Optiplex 745 USFF

[mcr]

UPDATE: Sadly, even after inserting a EVGA GeForce GTX 650 1GB (Kepler chip) video card, which should be natively supported, I am still unable to get the minitower 745 past the "Still waiting for root device" error (tried both 10.7.5 and 10.8.5)  I have tried all the boot flags and PCIRoot=0 and =1 options and so on and so forth.  I  have the IOATAFamily.kext fix to enable SATA/AHCI support.   I ran a Linux boot utility from another OSX/x86 site that analyzes all the hardware and oddly it shows my 745 is using Intel ICH7 level controller.  All other documentation I have on this system says the chipset should have ICH8.  I must have gotten an oddly configured system.  I suspect that not having ICH8 is the issue, and there are posts that seem to indicate that ICH8 offers much better chance of success.  I will continue to search for a kext that supports ICH7, but so far haven't found one.

 

I wish to thank everyone who tried to help me out, especially Hervé.   Having spent countless hours and ever increasing level of frustration, I'm afraid I am throwing up my hands.  Perhaps after stepping away for awhile I will try again.  Good luck to everyone in your pursuit of a working system!

Michael

 

[Bronxteck]

have you tried adding the chameleon module for Sata into the Extra/modules folder?

[mcr]

have you tried adding the chameleon module for Sata into the Extra/modules folder?

 

Are you refering to IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext? If so,  No I've not tried it, as my understanding is this kext is intended to solve the problem of internal drives appearing as external, but does not effect in any way the initial recognition of the drives in the first place, which should be noted that the installation finds the drive without any issues using IOATAFamily.kext

[twitzgall]

@mcr, I know you said you're working on Lion, but I was successful in getting Mavericks installed on the MiniTower version on the 745 and attached my Extra folder here: https://osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/6366-optiplex-745-1092-storage-drives-not-showing/&do=findComment&comment=36398

 

I'm hoping one of those kexts will assist you. Specifically the IOATA one.

[mcr]

@twitzgall,

Thank you.  however these are the same kexts I've already tried.

[mcr]

@bronxteck

you asked me "have you tried adding the chameleon module for Sata into the Extra/modules folder?"

 

I'm not familiar with the module you are referring to.  Are you refering to IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext? If so,  No I've not tried it, as my understanding is this kext is intended to solve the problem of internal drives appearing as external, but does not effect in any way the initial recognition of the drives in the first place, which should be noted that the installation finds the drive without any issues using IOATAFamily.kext

 

If you are refering to something else, please clarify or point me to it.

Thank you

[kitana]

The GMA950 kext will need to be patched to take your Q965/Q963 device id into account, you can't just copy it to /E/E and expect graphics acceleration + resolution to work. By default, it only supports "regular" GMA950. The Intel framebuffer will probably require the same. I'll have a look and get back to you.

I have a similar Optiplex 755 USFF w/ a Q35 Express Chipset (DeviceID 0x29b2 and also "no kext loaded" under SL). How would I go about patching/loading a GMA950 kext for the integrated GMA3100 (not X3100). I do not have an option to replace the GPU for this USFF. Thx

[Hervé]

Unfortunately, GMA3000/3100 is not supported at all. There's no patching that'll make it work, it's been tried before. The USFF model has no PCIe slot, so it's not a suitable candidate for OS X I'm afraid. The Optiplex 745 is like the Vostro 200 and needs a supported add-on PCIe graphics card.