DrNomis_44's Hackintosh Build

So, I had a yarn with my mate, who I have been helping with his guitar rig, and I asked him if he had any spare computer cases he didn't want any more, and he said he did have some and that he'd bring them round to my place, I might use one to re-house all the hardware in my Windows 10 64Bit Desktop DAW PC, and use any remaining ones for the Hackintosh, might do some work on it tomorrow just mainly testing the motherboard out to see if it truly is good, might install Windows XP Pro on it using the two spare 80Gb HDDs, cause I have a disk image of Windows XP Pro SP3 that I can use to burn a disk from, I may even be able to hook it up to my Wireless NBN Router via a LAN cable to get it online, or, I may have another way to get it online, anyway, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, I could even try installing Ubuntu Linux on it, just for some fun.


If it turns out I can't get OS X Snow Leopard to run on my Hackintosh, perhaps I could use it to build a home server.

I use my older computers as a render farm. If I'm doing a really big image with lots of CPU intensive effects I boot up a couple of computers and let them share the load (network rendering, the software shares out sections of an image to work on depending on the machines specs, pretty clever). I haven't needed to do since building this rig, but it sure helped out in the bad old days when I was messing with animation . Not sure if you can do that with sound apps. Check newegg.com for parts prices, might still be cheaper to buy from the US.

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Originally Posted by Dedman

I use my older computers as a render farm. If I'm doing a really big image with lots of CPU intensive effects I boot up a couple of computers and let them share the load (network rendering, the software shares out sections of an image to work on depending on the machines specs, pretty clever). I haven't needed to do since building this rig, but it sure helped out in the bad old days when I was messing with animation . Not sure if you can do that with sound apps. Check newegg.com for parts prices, might still be cheaper to buy from the US.

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Cheers mate, I seem to remember reading an article in one of my magazines about using two computers together, I think the article was in a magazine called Computer Music, the idea was to use one computer to run the DAW and the other to do all the DSP for the plugins, something along the lines of what you're talking about in your post, yeah I reckon that is pretty clever, you get more processing power that way.

Okay so I've decided to download and burn a DVD of the latest version of Ubuntu Linux, I'm going to use it to test out the ASRock motherboard to make sure it is all working properly, I don't have a spare Sata DVD drive I can put in the case that has the motherboard installed in it so I'll have to use one of the DVD drives in my DAW PC, I'll be buying some new DVD drives for my DAW PC soon, I may be able to hook the computer I'm working on up to my Wireless NBN Router by a LAN cable so I can get it online to download any necessary drivers.


Update:


Well, downloading and burning the Ubuntu disk image to a DVD didn't work, my Laptop decided to crash right in the middle of burning the disk, I suspect that the DVD I was using was no good, as Murphy's Law would have it, I have no good spare blank DVDs, so I tried using my Genuine Microsoft Windows 7 64Bit installer DVD, had much better luck but I got a message saying that the DVD wasn't a genuine one when I could see it as clear as day that it was Genuine, anyway, just in the process of getting all the Windows 7 Updates downloaded and installed...Computers, what a headache they are, so much for the so-called Digital revolution, eh?


Update 2:


Just finished installing all the Windows 7 64Bit drivers on the Hackintosh PC, looks like everything is working like it's supposed to so far, all usb ports, including the 3.0 ports seem to be working.

Update:


Okay, so I've tried installing Ubuntu 16 on my Hackintosh PC for testing purposes, and it's looking a bit grim, the computer seems to be spontaneously shutting itself down for no apparent reason, the cause could be one, or all, of the following:


1, Flaky Motherboard.

2, Flaky Power Supply.

3, Flaky Ram.

4, Flaky Graphics Card.

5, Flaky HDD.


I'm going to try installing Windows 10 Threshold 2 on the Hackintosh PC and see if it runs better.

Doc I would say ram is ok as it came out your other PC. Try upgrading the bios for the motherboard, see how that goes. Check your graphics card is seated properly recheck your cables to see if there all nice and tight.

Bios download
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%2...wnload&os=BIOS

Drivers
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%2...oad&os=Win1064

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Originally Posted by kimball492

Doc I would say ram is ok as it came out your other PC. Try upgrading the bios for the motherboard, see how that goes. Check your graphics card is seated properly recheck your cables to see if there all nice and tight.

Bios download
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%2...wnload&os=BIOS

Drivers
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%2...oad&os=Win1064

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Cheers kimball492, I'll give that a go tonight, I have tried swapping out the graphics card for the one that was in my DAW PC (it says Sapphire on the Graphics Card's heatsink and apparently it's an AMD Radeon R7 200 series card), and so far the Hackintosh PC hasn't fallen over, I'm thinking that the other Graphics Card ( an ATI Radeon HD 4870 512Mb) I had in it was probably drawing too much power from the Power Supply and it was shutting down due to overloading, best theory I can come up with so far, but I guess it won't hurt to do a Motherboard Bios update, although that can be risky, if the Bios update fails, that could render the motherboard unbootable unless I was lucky enough to find a replacement Bios Chip.


I'm going to give updating the Motherboard Bios a go shortly.

Hey Doc, I update my motherboard bios all the time . But you have to feel confident doing it. If the new graphics card seems to be working ok I'd leave it. All the bios updates do is remove bugs from previous versions and sometimes make PC run cooler faster and no crashes. Bit like upgrading your operating system. Let's hope graphics card has solved the problem.

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Originally Posted by kimball492

Hey Doc, I update my motherboard bios all the time . But you have to feel confident doing it. If the new graphics card seems to be working ok I'd leave it. All the bios updates do is remove bugs from previous versions and sometimes make PC run cooler faster and no crashes. Bit like upgrading your operating system. Let's hope graphics card has solved the problem.

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I've just gotten back online after updating the ASRock Z77Pro4-M Motherboard Bios, it seems to have been successfully updated, the previous Bios version was P1.60, and the updated version is P2.00, you could think of a Motherboard's Bios as being like a mini operating-system, the Hackintosh PC seems to be liking the new Graphics Card so far, I'm going to try leaving the Hackintosh PC running for an extended period of time as a way to "Soak-Test" it, if the Hackintosh PC keeps running without spontaneously shutting-down, then I'll assume that everything's okay, I've been thinking of upgrading the Power Supply in my DAW PC from a 600 Watter to something like a 750 Watter, or maybe an 800 Watter if I can get one for a good price, if so, then I'll put the 600 Watter PSU in my Hackintosh PC, I also need to buy a couple of new Sata DVD Burner Drives, two new Optical Mice, and two new Keyboards at some stage.


I checked in Windows 10 Device Manager, and everything seems to be working good, so far there's no "Unknown Devices" issues.

The 600 watt power supply would be fine with the build Doc.

So, I'm guessing that my next move is to find a copy of the Mac OS X version that I want to install on my Hackintosh PC, time to do some serious Internet searching then.

Find a friend with a mac and use the app store

Hi Emily how do you get on using a Daw with your hackintosh. It seems even people using genuine macs are having problems with graphics as Apple changed some code and it's affecting some plugins. I've been using El Capitan for a while and it's only the odd plugin and crash that misbehaves.http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...ro-tools-users

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Originally Posted by kimball492

The 600 watt power supply would be fine with the build Doc.

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Just sent a reply back to your pm.




I'm just in the process of working out what I'll need to be able to do the install on my Hackintosh PC, some of the instructions on the tonymacX86.com website are a bit confusing, so I guess I have lots of reading to do.


I downloaded a utility called Multibeast from the tonymacx86.com website, I have read through the instructions but it doesn't make it very clear whether the utility needs to be run on a mac or PC, I'm thinking that I need access to a Mac capable of running the utility, probably an iMac, trouble is, the only Mac I have is an old G4 running OS X Panther, or am I over thinking this?

I don't really. I only recently installed it on my computer when I was procrastinating in the school holidays from doing lesson prep. I use my MacBook way more than I use my desktop for everything.

Hey Doc, I have a huge arse power supply I rescued from my nephews game server he was dumping. I'll check its output tomorrow, if you can use it it's yours for the cost of postage.

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Originally Posted by Dedman

Hey Doc, I have a huge arse power supply I rescued from my nephews game server he was dumping. I'll check its output tomorrow, if you can use it it's yours for the cost of postage.

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Cheers mate, if it does work pm me and we'll organize the postage and payment.

At the moment I'm having a really hard time trying to find a Windows 10 64Bit Driver for my ATI Radeon HD4870 512Mb Graphics Card, you wouldn't believe the headache it is causing me, one of these days the designers of computers are going to have to come up with a better way to get things like Graphics Cards to work in computers, this whole idea of using driver software needs to be completely re-thought.


Update:

Apparently the ATI Radeon HD4870 is incompatible with windows 10, or, there is no compatible Windows 10 64Bit Driver that AMD, or ATI have released, so I gave up on getting the Radeon HD 4870 to work and just uninstalled it, my DAW PC is now hooked up to the monitor via Integrated HDMI.....headache or what?

You tried here Doc http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kimball492

You tried here Doc http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

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Yep, I tried that website, it literally gave me the runaround before telling me that there hasn't been any Windows 10 drivers released for the ATI Radeon HD4870, not by ATI anyway.


And how's this?, the Edimax EW-7811UTC USB WiFi adaptor I was using with my DAW PC is now refusing to connect to my Wireless Router, only way for me to get online now is for me to connect my laptop directly to my NBN Co Box via a Cat.5 LAN cable, or my Nintendo WiiU, or 3DS, if I plug the LAN cable back into my Router.


Fun and games now, I think I may have to give Aussie Broadband a call in the morning, although I think the Edimax Adapter may be dying.

Ati where bought out by Amd so if you can find AMD drivers that work. Might be a good move

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kimball492

Ati where bought out by Amd so if you can find AMD drivers that work. Might be a good move

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I guess that's worth a try, I'll give it another go later on, I might need to do a clean install of Windows 10 Threshold 2 on my DAW PC soon cause it's starting to run a bit sluggish, been using Ashampoo Winoptimizer to try and boost the performance a bit, I tried flashing the motherboard Bios in my DAW PC too, since there was a Bios update on the Gigabyte website that fixes the USB 3.0 ports backwards compatibility, might boot up my DAW PC and see if it can connect via the Edimax adapter a bit later on.

In terms of graphics drivers for OSX that should all be included if you use the multibeast post-install tool. That should have it covered I am pretty sure The only exception is the NVIDIA 9xx drivers but that isn't an issue for you.

Oh god Nomis don't go for the 9xx cards, they will be such a pain to get the drivers working hahaha

Quote:

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Originally Posted by keloooe

Oh god Nomis don't go for the 9xx cards, they will be such a pain to get the drivers working hahaha

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I have one in mine. It is fine you just use nvidia web drivers

I had a bit of a yarn with my mate and he reckons he has a couple of old computer cases he can give me, so, hopefully my DAW PC will be transplanted in a new case soon.

Just so you guys know, my builds have been a bit quiet because I've been having some back pain from a bad back lately so I haven't been able to do much, also, I need to buy a couple of new optical mice, a couple of new DVD burner drives for my DAW PC, and some other stuff which I'll be buying soon when my finances permit, but rest assured, I'm still interested in doing this Hackintosh PC build cause I like a challenge, stay tuned for more updates.

Update:


I just recently acquired some more bits of computer hardware, including a Sata DVD burner drive which I'll use in my Hackintosh build, so i won't need to buy one, I just need to buy a Mac keyboard since the one I was using with my G4 no longer works, it's usb lead got chewed by one of my cats, I do, however, have a working Mac mouse which I'll use, everything seems to be coming together now.

Sounds great Doc look forward to seeing you boot it up

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kimball492

Sounds great Doc look forward to seeing you boot it up

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I'm looking foprward to seeing it boot up too mate, I just got a notification saying that you sent me a pm but I didn't get it because my inbox was full, I've deleted an old pm so try sending it again.

And you should check your letter box or local Post Office, there should be a small heavy box there for you

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Originally Posted by Dedman

And you should check your letter box or local Post Office, there should be a small heavy box there for you

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I checked it not long ago today but haven't received anything yet mate.

*%^# Aussie post

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dedman

*%^# Aussie post

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Totally, Aussie Post are such slowcoaches when it comes to deliveries, I'll let you know when I get something in the post, I'm waiting on a package containing 50 BC108C transistors to arrive in the post, I bought them on eBay.

Doc I think you you need to empty your inbox again. Give this a go if you highlight all the messages you want to save,then click selected you can save as text messages.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kimball492

Doc I think you you need to empty your inbox again. Give this a go if you highlight all the messages you want to save,then click selected you can save as text messages.

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I just tried doing that and it seems to have worked, try sending me the last pm you sent again mate.

Update:


I received the 850 Watt Power Supply in the post this morning and I have just finished installing it in my DAW PC, my DAW PC seems to be working fine with the bigger power supply...touchwood, so, what I'm going to do next is install the 600 Watt power Supply in my Hackintosh PC and then go ahead with the El Capitain install tonight, hopefully everything should go smoothly....exciting, and fun times ahead.

Update:


Okay, so I've just started the El Capitain install on my Hackintosh PC, managed to get it to boot from the USB thumb drive and it looked like everything was going fine, or so I thought, I have just encountered my first problem, during the El Capitain installation I get an error message saying this:

An error occurred while extracting files from the package "Essentials.pkg".

It then says to quit the installer to restart your computer and try again.


I have already tried the installation twice and have gotten the same error message each time I tried, just wondering if there's a fix for it?

Hey Doc, bummer mate, better wait for Kimball to read your question I'm not sure what to suggest.

I would think the package file is maybe corrupt, can you download it again maybe or ask where it come from if anyone has had the same issue?

You are only 233 posts off Overlord mate so keep boxing on.

Maybe leave the Hackintosh and start the big muff pedal mate !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Hey Doc, bummer mate, better wait for Kimball to read your question I got no idea what to suggest.

I would think the package file is maybe corrupt, can you download it again maybe or ask where it come from if anyone has had the same issue

You are only 233 posts off Overlord mate so keep boxing on.
Maybe leave the Hackintosh and start the big muff pedal mate !

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Yeah I guess you're right mate, I do need to go for a shopping trip into Casuarina today anyway, I need to buy some stuff, called Spot On, for my two cats so I can treat them for fleas, Gengle seems to have picked up a few of them, might do me some good to have a break from working with Technology for a while, might even get stuck into the Big Muff build when I get back.