[Guide] Dell XPS 15 L502X (Early 2011) Snow Leopard Install (possibly L702x too)

[Ahmed_shiko]

try agin install snow leopard 10.6.3 on my laptop

 

screen error Different

 

"panic(cpu 0 caller 0x558993): "Unable to find driver for this platform:\"ACPI\"

 

plz helllllllllllllp...

 

 

Download a copy iatkos s3 v2 or iatkos l2

[amh10]

New Bios A10 is out: http://www.dell.com/...?driverID=93TVF

Changelog: 1.To fix lid function failed in DOS. 2.Modify fan max speed value to fix WBDD tool fan.exe test failed if system in high temperature 3.Added LED test interface for factory. 4.Sync solution from Queen for IFIR fan noise issue

 

Did anyone try if sleep is working again?

 

Just updated to A10...no difference that I can see for the sleep function....

[tjpapas]

Hello everybody, this is my first post ( I couldn't pass those quiz tests lol) Anyways, over the last 4-5 days and a lot of reading, studying, google searches, trial and error, I have successfully installed 10.7.1 and windows 7 or so I think by following the guide on page 11 and this one as well. So many thanks to the O.P's on both guides and all of you who continue to help out. I do have a few questions if some of you can point me in the right direction I would be very grateful.

 

The AICPUPM kext gave me many problems. I would say it was all my fault for not paying attention. Anyways it was causing kp's at boot. This is what I did originally, I booted up using rBootLE, I deleted the AICPUPM from S/L/E ( I made a backup), then ran the kext utility/disk utility to repair permissions and no more kp's at boot. I did a couple GeekBench tests both were 5554.

 

I went back to page 11 guide to look at the "patched AICPUPM" under Post Lion Install, so I installed it thru the L502x V6 by only selecting AICPUPM 10.7.1 (I didn't install it the first time around since I thought it was for i7's only) I did get errors that it didn't install correctly so I ran the kext/disk utilities and rebooted normally using -v to look for

 

kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: Turbo Ratios <number>

kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: initialization complete

kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient: ready

 

I did see this and according to the guide on page 11 the AICPUPM should be patched and I should have ST working, right? My Geekbench scores were lower this time 4839, 4851 Is this normal?

 

Also, I'm running the smcK-Stat-i app to detect the temps. Are the 100's suppose to say 100?? (See Pic)

 

Lastly, I put the laptop to sleep and it goes to sleep. But when I open the lid the indicator lights on my keyboard turn on but the laptop screen stays black. I read on this thread that sleep function was working, can someone point me in the right direction once again? thanks

 

Okay no more questions, thank you everybody.

[Rockball73]

Hello everybody, this is my first post ( I couldn't pass those quiz tests lol) Anyways, over the last 4-5 days and a lot of reading, studying, google searches, trial and error, I have successfully installed 10.7.1 and windows 7 or so I think by following the guide on page 11 and this one as well. So many thanks to the O.P's on both guides and all of you who continue to help out. I do have a few questions if some of you can point me in the right direction I would be very grateful.

 

The AICPUPM kext gave me many problems. I would say it was all my fault for not paying attention. Anyways it was causing kp's at boot. This is what I did originally, I booted up using rBootLE, I deleted the AICPUPM from S/L/E ( I made a backup), then ran the kext utility/disk utility to repair permissions and no more kp's at boot. I did a couple GeekBench tests both were 5554.

 

I went back to page 11 guide to look at the "patched AICPUPM" under Post Lion Install, so I installed it thru the L502x V6 by only selecting AICPUPM 10.7.1 (I didn't install it the first time around since I thought it was for i7's only) I did get errors that it didn't install correctly so I ran the kext/disk utilities and rebooted normally using -v to look for

 

kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: Turbo Ratios <number>

kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: initialization complete

kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient: ready

 

I did see this and according to the guide on page 11 the AICPUPM should be patched and I should have ST working, right? My Geekbench scores were lower this time 4839, 4851 Is this normal?

 

Also, I'm running the smcK-Stat-i app to detect the temps. Are the 100's suppose to say 100?? (See Pic)

 

Lastly, I put the laptop to sleep and it goes to sleep. But when I open the lid the indicator lights on my keyboard turn on but the laptop screen stays black. I read on this thread that sleep function was working, can someone point me in the right direction once again? thanks

 

Okay no more questions, thank you everybody.

Concerning the AICPUPM :

- Did you put the Enable P/C States lines in chameleon.boot.plist?

- Did you put a SSDT.aml file in the root of your OS X install to see if it gives any changes?

 

Concerning the sleep :

- Maybe that if you have troubles with your AICPUPM, it's related to it, because if P/C states are not enabled, sleep doesn't work...

- In your signature, I can see you have A09 bios installed : Install the A06 one, since sleep only works with this one for now.

 

Concerning temps :

- As far as I know, the 100° on the second line are for the 4 threads that some CPU's have. As you have a i5 with 4 threads, you only get 4 temps and the 4 others @100°. But I'm not sure of it...

[sheyac]

For your geekbench score: You need to use the SSDT for your CPU (I posted links to another thread for the i5, the ones in the pack are for i7 - not sure where to get i3 ones from) or use the enable P and C states in you chameleon boot.plist file as a minimum.

 

If you do go the SSDT route make sure you edit your org.chameleon.boot.plist to disable c/p states and to drop ssdt. There was a discussion about this earlier in the thread.

[tjpapas]

Concerning the AICPUPM :

- Did you put the Enable P/C States lines in chameleon.boot.plist?

- Did you put a SSDT.aml file in the root of your OS X install to see if it gives any changes?

 

Concerning the sleep :

- Maybe that if you have troubles with your AICPUPM, it's related to it, because if P/C states are not enabled, sleep doesn't work...

- In your signature, I can see you have A09 bios installed : Install the A06 one, since sleep only works with this one for now.

 

Concerning temps :

- As far as I know, the 100° on the second line are for the 4 threads that some CPU's have. As you have a i5 with 4 threads, you only get 4 temps and the 4 others @100°. But I'm not sure of it...

 

@Rockball73 Thanks for the response. I reflashed the bios back to A06 and sleep now works...yay!

 

 

 

 

For your geekbench score: You need to use the SSDT for your CPU (I posted links to another thread for the i5, the ones in the pack are for i7 - not sure where to get i3 ones from) or use the enable P and C states in you chameleon boot.plist file as a minimum.

 

If you do go the SSDT route make sure you edit your org.chameleon.boot.plist to disable c/p states and to drop ssdt. There was a discussion about this earlier in the thread.

 

@sheyac Thanks for the response. I will search for that thread to ensure that I'm taking accurate geek bench tests

[DoiX]

Sorry i'm not active. My exams are coming up and i need to study... plus my work projects increased. I tested the A10 bios, sleep of course doesn't work, the ACPI tables are identical... none of my usual workarounds help to solve the waking up from sleep problem. As for the Geekbench score, it's still in the generic limits of the A06 bios.

[Rockball73]

Sorry i'm not active. My exams are coming up and i need to study... plus my work projects increased. I tested the A10 bios, sleep of course doesn't work, the ACPI tables are identical... none of my usual workarounds help to solve the waking up from sleep problem. As for the Geekbench score, it's still in the generic limits of the A06 bios.

Wish you good luck for your exams!

 

And what do you mean by "generic limits of A06". The A06 has limits concerning the CPU, ... performances? There are improvements inf perfs since the A07, A09, A10 bios?

Concerning BIOS, it's for now, but they made a lot of progress since the can "see" the hidden options in the BIOS files. The challenge is now to make them appear once the custom BIOS is flashed : http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-UEFI-Dell-XPS-15-15z-L502x-L511z-modded-BIOS-and-HOWTO?page=14

I hope we will see this custom BIOS soon

Edited March 20, 2012 by Rockball73

[jkbuha]

Wish you good luck for your exams!

 

And what do you mean by "generic limits of A06". The A06 has limits concerning the CPU, ... performances? There are improvements inf perfs since the A07, A09, A10 bios?

Concerning BIOS, it's for now, but they made a lot of progress since the can "see" the hidden options in the BIOS files. The challenge is now to make them appear once the custom BIOS is flashed : http://www.bios-mods...d-HOWTO?page=14

I hope we will see this custom BIOS soon

 

Yes that's correct - we can see the BIOS settings, and we've (probably) identified a way in, but exams and other (higher) priorities are unfortunately distracting us at the moment. Also I currently don't have a way of testing all the patches without flashing the BIOS every single time, which is highly risky. If we can find a way to emulate PhoenixDell under Bochs or Virtualbox we'll have a properly patched BIOS very soon...

 

So close, and yet so far...

[Rockball73]

Yes that's correct - we can see the BIOS settings, and we've (probably) identified a way in, but exams and other (higher) priorities are unfortunately distracting us at the moment. Also I currently don't have a way of testing all the patches without flashing the BIOS every single time, which is highly risky. If we can find a way to emulate PhoenixDell under Bochs or Virtualbox we'll have a properly patched BIOS very soon...

 

So close, and yet so far...

You rock guys!

I'm following your BIOS Modding topic everyday to see if there's any new hint, ...

[DoiX]

@Rockball, by generic i mean the score with A10 is in the min-max range score i have with the rest of the bios versions. (no increase or decrease in performances)

 

@Jkbuha, i have a friend that is an emulation addict, maybe he will have an idea about your problem. I'll reply as soon as i get word from him.

[Rockball73]

@ Maxey :

 

I found an answer to your problem of installation with iAtkos L1/L2 restored to an USB key as I was trying to make a new fresh OS X install on my L502x.

 

- I downloaded iAtkos L2 and restored it to an USB drive (a 8Go partition on my USB external HDD) ;

- I noticed there was no "boot" or any other file related to some bootloader ;

- I installed Chimera 1.7.0 on that 8go partition where I restore iAtkos L2 ;

- Then, make sure that on the USB drive your using (even if there's only one partition), the partition where Chimera is installed is set as "active" (with diskpart in Win7, or in Terminal under OS X but I don't know the command line) ;

- Then reboot with that drive plugged in the USB2.0 and press F12 at startup, select "USB removable device" and that's working.

 

I hope this will work for you as it's working for me

[jkbuha]

You rock guys!

I'm following your BIOS Modding topic everyday to see if there's any new hint, ...

 

Cheers rockball - we'll get there in the end - one way or another

 

 

@Jkbuha, i have a friend that is an emulation addict, maybe he will have an idea about your problem. I'll reply as soon as i get word from him.

 

That would be great news doix - if you do get something back please let me know. Alternatively could you run this url past your friend: http://feishare.com/uefi/virtualbox-uefi-udk-vboxpkg-build-guide

 

Thanks guys

jkbuha

[maxey]

@ Maxey :

 

I found an answer to your problem of installation with iAtkos L1/L2 restored to an USB key as I was trying to make a new fresh OS X install on my L502x.

 

- I downloaded iAtkos L2 and restored it to an USB drive (a 8Go partition on my USB external HDD) ;

- I noticed there was no "boot" or any other file related to some bootloader ;

- I installed Chimera 1.7.0 on that 8go partition where I restore iAtkos L2 ;

- Then, make sure that on the USB drive your using (even if there's only one partition), the partition where Chimera is installed is set as "active" (with diskpart in Win7, or in Terminal under OS X but I don't know the command line) ;

- Then reboot with that drive plugged in the USB2.0 and press F12 at startup, select "USB removable device" and that's working.

 

I hope this will work for you as it's working for me

 

Thank you very much for your effort! As soon as i have more leisure time i will try it! (Just as the others having exams and papers to finish..)

 

Another question, i asked it before : How problematic / harmful is it if Lion crashes and one has to shut the PC down by long-pressing the power button?

As word/office told me today "Your database identity is corrupted , you have to recover it from a time machine backup" .

[Rockball73]

Thank you very much for your effort! As soon as i have more leisure time i will try it! (Just as the others having exams and papers to finish..)

 

Another question, i asked it before : How problematic / harmful is it if Lion crashes and one has to shut the PC down by long-pressing the power button?

As word/office told me today "Your database identity is corrupted , you have to recover it from a time machine backup" .

No problem... I have some free time because my boss is sick and didn't leave me anything to do so I'm working on my final project, and when I'm bored of my cost accounting (which is the subjet of my final project) I come here and ask help or help with my little knowledge.

 

Concerning the problem of "manually shutting down the computer" I think it can corrupt the files used before freeze or KP, ... but I'm not sure about it.

Maybe someone else can tell you...

[Rockball73]

@ DoiX :

Concerning the BIOS and ACPI tables comparison, how do you do that with FileMerge (or a Windows equivalent). I mean, which file do you compare?

Do you flash the (for example) A10 bios and make a dump of something, then compare it with the dump of the (always for example) A06?

Or do you compare directly the BIOS files?

 

I suppose you get a dump of the ACPI table using the acpidump command and then, you compare the two dumps with FileMerge, that's it?

 

Thanks for the information

Edited March 20, 2012 by Rockball73

[DoiX]

@Rockball, you're right. Dumped them on windows, from A06 then A10 and used FileMerge on OS X (after i converted them to asl format in windows)

[jkbuha]

Morning Guys

 

Just a quick update and tip for anyone who may have been experiencing any freezing/corruption issues as I have with their Intel HD3000 cards:

 

Change your EDID Override settings!

 

I suspected from the outset that my 15z had an improperly configured EDID display settings because it never froze on an external monitor. And all the XPS15 owners on this thread never seemed to mention any freezing issues, even though the hardware was (mostly) similar. So I quickly tried a hack with the following settings:

 

Original EDID: XPS 15z

00FFFFFFFFFFFF0006AFED3000000000001401049022137802D1159E59539B271E505400000001010101010101010101010101010101B03680E0703808403064310058C11000001A752480E0703808403064310058C11000001A000000FE00303052344D80423135364857330000000000004122960111000002010A20200030

 

Modified EDID: Doix's XPS 15 EDID

00ffffffffffff0006afed17000000000014010490221378022135ad5037aa2411505400000001010101010101010101010101010101783780ae703832403c30aa0058c11000001a783780ae703832403c30aa0058c11000001a000000fe004b5959564b804231353648573100000000000081029b0101000002010a20200001

 

Result: No freezing!

 

So it looks like

 

(i) the EDID is wrongly set up for my LVDS 1920x1080 (and I suspect any other vendors whose users have been experiencing lockups

(ii) the HD3000kext is particularly sensitive to properly defined EDID configs

(iii) a combination of the above.

 

I'll post a proper HOWTO for those who don't know how to setup their EDID Overrides in the next few days, but in the meantime, for anyone who's experiencing lockups - there's a solution!

 

jkbuha

[maxey]

Morning Guys

 

Just a quick update and tip for anyone who may have been experiencing any freezing/corruption issues as I have with their Intel HD3000 cards:

 

Change your EDID Override settings!

 

I suspected from the outset that my 15z had an improperly configured EDID display settings because it never froze on an external monitor. And all the XPS15 owners on this thread never seemed to mention any freezing issues, even though the hardware was (mostly) similar. So I quickly tried a hack with the following settings:

 

Original EDID: XPS 15z

00FFFFFFFFFFFF0006AFED3000000000001401049022137802D1159E59539B271E505400000001010101010101010101010101010101B03680E0703808403064310058C11000001A752480E0703808403064310058C11000001A000000FE00303052344D80423135364857330000000000004122960111000002010A20200030

 

Modified EDID: Doix's XPS 15 EDID

00ffffffffffff0006afed17000000000014010490221378022135ad5037aa2411505400000001010101010101010101010101010101783780ae703832403c30aa0058c11000001a783780ae703832403c30aa0058c11000001a000000fe004b5959564b804231353648573100000000000081029b0101000002010a20200001

 

Result: No freezing!

 

So it looks like

 

(i) the EDID is wrongly set up for my LVDS 1920x1080 (and I suspect any other vendors whose users have been experiencing lockups

(ii) the HD3000kext is particularly sensitive to properly defined EDID configs

(iii) a combination of the above.

 

I'll post a proper HOWTO for those who don't know how to setup their EDID Overrides in the next few days, but in the meantime, for anyone who's experiencing lockups - there's a solution!

 

jkbuha

 

Hi,

 

did your freezing happen just after you had heavy graphic glitches and / or watching video/doing graphic intensive stuff?

If so , do you think maybe that could be also the solution to my problem even though i have not a 15z but a normal 15z with the FullHD display?

As i experienced some freezing lately (As mentioned before) especially when watching some videos on the net like youtube or vimeo and stuff.

[jkbuha]

My freezing happened whenever I (i) tried to use Mission Control (ii) watching video (iii) youtube etc.

 

I've documented the entire process on another thread to avoid distractions on this topic. You can find it here: http://tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=54375

I'd suggest you try and use DoiX's EDID if you have an XPS 15 as it worked fine on my 15z as well.

[DoiX]

@JKbuha, got word from my friend. Unfortunately bios emulation is beyond his interests and knowledge

[maxey]

My freezing happened whenever I (i) tried to use Mission Control (ii) watching video (iii) youtube etc.

 

I've documented the entire process on another thread to avoid distractions on this topic. You can find it here: http://tonymacx86.co...hp?f=15&t=54375

I'd suggest you try and use DoiX's EDID if you have an XPS 15 as it worked fine on my 15z as well.

 

Ok, lucky me, i don't get a freeze when i use mission control and also not whenever I watch a video or something.

Since i used Doix' installer to set up my system....I suppose i have Doix' EDID? (Which would mean in turn that i didn't find a solution to my problems yet )

[DoiX]

@Maxey, i don't actually remember if i injected that EDID in some installer file... i suppose not but i'm not sure.

[maxey]

@Maxey, i don't actually remember if i injected that EDID in some installer file... i suppose not but i'm not sure.

 

Ok great, ,then i will patiently wait for a "proper HOWTO" .. As i don't have a clue what to do with the

 

00ffffffffffff0006afed17000000000014010490221378022135ad5037aa2411505400000001010101010101010101010101010101783780ae703832403c30aa0058c11000001a783780ae703832403c30aa0058c11000001a000000fe004b5959564b804231353648573100000000000081029b0101000002010a20200001

 

[jkbuha]

@maxey - the HOWTO is in the link I posted to tony's forum. EDID override is not a common practice, so I don't think it would have been bundled in any (DoiX or otherwise) release.

 

@DoiX - that's a real shame. The search for emulated BIOS testing (and modding) goes on...