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

[amh10]

Thanks. I tried that but it didn't matter whether the headphones were plugged in. When they were plugged in the sound did work though.

 

So I decided to go with the Voodoo kext:

 

 

All the sliders aren't greyed out, but still no sound (either speakers or headphones). How bizzare!

[DoiX]

It could be because of IOAudioFamily.kext http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/16173714/IOAudioFamily.kext.zip try the stock one.

[amh10]

Thanks. It was the VoodooHDA 2.7.3 that seems to be working now.

 

Still can help out with your beta testing of the boot install if you like.

[mackyreddy]

@Doix

Comming from MackyReddy's L702X thread, I remember you once said you would be looking into a dsdt modification to stop loading the Nvidia GPU, arre there any news on that side ?

It's the only thing stopping me from reinstalling OSX

 

Hey Deadsmile, i actually tried the new package and installed xps 15 DSDT and bam its working. No more blank screen. I will look into the DSDT, if possible i will try to port it to our XPS 17.

 

@ Doix

 

what changes did u make in this version 1.4, now it seems to be fully compatible with L702x and i have checked system profile nvidia not spotted. Now we can have a smaller Universal package without any redundant files for L702x.

 

Update:

 

1. Cpu temps are lower and at idle touching 42c

 

2. Fn brightness keys are working as well but at reducing the brightness completely screen goes blank but again on increasing the brightness screen comes back.

 

3. All USB ports are working no compatibility issues.

 

4. Audio, Webcam, Sleep & Wake are also working, i feel everything else is also working, no compatibility issues what so ever with this DSDT.

[DoiX]

Hey macky, i changed a lot of things over the year in the DSDT, can't remember exactly what. Well if it's working perfectly i'll update the package. Since you're using that dsdt plug a usb stick in the USB3 port and see how it behaves. On my system it gets mounted after 5-10 minutes of leaving it there.

 

2. I tried fixing that, it's a IOGraphicsFamily.kext bug, didn't manage to properly compile it (meh apple)

[mackyreddy]

no problem what so ever with USB 3.0, i charged my phone, ipad and also plugged in my windows 8 bootable usb drive and its bang on detected within a sec or 2.

 

One more thing is that laptop screen feels much more brighter when compared it on Windows at the lowest setting.

[DoiX]

Oh, you have the PXCHD.kext installed. Should have specified to test without that kext installed.

[mackyreddy]

without pxhcd.kext it cant recognize

[DoiX]

This is how it looks on my side without PXHCD.kext, it gets detected in the end but the speed is slow. Pure DSDT, i assume the original intel kexts need to be patched so it can work properly.

 

[burrows1980]

@burrows - are you having the same problems?

 

The only problems I had was mainly with making a bootable USB stick, reason being the version of Lion I was using is corrupt, even the ML app I downloaded from the app store got corrupt. Freshly downloaded to a working version of lion and it worked.

 

If I installed the keyboard and trackpad kext from the installer package, the track pad wouldnt work even with a mouse plugged in, so I used the kexts from a other known package and worked with out a mouse or keyboard being plugged in.

 

For the USB stick to boot I had to put my smbios.plist into a extra folder on the usb stick for some strange reason, otherwise I would get the still waiting for root device error....

 

Deleted the Nvidia kexts from ML and it booted straight away, installed DoiXs DSDT from the installer package and it worked, never worked for my system before, so am happy now, everything seems to be working correctly..

 

The only thing I need to check is if speedstep is working correctly.... Do I just run MSRDumper.kext like before?

[DoiX]

@burrows, Yes, run MSRDumper.kext, keep in mind that due to changes made by apple in the AICPUPM.kext you will have less PStates appear in the console log.

[burrows1980]

@DoiX, im not too sure ive installed speed stepping at all In your installer package, when selecting SSDT for i5 processor and ACI... 10.8.0 kext, does this install the SSDT.aml file, or patch an existing one? Another words do I need to put my old Lion one in the root directory? and manually delete

delete Sleep/NullCPUPowerManagement kexts?

 

 

Reason I ask is the lines:

 

kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: Turbo Ratios <number>
kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: initialization complete
kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient: ready

 

Are not showing up in my

system log.....

[DoiX]

Replaces the old AICPUPM kext and SSDT files. And yes, remove NULLCPUPowerManagement.kext it hinders the loading of AICPUPM

[Ahmed_shiko]

@Doix

problem

 

ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin initFanThrottleControl :: - waiting for AppleSMC

 

how fix

[DoiX]

For crying out loud, it's a verbose message, not an error one. The reason you're getting that is because i tried implementing fan control.

[mackyreddy]

@ Doix

 

With XPS 15 Nvidia Off DSDT, Apple HDA seems to be using a new layout id i think its 88 ( hope its not detecting as alc 288), where as with my stock XPS 17 DSDT layout id was 65. Is there anything wrong ? can we do anything about this ? Is it normal ?

[DoiX]

@macky I reported some pages ago that i changed the layout id from all audio kexts so i can use a single DSDT across Lion and ML in the installer package. The reason i changed it to 88 is because for some reason, on my side at least, thats the only layout id that provides sound. You can change the layout it to 65 in the DSDT if its working for you.

[maxey]

I don't know if it can or not, essentially I guess it's just a data cable,so it shouldn't make a difference. I just remember looking at caddys and getting paranoid about data transfer speeds, they all claim something different.

 

But to answer your question, it is very simple to replace the DVD drive with the caddy, pretty much just a couple screws, pop out the DVD drive, swap the cover, and pop in the caddy. Piece of cake.

 

Now swapping the internal is a different story, it's fairly straight forward, there are several videos out there, just go slow and take your time.

 

Hey to pick up the topic again:

Now that my exams for this semester are finally over i intend to buy this ssd

 

http://www.amazon.de...=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF

 

and i am looking for a caddy.

Since you were looking at caddies before i though you might have some advice on one which might fit and is not too expensive.

I found this

 

http://www.newmodeus...products_id=358

 

however I was wondering if there is a cheaper alternative.

If you didnt see anything better i might go for it.

 

Edit: Just saw this one, 10 € cheaper

 

http://www.amazon.de...06&sr=8-2-fkmr0

 

Just not sure it the specifications are all right

 

• Type : 2. Harddisk SATA Adapter
  
• interface/port : SATA II
  
• height : 12,7 cm
  
• Also compatible with a 2,5 "SATA SSD
  

 

Edit: Just realized that the SSD itself is able to do Sata III but this caddy is only up to SATA II speeds cabable to transfer data.

Do you guys know of any Caddy with a height of 12,7 mm thats SATA III cabable?

 

Thanks!

Edited August 14, 2012 by maxey

[04152viki]

for DoiX- HDEF in my DSDT LayoutID 65:

    Device (HDEF)
    {
	    Name (_ADR, 0x001B0000)
	    OperationRegion (HDAR, PCI_Config, 0x4C, 0x10)
	    Field (HDAR, WordAcc, NoLock, Preserve)
	    {
		    DCKA,   1,
				    Offset (0x01),
		    DCKM,   1,
			    ,   6,
		    DCKS,   1,
				    Offset (0x08),
			    ,   15,
		    PMES,   1
	    }
	    Method (_PRW, 0, NotSerialized)
	    {
		    Return (GPRW (0x0D, 0x03))
	    }
	    Method (_DSM, 4, NotSerialized)
	    {
		    Store (Package (0x0C)
			    {
				    "device-id",
				    Buffer (0x04)
				    {
					    0x65, 0x06, 0xEC, 0x10
				    },
				    "built-in",
				    Buffer (One)
				    {
					    0x00
				    },
				    "layout-id",
				    Unicode ("A"),
				    "model",
				    Buffer (0x07)
				    {
					    "alc665"
				    },
				    "PinConfigurations",
				    Buffer (Zero) {},
				    "hda-gfx",
				    Buffer (0x0A)
				    {
					    "onboard-1"
				    }
			    }, Local0)
		    DTGP (Arg0, Arg1, Arg2, Arg3, RefOf (Local0))
		    Return (Local0)
	    }
    }

[maxey]

No problem, by the way "normal" dsdt does no longer "exist" i changed the DSDTs to be universal across screens and made the boot.plist screen specific. AppleHDA and some other fixes are also DSDT dependent. Also i forgot to mention this, i included a USB3 DSDT fix in the L502x dsdt, this gives us native USB3 support but it's painfully slow.

 

I still need some volunteers to test a boot cd/stick...

 

hey just read about ur boot stick idea.

I would be willing to test it! If it fits on a 4GB stick though

Another question : You mentioned ML might be installable via Lion.

So could i simply split the Lion Partition i have (Around 100 GB left of it) into 2 partitions in some way and then install on the new partition ML?

(I would do it on my SSD but it takes around 2 more weeks until my caddy arrives and i want to try ML)

[DoiX]

@maxey, the boot stick will have to wait, it's not compatible with mountain lion and i don't have time to trace the problem.

 

MBR partition table doesn't allow you resize/split an existing partition into more. I think you can't even delete it to make 2 smaller ones from the empty space. Only GUID allows that and it's not compatible with our bios (by compatible i mean we are forced to use a boot cd or similar because of it.)

[ITRaider]

Does everybody's laptop sleep well with the 1.4 package?

Mine can't sleep

When I use the InterCPUPowermanagent.kext from package

It still got a kernel panic

Mine CPU is i5 2450m

[maxey]

@maxey, the boot stick will have to wait, it's not compatible with mountain lion and i don't have time to trace the problem.

 

MBR partition table doesn't allow you resize/split an existing partition into more. I think you can't even delete it to make 2 smaller ones from the empty space. Only GUID allows that and it's not compatible with our bios (by compatible i mean we are forced to use a boot cd or similar because of it.)

 

oh ok. well thats a pity ..

[DoiX]

@ITRaider, boot with DropSSDT=Yes and make sure you have the SSDT tables installed. It's a must since 10.7.3 (or 4 can't remember)

[killer567]

Hey @DoiX,

 

I am on ML and using the latest package 1.4.

To get to full brightness i have to sleep the display and then come back.

Are you facing the same issue? Is there any DSDT workaround?

 

Thanks