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Hackintosh 101: Bios settings before installation

12 September 2008 21,273 views 37 Comments
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THIS TUTORIAL IS BASED ON THE ASUS P5K PRO MOTHERBOARD.
YOUR SETTINGS WILL DIFFER IF YOU ARE NOT USING THE SAME HARDWARE.

Before you commence the installation of the Mac OS on a PC, there are some settings in the BIOS you’ll have to configure. As your PC boots up, hit the key that is stated which takes you into BIOS – it’s normally the [DEL], [F1] or [ESC] key that will work for you.

(It’s amazing… this guy, Michael Stevens set up a page on most BIOS types and what key to press. Check it out here.)

Anyhow, once you get into BIOS, follow each setting to the “T” and you’ll be assured that your Mac OS installation will work. I used the Leo4All installation, it will work for others too, I’m sure.

ASUS P5K PRO BIOS MAIN TAB

ASUS P5K PRO BIOS ADVANCED TAB

ASUS P5K PRO BIOS BOOT TAB

ASUS P5K PRO BIOS POWER TAB

ASUS P5K PRO BIOS EXIT

Okay, you’re done! Save and exit… and get to the installation of the Hackintosh part!


(Last image is courtesy of barrys-rigs-n-reviews.com – we forgot to take a snapshot of the Exit and Save screen… which IS the most important!!!)

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37 Comments »

  • Hackintosh 101: Installing the Mac OS on PC hardware | TheBackpackr.com said:

    [...] Bios settings before installation [...]

    # 12 September 2008 at 4:14 pm
  • Ian Chai said:

    Hi, Alex,

    I just found out about your Hackintosh Blog… I’m excited! But if I diddle with the bios like you said, will it mean that I can no longer run Vista on that PC? I have more than one HD on that PC and thought to install MacOS on one HD and leave Vista running on another HD.

    I looked to see if you said this on the blog, but didn’t see anything on it. Sorry if you did say it but I missed it.

    Thanks,
    Ian

    # 10 October 2008 at 9:16 am
  • The Backpackr (author) said:

    Hi Ian, Vista is more resilient than the hackintosh installation, and in theory it should run. I’ve not tried dual-booting yet – I would recommend that you unplug your Vista drive and experiment with the Mac drive exclusively until you are confident enough to try dual-booting.

    Have fun, and do let me know how it goes.

    # 10 October 2008 at 10:22 am
  • Ian Chai said:

    Thanks, Alex. Ooo, then it sounds like something I should set aside a large block of time for, and I should note the original BIOS settings so I can restore it if it doesn’t work!

    # 11 October 2008 at 7:24 am
  • The Backpackr (author) said:

    At worst, you can always do a Factory Reset of the BIOS settings, which is what all motherboards are shipped with, anyway.

    But yes, to be absolutely safe, you could note the individual settings you’ve tweaked.

    # 11 October 2008 at 7:55 am
  • Indy S. said:

    I am not sure if I have missed it or not, but what about a sound card? Which kind did you use, and what drivers did you use during the installation?

    # 10 December 2008 at 9:48 pm
  • jonathan from belgium said:

    =”dual boot” somebody did a working dual boot with this vista and mac ?

    # 4 February 2009 at 6:22 am
  • gerardo said:

    hi my mother is GIGABYTE S-SERIES SOCKET AM2 GA-M61SME-S2 how install on this mother ?

    # 14 February 2009 at 10:03 pm
  • mr Picka said:

    i have an intel motherboard. will it work without setting the BIOS? or will it work ok with the way u set them up?

    # 28 February 2009 at 8:29 pm
  • xXKingHPXx said:

    I have a HP Pavilion a1730n PC with a ASUS A8M2N-LA Motherboard. The BIOS is Phineox-AwardBIOS. I’d like to know the BIOS settings for it because when I tried installing Leo4All v3 10.5.2 on my PC without changing BIOS, it stopped loading the OS with clearing CS VALID.The specs are:

    AMD Athlon 64 X2 520+ 2.7ghz
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE 128mb
    2GB DDR2 Memory
    320GB SATA Hard Drive
    SATA DVD-ROM Drive
    NVIDIA nForce 430 chipset

    HELP! I really want Mac OS X on my PC!!!
    THX!!!

    # 19 March 2009 at 10:31 am
  • xXKingHPXx said:

    Correction:
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.7ghz

    # 19 March 2009 at 10:41 am
  • The Backpackr (author) said:

    Each motherboard has slightly different BIOS settings, and I would recommend that you follow as closely as possible to the tutorial to avoid freezing-up problems later during/after installation.

    # 21 March 2009 at 12:23 pm
  • xXKingHPXx said:

    I looked at those pics but none of those setting are on my BIOS pages! I think I should look for an update or mod for my BIOS.

    # 22 March 2009 at 10:18 am
  • Aron said:

    Hi

    Can anyone tell me the minimum Hardware requirement?
    I just tried installing Loe4all on my old old crappy pc and in virtual PC on my newer HP vista computer.

    It starts to load and it looks like its working, but then it just reboots?

    Loading HFS+ file: [/System/Library/Extensions.mkext] from 422d690

    Please help!

    # 27 March 2009 at 4:05 am
  • christ said:

    xXKingHPXx for you leo4all 10.5.2
    kernel 9.2.0 nforce chipset

    # 22 April 2009 at 9:45 pm
  • E said:

    thanks this was very helpful to me as i have the same exact motherboard and CPU as you! my main problem was i needed to buy a SATA DVD drive and disable the marvel IDE.

    btw, how did you get your audio working? i am using 10.5.1 kalyway, is there an included driver that works with the P5KPRO audio?

    # 3 May 2009 at 11:03 am
  • xXKingHPXx said:

    Thx Christ, but what version of leo4all? example= v3 v2

    # 4 May 2009 at 9:38 am
  • dpollard55 said:

    xXKingHPXx I have that same mobo on my HP Pavillion a1600n and have succesfully got Leo4all v3 to work. First go into your BIOS and turn off legacy USB support, this will fix a shutdown issue after your install. Boot from the Leo4all disk and choose the 9.2.0 kernel, under chipset choose nforce old, under sound choose ALC888, I can’t remember which ACPI version to choose but it says some like ACPI fix or ACPI old. Also you will need a PCI LAN card as the built in one will not work, a Netgear LAN will work out of the box with no extra drivers. I am currently running IPC 10.5.6 and it has support for the built in LAN but I now have a issue with the shutdown function (computer shuts down but you can still here the fan and the LED is on). I just hold down the power button till it shuts off. Hope this helps.

    # 5 May 2009 at 12:55 am
  • richie c said:

    Great site!!!

    Have you tried or have any info on i7 processors and asus motherboards that can be used to hackintosh?

    thanks

    richie c

    # 6 May 2009 at 7:39 am
  • The Backpackr (author) said:

    Sorry, haven’t tried the i7s yet, but I’m sure to try some day soon!

    # 6 May 2009 at 2:01 pm
  • The Backpackr (author) said:

    You need to get the kexts for it, which are quite readily available if you google for it. Hope that helps.

    # 6 May 2009 at 2:02 pm
  • xXKingHPXx said:

    Hey guys, I finally got leo4allv3 to work, but am having trouble with Ethernet, shutdown, and PS2 keyboard. Will try tips from dpollard55 and maybe iPC 10.5.6. One more question, is it possible for me to dualboot windows 7 rc with leopard already installed?

    Thx for all the help!

    # 7 May 2009 at 6:32 am
  • dpollard55 said:

    xXKingHPXx Glad you got it working somewhat. Make sure legacy USB is set to disabled or off in your BIOS, this will fix a couple of issues (did for me anyway) including PS2 support and shutdown. I went for the longest time trying to get my PS2 mouse and keyboard to work until I figured that one out. There is a driver for the onboard ethernet I believe it’s called NForceLan.kext. A good website to bookmark is http://www.infinitemac.com, they have a bunch of AMD processor users on there and most questions have been answered in there forums. Also you may want to look at the voodoo kernel (just search google for voodoo kernel osx86) it will allow your AMD processor to run in 64bit mode as well as a bunch of other goodies for AMD users.

    # 9 May 2009 at 8:56 am
  • Jordan said:

    Hey guys,

    I am trying to do this with a P5k Mobo. I am running into a problem during the install. It goes all the way through and then at the end it says it fails. I have done this three times and it still fails. One thing I can’t get the mobo to do is switch the SATA config to AHCI. Any ideas? It only gives me the choice to call it an IDE and I think thats where the problem lies with me. p5K mobo, Core 2 Quad 2.4.

    # 26 May 2009 at 12:36 am
  • shaktinaresh2010 said:

    hi my pc configuration is that i want to make hackintosh:
    Intel Core2Quad Q9550
    MSI P45 Platinum motherboard
    4 Gb Trascend 800Mhz Ram
    500GB Seagat HDD
    500GB Seaget HDD
    500GB Seaget HDD
    XFX nvidia 8800 GT Graphic card 512MB
    Sony DVD writer IDE
    Coolermaster Cosmos S cabinet
    Tagan TG1100 BZ Modular Power Supply

    Ideneb Mac OS X 10.5.6

    please any one help me to install OS X on my machine.

    # 26 June 2009 at 3:28 am
  • spiro said:

    hi alex, great job on your site, has your hackingtosh proved to be stable, you mentioned that you were going to try final cut, i am thinking about building the same to run logic pro, thanks

    # 28 June 2009 at 9:07 pm
  • Edwin said:

    hi, i have a P5B mobo and i have the original Leopard DVD (i got my self a macmini) with a P965Chipset im planning on re-installing everything and will use the Mac os leopard on it can i just run it as usual like when i made it as an XP? anyone had the same thing?…i need some advise…Thanks

    # 18 July 2009 at 4:20 am
  • TheBackpackr (author) said:

    @Edwin: No, it won’t run natively like that. You’ll have to grab one of the alternate installers that are already loaded with extra drivers for your hardware.

    @spiro: Yep, it’s running stable as an edit machine.

    # 20 August 2009 at 4:08 pm
  • xXKingHPXx said:

    @dpollard55 wht kernal did u use for iPC 10.5.6 voodo? 9.2.0 netkas sleep? 9.2.0 sleep?

    # 12 September 2009 at 6:50 am
  • Tiago said:

    Hi,
    I’m trying to find where is this AHCI configuration but i can’t.
    My hardware specs bellow:

    - Asus P5KPL/1600
    - Intel Quad Q6700 (2.66)
    - nVidia GeForce 9400 GT
    - HD SATA 500 GB
    - DVD-R SATA
    - 2 GB Ram

    I’ve tryed to install wih boot loader 123 P5K Family with Original Leopard DVD. I had Kernel Panic after reboot. But i get the installation… But no boot then.

    I’ve tryed to install iDeneb V.1.4. Everything seems work fine. All the installation go smooth. But when try to reboot to start up system, stack on blanc screen with gray apple logo. And a signal (like trafic not parking, something like that) over the apple logo. And no boot at the OS at all.

    Any ideas?! Ty!!!

    # 15 September 2009 at 12:25 am
  • sal said:

    hello everyone i need some help im just starting to build a hackintosh, went trough the bios settings and ran leo4all cd and it shows a bunch of lines and after almost a few seconds after it starts it pauses or stops. this the hardware i have:
    motherboard-p5kpl-cm
    processor: intel core 2 duo E8200 2.6ghz 6mb L2 cache
    memmory- ocz ddr2 4g
    video card- on board mother board video
    sata hard drive
    sata dvd rw/dl

    # 6 October 2009 at 10:53 am
  • Inferno said:

    When ever I boot up and try to install in just restarts before the mac logo even comes up

    # 19 October 2009 at 10:30 am
  • Nitetrain said:

    Okay i really need your help brotha on figuring out if my PC would Run the program with no problem..i have Desktop which i purchased in 2006
    Compaq Presario SR1834NX
    with an AMD 64 Athlon
    3500+ AMD Athlon 64 processor
    1.0GB memory,250GB hard drive,DVD+RW drive
    -Graphics By ATI Radeon Xpress 200
    with 2.19Ghz,900 MB of RAM…(ATI Radeon™ Xpress 200 Series for AMD Processors..PCI Express® chipset with integrated ATI Radeon™ graphics for the complete range of AMD Athlon™ 64, AMD Athlon™ 64 FX, and AMD Sempron™ processors. The ATI Radeon Xpress 200 family of products offer a flexible design that can scale from everyday PC applications to competition-level gaming with powerful performance

    And i think I finally downloaded the torrents Mac OSX x86 10.5.6. Universal PPF5 Final,Kalyway_10.5.2_DVD_Intel_Amd, and LawlessPPC-Leo-10.5.4-Phenom&AMD

    # 8 December 2009 at 12:47 pm
  • TheBackpackr (author) said:

    Nitetrain: Quick look at your specs makes me shudder. I would buy new hardware. Read my post on Snow Leopard.

    # 8 December 2009 at 4:53 pm
  • harry said:

    Hey does anybody know if you can install Snow Leopard on a MSI G41M4 motherboard. I bought a legal copy of snow Leopard but was initialy gonna install the os by using leo4all then update it with snow ;eopard. After the initial boot up, I get the apple logo then loads of data is shown on screen as if its trying to instal. The last line states “System uptime in Nanoseconds 937119014″ but the cursor is not flashing and its been like that for a few hours.

    I have tried changing the Bios setting but havent had any luck. I did notice that i dont have the option to select AHCI. Apart from the mothrerboard, I know that video card, ram and processor are all compatable. Neither my hard drive or dvd rom are SATA, could this be the problem. Any advice gratefully accepted. If anybody wants to email direct my email is harry.147@hotmail.co.uk. Thanks.

    Great site Backpacker, the guides are really easy to follow.

    # 9 December 2009 at 3:45 am
  • r0Y said:

    hi Alex,
    i have iAtkos v7 and would really like to install it to my
    Asus P5Q PRO
    4GB RAM
    QuadCore

    when i try to boot it shows me the options -v or ?
    but just after then
    it automatically reboots, it doesn’t enter in the installment procedure,

    can you help me out please?

    # 26 March 2010 at 3:31 am
  • Bo said:

    xXKingHPXx Did you get OSX running on your a1730n? If so, do you have instructions?

    # 4 April 2010 at 3:53 am

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