[Guide] Dell Inspiron 6400/9400/1520/1720/E1405/E1505/E1705 Intel Core Duo

[Frattaglia]

you can also try the method i used on my e1505. links on my signature. i believe the 9400 is pretty similar to the e1705... which is in turn very similar to the e1505. so, it might be worth a shot, if you ahve access to a SL retail dvd. in the method i used, you dont need a prior OSX on ur laptop or a usb-stick.. or a 2nd hardrive.. or even access to another mac

 

i succesfully used your guide on my ispiron 9400, there's only few things not working...

 

wi-fi

sleep

restart work if i have no usb device plugged -.-

 

so... i have only one question... for few days i have at my home an imac...

 

i tryed to install the bundle applications (ilife) but i can't install it.

the prompt says that i have a wrong hardware

 

any advice about that?

[mryder66]

Quick question: Has anyone had success hooking up an external monitor to their E1505? I get nothing, and worse pressing cntrl-F7 causes the system to freeze.

 

Running 10.6.2, go-7300 video card

 

Many thanks for any ideas

[Doug Grant]

Hi

 

I used this thread last year to get 10.5.6 on to my 6400. Since then, I've managed to get to 10.5.8 and I'm happy as larry. I did dabble with try to get Snow Leopard installed, but as I don't have another HDD it seemed altogether too complicated. Apart from the usual stuff, like Sleep, all has been working like a charm, until a month or so ago, when a couple of little things have gone a bit 'odd'.

 

1. I 'lost' sound. I wasn't aware of having done anything at all with the configuration, but one morning when I booted up, no sound device installed. I re-applied all the installer packages and kexts that I used in the initial installation, but still nothing! Eventually, I stumbled across AppleHDAPatcher and got it to apply STAC9200, which got things working again. Odd.

 

 

2. The hardware buttons for volume were working fine, but now, for some reason, i can reduce the volume to very quiet, but can't mute it totally. This is very annoying. Using the volume slider has the exact same effect. I suspect this may have something to do with point 1, above.

 

3. The battery icon has disappeared. Nothing I've managed to do has got it back. I even tried installing SlimBatteryMonitor, or some such thing, but its icon wouldn't show either!

 

4. I have my Hackintosh set up so that it asks for password when it comes out of sleep saver. It now only seems to ask for the pw on a random basis and more often that not will come straight out of screen saver without asking for password!

 

None of these points stop me from enjoying my Hackintosh, but they're little niggles. Part of me thinks I'll reformat and try again from scratch, perhaps even giving SL a go, but I'm not sure I have the energy for that just now! Ha ha.

 

Any advice or tips would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers

[Ev4n32]

3. The battery icon has disappeared. Nothing I've managed to do has got it back. I even tried installing SlimBatteryMonitor, or some such thing, but its icon wouldn't show either!

You might want to try VoodooBattery, thats what worked for me.

[Doug Grant]

You might want to try VoodooBattery, thats what worked for me.

 

Fantastic! Worked perfectly. Just need to figure out my sound and screensaver password issues now.

 

Thanks

[Frattaglia]

yep, in fact 6400=E1505 and 9400=E1705, different names for business and home. the notebooks are identical.

 

ps: Although this is irrelevant for his nvidia card, I would recommend to use stock gma950 drivers for ppl with this card. Stock gma950 kexts work fine and give you 100%, while some of the modded kexts will lead to artifacts or resolution limitations. Just saying this because the guide you are referring to has gma950. Mileage may vary....

 

ok, a little upgrade...

SL 10.6.2 installed. runs only 32bit

 

i used rajas guide, now i have some issues that i don't know how to solve.

 

sleep not working. i tried sleepenabler.kext and it seemed to work but it doesn't.

 

only if i have not usb device plug and if i clear manually the failed sleepimage...

i have read in the forum about DSDT.aml to fix sleep issues but i don't know how to do that.

 

actually i don't have an EFI string for my Nvidia GeForce GO 7900 GS...

the sleep issue can be for that?

anyone can tell me how can i make and put the string?

 

but the worst issues i have is that my system is slow...

 

if i take a look to mem usage i see:

Safari 225mb used (open with 4 tab)

Mobile Partner 91mb (the dashboard for my usb internet key)

utorrent 44mb O_o

 

why i have this abnormal use of ram?

 

please... this last issue make my mac slow as a normal pc -.- for me is a nightmare

 

if u have some advice i will appreciate so much

thanks in advance

[TheGreatDeceiver]

but the worst issues i have is that my system is slow...

 

if i take a look to mem usage i see:

Safari 225mb used (open with 4 tab)

Mobile Partner 91mb (the dashboard for my usb internet key)

utorrent 44mb O_o

 

why i have this abnormal use of ram?

 

please... this last issue make my mac slow as a normal pc -.- for me is a nightmare

 

if u have some advice i will appreciate so much

thanks in advance

 

that's why I am using windows 7. not much of an advice is it...

I am not surprised about safari. Use firefox.

[Frattaglia]

that's why I am using windows 7. not much of an advice is it...

I am not surprised about safari. Use firefox.

 

is almost the same using firefox (197M) i think that is a problem in memory menagement.

 

the problem can be caused by some kext i used?

[TheGreatDeceiver]

is almost the same using firefox (197M) i think that is a problem in memory menagement.

 

the problem can be caused by some kext i used?

 

109Mb on my win7 machine for firefox. doesn't seem out of the world. have not seen memory problems caused by kexts before. it surely is possible. are you maybe running appleintelcpumanagement.kext? I know that causes high cpu usage (idling at >30%). just something to check.

[DELLMACC]

My computer is a DELL E1705 Centrino Duo GMA 950 2GB ram

 

Okay I have been trying to install SL on to my GUID partition for months now but after Chameleon prompt it was a black screen.

 

I am using a USB drive with retail SL on it and NOW I installed MyHack Installer 1.0 RC5.2 on to the USB only selecting PS2 installer in myhack settings and I dont add any kext or any other changes.

 

The only thing I have to do is use a USB mouse and to see the mouse I have to use an external monitor.

 

It is in perfect resolution and installs all the way on both screens.

 

Then when I manually reboot in to the SL partition the screen goes black and I have to use the Fn and LCD button to make it go to the external monitor.

 

At this time the MAC welcome video plays flawlessly but the resolution and quality can be seen in the pics below.

 

With the external monitor I can use the USB mouse but with the LCD I dont even have a cursor.

 

I am guessing I am going to need some kext or maybe an efi string, I'm not sure but I am at least making progress because I have installed it and can see it!!!!!!!!!!

 

I wont give up, and appreciate all the help you offer!

 

I have searched and may have missed my fix a link will be great if this has been answered.

 

Or even if you can tell me what is happening so I can look for the answer!

 

[TheGreatDeceiver]

My computer is a DELL E1705 Centrino Duo GMA 950 2GB ram

 

 

I have searched and may have missed my fix a link will be great if this has been answered.

 

yep, you missed this link. black screen and gma950 is perfectly normal.

 

all you need is the efi string for the gma950 in com.apple.boot.plist and screen sleeper solution. steps on how to proceed to get this installed are there. the com.apple.boot.plist is attached to the post as well.

 

good luck

[MGShadow]

Hello, I have an Inspiron 9400, with Snow Leopard 10.6.2 fully functioning, but in 32 bits, I do not have the kext for my GeForce Go 7900 GS for 64 bits. The only thing I got that works is my Sigmatel 9200 sound card, you can hear if I connect external headphones, but not with internal speakers. Does anyone know that may be?

Sorry for the English, is a Google translation.

[jowl3]

Hi!

I have just successfully installed Snow Leopard Client Server 10.6.2 SSE2/SSE3 Intel AMD by Hazard on my Dell Inspiron 9400 with Geforce Go 7800.

 

Everything works great (sound, internet, graphics), except that I can only use 1024x768-display! (I can have up to 1920 x 1200).

 

I used these settings:

 

PLEASE NOTE:

I haven't got a clue why I chose these settings! I just took the ones that looked logical to choose...

Kernels:

PJCv9_XNU_10.2.0

 

Boot_Loaders_Options:

Chameleon_RC3_PCEFI_10.5

Bootx86

 

Boot_Options:

Graphics_enabler

 

Graphic_Drivers:

- NVidia_graphic:

Natit

NVEnabler

NVInject

NVIDIA_Retail_2F16

- Intel_Graphics:

GMA950_MSI_Wind_Full

 

Audio_Drivers:

VoodooHDA_v2.5.3

 

Chipset_Drivers_and_Injectors:

NForceATA

 

Network_Drivers:

- Broadcom_Drivers:

Broadcom_440x

 

Does anyone know how to get a better resolution?

 

Best regards,

jowl3

[TheGreatDeceiver]

Hi!

I have just successfully installed Snow Leopard Client Server 10.6.2 SSE2/SSE3 Intel AMD by Hazard on my Dell Inspiron 9400 with Geforce Go 7800.

 

Everything works great (sound, internet, graphics), except that I can only use 1024x768-display! (I can have up to 1920 x 1200).

 

I used these settings:

 

PLEASE NOTE:

I haven't got a clue why I chose these settings! I just took the ones that looked logical to choose...

 

 

Does anyone know how to get a better resolution?

 

Best regards,

jowl3

 

from what you picked you only need natit and perhaps nvinject. everything else is not needed. I think you picked colliding kexts. definitely gma950 is not needed. It says wind_full for that package and my guess is that it writes things into com.apple.boot.plist (efi string...). you also do not need the graphics enabler which will allow you to load drivers for newer graphic cards that you don't have. not sure how you'd uninstall what you installed from the release, might not be possible. You may find the wrong efi string for graphics card in com.apple.boot.plist.

wisdom says that it's always best to check the least amount of kexts as possible and pick only the ones that are absolutely necessary.

good luck.

[pecos5]

Hi there.

 

Sorry I sound too noobie for you but here is my prob:

 

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 and installed the ideneb 1.4.

 

The installation went fine but when I relog i have the wheel turning and turning and then a little icon in top of the apple (circle with a /)

 

I tried lot of things : cpus=1 and lot of diff options with no difference at all ... also try to play with the bios but still nothing ... tried to reinstall with other format disk options (as red in lot of forums) but still that same prob

 

I red that lots of people are stucked with that problem but did not find a working way.

 

Do you thing I should restart everything with kalyway as said in the top of this thread or is there something I can do?

 

many thanks for any answer !

[Bird123]

NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS:

 

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS

Type: Display

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 128 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x0298

Revision ID: 0x00a1

ROM Revision: NVinjectGo 0.2.0

Displays:

Display:

Resolution: 1920 x 1200

Depth: 32-Bit Color

Core Image: Hardware Accelerated

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Quartz Extreme: Supported

Rotation: Supported

Display Connector:

Status: No Display Connected

 

Can someone tell me why i can only see 128MB RAM on my 256MB card?

[profusion]

I have a dell 1720 with 2 partitions, on the first I have win 7. My BIOS SATA is in ATA mode and changing it to AHCI will make win to broke.

 

Is there a way installing OSX without loosing this win 7 installation in my 1720 and making dual-boot? or the only way having OSX is in ACHI mode?

 

Thanks!

 

EDIT: I think will post the question in dual boot subforum! sorry asking dual-boot questions here!

[hogeo]

Just FYI

 

I have Inspiron 6400 with GMA950. And I succeeded upgrading 10.6.3 without any problems. For upgrading, I followed the guide(http://prasys.co.cc/2010/04/straight-forward-10-6-3-upgrade-guide/). But sleep has not been working yet. Does anyone succeed to enable sleep on Inspiron 6400?

[WFX2]

Hi All,

 

I have a Dell Inspiron 9400 and successfully installed iatkos 7 with VMWare.

 

I don't have any sound card detected.

 

So I downloaded the "AppleHDAPatcherv1.20", the "Sigmatel9200.txt" and the "AppleHDA_10.4.10_Dell_Inspiron_9400"

 

I replaced the ktext's (and remove the 2 other extensions and the audio device plist), patched with AppleHDA, fixed the permissions, reboot.

 

But it's still not working.

 

What did I miss ?

 

regards

 

WFX

[famouslastwords]

Hi I'm new to all of this, never considered my self to be that great with computers before this week!

I have a Dell latitude d620 graphics card intell 950gma, kalyway 10.5.2.

 

Basically had every thing working; sound, wireless, usb (after installing a new network card a variety of kexts).

 

But i got cocky and thought I'd try fixing the fuzzy resolution (I only have options of less than 1024x768 and I need 1280x800) after using the kext helper to install this kext http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=143340 (v3) I rebooted (yes I know i should have performed some intermediate steps but I didn't because I'm an idiot, I also know now ths s not designed for laptops... so lets except that and move on...)

 

I'm at my wits end because when I boot now all I get after the apple loading screen is complete black. Please help! I have assignments on that computer that are due next week and no way of accessing any of my files etc. I've tried booting in safe mode, to no avail.

 

I'm happy to keep the fuzzy resolution, I just want my screen back!

 

PLEASE HELP!

 

ps. I wish I'd found this fix prior to installing the the one which I did... but now I need my screen back and then I can try this fix, its possible that it has gone to sleep... but nothing seems to wake it up.

 

pps. I know my dell isnt exactly the same as those covered in this guide, but i'm still hoping someone can help.

[TheGreatDeceiver]

Hi I'm new to all of this, never considered my self to be that great with computers before this week!

I have a Dell latitude d620 graphics card intell 950gma, kalyway 10.5.2.

 

 

PLEASE HELP!

 

your screen is black because of gma950 sleep/wake problem. two things you can try.

Because gma950 has wake/sleep problem at login you need to use screen sleeper solution. Use an external monitor to apply sleep/wake display activate in expose and install this script, also disable autologin. this script will only work with password at login.

second thing to try is to hit F8 at boot. you may have to try a few times. You should see darwin prompt. at that prompt type -x -v and return. it will boot verbose in safe mode. You may see the screen, but you may not. If you don't try external monitor.

To use external monitor you need to shutdown completely, then in off state attach external monitor and boot. you should see display on external monitor. Once external monitor works you can install the script above.

 

if this doesn't work you need to access the OSX partition externally and change files. either by booting with install DVD and use command prompt to navigate and change files or another OSX and using the hdd from your laptop in an enclosure. Or use MacDrive latest version to access OSX partition from within windows. Depending on your installation you may have to put your OSX disk into an USB enclosure and then change files (just add original gma950 kexts back to drive, you probably just have to use original or older AppleIntelFrameBuffer.kext).

good luck

[famouslastwords]

your screen is black because of gma950 sleep/wake problem. two things you can try.

Because gma950 has wake/sleep problem at login you need to use screen sleeper solution. Use an external monitor to apply sleep/wake display activate in expose and install this script, also disable autologin. this script will only work with password at login.

second thing to try is to hit F8 at boot. you may have to try a few times. You should see darwin prompt. at that prompt type -x -v and return. it will boot verbose in safe mode. You may see the screen, but you may not. If you don't try external monitor.

To use external monitor you need to shutdown completely, then in off state attach external monitor and boot. you should see display on external monitor. Once external monitor works you can install the script above.

 

if this doesn't work you need to access the OSX partition externally and change files. either by booting with install DVD and use command prompt to navigate and change files or another OSX and using the hdd from your laptop in an enclosure. Or use MacDrive latest version to access OSX partition from within windows. Depending on your installation you may have to put your OSX disk into an USB enclosure and then change files (just add original gma950 kexts back to drive, you probably just have to use original or older AppleIntelFrameBuffer.kext).

good luck

 

Ok, going to buy a cord in order to conect desktop monitor to my laptop (none of the ones I have seem to fit), but how do I "wake" my laptop up once I plug in the external monitor? (this is the only part I'm unclear on). Thanks a million though for screen sleeper solution!

 

Also, is it possible to use another lap top as an "external monitor?"

 

EDIT: plugged my laptop to an external dell monitor, only to have the monitor tell me that I needed to change the display output on my comp to 1680x1050@60Hz in order for it to work, not an option availble on my laptop in its current state... advise?

[TheGreatDeceiver]

Ok, going to buy a cord in order to conect desktop monitor to my laptop (none of the ones I have seem to fit), but how do I "wake" my laptop up once I plug in the external monitor? (this is the only part I'm unclear on). Thanks a million though for screen sleeper solution!

 

Also, is it possible to use another lap top as an "external monitor?"

 

EDIT: plugged my laptop to an external dell monitor, only to have the monitor tell me that I needed to change the display output on my comp to 1680x1050@60Hz in order for it to work, not an option availble on my laptop in its current state... advise?

 

what is that, a CRT? it shouldn't care what resolution the computer asks for unless it asks for too high. 1280x800 is not higher than what the monitor can do. I guess your monitor is too smart.

works all the time here. turn laptop off, plug in monitor, in on state, boot. you may have to do Fn crt/lcd keys on the keyboard to switch to external, but it really should boot right into it.

the notebook will be asleep on the gma950 internal display, not on external. That's a Dell conundrum. If you had setup the mouse/corner wake up in expose before you upgrade all you would have to do is move your mouse into the corner to wake the display. too late now though. If the external monitor doesn't work it may well be something else too. The fact that you have a dell with gma950 however makes the sleepy display very possible.

 

good luck

[CTBC]

Hey, I am interested in installing mac os x 10.6.3 on my Inspiron 9400/E1705. Also, I hope to be able to dual boot with Windows 7. Just got a few questions.

 

Been reading a few guides and most to all say you need to set the BIOS to ACHI mode. And I understand you cannot do this on an Inspiron 9400/E1705, so how do people get around this?

 

Also for dual booting Windows 7 & Snow Leopard, do I need to partition the harddrive to GUID Partition Table? And reinstall Windows 7 after Snow and then use BCD Edit?

 

Thanks for your help,

[TheGreatDeceiver]

Hey, I am interested in installing mac os x 10.6.3 on my Inspiron 9400/E1705. Also, I hope to be able to dual boot with Windows 7. Just got a few questions.

 

Been reading a few guides and most to all say you need to set the BIOS to ACHI mode. And I understand you cannot do this on an Inspiron 9400/E1705, so how do people get around this?

 

Also for dual booting Windows 7 & Snow Leopard, do I need to partition the harddrive to GUID Partition Table? And reinstall Windows 7 after Snow and then use BCD Edit?

 

Thanks for your help,

 

check out this thread. start at top and go down towards my post. He installed OSX first, created an NTFS partition and then installed Windows 7. then got stuck on windows 7, but fixed it with tboot on windows partition. Another option is to install windows 7 first, then install OSX on second partition and use chameleon to boot from either partition. That's how mine is setup. you do not have to have guid with latest chameleon as it also works with mbr. On the other hand windows 7 will also work with guid partitions. There is nothing to set in BIOS. you may have to start OSX installation with only 1 CPU in Bios and then install tscsync later to use both cores on OSX. all this info is here.

 

To do this I typically use two hdds that I can swap. First hdd two partitions, one for windows 7 (NTFS), other for OSX. Install OSX on that OSX partition and also install chameleon bootloader. I install Windows 7 onto second hdd partition with exact same size as windows 7 partition on first hdd (Use Acronis disk director to partition the two hdds to make sure that the Windows 7 partition are identical in size). Make an image of windows 7 partition with Acronis True image. boot into Acronis true image cd and image windows 7 from second hdd to first hdd windows 7 partition. Chameleon will pick up the win7 bootloader and you got dual boot. You can also use Acronis true image to make a backup image of your OSX partition. This is very valuable (definitely for me) because you may screw the system and just have to use Acronis to copy the good image back. Note that Acronis will not work with guid (at least the latest version I tried). in that case you have to use norton ghost which works nicely with guid partitions. But again, you do not need to use guid and might want to stick with mbr.

 

the nice thing about this approach is that you have the two oses separate and you cannot screw one up with the installation of the other one. nothing is touching the partition table after you install OSX onto the first hdd. You just copy the image over to a prepared partition and chameleon will pick it up for you.

 

good luck