling me I have to reboot. I can't even start the install!

 

ep45-DS3R

Q6600 quad core

sata DVD and sata HDD

2gig stick of g.skill ram

 

Any ideas? I'm at a bit of a loss.

[SunLizard]

drummerdb-

I've had variations of that issue (see post at top of page 6)

 

Have you tried booting the Retail DVD with the -x (safe mode) to see if you can get to install GUI in Safe Mode. I have had to install in Safe Mode no matter what install method I have used. Also... what Vid Card are you using?

 

Recommend checking your BIOS settings as well (one of the biggining posts to this thread has some good baseline settings.)

 

using the -v flag at boot (when you swap disks) will also tell you where your kernel is halting...

[SunLizard]

Quick question for you non-EFIX EP45-DS3R users:

 

How did you fix the Sleep/Shut-Down/ Standby for the mainboard? I have read of 3 different methods in other forums but none of them confirmed for P45-DS3R...

 

Thanks.

 

S_L

[MacUser2525]

I haven't attempted OC under OSX + F10 bios yet, have you tried reverting bios to F8/F9 to OC? There isn't much data out ther on F10...

 

I tried with the F7 that came installed it worked one time to my normal 9x350 with this chip stock voltage of 1.2125 same as it did with every other board I had it in then on the first reboot it did its double start that mean the overclock was bad and ever since no matter what I try it won't even allow a 1mhz increase in the FSB it always stays at stock settings same thing with the F10g and F10 I flashed it too a couple of hours ago.

BTW - off topic a bit here, what method did you use to get your Retail disk to boot. I've tried DFE-Grub, Kably's 132, and Generic 132, I kept getting loop back to boot options screen after installing Chameleon...

 

I installed back in February from the retail disk I bought onto an external hard drive while booted into a Kalyway install then cloned it back to an internal hard drive, this was three motherboards ago. Ever since I have just cloned to the external to test what is needed with the new board I am putting in of course doing the same here for this board.

 

My board has been awesome. I'm sitting very stable with my Q6600 @ 3GHz.

My install is perfect, however my sleep doesnt work. Dont use it anyway.

 

I have the G0 version of that chip it used to do 3150mhz on a really low stock voltage. The sleep would work on all the boards I have had it in it just would not accept any input once you wake it so its pretty useless.

 

 

Go F10, i dont know what proc you have but make sure after you raise your multiplyer or etc you take your ram out of "turbo" mode and put it in "normal". Thats the only way i was able to find stability. I also upped my voltage to 1.35. Put your pci-e on 100mhz of course. Go buy a good heatsink, i dropped a few dollars on an coolermaster.

 

Already at the F10 disabled all the useless settings in the BIOS set to fixed the ones that need that there is no need to go higher on the voltage the chip worked fine at 1.2125 at the speed already mentioned for the last 10 months in any motherboard I have had it in, for the heat sink I use Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme so that is covered. I was thinking the chip was fried somehow but it will encode video for hours on end without problems run mprime (OS X version of Prime95) for again hours at a time 100% load all four cores. It just does not make any sense that I can see the FSB will not raise or lower for that matter one little bit anymore.

 

Edit: With the FSB issue I can go into the BIOS and still see the settings that I set for the overclock still in use with no warning screen like your supposed to get telling the overclock failed while during post you can see that the board still thinks it is at stock settings with the overclock set.

 

Edit2: Just figured it out you need to leave the Memory Frequency Latch set to Auto while setting your multiplier to in my case 2.00B so I'm back to my normal 3.15ghz on stock volts with this chip, damn strange why I got no failure warnings though.

 

Quick question for you non-EFIX EP45-DS3R users:

 

How did you fix the Sleep/Shut-Down/ Standby for the mainboard? I have read of 3 different methods in other forums but none of them confirmed for P45-DS3R...

 

Thanks.

 

S_L

 

Try the attached ACPI Platform it gives me restart the shutdown sometimes works most times not, sleep is useless to try in my experience even on my PowerMac Dual G4 it gets funky problems when waking from it.

AppleACPIPlatform.kext.zip

[jnabe71]

I have attached a picture showing the System Profiler Audio section for my GA-EP45-DS3R.

 

I used the AppleHDA.kext that was posted previously to get the sound to work. I did not use the ALCinject.kext, instead I used HDAEnabler.kext.

 

I hope this helps.

[drummerdb]

after much headache, I switched to the grub iso, and it worked like a charm. I hope this helps some other people with similar issues. Thanks for the advice! This community rocks. I'll post more info after I fix peripherals and such.

[MaaseyRacer]

Thank you jnabe71 for finally posting a screen shot. I am going to switch the boot loader to Grub tomorrow and see if that helps. All my audio devices work, but they do not show in the system profiler. The board is working great, and there are some issues with the 8800GT, but once the system is up and running it all seems to run very stable.

[SunLizard]

Update:

I posted that fix on the third page of the thread.

Installed the fix without incident. Don't know whether it actually changed interface or just updated the device ID... in any case it shows up as a recognized device. Thanks number one.

 

Works out of the box if you want time machine then I have attached a fixed IONetworkingFamily that you replace in the Contents/MacOS folder of the IONetworkingFamily.kext.

I replaced that too, both LAN ports show up and get addresses assigned to them but I don't have them plugged up to the cables yet so I have to believe they'll work. Anyway, I'll scratch it off the list as complete.... Thanks number two.

 

Try the attached .kext it is supposed to be fixed don't have any IDE devices attached to check it with though so can't say for sure.

Well installation went pretty well and after refreshing Extensions.mkext the devices (2 DVD drives) showed up immediately (no reboot) however

they won't eject any disk once inserted (without reboot) and although any disk inserted reads initially (ie you can install from DVD, watch a movie, etc) once you stop that process or attempt to eject you get some MASSIVE system hiccups (eg System Profiler won't quit or FORCE QUIT and other native apps respond similarly, nothing mounts properly (and .dmg file you may have on had)

 

Keep in mind I'm running (ACHI) SATA HDDs and (JMicron) IDE DVDs; a system that hasn't worked propery in most OSes so while I get functionality, I may be expecting the moon on this one. It is however close to workable and will probably provide functionality to most -- as long as you don't want to eject your disks (without reboot.) So thanks number three for functionality's sake.

 

I'm not really screwed here because I can a) afford the 25 bucks for a SATA DVD drive... and have an external DVD-writer. we'll chalk this up to a data point.

 

Lastly, on the topic of Power managment, I turned off sleep based on your recomendation (although I find that a wonderful feature for my MacBook) I'm still getting issues with proper shutdowns though. Some of that may be driven by other factors (Jmicron issue from above.) but about half the time after the Kernel shutdown, the machine will fail to seal the deal with respect to the shutting the MOBO down.

 

I thank you all for your help. With a special "CHEERS!" to MacUser2525.

 

==========

 

The next phase of my plan I may tackle the upgrade to 10.5.5. I will, obviously, CarbonCopyCLone my system so I have a good restore point

for a 98% working 10.5.4.

 

For those discussing Audio, my ALC889a (used modified AppleHDA.kext - nothing else) looks a bit different than your screenshot Jnabe71. I will take a snapshot of mine and post it l8r. Also, I don't have any issues with popping sound yet, do you? (I've seen it posted)

 

pax

S_L

 

GigaMac: GA-EP45-DS3R (rev1.0) w/F10 | ALC889A working | On Board LAN working |ICH10R recongized | SATA working | IDE intermittent

Brains: Q6600 Kentsfield Quad-Core

Mem: 2x2 Gig Gskill PC-8500 DDR2

Video: Sapphire ATI HD 2600 XT (PCI-E) (Natit HD 2XXX kexts) QE/CI/OG working

Wireless: Belkin Wireless G Desktop (Broadcom Kexts) working

Keyboard/Mouse: MX5000 Bluetooth Wireless Desktop

[MacUser2525]

Update:

 

Installed the fix without incident. Don't know whether it actually changed interface or just updated the device ID... in any case it shows up as a recognized device. Thanks number one.

 

Your welcome it is just a cosmetic change the controller already worked it is just the display of the chipset name that gets changed because I added a PC ID section into the Info.plist. I was going to add the raid controller in there as well but strangely enough the PC ID of it is the same as an ICH8R controller so that is what it will already show up as.

I replaced that too, both LAN ports show up and get addresses assigned to them but I don't have them plugged up to the cables yet so I have to believe they'll work. Anyway, I'll scratch it off the list as complete.... Thanks number two.

 

Yeah they should work out of the box you only need the fix for time machine and such like getting rid of the error 35 when opening a terminal...

Well installation went pretty well and after refreshing Extensions.mkext the devices (2 DVD drives) showed up immediately (no reboot) however

they won't eject any disk once inserted (without reboot) and although any disk inserted reads initially (ie you can install from DVD, watch a movie, etc) once you stop that process or attempt to eject you get some MASSIVE system hiccups (eg System Profiler won't quit or FORCE QUIT and other native apps respond similarly, nothing mounts properly (and .dmg file you may have on had)

 

Keep in mind I'm running (ACHI) SATA HDDs and (JMicron) IDE DVDs; a system that hasn't worked propery in most OSes so while I get functionality, I may be expecting the moon on this one. It is however close to workable and will probably provide functionality to most -- as long as you don't want to eject your disks (without reboot.) So thanks number three for functionality's sake.

 

The Jmicron seemed to work well using SATA hard drives in AHCI mode on my previous boards I forget if there is a setting there for AHCI mode on IDE devices if so you may want to see if that will work better for you.

 

I'm not really screwed here because I can a) afford the 25 bucks for a SATA DVD drive... and have an external DVD-writer. we'll chalk this up to a data point.

 

SATA drives seems to just work in AHCI mode so its always best to have them over IDE get one and any problems should go away.

Lastly, on the topic of Power managment, I turned off sleep based on your recomendation (although I find that a wonderful feature for my MacBook) I'm still getting issues with proper shutdowns though. Some of that may be driven by other factors (Jmicron issue from above.) but about half the time after the Kernel shutdown, the machine will fail to seal the deal with respect to the shutting the MOBO down.

 

Shutdown is hit and miss on my board as well with more misses than working shutdowns, one thing I forgot about is the OpenHaltRestart.kext from Psystar now every time I tried installing the .kext it says it was not installed properly. I only ever managed to get it to load once (using -f when booting) even then it did not shutdown properly others seem to have it working fine that may be worth a try.

 

The next phase of my plan I may tackle the upgrade to 10.5.5. I will, obviously, CarbonCopyCLone my system so I have a good restore point

for a 98% working 10.5.4.

 

If I remember correctly the only problems with the upgrade using the combo updater is making sure that you have the for loop running that deletes the IntelCPUManagement as soon as it appears on the system plus you need to go back to do over some of the cosmetic changes and I think the ACPIPlatform it gets a newer version as well.

 

For those discussing Audio, my ALC889a (used modified AppleHDA.kext - nothing else) looks a bit different than your screenshot Jnabe71. I will take a snapshot of mine and post it l8r. Also, I don't have any issues with popping sound yet, do you? (I've seen it posted)

 

I use a FireWave 5.1 external box with my machine so really never have any problems with sound it "Just Works" as they say and rather wonderfully at that best $50 I ever spent on this install, sometimes you need to make sure that the Dolby Pro Logic enabled after a reboot but that is the only annoyance with it.

[drummerdb]

What issues are you having with the 8800 GT? I was able to get mine working great with this guide:

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=91755

[jnabe71]

What issues are you having with the 8800 GT? I was able to get mine working great with this guide:

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=91755

 

That is the same guide that I followed to get my 8800GT to work. I have seen no problems with it at all. Works perfectly.

 

As for Audio in the System Profiler looking different than what I posted, I think it depends on what you actually have connected to the audio jacks. I am only running stereo and I might of had a mic plugged in at the time also. That is why it shows that for me. Before adding the HDAEnabler.kext there was nothing listed for Audio in the System Profiler.

[MaaseyRacer]

What issues are you having with the 8800 GT? I was able to get mine working great with this guide:

 

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=91755

 

In correct NVCAP provided by EFI Studio I think. DVI is not working as it should. It works with a VGA adapter, but it is glitchy when used with DVI. If any one has played with NVCAPs and or Modified EFI strings I could use some serious help.

[jnabe71]

In correct NVCAP provided by EFI Studio I think. DVI is not working as it should. It works with a VGA adapter, but it is glitchy when used with DVI. If any one has played with NVCAPs and or Modified EFI strings I could use some serious help.

 

I do not have a problem with DVI out on my 8800GT. I did not use EFI Studio to create the EFI GFX String though. Try following the method posted above. I used that method to create the string and it works perfect on my setup. DVI running 1920x1200 @ 60Hz.

 

Also make sure you are using the DVI port that is closest to the motherboard.