staalwart

One other interesting thing that I'm seeing right now... When the boot had the "cpus=1" flag, despite not being able to run both cores, the graphics were quite fast (not with streaming video, but in the screen saver, for example). Now, using both cores... the screen saver is literally drawing itself screen-by-screen at a time! Why would that be? Both cores means twice the processor power...

Laugh with me, dude! Digging on my com.apple.Boot.plist file, I detected the following boot flag:

 

cpus=1

 

WRONG! And I'm not sure why it was there! I removed it, and now Leopard naturally reports BOTH cores. D'oh...

 

Now I'm going to try the videos from YouTube and stuff... Maybe the sluggishness was due to being a V-8 engine working with just four cylinders...

 

I'll let you know!

Bad news, my friend... I flashed A09 BIOS in the D430, and fired it up again (with no problems at all). But the Leopard installation still reports only one processor core (strangely, it correctly reports two threads). Maybe if I apply a patch? I would hate to reinstall the entire thing, I already have it with iLife'09 and OpenOffice 3...

Acknowledged. Will try, and let you know. Thanks for your prompt assistance!

Not yet. Also I'm downloading BIOS A09 to upgrade mine. Shall I try the modified BIOS posted in OSXLatitude instead? What is your recommendation?

Update: researching in the Intel website, I confirm that the Intel Core 2 Duo U7700 processor equipped inside the D430 has two cores, not one. So, definitely, there is an issue with my Leopard installation...

 

Link to U7700 processor specs

yes there is

 

Well, this is interesting...

 

The CPU-X window gives me the following:

 

Name: Core 2 Duo CPU U7700

Code Name: Unknown

Package: Socket 775 LGA

Technology: 65 nm

Specification: Intel® Core2 Duo CPU U7700 @1.33 GHz

Family 6 Model: f Stepping: 13

Ext. Family 6 Ext. Model: f Revision: M0

Instructions: SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 EM64T VMX

 

Clocks (Core #0)

Core Speed 1333 MHz

Multiplier x10.0

Bus Speed 133 MHz

Rated FSB 532 MHz

 

Cores: 1 Threads: 2

 

So, it checks as a Core 2 Duo, but ONLY ONE CORE... Although this explains why Garage Band doesn't let me see the learning videos. However, the BIOS can see the two cores... What am I missing?

Yes, I'm sure... D430 came with a Core 2 Duo processor (I understands D420 had the option of Core Duo or Core 2 Duo in stock conditions). My BIOS identifies the processor with the following data:

 

Processor Type = Intel® Core2 Duo processor

Processor ID = 06FD

Current Clock Speed = 1.33 GHz

Minimum Clock Speed = 800 MHz

Maximum Clock Speed = 1.33 GHz

Processor Cache Size = 2048 KB

Dual Core Present = Yes

 

Is there an app like CPU-Z to check this inside my Mac OSX installation?

Ok, I've successfully installed 10.5.6 on my D430. Everything works but the wireless (I haven't tried any kext yet). I've got 1280x800 max res in internal display. Now, I have a couple of questions:

 

1) How do I set the graphics acceleration by hardware? Videos in YouTube shows somewhat choppy at times, and video in general seems a little slow (no artifacts at all in graphics though, just sluggishness).

 

2) How do I know if both CPU cores are working? The "About This Mac" dialog shows correctly an Intel Core 2 Duo, but trying to run a guitar lesson in Garage Band (in iLife 09), I got the message "The Learn To Play feature requires an Intel-based Mac with a dual-core processor or better". Why it doesn't recognize the CPU as a Core 2 Duo?

hmm it should work if your setup is using an extra folder. once edp 1.9 is installed you go to /Extra and run edptool.command that will open terminal window with options. audio and lan are added by default. but yes you are correct we do not have distro support; only "vanilla" support. the reason being is that those distros change a lot of key items which can cause problems with updates. and issues like the one your having.

I see... I shall try again with a vanilla SL installation then, and keeping my fingers crossed!

Hello, and thanks for your response! As a matter of fact I did, but as I said before every reference that I saw was related to vanilla installations... Also, it was there when I came across the custom BIOS, as a matter of fact. But I didn't see anything about special installations, such as Leo4All, iFail, iFail, Kalyway, and such... Anyway, is there a repository in which I could download the audio and network kexts for my D430? I downloaded the EDP package in your Wiki, but it doesn't configure kexts for audio and built-in Ethernet and/or Wi-Fi...

Hello everyone! I've got my hands on a Dell D430, completely stock (no extras, although a media base/docking station is included but I don't use it). It's got 2GB in RAM, 120GB HDD, and BIOS A06, among other standard features - such as WiFi, BT, and such. It came with Ubuntu 11.04 installed from previous owner; I firstly, of course, tried installing Mac OS X, and I gave SL a first shot; I used iFail S3 v2 (10.6.4), but I experienced so many bugs (being the most annoying that the display only worked with an external monitor plugged in, but also including the usual bugs of no-sound, no-WiFi, no-Ethernet typical to OSX beginners) that I tried to "scale down" my installation to Leopard. I used, on this occasion, iFail 1.3 (10.5.2), and by only selecting the chipset (Intel ICHx) I was finally able to boot into OSX! However, again I'm with no sound, no Ethernet and no WiFi. Now, I've been looking into your forums, and I've seen all your comments, especially about the custom BIOS! But I've not seen many recommendations about custom installations. What installation methods are the best for the D430? Only vanilla OSX versions? And how, besides the custom BIOS method, can I make the sound, Ethernet and WiFi to work? Thanks, and forgive me in advance if this have been answered or spoken of before in other forums, I'm a newbie in OSX for PC...