Asus P5N7A-VM

[bond2002]

I've been running the board just about 3 months now without any hicups.

 

HDMI to 1080p works.

Sound works.

Sleep works.

8Gig of mem works.

Ethernet works.

Anything else?

 

10.5.6 retail dvd or UAMB Restore disc with model check removed.

Used NullCPUPowerManagment, Superhai SMBIOS Enabler, dsmos, NVKush for minimal setup.

 

I've been searching around, but couldn't find Superhai SMBIOS Enabler, do I need it for 10.5.6 ? what does it do?

 

I'm new here, but just would like to report that my 10.5.6 is working, using the leopard retail 10.5.6 dvd instead of the Unibody, similar method used as described in earlier posts.

Many thanks to everyone providing useful information in this post.

 

I've got Quad core Q8200, P5N7A-VM with 4GB mem, running NVkush with on broad 9300 GPU.

used the quad core DSDT.aml and the usual patches with audio kext from this thread.

 

Problems:

 

Restart/Shutdown doesn't work yet, may be because my Legacy USB is still set at "Auto" "HiSpeed", will disable it and try.

 

QE/CI works, but model number not shown in Profiler, guess that doesn't hurt...

 

CPU not recognised properly, showing 3.8 Ghz Unknown CPU. (should be 2.33GHz Quad core) but in activity monitor there are Four CPUs running.

 

besides all that, everything seem to work just fine so far.

[stellarola]

This board looks pretty easy to work with. I think some of you guys are making this more complicated than it has to be. Here's a hint though, use the Leopard 10.5.6 Retail disc.

 

Godspeed.

 

-Stell

[gohome]

I've tested 2 different setups and the result in the same hung system state.(I've tried others but they end up in even a worse state.) The last thing on the screen when booting in verbose mode is:

Using 16384 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers

 

the right dsdt.aml is missing. and for installing use "cpus=1".

 

 

Problems:

 

Restart/Shutdown doesn't work yet, may be because my Legacy USB is still set at "Auto" "HiSpeed", will disable it and

try.

 

same here, sleep/shutdown doesn't work. restart works for me if usb is set to "FullSpeed".

 

 

QE/CI works, but model number not shown in Profiler, guess that doesn't hurt...

 

CPU not recognised properly, showing 3.8 Ghz Unknown CPU. (should be 2.33GHz Quad core) but in activity monitor there are Four CPUs running.

 

besides all that, everything seem to work just fine so far.

 

SMBIOSResolver will fix it. Use VoodooPower and GenericPowerManagement from superhai for Speedstapping.

[anitanium]

if this solves my integrated video, then i'm gonna give it a shot maybe tonight

i got the 10.5.6 retail disk and will install that onto my spare hard drive

[bond2002]

the right dsdt.aml is missing. and for installing use "cpus=1".

same here, sleep/shutdown doesn't work. restart works for me if usb is set to "FullSpeed".

SMBIOSResolver will fix it. Use VoodooPower and GenericPowerManagement from superhai for Speedstapping.

 

Great advice...

Sleep worked after i set usb legacy support to FullSpeed, shutdown doesn't always work, but it worked most of them time.

 

I've been searching around, and still couldn't find the SMBIOSResolver kext .

 

VoodooPower and GenericPowerManagement is a great tool!!! thanks for the introduction.

 

I used the AppleAzaliaAudio.kext for audio, but it only has stereo output, there are quite a lot of post out there about the ALC1200 chip, which kext will work on this board and allow the analogue output and Mic work? since I only need those two at the moment.

[bond2002]

I downloaded this and unzip. Then I installed HDAEnabler.kext from it and AppleHDA.kext supplied by FrodoKenny with Universal OSx86 Installer and that is.

 

If it still don't work for you, try to delete extensions cache and repair permissions in that folder with OSx86Tools. And of course, you have to delete every other audio kext that you may have installed before (Azalia for example...).

 

Does it work now? If not, what version of leopard do you have, 10.5.5 or 10.5.6? What are your bios options for audio?

 

By the way, the problem with memory continue... please, people with Asus board and more than 2 GB on it, can comment if you're getting problems or not? The problem is not the same with gigabyte (it not snow screen), it simply crash the system with a kernel panic. I would like to know If I am the only one with Asus and 4GB RAM getting that issue, because with only 2GB the system seems rock solid (I'm doing tests now and crossing my fingers...).

 

PS: I'm a little busy right now trying to finish picking the rest of components for my system. When I finish that I'll go indeep with audio trying to understand what FrodoKenny did.

 

Actually this method made the audio worked.

 

for some reason the ALC1200 is recognized as 888. can't test the optical because I don't have a optical audio device.

 

Intel High Definition Audio:

 

Device ID: 0x104382FE

Audio ID: 888

Available Devices:

Line Out:

Connection: 1/8 inch Jack

Headphone:

Connection: 1/8 inch Jack

Line In:

Connection: 1/8 inch Jack

Speaker:

Connection: Internal

S/P-DIF Out:

Connection: Optical

S/P-DIF In:

Connection: Optical

[ak-49]

So thanks to gohome I've gotten a little bit further in my struggle to get the OS X 10.5.6 retail DVD booted. Using his suggestion of booting with cpus=1 along with -v to watch the progress I get 1 line further after the Using 16384 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers message.

 

Now the system is just sitting at the line:

 

dsmos: Starting...

 

It just sits and hangs there forever. Anyone have any ideas what may be causing this?

[replicant]

Well, this isn't really anything useful, other than to say, thanks to ALL of you in this thread, since there IS hope of a successful install, despite some of the troubles a few of you are having, i decided to take the plunge and picked up the following:

 

LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-C37B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case - Retail

ASUS P5N7A-VM LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9300/nForce 730i HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

SeaSonic S12 II SS-380GB 380W ATX12V V2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail

G.SKILL HK 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-4GBHK - Retail

Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model DVR-216DBK - OEM

 

I've got a Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB I'll be putting in it too.

 

Should be a pretty killer HTPC to run Boxee/Plex on, if you ask me.

 

Picking up a copy of 10.5.6 retail soon and will be coming back here to follow the instructions youse guys have put up here.

 

Hack #2 here I come!

[DiaboliK]

G.SKILL HK 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-4GBHK - Retail

 

that better be on the asus qvl list for acceptable ram, if it isnt get ones that do.

 

why? stability.

 

-D-

[replicant]

that better be on the asus qvl list for acceptable ram, if it isnt get ones that do.

 

why? stability.

 

-D-

 

um, didn't know such a thing existed... searching for this list even as we speak.

 

EDIT UNO: looks like the closest thing here is supported: F2-6400CL4D-4GBPK. going to do some more digging.

 

EDIT DOS: grrr, ok so i guess its not officially on that list. i'll give it a shot, and if it is no good, i'll just RMA/exchange it for one that is on the list. booooooooooo. i reckon this could definitely be a problem if the ram isn't 100% verified. too bad, because i've always had great luck with g.skill branded ram. better than past corsair and mushkin stuff i've had. live and learn i guess.

[anitanium]

my ram isn't 'verified'

i have the GSKILL F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ PC2-8000

extremely stable running parallels 24hrs a day

 

i only have problems when OC'ing past 800mhz (the board only supports 800mhz anyway)

[Skyfluff]

Quick question: I'm getting STUPIDLY slow transfer speeds between partitions on my boot drive. Time Machine takes a ridiculously long time, and rebuilding an iTunes library of more than 13,000 songs takes forever when it transfers a song per second. Could this have something to do with my AHCI drivers in OS X?

[Ayla]

Out of the 4 nVidia 9300/9400 motherboards out there right now, is this the one to get?

 

When I read Signal64's posts, it seems that everything works on this board (audio, sleep, RAM etc.) whereas the Gigabyte and DFI board still has some problems.

 

I'm looking to do a Vanilla as possible HTPC build, for 1080p playback.

 

Thanks

Martin

[replicant]

Out of the 4 nVidia 9300/9400 motherboards out there right now, is this the one to get?

 

When I read Signal64's posts, it seems that everything works on this board (audio, sleep, RAM etc.) whereas the Gigabyte and DFI board still has some problems.

 

I'm looking to do a Vanilla as possible HTPC build, for 1080p playback.

 

Thanks

Martin

 

from everything i've read in this thread, it seems that this is THE 9300 board to get. not sure about the recent string of 9400 and upcoming boards. that nvidia "ion" board looks to be the next big thing. i just couldn't wait that long.

[Cybex]

This is what I have used to install OSX on the P5N7A-VM motherboard (I used the unibody restore DVD):

 

- Universal OSx86 Installer

- DSDT.aml for P5N7A-VM

- OSInstall.mpkg to patch the Restore DVD

- NVKush (videodriver)

- Audio kexts

 

I have the following problems:

- Shutdown doesn't work, sleep doesn't work, reboot does work

- The internal harddisk is seen as an orange icon (external disk)

[Skyfluff]

This is what I have used to install OSX on the P5N7A-VM motherboard (I used the unibody restore DVD):

 

- Universal OSx86 Installer

- DSDT.aml for P5N7A-VM

- OSInstall.mpkg to patch the Restore DVD

- NVKush (videodriver)

- Audio kexts

 

I have the following problems:

- Shutdown doesn't work, sleep doesn't work, reboot does work

- The internal harddisk is seen as an orange icon (external disk)

 

I fixed the orange icons by applying the "orange icon fix" floating around on the internet. I'll warn you though, after I did that my transfer speeds were ridiculously slow. Not sure if it's related or not. For power issues, make sure you adjust your USB settings in your BIOS to match accordingly.

[anitanium]

so i installed the 10.5.6 retail disk and video works with the integrated 9300 no problem (finally)

 

i do have a problem setting dual outputs so i can have both DVI and VGA output

 

do I need to edit the NVCAP to do this?

It works great in single monitor mode, but when i try to boot using two monitors, none of the monitors show up

 

UPDATE:

I just edited the NVCAP values to BAAAAAAAAQACAAAAAAAAAA==

and now it works on DVI/VGA dual display!

 

woohoo!

[ak-49]

so i installed the 10.5.6 retail disk and video works with the integrated 9300 no problem (finally)

 

i do have a problem setting dual outputs so i can have both DVI and VGA output

 

do I need to edit the NVCAP to do this?

It works great in single monitor mode, but when i try to boot using two monitors, none of the monitors show up

 

anitanium, what was your booting process to get the installer to work? Did you use the default Boot-132 CD? I keep getting hung up at the dsmos: Starting... and the gui just seems to spin at the gray screen forever. I'm sure there is something simple I am missing. Do you have anything changed in your bios besides switching from SATA to AHCI?

 

Thanks.

[anitanium]

i installed the retail disk from my existing mac install to another disk

 

used EFI V9 from universal osx86 installer, and installed the osx86 kexts it comes with

booted on first try

[Ayla]

Will there be a newbie step-by-step guide made, on how to install OS X as cleanly as possible, by someone who has everything on this board working in OS X?

 

Signal64 or Diabolik maybe?

 

I would really appreciate it

[Muddy Mudskipper]

I fixed the orange icons by applying the "orange icon fix" floating around on the internet. I'll warn you though, after I did that my transfer speeds were ridiculously slow. Not sure if it's related or not. For power issues, make sure you adjust your USB settings in your BIOS to match accordingly.

 

This isn't specific to the P5N7A-VM but I think it's a good idea:

 

Rather than load another kext, which someone around here suggested in another post (there's also a way to hack it into one of the existing kexts too), I just manually changed the icons of the drives in 'Get Info'.

 

My rationale was this:

My 3 drives are always going to be in my machine, and once I set a custom icon for them, I never have to worry about it again. With a kext, there could be incompatibilities down the road, it's another thing that an OS update might muck up, and, last but not least, there's the distinct possibility that if I hacked a kext to fix the icons for my internal drives, any actual removable drive I'd use wouldn't show up orange like they're supposed to--they'd show up like normal internal drives, which isn't what I want.

[dia3olik]

Will there be a newbie step-by-step guide made, on how to install OS X as cleanly as possible, by someone who has everything on this board working in OS X?

 

Signal64 or Diabolik maybe?

 

I would really appreciate it

 

Yeah...i would really appreciate it too!

Maybe from the recent 10.5.6 install dvd...

and maybe with a zip files with everything needed inside! he he wow!

Anyone?

Thx!

[anitanium]

the only way right now is if you already have an existing OSX install

it won't work if you try from the retail 10.5.6 DVD

[or_astroman]

the only way right now is if you already have an existing OSX install

it won't work if you try from the retail 10.5.6 DVD

 

You sho 'bout dat?

[anitanium]

unless you can manage to boot the retail 10.5.6 install DVD onto non-mac hardware...