This isn't a solution to the Mini 10v sound chip set driver dilemma, but it is a workaround that solves the problem for now. I have a Griffin iMic that has been in a box just collecting dust for quite some time. I bought several years ago at a MacWorld on the convention floor when they were being introduced and iBooks and PowerBook G4s didn't come with desirable audio in ports, if they had them at all. Some Macintosh models didn't even have audio in ports at all.
Well, I came across this the other day and thought I would try it since OS X has never needed drivers for the iMIc. I plugged it i to my Mini 10v and it was instantly recognized and the selected audio ports automatically switched over to the iMic for both audio in and out. So, for now, I have a solution to be able to use iChat with a headset or to plug a microphone into it and use it with Photo Booth to do some simple video recording.
I have a Blue Snow Ball microphone, but I haven't had much success getting that to work universally with my desktop Mac Mini, so I haven't tried with the Mini 9 or 10v. That will be a future test.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Upgrade Time for the Mini 10v
I purchased a Dell Wireless 1510 N Wireless Half Height Mini Card and a 2.0 Bluetooth module with cable for DELL Mini 10V off of eBay. I also purchased a 2GB SODIMM from Newegg. This was one pain of an upgrade to perform. It was nothing like the upgrades to the Mini 9. The wireless card installed the same way it did on the Mini 9, but that is where the similarities begin and end. There are no little removable panels for the RAM on the Mini 10v.
To upgrade the RAM on the Mini 10v it was helpful to have access to the take apart manuals. To upgrade the RAM you have to remove the panel covering the wireless card, remove the antenna cables from the wireless card, remove the wireless card, remove the keyboard, remove the upper case, remove the RF shielding, remove the motherboard and turn it over. Now you have access to the RAM slot. No reverse that process until you get to the upper case. Insert the bluetooth module in the slot in the palm rest. Replace the upper case and then the keyboard, and install the new wireless card and attach the antenna cables. Replace the communication cover and reboot the machine.
Everything worked as expected and just like on the Mini 9 OS X recognized the upgrades as Apple branded products.
To upgrade the RAM on the Mini 10v it was helpful to have access to the take apart manuals. To upgrade the RAM you have to remove the panel covering the wireless card, remove the antenna cables from the wireless card, remove the wireless card, remove the keyboard, remove the upper case, remove the RF shielding, remove the motherboard and turn it over. Now you have access to the RAM slot. No reverse that process until you get to the upper case. Insert the bluetooth module in the slot in the palm rest. Replace the upper case and then the keyboard, and install the new wireless card and attach the antenna cables. Replace the communication cover and reboot the machine.
Everything worked as expected and just like on the Mini 9 OS X recognized the upgrades as Apple branded products.
Time to Step Up and Hand Down
It looks like I upgraded the Mini 9 to just where I wanted it to be right on time to pass it on to my wife.
Right about the time that I got all of the upgrades installed in the Mini 9, my wife was really itching to get an ultra portable herself and she just happened to get a nice little bonus at work. So we purchased a Mini 10v from our local Sam's Club.
The 10v I got is one of the ones with the 1024x576 screens, so OS X doesn't immediately recognize the video chip as a standard it is used to. This meant that I had to stumble my way through 640x480 for the install program. I had to use the tab key and the space bar and a lot of trial and error to get through all of the screens and finally get the installation process started. I believe it literally took longer to get through the set up screens than it took for the install process to complete.
Once the install process was completed and I installed DellEFI OSX rebooted in 1024x576 and almost everything worked perfectly. I had sound from the built-in speakers, but none of the audio in ports worked (neither the webcam's mic or the mic jack).
All of the software titles that I installed on the Mini 9 installed on the 10v without any problems. I attempted to install Adobe Photoshop, since I had a hard drive in the 10v, but discovered that without 1024x768 resolution you cannot install any Adobe title. The only other problems I ran into was when I tried to run Photo Booth to take a new user picture for my login and iChat avatar I got the message that the program couldn't load because it did not recognize the video chip in my computer. I got the same message when I tried to run Aperture.
Right about the time that I got all of the upgrades installed in the Mini 9, my wife was really itching to get an ultra portable herself and she just happened to get a nice little bonus at work. So we purchased a Mini 10v from our local Sam's Club.
The 10v I got is one of the ones with the 1024x576 screens, so OS X doesn't immediately recognize the video chip as a standard it is used to. This meant that I had to stumble my way through 640x480 for the install program. I had to use the tab key and the space bar and a lot of trial and error to get through all of the screens and finally get the installation process started. I believe it literally took longer to get through the set up screens than it took for the install process to complete.
Once the install process was completed and I installed DellEFI OSX rebooted in 1024x576 and almost everything worked perfectly. I had sound from the built-in speakers, but none of the audio in ports worked (neither the webcam's mic or the mic jack).
All of the software titles that I installed on the Mini 9 installed on the 10v without any problems. I attempted to install Adobe Photoshop, since I had a hard drive in the 10v, but discovered that without 1024x768 resolution you cannot install any Adobe title. The only other problems I ran into was when I tried to run Photo Booth to take a new user picture for my login and iChat avatar I got the message that the program couldn't load because it did not recognize the video chip in my computer. I got the same message when I tried to run Aperture.
Upgraded Wireless Card and Added Bluetooth
I Purchased an HP NC9420 C500 802.11N 300M Wireless PCI Express Card and a Dell Bluetooth module for my Dell Mini 9 off eBay. I wasn't absolutely certain if the HP wireless card would work or not. I couldn't find anyone one the Hackintosh sites who had used one and reported success, but it had the Broadcomm chips that Apple uses in the Airport Extreme cards for all of its hardware, so I felt that it was a safe bet.
I got them in the mail on the same day and eagerly disassembled my Mini.
Fortunately for me a contract employer put me through Dell certification testing the end of last year, so I have access to all of the take apart instructions, though as it turns out these Minis are so simply put together that it really isn't that complicated. But, it is always a little perplexing to work on a notebook computer and not know how to get that last little screw out or retaining clip to release or whatever you need and the slightest amount pressure in the wrong place at the wrong time, in the wrong direction and you hear a sickening snap. Or you get the job all done and you are so pleased with your self and you have these three or four screws left over and for the life of you, you cannot figure out where they should go. You take the thing back apart and put it back together another two or three times and you can only reduce that number of leftover screws by one or two.
Anyway, the wireless card was a no brainer, the access panel is on the bottom of the unit and requires no disassembly of the unit. But, the Bluetooth required removal of the keyboard, disconnecting the keyboard cable, removal of the palm rest, disconnecting the trackpad cable, inserting the bluetooth cable into its slot, plugging the bluetooth cable in, plugging the trackpad cable in, replacing the palm rest, plugging the keyboard cable in, and replacing the keyboard.
After all of that was done and all of the screws were put back in place all I had to do was power back up the NetBook and everything was recognized and worked just like their Apple counterparts. The wireless card connected to my router at 802.11n and at speeds up to 130mbps and the Bluetooth icon was in the menu bar.
I got them in the mail on the same day and eagerly disassembled my Mini.
Fortunately for me a contract employer put me through Dell certification testing the end of last year, so I have access to all of the take apart instructions, though as it turns out these Minis are so simply put together that it really isn't that complicated. But, it is always a little perplexing to work on a notebook computer and not know how to get that last little screw out or retaining clip to release or whatever you need and the slightest amount pressure in the wrong place at the wrong time, in the wrong direction and you hear a sickening snap. Or you get the job all done and you are so pleased with your self and you have these three or four screws left over and for the life of you, you cannot figure out where they should go. You take the thing back apart and put it back together another two or three times and you can only reduce that number of leftover screws by one or two.
Anyway, the wireless card was a no brainer, the access panel is on the bottom of the unit and requires no disassembly of the unit. But, the Bluetooth required removal of the keyboard, disconnecting the keyboard cable, removal of the palm rest, disconnecting the trackpad cable, inserting the bluetooth cable into its slot, plugging the bluetooth cable in, plugging the trackpad cable in, replacing the palm rest, plugging the keyboard cable in, and replacing the keyboard.
After all of that was done and all of the screws were put back in place all I had to do was power back up the NetBook and everything was recognized and worked just like their Apple counterparts. The wireless card connected to my router at 802.11n and at speeds up to 130mbps and the Bluetooth icon was in the menu bar.
10.5.7 Update Released
Software Update pops up with recommended updates and since everything has worked so far I just let it do what is wants to do. Along with a few of the normal updates to a few of the pieces of iLife titles and a few parts of FileMaker Pro and Aperture an update to OS X 10.5.7 is on the list. Everything goes along and I am waiting with baited breath hoping that I haven't just allowed the one thing to happen that will break the system.
Have I been too trusting? Should I have checked the message boards and online communities first? Oh well, too late now.
It finally finishes and the program has closed, the drive icons have disappeared and the little swirling circle has appeared, indicating that the reset process has begun. I guess I will find out soon enough if I have made a major mistake and will have to wipe out my drive and start all over or not. Has Apple figured out a way to shut out all of us modders from the OS X party or are they just figuring that we are the cream on top of the switchers pie? (Actually I am not a switcher. I have been a Mac user since that January day when they were first introduced during the Super Bowl in 1984.)
Viola! It boot up and everything is working perfectly. But, when I hit the internet I find that all is not so for the rest of the Hackintosh community. Even for my fellow Dell Mini 9 users, some have varied experiences and as many different recommendations and solutions.
But, alas, if you are reading this post and you have a Dell Mini 9 or 10v and haven't upgraded to 10.5.7 or are considering purchasing a Mini 9 or 10v to install Mac OS X on take heart in these words: if you install a retail version of OS X 10.5.x, no matter what number is inserted for 'x', you will have no problem if you upgrade to 10.5.7 with either version of the upgrade package.
Have I been too trusting? Should I have checked the message boards and online communities first? Oh well, too late now.
It finally finishes and the program has closed, the drive icons have disappeared and the little swirling circle has appeared, indicating that the reset process has begun. I guess I will find out soon enough if I have made a major mistake and will have to wipe out my drive and start all over or not. Has Apple figured out a way to shut out all of us modders from the OS X party or are they just figuring that we are the cream on top of the switchers pie? (Actually I am not a switcher. I have been a Mac user since that January day when they were first introduced during the Super Bowl in 1984.)
Viola! It boot up and everything is working perfectly. But, when I hit the internet I find that all is not so for the rest of the Hackintosh community. Even for my fellow Dell Mini 9 users, some have varied experiences and as many different recommendations and solutions.
But, alas, if you are reading this post and you have a Dell Mini 9 or 10v and haven't upgraded to 10.5.7 or are considering purchasing a Mini 9 or 10v to install Mac OS X on take heart in these words: if you install a retail version of OS X 10.5.x, no matter what number is inserted for 'x', you will have no problem if you upgrade to 10.5.7 with either version of the upgrade package.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
April, Tax Returns are In, and Mini 9 is Bought
Mid April comes and the tax return that was filed electronically in early January finally arrives. After getting some bills caught up and ahead, it is decided to take the plunge. I go to Sam's Club and purchase an off the shelf Dell Mini 9.
I get it home and order a 32GB Super Talent SSD and Kensington 2GB SODIMM RAM upgrade from Newegg.com for $111.49 delivered. Impatient to try the OS X installation, I try everything I can to get it to fit on the STEC 8GB SSD that came with the standard Windows XP installation. Alas, to no avail can I strip enough away from the retail DVD to get it down to size to fit in the space available on the GUID partition. That was fine because it would have been very frustrating to not have even been able to update OS X so that it could have booted without the Type11 USB thumb drive still attached.
When that failed, I reinstalled Windows XP, from the CDs that came in the box with the Mini 9 and the result for was a little surprising. The self-installed version of Windows XP actually outperformed the pre-customized one that came pre-installed. So, if you are a Windows only Dell Mini user and reading this page, you might consider starting from a blank drive with the discs that came with your computer. Anyway, I decided to keep the original 8GB SSD with a pre-configured Windows XP installation on it so that if I ever had to use that inherently flawed platform, out of sheer desperation, I could just quickly swap out the SSD drives and reboot.
Two days later my components arrived from Newegg.com. I was working for the Census Bureau doing door to door address canvassing. I had stopped by my house for lunch and quickly installed the two components. I took my Dell Mini 9 with me and started it installing at my first stop. I was at an apartment complex and the manager was not in so I had a little time to kill while I waited for her to return.
It took just 28 minutes to install, faster than it ever installed on my desktop Mini with an Intel CoreDuo processor. I rebooted in safe mode and installed the 10.5.6 upgrade. Then I installed DellEFI 1.2.a5 and restarted the Mini 9. Bingo, success we had the grey Apple startup screen with the black Apple logo with the spinning status graph below it. OS X was up and running and all components were all running just as they would on a MacBook Air.
I then install iLife 09 and iWork 09. Other than having to open Terminal to execute a Unix command to adjust the display scale to 75% so that I could launch each or the iLife and iWork titles and get pass their first run screens, every title runs perfectly. Aperture also installed and runs perfectly. FileMaker Pro installs and runs perfectly. As does the SDK for the iPhone. The same for Microsoft Office 2008. Quicken runs great with one exception: you cannot click checkboxes in the dialogue boxes that pop up with certain functions. I run Software Update and everything comes off without a hitch. I downloaded Microsoft Silverlight and am able to watch instantly viewable movies from Netflix, which I wasn't able to do on the Windows XP SP3 installation that came pre-installed on the 8GB Stec SSD.
OS X is running great and it believes the Dell Mini 9 is an original MacBook Air.
I get it home and order a 32GB Super Talent SSD and Kensington 2GB SODIMM RAM upgrade from Newegg.com for $111.49 delivered. Impatient to try the OS X installation, I try everything I can to get it to fit on the STEC 8GB SSD that came with the standard Windows XP installation. Alas, to no avail can I strip enough away from the retail DVD to get it down to size to fit in the space available on the GUID partition. That was fine because it would have been very frustrating to not have even been able to update OS X so that it could have booted without the Type11 USB thumb drive still attached.
When that failed, I reinstalled Windows XP, from the CDs that came in the box with the Mini 9 and the result for was a little surprising. The self-installed version of Windows XP actually outperformed the pre-customized one that came pre-installed. So, if you are a Windows only Dell Mini user and reading this page, you might consider starting from a blank drive with the discs that came with your computer. Anyway, I decided to keep the original 8GB SSD with a pre-configured Windows XP installation on it so that if I ever had to use that inherently flawed platform, out of sheer desperation, I could just quickly swap out the SSD drives and reboot.
Two days later my components arrived from Newegg.com. I was working for the Census Bureau doing door to door address canvassing. I had stopped by my house for lunch and quickly installed the two components. I took my Dell Mini 9 with me and started it installing at my first stop. I was at an apartment complex and the manager was not in so I had a little time to kill while I waited for her to return.
It took just 28 minutes to install, faster than it ever installed on my desktop Mini with an Intel CoreDuo processor. I rebooted in safe mode and installed the 10.5.6 upgrade. Then I installed DellEFI 1.2.a5 and restarted the Mini 9. Bingo, success we had the grey Apple startup screen with the black Apple logo with the spinning status graph below it. OS X was up and running and all components were all running just as they would on a MacBook Air.
I then install iLife 09 and iWork 09. Other than having to open Terminal to execute a Unix command to adjust the display scale to 75% so that I could launch each or the iLife and iWork titles and get pass their first run screens, every title runs perfectly. Aperture also installed and runs perfectly. FileMaker Pro installs and runs perfectly. As does the SDK for the iPhone. The same for Microsoft Office 2008. Quicken runs great with one exception: you cannot click checkboxes in the dialogue boxes that pop up with certain functions. I run Software Update and everything comes off without a hitch. I downloaded Microsoft Silverlight and am able to watch instantly viewable movies from Netflix, which I wasn't able to do on the Windows XP SP3 installation that came pre-installed on the 8GB Stec SSD.
OS X is running great and it believes the Dell Mini 9 is an original MacBook Air.
Getting Ready
I already had a 512MB thumb drive that was just wasting time in a drawer because it was too small to be of any real use any more, so I purchased two Toshiba 8GB thumb drives from Sam's Club for $19.99 each and a Toshiba 32GB SDHC memory card for $39.99, also from Sam's Club.
Following the instructions from the Gizmodo.com guide, I found the MyDellMini site and their OS X forum. There I joined the community and found the instructions for downloading and prepping my 512MB thumb drive with the Type11 Bootloader. I then used DiskTools to do make an image of my retail copy of OS X 10.5.0 and the restored that to one of the 8GB thumb Drives. I then made image files of all of the software titles Install discs I wanted to try and install on the Dell Mini 9, when I got it, and copied them to 32GB SCHC card (iLife, iWork, FileMaker Pro, Aperture, Microsoft Office, Firefox, Quicken, Toast, and Remote Desktop, so I could control all of my desktop computers around the house). I then installed Dell EFI, all necessary updates to OS X, and all significant updates to the software titles I was installing on the second 8GB thumb drive. This way I was prepared to have to abort the setup and installation process and start over however many times was necessary,until I was successful, without having to use an external DVD drive and a stack of discs.
Following the instructions from the Gizmodo.com guide, I found the MyDellMini site and their OS X forum. There I joined the community and found the instructions for downloading and prepping my 512MB thumb drive with the Type11 Bootloader. I then used DiskTools to do make an image of my retail copy of OS X 10.5.0 and the restored that to one of the 8GB thumb Drives. I then made image files of all of the software titles Install discs I wanted to try and install on the Dell Mini 9, when I got it, and copied them to 32GB SCHC card (iLife, iWork, FileMaker Pro, Aperture, Microsoft Office, Firefox, Quicken, Toast, and Remote Desktop, so I could control all of my desktop computers around the house). I then installed Dell EFI, all necessary updates to OS X, and all significant updates to the software titles I was installing on the second 8GB thumb drive. This way I was prepared to have to abort the setup and installation process and start over however many times was necessary,until I was successful, without having to use an external DVD drive and a stack of discs.
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