Jump to content

Dell Latitude D430 Thread


Zeppo

Recommended Posts

You'll lough now: just a few days ago I needed to replace 2x2GB RAM DDR2 sticks in my office machine because one was delivering garbage.

Well, that one might have been faulty all the way, but 10.6.6 didn't take it gracefully. Luckily I am Carbon Copy Cloning my HD1 to identical HD2 every night. And have all my data secured on an external drive via TimeMachine. But it took a while to find out that RAM was broken and then to find out which stick. My machine just crashed and my HD1 was corrupted beyond repair with Disk Manager. I couldn't even unmount it. But with CCC that was a non-issue.

 

BTW: What choices do I have re RAM and HD? LEon uses SSD, correct? Might be a choice for me as well. 2GB RAM are cheap. Can I stick more RAM into D430? Is there a 4 GB RAM module working in D430? 8GB would be desirable (for Parallels).

 

THX!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Th D430 have 1gb build onto the Mobo, as for ssd.. just get a zif pata ssd.. i use a Runcore 120gb.. works like a charm.. and its fast :D

 

Well, I hoped it could take more than 2GB RAM. But I read some forums saying a strict "no". Apparently BIOS supports it but not the board.

If the MB Air reports are to believe, SSD gives you more than RAM. So, I might try this.

 

What about this SSD: http://www.kingston.com/ukroot/ssd/v_series.asp

Kingston SSDNow V-Series G2 128 GB SNV425-S2/128GB – up to 200MB/sec. read; 160MB/sec. write?!

Sounds good. And I had some very good experiences with Kingston. And is around 190€. Runcore 380,00€.

 

EDIT: if RAM is FUBARed, I hope it is the 1GB I can replace. It costs just 30€. But if it's the one onboard... S***!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it needs to be a zif pata...

 

Yup, I just read that in another forum. As well as the "good" news that other (cheaper) brands cause trouble with OS X and could been run onyl as an external drive.

380€?! Well, ain't that a good news? :) I can get a refurbished D430 for this kind of money. Sheeeeesh!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Im starting to wonder if your bootsector is corrupt...

 

IMHO, a corrupt boot sector would have one of Chameleons boot0, boot1h files or even both damaged. So, the boot process would be halted even before DSDT is read. Since the machine starts to boot and just KP's on the processor definition picked up within the DSDT, I seriously doubt it's a boot sector. Look at the shot of my KP. "No HPETs available. CPU is configured incorrectly". But the same CPU und HPETs are fine if I boot from stick.

Bad disk sectors where the DSDT resides? Or RAM issues? Hmmm... will check both.

 

HD Check: SMART attributes say HD is A OK. However, I just run Disk Utilities volume check and it reports damaged volume: "Incorrect File counter (887686 instead of 887690)" and "Incorrect Folder counter (197422 instead of 197418)" "Disk needs to be repaired". Booted from OS X's DVD on USB and repaired the HD via Dik Utility. Run HD check again, volume reported OK. Volume permissions repaired as well.

 

Prior trying another boot from HD I will restart from USB, check the volume again, reinstall Chameleon and /Extra folder, rerun edptool and check volume again. Also, I want to run RAM test using boot CD and Memtest-86 v3.5a. just to be sure that my 2GB RAM are working properly.

 

Booting from stick OK

Disk Utility checking Volume, OK

Chameleon 2 RC5 r665 installed, no errors

renamed /Extra folder to /ExtraOld (to force writing of new /Extra folder and DSDT somewhere else on HD, avoiding possible bad sectors)

Copied EDP 1.5 RC6 folder as /Extra in HD's root

run edptool.comand and configured DSDT and .mkext for D430, no errors reported

Disk Utility reports volume still OK, run permission rebuild

Double checking with Onyx: SMART OK, volume OK, permission rebuild OK

 

HD appears to be OK

 

CD Boot, Memtest.86 run, the whole addressable range is tested with several different routines (like memory mapping and remapping, moving inversions 32 bit pattern, random number sequence and such). After all tests were finished no ECC or other errors were reported.

 

RAM appears to be OK

 

Unplugged power cord, removed battery forcing a complete reinitialization of the all HW components on the next boot. Waiting 10 minutes. Battery and power cord back in.

Rebooting from HD with new configured /Extra folder - KP

Rebooting from USB stick - no issues

Replacing HD /Extra files com.apple.boot.plist, dsdt.aml,Extensions.mkext and smbios.plist with those on stick (since I know they work fine). Replacing HD boot file from root folder with the one from USB (known working).

Rebooting from HD - KP, but the stage of KP is different as before (see attached screenshot)

 

Sorry for the lengthy post but I wanted to do this step by step. I think I effectively ruled out HD and RAM hardware issues. But it still KP's if I boot from HD and works fine from USB stick.

I am out of my depth now. I did everything I was able to think of but the issue remains.

 

Any input would be highly appreciated.

THX

KP.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In EDP install script I never choose PCMCIA support to be added. I don't have any devices for it. And I do have power management issues (my battery is not recognized and I cannot turn on the battery meter). Interestingly if I boot with Leon's /Extra folder (and his D430 works like a charm) I run into KP's from both, HD and the USB stick. And if I recall correctly, it KP's on identical spot.

 

Well, it might be my BIOS. Although I have the official A09 version, it might be that there were some silent updates I didn't get.

Or some BIOS setting are configured differently than on Leon's and many other machines. Leon wanted to compare my BIOS settings with his, to see if that's the case.

Well, something IS causing this mess. But I don't know what. It's bizarre.

 

I can fetch BIOS A09 and install it again. And , if that does not change the situation, try CRC's moded BIOS and no DSDT. There must be something...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...