Saturday, August 14, 2010

Dropbox Online file storage - 2GB of storage for free

I signed up for this service after a friend recommended it to me, and I must say it's pretty sweet. I really like the fact that they have Windows, Mac, and Linux client software that lets you integrate the service so it appears as a local storage location on your computer. I've got it installed on my Netbook and my Notebook, they both have Ubuntu Netbook Remix installed. I currently don't have access to my Hackintosh system or my Windows 7 gaming PC but I'll be installing it as soon as I can go pick them up and bring them to where I'm currently staying.

Here is a referral link to sign up for the free service if you are interested. If you use my link I get a free additional 250 megabytes of storage space, and you also get an additional 250 megabytes of storage space added to your dropbox account.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

how to fix your Acer Aspire One netbook if it has the Blank screen and doesn't boot problem

I picked up an Acer Aspire One A150 ZG5 netbook off ebay as a parts or repair system. the hard drive was removed but it came with everything else. It wouldn't display anything on the screen and wouldn't POST so I got on google and did some research and found this info on several different websites. I don't know who the original poster was for this info but thank you, as it worked perfectly for me. I now have a working netbook for less than $100 dollars total (I already had a sata notebook drive I could use)

anyways here is the info.

1) Format a USB memory key with the FAT mode.
2) Download the latest version of the BIOS from Acer support website:

* HERE if you have a Aspire One A150
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_one_150.html

* HERE for the Aspire One A110
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_one_110.html

3) Extract the files from the zip and put both the FLASHIT.EXE and the BIOS file in the root directory of the memory key.

4) Rename the BIOS file to ZG5IA32.FD and then remove the disk.

5) Turn the AA1 off, insert the battery and connect the AC adapter.

6) Insert the USB Memory Key into one of the USB port of the Aspire One.

 note: I've read different reports stating that it usually works better if you use the usb ports on the left side of the netbook, I used one on the left when I did my flash and it worked for me


7) Press Fn+Esc, keep it pressed and press the power button to turn the AA1 on.

8) Release Fn+Esc after a few seconds, the power button will be blinking.

9) Press the power button once. The AA1 will start the BIOS flash, do not interrupt for any reason. After some minutes the power button will stop blinking, and then the AA1 will reboot. Wait till the AA1 has completed all this operations.

If you're having issues with a D250 aka KAV60 Acer Aspire one Netbook try these instructions

http://gadgetmix.com/netbook/acer-aspire-d250-bios-recovery/

Something went wrong with your Aspire D250 BIOS? Download the latest BIOS from support.acer.com and follow these instructions:
  1. First format an USB stick with FAT, if this option is not available use a smaller USB stick (eg 1Gig)
  2. Download the latest BIOS, and put both FLASHIT.EXE and the BIOS file in the root directory of the stick. Do NOT rename the BIOS file, it should be KAV60.fd
  3. Now connect the USB stick to the AA1
    Turn the AA1 off, DISCONNECT the battery but leaving the AC adapter connected. Press Fn+Esc, keep it pressed and press the power button to turn the AA1 on. Release Fn+Esc after a few seconds. Press power button if it begins to blink, otherwise do nothing. The AA1 will now initiate the BIOS flash, do not interrupt it under any circumstances. The AA1 will reboot shortly after. Wait patiently.

  4. The BIOS has been flashed and all settings reset to default.

Monday, June 28, 2010

how to use a upgrade windows 7 serial number on fresh installed full install

I didn't come up with this info, I found it on a forum that was talking about academic upgrade versions of windows 7

this info is supposed to let you use a upgrade disk to install windows 7 on a clean system without a previous OS installed without having to do the upgrade trick where you install the same version using the disk without putting in the serial number then run a upgrade to the same version and put in the serial number trick that Vista introduced.

here is the info, credit goes to whoever originally figured this out. I haven't had a chance to try this yet.


First, perform a normal clean install of the OS by booting the PC with the Upgrade Setup disc and stepping through Setup.


After performing the clean install, ensure that there are no Windows Updates pending that would require a system reboot. (You'll see an orange shield icon next to Shutdown in the Start Menu if this is the case).


Then, open regedit.exe with Start Menu Search and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

Change MediaBootInstall from "1" to "0" if it isn’t already set to “0”

Change RetailInstall from “1” to “0”

 

UPDATE: added Change RetailInstall from “1” to “0”

(found this when I actually got around to trying it, used to only have to do the MediaBootInstall entry for vista, this has changed for windows 7)


Open the Start Menu again and type cmd to display a shortcut to the Command Line utility. Right-click this shortcut and choose "Run as administrator." Handle the UAC prompt.

In the command line window, type: slmgr /rearm


Then tap ENTER, close the command line window and reboot. When Windows 7 reboots, run the Activate Windows utility, type in your product key and activate windows. It should just work.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Instructions for using Empire EFI 1.085 R2 AMD compatible Boot CD to Install Snow Leopard 10.6 (original retail) on an M68M-S2 motherboard with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 with PATA (IDE) drives AKA Doctor Evil Builds his first AMD Hackintosh

System Specs for system that this guide was written for:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 2.6 GHz
2 GB DDR2 Memory
IDE (PATA) DVD/CD-RW combo drive
IDE (PATA) 80 GB Maxtor Hard Drive

Software needed: Empire EFI 1.085 R2 AMD compatible Boot CD found here
Mac OSX Snow Leopard Retail 10.6 DVD disk
Nforce ATA Kext, Nforce Lan Kext and Kext Utility file found here
 
VoodooHDA Kext (found on the Empire EFI 1.085 Boot CD)
NVenabler kext found here or on the Empire EFI 1.085 R2 AMD boot CD link previously given above.
Instructions:
download the Empire EFI 1.085 R2 AMD  compatible Boot CD Iso images using the link I provided at the start of this guide. You may want to try both versions of the iso on a rewritable disk to determine which works better for you. On my particular M68M-S2 Motherboard I have to use the Legacy version as the regular version reboots my system and doesn't load properly.
Boot your system using the Empire EFI Boot CD, after it has booted eject it and insert your Snow Leopard install DVD and then wait until the drive stops flashing and then press F5, this should refresh the menu options so that you now see Mac OSX Install DVD instead of Empire EFI.
Press Enter to Boot your Mac OSX Install DVD and start the OSX Snow Leopard Operating System Installation.
make sure you partition your hard drive as a MacOS Journaled drive with GUID format, select the desired fonts,etc. and then install Snow Leopard.
If you get an error about the system not being able to bless the drive don't panic, this is common, you'll be using the empire efi boot cd to boot your system until you get the myhack bootloader software installed.
When the install finishes reboot your system, remove the Snow Leopard install DVD and reinsert your empire efi boot cd and allow the system to boot from it.
At the chooser screen select the hard drive (named to whatever you named it to during the install) and then hit enter to boot. If you want to watch a verbose boot to watch for errors press the down key after selecting this disk and choose the verbose option and then press enter to boot.
after the system has booted you'll want to go into the post-installation folder on the empire efi disk, and run the myhack installer.
Do a customized install and then select the chocolate kernel as you'll need this before you attempt to download and install any updates from apple for Snow Leopard.
If you are using a USB keyboard and Mouse, then all you'll need to do is select the chocolate kernel option and go with the other previously selected options, but if you are using a PS2 Keyboard or Mouse you need to also select PS2Controller in addition to the other selected options. This will add the needed Kext file to make your PS/2 Devices work.

Note: I don't advise using the sleep enabler kext, as you'll run into problems with updating your kernel if you use this kext, it's not really needed unless you absolutely want or need the ability to put your hackintosh to sleep.

After Myhack is done installing we need to get the nforce ata kext and the nforce lan , voodoohda sound and nvenabler nvidia video kexts installed.
1. copy AppleNforceATA.kext to /Extra/Extensions and copy nForceLAN.kext to /System/Extensions
2. copy the voodoohda.kext file from the Empire EFI boot CD that is found in the /post-installation/universal drivers(kexts) folder to /System/Extensions
3. extract the nvenabler_64-1.kext.zip file found in this same location or use the one I provided the link to and then copy the nvenabler 64.kext to /Extra/Extensions
Use the Kext Utility program I provided with the kexts to repair the file permissions for these files and then generate new cache files with these files added to the cache.
Remove the Empire EFI Boot CD and then restart your Hackintosh. If everything went ok you should now be able to boot into OSX from the myhack (chameleon) bootloader that you installed.
If everything went well you should now have the ability to change your video resolution and you should have a fully working network card and sound card.
Congratulations on your new fully working AMD Hackintosh system.
A Final Note regarding this guide, I’ve ran into some issues with my system that seem to be related to the built in sleep functions for Snow Leopard and how the AMD Cool and quiet bios functions work.
This would cause the system to go to sleep even though I didn’t install the sleep enabler kext, and the system would ignore all input from the USB keyboard and mouse. I was able to work around this issue by going into the Snow Leopard power management settings and setting the sleep setting to never. At this writing my M68M-S2 system has been running for 3 days and hasn’t had anymore problems with this happening. I wanted to advise everyone about this particular problem and how to work around it if you experience it.


If you run into any problems head over to the insanelymac forum to ask for help
The main thing to remember when asking for help.

1. Patience, it may take a couple of days before someone answers your question, don't get pushy and don't keep posting the same question over and over.

2. scan the forum and make sure that someone else hasn't posted a similar problem, if they have you may already have the answer to your question.

3. understand that running a hackintosh isn't for the average person, you have to be willing to work on problems by yourself if you can't get anyone to assist you. Being pushy or disrespectful of others on the forum will cause your questions to be ignored.
4. Remember you're on your own if you do decide to build your own hackintosh. If you want a smooth out of the box experience, you should probably save up the money and buy yourself a real Macintosh system from Apple. I'm too cheap to do this, and I'm the kind of person that I think it's fun when you have to work a little to get something to run the way you want it to.
Having warned you about these things, I hope those of you who do decide to continue with building a AMD M68M-S2 hackintosh have fun and learn a lot from the process.

I remain your obedient servant

Doctor Evil 30564

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Coming soon: Gigabyte M68M-S2 with PATA drives install guide

I've successfully used the AMD compatible 1.085 R2 Boot CD made by Prasys to install Snow Leopard on a Gigabyte M68M-S2 system with the following config

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 2.6 GHz
2 GB DDR2 Memory
IDE (PATA) DVD/CD-RW combo drive
IDE (PATA) 80 GB Maxtor Hard Drive

I'm in the middle of doing the write-up for the guide so it'll take me a few days to get it polished up and ready.

The only issue I've noticed so far is that even with the nullcpumanagement kext installed and not having the sleep enabler kext installed I still had to go into the power management settings to turn off the systems ability to sleep due to a problem with it not wanting to wake up.

Other than this I haven't had any issues with the performance, I've downloaded and installed all available updates on this system. I'm using the chocolate kernel that can be installed with the myhack boot loader install package.

Stay tuned for the complete guide.

 

UPDATE: The Guide has been written up and can be viewed here

I remain your obedient servant

Doctor Evil

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Guide to installing OSX Snow Leopard version 10.6 (original Retail Disk) on a Intel D945GCLF with SATA drives




instructions for using Empire EFI 1.085 Atom compatible Boot CD to Install Snow Leopard 10.6 (original retail)

System Specs for system that this guide was written for:

Intel Motherboard D945GCLF with Intel Atom 230 CPU

2 Gigabytes of DDR2 533 MHz Memory (Generic)

Seagate 120 GB ST3120026AS Sata hard drive

HL-DT-ST Sata Dual Layer DVD +/- DVD Burner

Onboard Intel GMA 950 Video

Onboard Realtek R1000 Network card 

Onboard Sound card

Cooler Master CM-360 Case

Apevia Java Power 500 Watt 24 Pin ATX Power Supply


Software needed: Empire EFI 1.085 Atom compatible Boot CD found here

Realtek R1000 Kext, and Kext Utility file found here 

VoodooHDA Kext (found on the Empire EFI 1.085 Boot CD)

DSDT.aml file for a D945GCLF series (needed to have ability to chose supported resolutions higher than 1024 x 768 32 bit. Found here

Instructions:

download the Empire EFI 1.085 Atom compatible Boot CD Iso images using the link I provided at the start of this guide. You may want to try both versions of the iso on a rewritable disk to determine which works better for you. On my particular D945GCLF Motherboard I have to use the regular version as the Legacy version has the same isolinux image is corrupt error that caused me to develop the USB Snow Leopard on a D945GCLF Guide found on my blog.

Boot your system using the Empire EFI Boot CD, after it has booted eject it and insert your Snow Leopard install DVD and then wait until the drive stops flashing and then press F5, this should refresh the menu options so that you now see Mac OSX Install DVD instead of Empire EFI.


Press Enter to Boot your Mac OSX Install DVD and start the OSX Snow Leopard Operating System Installation.


make sure you partition your hard drive as a MacOS Journaled drive with GUID format, select the desired fonts,etc. and then install Snow Leopard.

If you get an error about the system not being able to bless the drive don't panic, this is common, you'll be using the empire efi boot cd to boot your system until you get the myhack bootloader software installed.


When the install finishes reboot your system, remove the Snow Leopard install DVD and reinsert your empire efi boot cd and allow the system to boot from it.


At the chooser screen select the hard drive (named to whatever you named it to during the instal)l and then hit enter to boot. If you want to watch a verbose boot to watch for errors press the down key after selecting this disk and choose the verbose option and then press enter to boot.

after the system has booted you'll want to go into the post-installation folder on the empire efi disk, and run the myhack installer.

If you are using a USB keyboard and Mouse, then all you'll need to do is do a standard install for Myhack, but if you are using a PS2 Keyboard or Mouse you need to do a customized install and select PS2Controller in addition to the other selected options. This will add the needed Kext file to make your PS/2 Devices work.

Note: I don't advise using the sleep enabler kext, as you'll run into problems with updating your kernel if you use this kext, it's not really needed unless you absolutely want or need the ability to put your hackintosh to sleep.


After Myhack is done installing remove the Empire EFI Boot CD and then restart your Hackintosh. If everything went ok you should now be able to boot into OSX from the myhack (chameleon) bootloader that you installed.

Next we're going to work on getting your sound card and network card working.


copy the realtekR1000.kext   I gave you a link for to /system/extensions along with the voodoohda.kext file from the post-install folder on the Empire EFI Boot CD and then run Kext Utility to update your kext caches and fix your file permissions

If you get an error about either of these two kexts being installed improperly before Kext Utility finishes running don't worry as Kext Utility will fix the problem before it finishes running. All you need to do now is reboot your hackintosh and if everything went ok, you should now have a working network card and a working sound card in Snow Leopard.

Next we are going to work on giving you the ability to select resolutions for your video display so you aren't stuck at 1024x768. This will require two things to be done. 

1. You'll need to open finder (the two tone blue smiley face in the lower left corner on the dock) and go to the /Extra folder, copy the com.apple.boot.plist file that is in the folder to your desktop so we can edit it. double click on the file on your desktop and use textedit to remove the following info Graphics Mode 1024x768x32 This info hard codes the display to only display at 1024 x 768 32 bit resolution so we need to get rid of it. after editing this save the file and then copy it back into the Extra folder. You'll get a prompt for your password, if you created one for your user account enter it, otherwise just click ok.

2. copy the DSDT.aml file I provided the link to earlier into the /Extra Folder Then reboot your Hackintosh. When you reboot you should now have the ability to change your display resolution 



before you install the 10.6.2 update from apple's website be sure to install the Nawcom 10.6.2 kernel found here

After installing the new patched kernel you should be able to download the 10.6.2 update directly using the Apple update utility.

After running all of the updates you should wind up with a fully patched and operational Hackintosh system.

Congratulations.

If you run into any problems head over to the insanelymac forum to ask for help

The main thing to remember when asking for help.


1. Patience, it may take a couple of days before someone answers your question, don't get pushy and don't keep posting the same question over and over.


2. scan the forum and make sure that someone else hasn't posted a similar problem, if they have you may already have the answer to your question.


3. understand that running a hackintosh isn't for the average person, you have to be willing to work on problems by yourself if you can't get anyone to assist you. Being pushy or disrespectful of others on the forum will cause your questions to be ignored.


4. Remember you're on your own if you do decide to build your own hackintosh. If you want a smooth out of the box experience, you should probably save up the money and buy yourself a real Macintosh system from Apple. I'm too cheap to do this, and I'm the kind of person that I think it's fun when you have to work a little to get something to run the way you want it to.



Having warned you about these things, I hope those of you who do decide to continue with building your hackintosh have fun and learn a lot from the process.

I remain your obedient servant

Doctor Evil 30564




Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Guide to installing OSX Snow Leopard version 10.6 (original Retail Disk) on a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 with PATA drives



This is a general guide to installing OSX Snow Leopard Version 10.6 (original retail Disk) on a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 that has PATA (Parallel ATA AKA IDE) drives instead of SATA drives.


This guide should also work for Systems using this motherboard with SATA drives with a few minor changes.


I'll try to do a guide a little later on for installing OSX Snow Leopard on this same motherboard using SATA drives.


Please note: my guide is written for my particular system config, if your system doesn't have similar components you may or may not have success with installing Snow Leopard.  Also this guide is written for those who are familiar with computers and technology, I'm not going to go into a step by step breakdown of how to burn a ISO for the boot CD,etc. You're on your own there.


My system's current configuration is as follows:


Thermaltake 430 Watt 24 Pin ATX Power Supply
Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 with Bios revision F14
2 Gigabytes of Patriot DDR2-800 Memory
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13 GHz CPU, stock setting, not overclocked.
Onboard Network card (Marvel Yukon 88E8056)
Onboard Sound card
ASUS EN8800GT 512 megabyte NVIDIA PCI Express Video card
Sony Dual Layer DVD +/- RW Burner (IDE / PATA configured as Slave)
Western Digital WD2000JB-00DUA0 200 Gigabyte (IDE / PATA configured as Master)
Generic Texas Instruments Chipset PCI Firewire card


List of Software, boot disks,etc. that I used to install OSX Snow Leopard on my GA-965P-S3 based computer.


1. Empire EFI Version 1.085 Boot CD found here
2. MyHack bootloader (found on Empire EFI Version 1.085 Boot CD )
3. Snow Leopard compatible Kext for Marvel Yukon 88E8056, VoodooHDA Kext for Sound and the DSDT file from here
4. A Retail Copy of Snow Leopard, (copies that come with mac systems are specific for that system and normally will not work when trying to install them on a hackintosh.


Some folks advise that Google is your friend for the copy of Snow Leopard, but my advice is to spend the money and buy a Legal retail copy of Snow Leopard, It's only 29 American dollars and is well worth the money.


For your Empire EFI Boot CD, you may want to burn a copy of the regular disk ISO and a disk for the legacy disk iso, I ran into a problem with the current version 1.085 where I would get a memory error for the regular disk, I was able to successfully use the legacy disk to boot my system and then start the Snow Leopard installation


Boot your system using the Empire EFI Boot CD, after it has booted eject it and insert your Snow Leopard install DVD and then wait until the drive stops flashing and then press F5, this should refresh the menu options so that you now see Mac OSX Install DVD instead of Empire EFI.


Press Enter to Boot your Mac OSX Install DVD and start the OSX Snow Leopard Operating System Installation.


make sure you partition your hard drive as a MacOS Journaled drive with GUID format, select the desired fonts,etc. and then install Snow Leopard.


If you get an error about the system not being able to bless the drive don't panic, this is common, you'll be using the empire efi boot cd to boot your system until you get the myhack bootloader software installed.


When the install finishes reboot your system, remove the Snow Leopard install DVD and reinsert your empire efi boot cd and allow the system to boot from it.


At the chooser screen select the hard drive (named to whatever you named it to during the install and then hit enter to boot. If you want to watch a verbose boot to watch for errors press the down key after selecting this disk and choose the verbose option and then press enter to boot.


after the system has booted you'll want to go into the post-installation folder on the empire efi disk, and run the myhack installer.


do a customized install and select the following items in addition to the items that are already checked.


1. graphics enabler
2. ahciportinjector
3. AppleIntelPIIXATA.kext and IOATAFAMILY.kext
4.IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext
5. JmicronATA.kext


If you want to be able to download updates directly from Apple, I suggest that you don't install the sleepenabler.kext file I did this and then updated to 10.6.2 and then I had to boot the OSX installer disk to be able to get into a working terminal so I could remove this KEXT file, it was causing an immediate kernel panic because it didn't match the version of the kernel. so I advise to stay away from this one, it's only needed if you want your hackintosh to be able to go to sleep, not a big deal in my book.


Ok back to the instructions.


After you get done making your selections, click install, after the install finishes eject the Empire EFI disk.


Copy the DSDT.aml file I provided a link to earlier in this guide to the /Extra folder in your hard drive in the finder


Reboot your Computer and verify that you are able to successfully boot into OSX Snow Leopard.


You should now have the ability to change your display resolution, as the graphics enabler and the DSDT file should now give you full functionality for your Nvidia video card.


The next thing you will need to do it get your network and sound card working


Unzip the Stuff for GA-965P-S3 SL Hackintosh install zip file I provided the link to earlier and then open the folder. You're going to need the Kext Helper program in this folder to install the network kext you need for the Marvel Yukon 99E8056 network card, as it's not recognized by the default network drivers for Snow Leopard. run the Kext Helper program and then open the marvel Yukon folder that's in this folder and drag the Kext file contained there into the Kext Helper Program.  Next drag the voodooHDA.kext file into the Kext Helper and then click the easy install button, this takes care of rebuilding the system cache files,etc. so your network and audio will now work.


Reboot your hackintosh and if everything went well you should now have a fully working Hackintosh system running Snow Leopard OSX 10.6


If you see any problems or mistakes in my guide please leave me a comment and let me know.


If you run into any problems I highly recommend going over to the insanelymac.com web forum to ask for assistance.


The main thing to remember when asking for help.


1. Patience, it may take a couple of days before someone answers your question, don't get pushy and don't keep posting the same question over and over.


2. scan the forum and make sure that someone else hasn't posted a similar problem, if they have you may already have the answer to your question.


3. understand that running a hackintosh isn't for the average person, you have to be willing to work on problems by yourself if you can't get anyone to assist you. Being pushy or disrespectful of others on the forum will cause your questions to be ignored.


4. Remember you're on your own if you do decide to build your own hackintosh. If you want a smooth out of the box experience, you should probably save up the money and buy yourself a real Macintosh system from Apple. I'm too cheap to do this, and I'm the kind of person that I think it's fun when you have to work a little to get something to run the way you want it to.



Having warned you about these things, I hope those of you who do decide to continue with building your hackintosh have fun and learn a lot from the process.


Thanks


Doctor Evil




Friday, January 8, 2010

New Project Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 Hackintosh

I found a deal on a MSI DKA790GX Platinum Motherboard Combo that came with a AMD Phenom II X4 940 3.0 GHz Black Edition processor and bought it. I rebuilt my gaming system that had a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 Motherboard and a Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13 GHz chip in it.
I’m still working on getting the best parts to do the build on the cheap. I may switch my D945GCLF Atom hackintosh system back over to PATA drives and use the SATA drives from it in the system.
I found a post over on insanelymac that had a link to download a kext set for a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3
I used the current legacy version Boot CD from Prasys for EMPIRE EFI and was able to get the system I used the GA-965P-S3 motherboard in to boot and install snow leopard but It keeps having the waiting for root device error when I try to boot it using chameleon instead of using the boot CD to boot the system. I’ve read that this means that I need to use different kexts or something to that effect. I’m fixing to head to bed, but I’ll post my results for this system tomorrow.

EDIT: New Post with guide for installing Snow Leopard on a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 system with PATA / IDE Drives


Sorry It’s taken me so long to post. I’ve been depressed due to being unemployed and I haven’t felt like messing with my Hackintosh systems. I’ll try to post more often, whenever I run across any interesting news to share and discuss.