Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 OSX Lion CustoMac Hackintosh Guide

 

As promised in a previous Blog post, here is my guide for installing OSX Lion on a Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 based system.

First off, before you can even think about following this guide there are a few pre-requisites.

1. You’re going to need to have another working intel Mac or Hackintosh system that is capable of running OSX Snow Leopard so you can purchase Lion from the Mac App Store

2. or, you will need a working intel mac and a retail OSX Lion USB thumb drive from apple LINK 

You may wonder, why do I need another working system, well this is because you’re going to need to be able to create a working bootable usb installer for your hackintosh system.

read up on what you will need to do after you’ve obtained your legal copy of OSX Lion over on the TonyMacx86 website at this LINK

OK, now that you’ve used unibeast to make your bootable usb OSX Lion we can work on getting your GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 Hackintosh up and running.

Things that you will need to know and files you will need.

1. you need to figure out which version Bios your GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 motherboard has. with this info in hand go to this LINK and download the matching version DSDT file and keep it handy you will need it later on. (Note: if your motherboard’s bios version is newer than the newest version DSDT file you may need to downgrade your bios to a earlier firmware version so you can get a match)

The reason you want to do this is this will help you to get a better functioning hackintosh that is able to sleep, and shutdown and reboot without causing bios resets or other issues.

Hardware Bios settings that will help your hackintosh work correctly.

- Load Optimized Defaults
- Advanced Bios Features :
- First Boot Device : USB HDD
- Second Boot Device : Hard Disk
- Init Display First : PCIE x16
- Integrated Periphericals : AHCI
- Power Management Mode : HPET 64 Bits+Power On by Mouse+Power On by Keyboard

Recommended Hardware for your GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3

My recommendation is to visit TonyMacx86’s site and use their guide to help you figure out what hardware you want to use to build your hackintosh system.

Here is the LINK

I wanted to stay under 250 US Dollars for my build so here is what I went with.

• GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 Motherboard
• Intel® Pentium® Processor G620
  (3M Cache, 2.60 GHz)
• 16 GB of Patriot DDR3 PC10666 Ram

The rest of my components were recycled from my old D945GCLF Atom Hackintosh Build.

• Cooler Master CM360 Micro-ATX Case
• Apevia Java 500-Watt Power Supply
• 120GB Seagate SATA HD
• HP LightScribe DVD +/- DVD Burner

I also used a PNY XLR8 GTS 250 1GB PCI Express video card that I had left over from a upgrade to my Gaming PC instead of using the onboard video, as I’ve had good success in the past with Nvidia Video cards in other hackintosh systems.

Last but not least, while it is possible to use a PS/2 keyboard or a PS/2 Mouse (as this motherboard only has one PS/2 connector), You should stick with a USB keyboard and mouse at least up until after you’ve gotten Lion installed and have booted to the OSX Lion Desktop for the first time, as Lion will not complete the first time setup without a USB keyboard attached (possibly won’t complete it without a USB Mouse attached either, but I didn’t test this)

 

OK on to the installation guide.

 

connect the bootable USB Thumb Drive that you prepared using the unibeast installer following the directions on the TonyMacX86 website from the link I provided earlier.

go through the installation process, when the installer is finished restart your hackintosh and leave the usb key connected, on the selection screen choose your hard drive instead of the USB Lion installer and boot the system,

go to TonyMac’s site and download multibeast from here

Before you run Multibeast copy the DSDT file that I had you go download to the OSX desktop

Then Run Multibeast and select the following settings

After finishing up the multibeast installation, you should now be able to eject the USB flash drive you used to install Lion, and then reboot your Hackintosh and get it to boot into OSX.

Please note:

You will need to re-run the multibeast installer and re-install the AppleHDA Rollback kext file every time you install a OSX system update, as the OSX update will replace the AppleHDA file with the correct unmodified version of the Kext and will cause your sound to stop working until you reinstall the AppleHDA Rollback Kext.

If this is a major pain you should be able to find a cmedia chipset USB Sound card on Ebay that is natively supported in OSX Lion that you can use instead of the onboard sound.

 

Also I currently do not own any USB 3.0 Devices but I did install the USB 3.0 NEC / Renesas selection and didn’t have any problems with it. When I look under System Information it does show the USB 3.0 Hub on my motherboard as a ultra speed hub, so it may work. Again, I don’t own any USB 3.0 devices yet so I can’t guarantee this will work, or that it won’t cause problems if you try it and then plug in a USB 3.0 device. If you want to test it and report back I will allow the comment to show up with your results if you want to reply to this post.

 

I remain your obedient servant,

Doctor Evil 30564

New Hackintosh Project: GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3

It's been a while since I've had the time or interest in working on another Hackintosh how-to guide, but after helping a neighbor with getting a old systemax Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 system up and running with OSX Lion I've decided it's time for a new project.

I have Purchased the following parts for my super budget build Customac Hackintosh system.

1. GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 Socket 1155 Motherboard Version 1.3 with F9 Bios
2. Intel Pentium G620 2.6 GHz dual-core Socket 1155 CPU
3. 16 GB of DDR3 Ram

I am recycling the Case, Sata DVD burner, and sata hard drive from my old D945GCLF Snow Leopard Hackintosh system.


I've been successful with getting it up and running OSX Lion (10.7), and I am in the process of writing up a How-to guide which I hope you will find useful.

In the interim check out TonyMacX86's website LINK as I used info and software from his site to get my GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 Hackintosh up and running.

How to remove the special offers screensaver, ETC. off of a Kindle 3 (keyboard)

I found this info on a web forum and wanted to share it. I can advise that it does work, I just tested it on my Special Offers Wi-Fi Kindle 3.

Instructions:

If you have a special offer Kindle 3 you need to do the following
to get rid of the Ads.

Note: please be careful doing this I take no responsibility for any loss or damage.

Step 1 Charge up your Kindle make sure you have a full battery.
If you are using Windows make sure the Show hidden files
option in Explorer is ticked.

Step 2 Plug the kindle into your computer via usb
(your kindle should show as a device on your computer)
and copy the kindle documents folder to your computer.
(this contains your kindle books)

Step 3 (CAUTION THIS WILL WIPE ALL INFO ON KINDLE)
(MAKE SURE YOU DO STEP 2)
Eject Kindle and Unplug kindle from usb
Reset your kindle to factory defaults - you do this by pressing
[HOME] then pressing [MENU] click settings in menu list
then pressing [MENU] then click Reset to Factory Defaults.

Step 4 Wait ... then Message about setting up Kindle appears.When you
see this message Plug kindle into your computer via usb
(your kindle should show as a device on your computer)
and find the folder on the kindle called System.
Open this folder and create a text file in this
folder called .assets (this turns off the Ads)

Step 5 Eject Kindle and Unplug kindle from usb and slide and hold the
power switch on the kindle for about 15 secs this should restart
the kindle.

Step 6 The Ads should be gone and now you can set up the kindle and
copy the documents folder that you copied in Step 2 back to the
kindle.

Enjoy the Kindle with no Ads

How-to upgrade from Windows Vista Home Basic to Windows 7 Professional

My girlfriend is currently a student at the University of Phoenix and she found out that she could purchase a academic version of Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for $30 dollars at the Microsoft Ultimate Steal website, so she bought it. Her Toshiba laptop came with Windows Vista Home Basic, and in Microsoft’s infinite wisdom they don’t allow you to upgrade from this version of Vista to Windows 7 Professional. When she attempted to run the setup for windows 7 it told her that she couldn’t upgrade and that she had to do a clean install. When she told me this I did some research on the internet through Google’s search engine and found that everyone was recommending that to do this upgrade we format the hard drive and then do a clean install of windows 7 professional and then do the registry hack that I have referenced in a previous article to allow you to use a upgrade license key without having to run another upgrade over the current version.

To me this simply was unacceptable, as My Girlfriend didn’t want to lose her settings and documents and didn’t have the time to fool with doing this procedure as she’s still currently in the middle of a class and couldn’t afford the downtime…

In my continued research I found a method for Windows 7 that allows you to do a upgrade “downgrade” from any version of Windows 7 to a lesser version by editing two registry keys. I tried this method on Windows Vista Home Basic and was able to fool the upgrade installer into doing the upgrade as I changed the info from Windows Vista Home Basic to Windows Vista Business and it worked.

This is how you do it.

1. Run regedit and go to this location

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

look for these two keys

EditionID - Change the value from basic to Business

ProductName – Change the last part of this value from basic to Business

Do not restart, run the setup for windows 7 Professional and the upgrade checker will pass the check after looking at these two registry keys and will do the upgrade for you.

 

This should work for upgrading to any other version of Windows 7 besides Professional that normally requires you to do a clean install for, just make sure to match the values for the two registry keys for the version.

Disclaimer: Use this information at your own risk, it worked for me but I make no guarantees and can not and will not be responsible if you mess up your computer. Regedit is a powerful tool but can mess up your system if you are not careful.

 

I remain your obedient servant.

Doctor Evil

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.

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.

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.