moonman

Okay, that explains it. I'd forgotten about the Core 2 Duo requirements. I'll have a look on eBay for a better processor. Thanks again.

Many thanks Herve'. Fast reply as usual. Yes, I had made the USB pen with the right D620 EDP, but I used a different (higher version) MyHack. But I just want to be clear: I have the Core Duo - not Core 2 Duo - version of the D620. I later remembered that Lion needs a Core 2 Duo processor, so I thought that might be the problem. So just to be sure: can I install Lion on my Core Duo?

Tried starting up in verbose mode, after 2 quick pages of verbose the screen goes black and installation stops. I remember having trouble trying to install Lion on a D620 Intel with 1440 x 900 display a while back and I had to use a different DSDT file for the higher resolution. I downloaded one from this site and installed on my USB pen, then ran MyFix full, but I still get a black screen. My model is the D620 Intel GMA945 (not 950) 1440 x 900 Core Duo 1.83 with 4GB RAM. I am using the latest MyHack. Could it be a problem with the USB drive? Do I need a different DSDT? Is Lion supported on this machine? Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Can you clone a current Snow Leopard / Windows 7 dual boot system on a D430 internal drive to an external drive, then replace the internal drive with the new one? If not the whole drive, can you clone at least the Snow Leopard install? I've used Super Duper several times with Macs, but never cloned a hackintosh drive. I have to replace the HD in my D430 (dual boot SL / Win7) and I'd love to just be able to clone it to the new disk, as it's probably the best complete install I've ever had on a D430. Everything works just perfect, including scrolling (which has often been a bit poor on other Dell hackintoshes for me), wifi, bluetooth, sleep, and dual booting works just great. D430 boots to window where I choose which system to boot, don't need to interrupt chameleon startup and then choose.

P.S. wanted to say that, based on advice from Herve and others, I bought a Precision M4300 and am pretty satisfied. Got a good deal on eBay, about 130 euros shipped. What can I say? It's HUGE! But I love the monster 1920 x 1200 resolution! A bit heavy, but still less than the Powerbook 17" I had years ago. I installed Lion, but found it a bit slowish. Okay, but I hoped for more speed. So I started over and installed Snow Leopard. Much faster. I'll stick with 10.6 for now, as all the software I use is compatible with Snow Leo too.

I have a few Dell hackintoshes with Snow Leopard or Lion: D430, D620, M4300. In general, is it okay to repair Permissions with Disk Utility? Or should you avoid that? Is an alternative to run myFix from myHack? Or better just to leave everything alone, unless problems arise?

I too am looking at the M4300, as a 2nd computer. Have done several D620/630 hackintosh, so not totally new to this site. Money's a little short right now and I've found quite the deal on a M4300 with the 15" 1920 x 1200 display. Pretty enormous resolution. Never had a notebook with so much screen real estate. Looks to have the standard specs. Core 2 Duo T7500 2,20 Ghz Centrino 2 processor and the 1920x1200 resolution. No mention of video card, but the Dell web site seems to indicate there is only the one video card: the NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 360M. From the EDP page it seems to be one of the most Hackintosh compatible models out there, compatible with all 4 Mac OSes. I'd probably be looking to install Lion and Windows 7. Question for madmax: Do you get the 1920 x 1200 resolution out of the box? Works fine? I see from your sig that you're using an Apple Airport Extreme card. Works out of the box? It would save me some hassle for wireless, as I've got a spare Airport Extreme lying around at home. Any help greatly appreciated.

Many thanks guys. Much appreciated. I agree re. the D620 and D630, both of which I've used in the past with Snow Leopard. Worked like a charm. They are a bit scarce nowadays and their prices seem a bit high on eBay, in the 180 euro range. I remember paying less last year. On the EDP Compatibility page, the E6400 and E6500 have blank spaces beside all the components in the chart, then there are the bootpack downloads for Lion. Does that mean they work fine out of the box with EDP? Another model in the same boat is the HP 6910p, i.e. empty boxes in the compatibility chart, then bootpack downloads for Snow Leopard and Lion. Same story? Works out of the box with EDP? Just asking, because prices on the HP are really low compared to the E6400/6500, i.e. in the 175 euro range, shipped. The Thinkpad T400 has some really good prices, under 200 euro. The T410 is a fair bit more expensive (over 300 euro). The T61, also 1440 x 900, though is a lot cheaper than the T410, in the 170-180 range. I was hoping to spend in the 220-230 range, shipped. If I find a good price on a D620/D630 I'd probably go that route. The D830 is an interesting unit with the higher resolution models. I've found a 1680 x 1050 model for 185 euro and a 1920 x 1200 for 239. If I read the specs right, they are a lot heavier than the D620, something like 2 lbs heavier. Many thanks again.

Due to money problems it looks like I have to sell my 2011 Macbook Air and replace it with a good 'ol Hackintosh. I've had several D430's and D620's with Snow Leo and Lion, and love them, but I'm looking for a 14" or 15" with 1440 x 900 resolution. I've seen the E6400s on eBay for around 250-260 Euro shipped, and the E6410s for around 310-320 shipped. Pretty decent prices, it seems. I see the big difference between the 6400 and the 6410 is the Core 2 Duo processore vs. i5. Is that the basic difference? All things being equal - easy of installation, stability, ease of upgrades - would you suggest the more powerful E6410? Are they both about the same in terms of installing Lion? I really only need Snow Leo, but I'm used to Lion on the Air, so would be happy to stick with that. Whichever is easier. I plan to install both Lion (or Snow) and Win 7, usually boot into Lion and occasionally into Win 7. No real heavy software to use, so even a Core 2 Duo would probably be good. As I said, I've had plenty of D430s and D620s, so have a fair bit of practice installing Snow and Lion on Dells. Apart from the E6400 and E6410, are there any other really solid hackintoshes with 14" displays and 1440 x 900 resolution? Thanks a lot for any advice.

I have a couple of D430 with 10.6.8 and recently I've been having problems with one, where it freezes completely while I'm typing. This just started recently. The keyboard and trackpad become totally unresponsive and I have to do a hard shutdown. I have replaced the keyboard and the problem still appears. Very randomly, or so it seems. The only thing I can think of is that it might be the heat, as it is extremely hot and humid right now, like 40 degrees Celsius. I didn't have the problem in the past and it appeared only in the last 2 weeks or so.

Just can't seem to get wifi back. It was working after initial install of 10.7 but after update to 10.7.3 I can't get wifi back. I've tried everything. I have a DW1395 which has always worked perfectly in Snow Leopard with the Broadcom43XXFamily.kext (version 3.1) that I added afterwards. I have a dual boot Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and Lion 10.7.3 system. Wifi works perfectly under 10.6.8. In my Extra folder I have the Broadcom kext and IONetworkingFamily.kext (v. 1.10), but no IO8211Family.kext. In my Lion Extra folder, I tried adding the Broadcom kext but that didn't give me wifi. I have IONetworkingFamily.kext (tried v. 3.1 and 2.0) and I have IO8211Family.kext (v. 3.1) but no wifi. Any ideas? Thanks. SUCCESS! I installed the kexts from my Snow Leopard partition that gave me working wifi under 10.6.8. Used Kext Wizard to install them then ran Repair permissions, rebooted and had wifi under Lion 10.7.3! The 2 kexts are: Broadcom43XXFamily.kext (v. 3.1) and IONetworkingFamily.kext (v. 1.10). Hope this helps others. Cheers.

Good job, thanks. Just to add that the D630 with Intel graphics and 1440 x 900 resolution can be tricky when trying to install either Snow Leopard or Lion. You need the special DSDT.aml for 1440 x 900 resolutions, which you have to put onto your USB stick for the installation. Otherwise you will probably boot to a dark screen. And once you do get the OS installed, copy the DSDT.aml to your new Extra folder and then run My Fix if you use myHack, and also rebuild kexts.

Okay, good job. On my 3rd try I managed to install Lion onto my D430 U7700. I created the USB pen on my iMac Intel using a 16GB pen that I split into 2 8GB partitions. I used myHack3.1 to install everything onto the 1st 8GB partition. Here's what may have made the difference for my successful install: - when I finished creating the USB pen with myHack, I replaced the Extra folder (that myHack installed) with the one downloaded from this site (specifically for the D430 and Lion) - I also trashed the boot file that myHack had installed: it didn't seem right, compared to my other Dell Hackintoshes, as it was an EXE file, while all the other boot files on my Dells are simple Documents - I then ran Chameleon (the one you download from the page here explaining how to Install OS X, I don't remember the exact version) and in the setup the only different option I chose was to uncheck GraphicsEnabler=Yes. Chameleon put a NEW boot file on the USB pen and this time it was a Document (not an EXE) - I then ran myFix and installed myHack Utilities This pen booted the D430 normally and, unlike the other attempted installs, I had a working trackpad and keyboard for the install. When myHack got to the point where it asked me what Extra folder to use, I selected My Own and navigated to the Extra folder on the USB pen. I installed it, the Lion installation finished, and I rebooted from the USB pen, then selected my Lion partition at the Chameleon boot window. It booted fine with no flags. I had a working trackpad and keyboard at first boot, but it still asked me for an external keyboard. But I just had to plug it in, as I then used the trackpad and built-in keyboard to complete the setup. Everything seems fast and stable. I haven't installed EDP yet. Should I use EDP 2.2 and then update to 3? Or install 3 right away? What do you consider the best kext configurations for Lion on the D430? As always, the plan is to install EDP and Chameleon, rebuild kexts with Kext Wizard, then update to 10.7.3. Chameleon: is it best to uncheck GraphicsEnabler=Yes? I have a DW1395 wifi card that I will install later and use the Broadcom kexts that others have mentioned. I did this under Snow Leopard too and it worked fine.

Hey guys, I'm in a similar situation. I've got a number of Dells that I use myself and have set up for family members and friends who have been Windows users up till now. Everybody's happy and troubleshooting for them is relatively easy and is not needed very often. I have a D430 U7700 with an SSD drive and the big battery with the wrist rest, which I love. Great battery time, too; 4+ hours under normal conditions. Running 10.6.8. I also have a D620 with beautiful 1440 x 900 screen that I love to use for writing, translating and watching movies on the road. Installed 10.6.8 and it was super easy. Both Dells run great. I've installed Snow Leo and the usual Mac apps on a couple of other D430's and D420's, and they run great. I'm currently having some issues with a D630 Intel graphics with 1440 x 900, trying to install Lion. I've now got it installed, but haven't updated and haven't run EDP. I previously installed Lion but got kernel panics when trying to install EDP 2.2. I've added kexts manually to get 1440 x 900 resolution, keyboard and trackpad (though not Trackpad pref pane), and Apple battery. I have right edge trackpad scrolling which works really well, I have to say. No sound, even though I've tried the VoodooHDA kexts and suggested fixes you can find online. e.g. they guy (forget his name) who has the Voodoo Launcher to avoid KPs on boot. The D630 looks fantastic with Lion on that 1440 x 900 screen, but I still have some work to do. Will install a DW1395 wifi card the next few days. The D630 really is a PITA compared to the D620, on which Snow Leo installs fast and easily, and runs great. Any tips on Sound under Lion, with the D630 Intel graphics? Which trackpad pref pane is best? P.S. re. DONATIONS. Didn't there use to be where you could make a Paypal donation to the site? I'd like to do so, as you guys are doing a fantastic job and have helped me out on so many occasions.

I finally got Lion installed okay using the Extra folder you zipped here above. Many thanks. I had a hybrid USB pen from my previous install with myHack, but it worked okay. I pointed myHack to the Extra folder and it installed okay. At this point, it seems pretty stable. I got 1440x900 resolution, keyboard and trackpad right away. I DID NOT installed EDP 2.2, as I got kernel panics last time. So obviously I'm missing a few things on my system. I have no MODELS folder in Extra. I have only the Extensions folder. I don't have a Trackpad preference pane in System Prefs. Trackpad scrolling works really well though, using the right border. The pointer is slow though. Double tap works okay. I installed the AppleBattery kext, which I downloaded, and it seems to work okay. I have no sound. I've downloaded and tried both VoodooHDA 2.7.2 and 2.7.3. I also tried installing Voodoo Loader which I found on another sight. No go. I have the VoodooHDA pref pane but it closes with an error when I try to open it. I haven't updated to 10.7.3 or .4 yet. I was hoping to get Sound sorted out. Questions: 1) Any suggestions re. Sound? 2) Should I do anything about EDP? Any problem in not having the Models folder in Extra?

After a lot of failures, some success. A big thanks to Nac whose post helped a lot. I used myHack to make my USB pen for Lion and changed the DSDT and Boot.plist as per Nac's instructions and got 1440x900 resolution right away. The Lion install went okay but when I tried to install EDP 2.2 I got a kernel panic when I tried to confirm my kext options. This is the second time this happened to me. So the next time I installed Lion, I swapped the DSDT and Boot.plist in Extra in order to get 1440x900, and rebooted to USB, then chose the internal HD and it finally booted okay, with 1440x900 resolution. At that point I: - installed Chameleon (latest version from the Guide here) - DIDN'T install EDP - repaired permissions and updated to 10.7.3 Rebooted and am now at 10.7.3. I have no Sound. I have no Trackpad preference pane, but the trackpad works. The processor speed is listed as 1.2 Ghz instead of 2.0 Ghz. I'd like to ask for advice on how to proceed. What should I do about EDP? Any idea why I get a kernel panic when installing the kexts (for D630 Intel graphics)? This step seems pretty essential, as the last time I got the EDP kernel panic and had to reboot, it messed up my system and I had to reinstall from scratch.

Thanks. Do I do BOTH of those things? Change the string to 1440x900x32 in the plist and also use Simeonoff's dsdt.aml file? Here are some updates: 1) Windows 7 installed perfectly and is actually pretty fast. 2) I managed to install Lion using the myHack method, the Extra folder downloaded here (for D630 Intel graphics), plus the Simeonoff dsdt for 1440x900. It installed pretty fast and looked okay. BUT when I was installing EDP 2.2 I got a kernel panic after the last kext install. This happened exactly the same way twice, as I tried a reinstall. I now get a kernel panic when trying to boot the D630. 3) now, booting from the myHack USB pen or another pen I made using the old method here (Restore), I always get a kernel panic. SOMETHING REALLY WEIRD: I've just made a myHack USB pen for Snow Leopard, following the usual instructions. The install seemed to go perfectly and I left the pen as is, because I wanted to ask for people's advice here before proceeding. Here's the weird thing: the USB pen is NOT a Mac install disk (though it says myHack OS X Install Disk), but instead CONTAINS A LOT OF OTHER files and folders and documents that I previously had stored on the USB pen !!!!! WTF! I had reformatted the USB pen obviously. I had used it for the other install attempt for Lion yesterday, and the pen was created properly. Really really weird. I am having zero luck with myHack in general. Is it working okay for everybody else? My best results are still when I use the old method with a Restore, but that's with Snow Leopard.

I'm trying to install Snow Leopard on a friend's D630 Intel graphics, using my trusty and tested USB pen, created using the old method here. It's worked several times on other Dells. When I try to boot the D630 I get the boot options, choose USB pen as usual, get the boot screen and choose the Installer. The screen goes to the usual Apple logo, with the spinning wheel, then after about 20-30 seconds the screen goes black. The computer is on. The bios is A17. I've set ACHI and deactivated wifi. I'm now installing Windows 7 via DVD in order to check if it's a hardware problem. Any ideas? P.S. just installed Windows 7 Ultimate and it installed fine.

I couldn't get myHack 3.0 to work (as described above) so I just made a USB pen using the old method here in the wiki. Worked just fine.

I wanted to make an Installation pen that would be foolproof for my friend that I'm sending the D620 to, just in case he has to reinstall Snow Leo. I read about myHack and wanted to give it a try. Just doesn't seem to work for me. I then rebuilt a USB installer pen using the Old Method (Restore from disk image, add Chameleon and Extra folder that you download from this site) and it worked fine, as usual. So the USB pen is okay, and the D620 is okay. The disk image from Retail Snow Leopard DVD is okay too. The problems seems to be myHack 3.0.

P.P.S. I have to try to get the USB pen working ASAP as I'd like to ship the D620 out today. What'd be the best way to "revert" the USB pen to something like the "old" method USB pen that we used to make here? Is that possible? Could I install Chameleon and EDP, and "remove" the stuff that myHack 3.0 installed to the pen? I don't really have a lot of time, that's all.

I have been trying to create a USB pen using myHack 3.0 and I can't get it to work on my D620. I've followed instructions from myHack and from here. I have a perfectly working D620 10.6.8 which I installed using the old method here to create a USB pen. I'd like to try myHack 2.2 until 3.0 works, but like the OP here I need a copy of myHack 2.2. Or, I'll just create USB pen using the old method here, BUT I can't remember it! Getting old. Do you do a Restore from Disk Utility to the USB pen, then install Chameleon and EDP to the pen?

I downloaded MyHack 3.0 and created a new USB pen as per the instructions both here and on MyHack, but I cannot boot from the USB pen to install Snow Leopard on my D620. I downloaded the correct Extra folder for my model (D620 Intel) and used it to replace the /Extra on the USB pen. When I try to boot from the USB pen, I use F12 to select the USB pen as usual. But then I get a dark blue screen for about 1 minute, then the Apple logo appears for about 1 second, and then I get a kernel panic. I'm using the Retail Snow Leo DVD. I tried making the USB pen directly from the Retail DVD and from the disk image I created with the DVD. Same result both times. I even tried copying a perfectly working /Extra folder from my D620 to the USB pen, but the results were the same. I am only trying to boot from the USB pen and check that the installation pen is working okay, as I'm giving the D620 to a friend a long way away, so I'm preparing the USB pen for him. I never had any problems with the old method for creating the USB pen. And my D620 is currently working perfectly with a fully updated 10.6.8. Any ideas? Thanks. P.S. the memory is getting old, but I can't remember the exact steps for the OLD method to create the USB pen! Do you use Restore in Disk Utility from the DVD/image to the USB pen? And then install Chameleon and EDP? (sorry for the brain freeze, it's been a while)

No, maybe I explained it wrong. The problem with this drive is that I've read on PC forums that people couldn't run WINDOWS on it, and the answer they found was something to do with 4k block sizes or something like that. I've seen this drive listed as compatible with iPods Classics and early Macbook Airs. And I have read successful reports that it works in iPods Personally, I've tried another 120GB listed as compatible with iPods and Macbook Airs and it DIDN'T work with my D430 and 10.6.8. I could install Snow Leopard, but it wouldn't boot to the internal disk. I could boot from the USB install pen though. It worked perfectly with Windows though. So, while I'd like to "give it a try", I don't have the money to throw away at the moment. I'll let you know if I find out anything. Thanks.

Hi all. Need some advice so that I don't buy an incompatible drive. Prices on the huge 240GB Toshiba MK2431GAH have really dropped and are now under 100 euro. Buyer beware, I guess. Anyway, I have read there are compatibility problems with PC notebooks and you can't install Windows due to the physical block size of the drive. These drives are made for iPods, videocameras and the Macbook Air. Sellers offer no compatibility guarantees with other devices. Does anyone know if these would work in a D430 with Snow Leopard, or would you be unable to boot? I had a problem like this in the past with a 120GB drive I had, but it was a little different. IIRC, I was able to install Windows XP and boot okay from it. I was able to install Snow Leopard but I couldn't boot from it. I could boot from a USB pen in order to install Snow Leopard. The drive worked okay in an external box. In the end I installed Windows 7 on it and sold the D430 locally, as the 120GB HD was huge at the time. Anyone know anything about these block size incompatibilities? Do they apply to the MacOS too?