pilgrim

I've got a D620 Core2Duo 1.83 with nVidia 64MB graphics and Snow Leopard 10.6.8, which has been running fine. I had 2 x 1GB sticks of RAM installed and I'm trying to upgrade to 4GB. I swapped both sticks with identical 2GB DDR2 PC2-5300 667Mhz Corsair brand sticks. But now RAM in the top slot is not recognized - slot A under the keyboard. I've tried a couple of different sticks and none of them are recognized in the A slot. System Profile shows it as Empty. Has anyone else seen this? I don't think anyone could've broken, the swap is pretty straight forward. Are the RAM slots especially fragile? It doesn't seem to be a question of compatibility as the new 2GB sticks are identical, and I've tried 4 different ones just to be sure it's not the RAM. Any ideas greatly appreciated thanks.

I have a D410 lying around and I'd like to go to 10.5.8. I have 10.5.7 using iFail, but I'd like to update to 10.5.8 in order to install a more recent version of Safari and iTunes. I managed to install 10.5.7 successfully and put a guide on Insanelymac, but the site seems to be down and I can't access it. I haven't been able to find my install settings for the D410, though I remember it was tricky. Has anyone used the install method from osxlatitude? I'll try to update to 10.5.8 thru iFail, but some reports on doing so are not very positive. The 10.5.7 I have is almost flawless, so I'm reluctant to screw it up right now via update. If necessary, I'd install 10.5.8 iFail directly, if I can find it online. P.S. anyone know what happened to insanelymac?

Just got another D620, this time with the nVidia graphics card. Had a tough time installing Snow Leopard using my USB pen, in that the installation seemed to stop around half way. Third time was the lucky one. I installed EDP 1.9.1 and updated to 10.6.8. Everything working fine, except: - I had a heck of a time getting Airport to work. I'd installed a Dell 1395, which was supposed to be compatible, but I couldn't get it to work. I then swapped it with a 1390, which showed up after the first reboot and Airport works perfectly. I got 5 1395s super cheap on eBay, so I'll have to rebrand them to get them to work. - I can't get Sleep to work using the method posted on the Wiki. I've used it successfully for a few D430s and D420s, and it works great. It just doesn't seem to work with the D620 though. Whether Sleep kicks in on its own (via System Prefs) or I choose Sleep from the menu bar or I close the lid, I get a dark blue screen, the D620 doesn't wake and I have to force shut down. Does the Sleep method on the Wiki work with the D620? Do you set it up exactly the same as with the D4x0 models?

Okay, thanks. It seems the problem was with my D430, as it simply wouldn't let me install Snow Leopard using a USB pen. The only way was to use the Leppy method with boot CD and SL retail.

I saw a couple of people's sigs where they write that they have 3GB of RAM in a D430. I've got 2GB, which the manual says is the max. Given the cheap prices of RAM, going to 3GB is a no-brainer. I don't have a 2GB module lying around, otherwise I'd just try it, so I would need to buy one. Can you confirm the 3GB max? Many thanks.

I've just come across my second D430 that absolutely could not boot from the USB pen in order to install Snow Leopard. I've installed SL on 3 D420s, 2 D430s and a D620 using the same 8GB USB pen. But 2 D430s just kept kernel panicking time and again. The bios is up to date at A09, the USB pens work on other Dells, all internal components check out fine. In the end, I installed SL using the Leppy method from insanelymac, where I had to boot from the D620SLV1 CD, get to the Chameleon screen, and then swap the CD for the retail SL DVD. The installs then went fine, I then installed Chameleon and EDP from a USB pen, and I updated to 10.6.6 using a downloaded Combo DMG. Anyone else come across this? I guess I've learned that you can save a LOT of time if you don't keep trying and trying, maybe redo the USB pen a few times (thinking it might be the pen that's faulty). If the install doesn't work after a couple of tries with the USB pen, go immediately to the Leppy method with boot CD and retail SL DVD.

Hi. Just wanted to ask if you can use a 16GB USB pen for the Snow Leopard installation, first dividing it into 2 8GB partitions and restoring the Snow Leo 10.6 image to the first 8GB partition, then installing Chameleon as usual. I tried, but get kernel panic on boot from USB pen, trying to install on D430. I've installed Snow Leo several times on Dells but have always used an 8GB pen. Thanks.

Many thanks to Bronxteck and Leon for your super fast replies. The news is encouraging. I've tried the methods that Bronxteck linked in his last post, but I can't seem to get the D430 to boot from the HDD. I've tried a few times, carefully following the instructions, but I can't see what I'm doing wrong. The EFI partition mounts okay, I've installed the boot file to it, then copied the files from my Snow Leopard GUID partition, made the EFI partition active, etc. But I still get the usual GPT error on reboot, if I try to boot from internal HDD. I just did a fresh install of Snow Leopard, so I don't think it was corrupted. So, if I mount the EFI partition, can I install the Chameleon package and EDP directly to it? Then make the EFI partition active and boot from it? By making EFI active, will the Snow Leopard partition be ignored at startup and the system will start up automatically from EFI partition?

Okay, it appears that the Samsung 120GB HS12YHA made for the first Macbook Air is NOT compatible with the D430 and Snow Leopard. Just to let people know, in case they're looking at this drive. Good prices on eBay, but it appears to be incompatible. This is a different drive than the one used in the iPod Classic: eBay sellers usually warn people not to buy the iPod drive to use in notebooks, as it's not compatible. I've found a few posts on the net re. this drive and some people have reported that it doesn't work in the first Macbook Air. Some have said that Apple may have made the size of the blocks too small, so that it works with the iPod but not with laptops. No idea. The HS12YHA drive works perfectly in Windows 7. With Snow Leopard, it install perfectly, but I get a GTP error on reboot if I try to boot from the HDD. I can boot from the USB pen though, and then in Chameleon I can select the internal HDD with Snow Leo and it boot perfectly. Also runs perfectly. So I could actually use the D430 just fine, but I'd always have to boot from the USB stick!! It might be a partial solution. I could also partition a big USB pen (16GB or 32GB) with the Snow Leo installer on the first 8GB partition, then use the rest of the pen for backups and emergencies. Oh well.

Okay, no problem. I don't think I would have used it much, but it was good to know. Thanks. By the way, I just wanted to ask. I see from your sig that you have a Samsung HS122JC. Did you have any problems formatting and using it with the Mac OS? Is it the drive that's used in iPods? I'm asking because I have a 120GB Samsung HS12YHA that is supposed to be for the Macbook Air, but I am unable to use it properly with the MacOS. I've installed Snow Leopard on another D430 with this Samsung drive, and everything seems to work okay, but I can't boot from the hard drive. I always get GPT error. I can boot to the USB pen I use to install Snow Leopard, and then choose the hard disk in Chameleon, and it boots and runs okay. From what I read on the web, the problem might be some firmware or bios that Apple has put in the drive. As well, I can install Windows 7 on it and it runs without any problems.

I haven't found any info in the wiki, apart from a couple of mentions about people's setups, but nothing about using the media base. I have a D430 Core Duo with 2GB of RAM, Intel graphics and Snow Leopard 10.6.6, bios A09. I tried installing Snow Leopard with the D430 in the media base, but got kernel panics at startup. I thought it might be a problem with installing 10.6 for the first time, so I installed without the media base and everything went great. The D430 has 10.6.6 and everything is working fine. But I got another kernel panic when I put it into the media base. Is anyone else using the media base? Did you have to do any special kext installs? Should it just work out of the box? Thanks.