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Need help with Precision M4400


jruschme

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P & C States in Chameleon boot plist are useless with NullCPUPowerManagement. You need to use PState kext + PSMenu app to obtain (emulated) SpeedStep on your CPU.

 

I was afraid of that... apparently, though, as long as I use the E6400 DSDT, I can also use an unpatched AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement kext.

 

So, current status:

 

- Running Mavericks 10.9.1

- EDP build for Precision M4400 using unpatched AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement

- DSDT.aml replaced with one from Latitude E6400 bootpack

- Chameleon configured to generate P&C states

 

Question: Is there anything I can run to make sure that P&C, SpeedStep, etc. are working correctly?

 

A couple of remaining issues:

1) WiFi- My own fault... I replaced the Intel card with a DW1397 without checking to see if it was compatible with Mavericks.

2) Bluetooth- System Profiler shows a BCM2046B1 device on one of the USB busses. As far as I can tell, this is a supported device, but I can't seem to make the correct change to get mine recognized. Suggestions?

3) Keyboard- Working, except for the fact that only the right-side Control key is working which really screws with my muscle memory.

4) SDHC reader- not working even though I installed VoodooSDHC and modified the plist for the PCI address of my reader.

 

Comments/suggestions welcome. Thanks for all the help so far.

 

JR

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Spent some time on the Bluetooth... 

 

Based on what I see under Linux, I should be seeing a BCM2046B1 device which appears as a USB hub. Under it should be the actual HCI device and two composite devices for Bluietooth Proxy mode. Under Mavericks, though, all I see are the hub and the two Composite devices, no HCI device.

 

I assume that this is a firmware or initialization error with the device, but am not sure where to proceed to fix it.

 

Thanks again...

JR

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A couple of more minor updates...

 

Although sound worked with VoodooHDA 2.8.4, I could not control the volume or mute with the keyboard buttons. A post led me to edit the Info.plist for the extension to enable the VolumeKey and Mute fixes. Now that all works as expected.

 

Keyboard... I seem to have a couple of options. If I take the EDP default keyboard kext, the left Control key is dead (keypresses not detected). If I take one of the alternatives, I have mapping issues particularly with the `/~ key; this requires a custom layout with Ukelele. I have taken the latter route.

 

the last major piece which is still not working is the SD reader. There are at least three versions of VoodooSDHC (and VoodooSDHCI) floating around. Results seem to vary from no detection of the reader to hangs when a card is inserted. Still looking...

 

 

Thanks to all for the help so far...

JR

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Turning our attention to SpeedStep, a couple of issues:

 

1) I have a 2.53ghz QE9300 CPU. It is being detected, however, as a 2.29 ghz CPU. This is probably due to the fact that the bus is being picked up as 967 mhz rather than 1033. Anybody seen this before? Any suggestions?

 

2) Speed vs. heat has been a real pain. With the default config of MacBookPro3,1 and native AppleIntelCUPowerManagement, it appears that I only get the lowest speed (reported as 1.44 ghz) no matter the load; same with changing to MacBookPro4,1.  (This is with the latest FakeSMC kext.) With SMCBios set to MacBookPro5,1 or later, I get speeds switching between lowest and highest speed, but no intermediate steps. Eventually, however, the system will overheat and thermally shutdown under heavy load.

 

Best compromise has been to run with the MacBookPro3,1 setting and also install VoodooPStates.kext and the PStates monitor program. This gets me switching between 8 possible speeds with no overheating so far.

 

Two questions: 1) Does this sound familiar to anyone? 2) If I'm running with VoodooPstates.kext, then do I also need to use NullCPUPowerManagment and SleepEnabler instead of native power management? (I've seen conflicting posts regarding this one.)

 

Thanks again...

JR

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1) Try and disable IDA (Dynamic Acceleration) in BIOS. We did notice that IDA enabled with Merom CPU caused FSB to run much slower (~10% slower) than the normally expected speed (eg: 726MHz instead of 800MHz) and that had a direct impact on CPU speed of course! It sounds very similar in your case.

 

2) When you play with FakeSMC and SMBIOS profiles, did you apply different SMC key values to the FakeSMC plist as described in the Performance article? That sure is the best way to try and find the best SpeedStep/PowerManagement setup with native power management.

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I think you're right about the IDA, but I have no option in my BIOS to disable it.

 

As for native SpeedStep, I think I figured out the problem. When I did the original M4400 EDP build, it installed a set of SSDT files. I now suspect that, like the DSDT file, they are not really compatible with my hardware. Based on a bit of research, I deleted them and then changed the Chameleon config to enable DropSSDT, EnablePStates and EnableCStates. With the smcbios set to MacBookPro5,1 I now seem to have full SpeedStep with multiple steps.

 

Thanks again...

JR

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New issue (or, rather, the return of an old one)... I seem to periodically having a problem where the computer will go to sleep (lid close), but not wake up fully (power light on, fan running, no video). No choice, at that point,  but to hold the power button and power off.

 

This was the problem which pushed me from the M4400 DSDT to the E6400 one.

 

So far, I've tried the "darkwake=0" kernel parameter, but it doesn't seem to have helped.

 

Advice?

 

Thanks....

JR

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