Mac Users' View on Hackintoshing a Mini 10v-Upgrade Ram, Update BIOS, Install OS X

Preamble
I'm a long-time Mac user (and Fanboy) but I'm also a collector of computers and gadgets from my past. I have a very nice collection of computers and gadgets, going back to CP/M. I have 10-15 Ataris (my first computer), 20-30 Macs and Apple IIs, including a Bandai Pippin and Apple Set Top Box from 1995.

I'm a certified Apple Tech from the 1990's and love to tinker. I spent weekends upgrading my 3Com Audrey to run QNX, days "extending" my AppleTV and countless hours adding text-to-speech for my Atari 800.

Now, I needed a mini-computer that I could drop in my bag and not worry about. I needed to carry around 3lbs and have 6+ hours of battery. The most important, it needed to run OS X 10.5.7. I spent 2 weeks researching the state of Hackintosh and decided to order my first PC, a Dell Mini 10v. I have owned dozens of Macs, never purchased a Windows PC (outside of work, purchased hundreds) for myself or family.

You can find Dell's instructions, but I think it's easier to list the steps in this order. All photos were pulled from Dell's Mini 10v Service Manual along with some shots I took.

Here's what I ordered on 5/16, received 18 days later:
-Dell Mini 10v
-1GB, 120GB HD, BT, 802.11b/g/n (1510 card) and 6-cell battery.
-8GB USB Flash Drive from Dell

Picked up 2GB DDR2/667 SO-DIMM from MicroCenter for $17.99 (after $15 rebate).

Tools:
- 2 flat head screwdrivers
- 1 phillips size 2 (I think)
- Antistatic bag the 10v came in
- Top of packaging 10v came in, with dimples

- 120GB 2.5" USB 2.0 Hard Disk (OS Installs/Backups)
- Spare 1GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (for BIOS upgrade)

2GB Memory Installation:
1. Removed Battery - This is easy, no directions needed.
2a. Remove Wifi Mini Card. Unscrew the single screw (it's captive, so it will stay with the door), lift door off (it's secured by friction, so pull gently, but firmly).



2b. Unscrew the mini card (picture has 2 screws, I had only one). Place screw in dimple on packaging cover and label it Mini Card Screw.

2c. Using your precision flathead screwdriver, pry both antenna connectors. Notice that there's a black and white wire and they need to go back the same way. The WiFi mini-card should now pop-up and can be pulled out, just like the SO-DIMM.



3a. Remove Keyboard. Flip the 10v over on the anti-static bag it came in (keeps scratches to a min., did you touch some metal to get rid of any static? You should on this on each step. Remove the 3 screws (see Dell photo below).



3b. Now, this is where you go gently...Dell recommends that you pry the center right side of the keyboard, near the F10 key. Now work on the left side of keyboard and right side, stay balanced so you don't bend the keyboard. Also, when prying, make sure you don't get under a key cap and pop it off. This keyboard is fragile and will damage easy. Getting the keyboard off was easier than I expected, but proceed with caution.

3c. Flip keyboard over, you'll see a ribbon cable. Release the cable locks by using your flathead screwdrivers on both sides and pull toward you (or use your fingernails).

4a. Remove the Palm Rest. This is where you want to use your fingernails (I didn't use a flathead, I didn't want to damage the edges cosmetically), gently start pulling on the edges of the left and right sides, working both sides evenly. This will bend and break, so be careful. You're trying to get the friction tabs to release, and it's tricky.



4b. After it's released, you'll need to disconnect the Trackpad cable, it's got the same cable locks, so use your flatheads on both sides. Remember how the trackpad cable goes under the Palm Rest bracket (there's an arrow showing the correct passageway).





5. Remove the hard drive. This is easy. Remove one screw (place in a dimple and mark it with a pen!). Pull the black tab from the center to the left side and the HD should just pop-out. Place it aside.



6a. Palm Rest Bracket. This is probably the hardest part to remove, but not too difficult. A bit harder than the palm rest. Flip the 10v over again (with LCD closed, as always) and remove the five screws, as shown in Dell's picture. Put in dimples, mark each one so they go back in the same holes. I do this since it will use the same screw path as before and reduces the chance for stripping.

6b. Open LCD and you'll need to remove 4 more screws, place in dimples and label appropriately (I place them in the same general locations on the packaging top, left top, left bottom, right top, right bottom. Makes it easy to replace.


6c. Pull the power button cable. Just pry it out of the cable lock. Just like the others.


6d. Pull the Bluetooth card cable, power/batter status light cable and speaker cables, all with cable locks, in the center-bottom, under where the trackpad would go.



6e. Now with your prying fingernails, start with the rear edge, near the hinges and gently start prying it straight up. The bracket will come up easy, but remember it's got a bunch of ways to snap or break. It took me 5 mins to get this part off, I wanted to make sure it didn't break since it's the main structural bracket for the entire computer.


7. System board. Now you're almost done. Here's where I deviated from Dell's instructions. I didn't pull cables #1 or 2, just #3. I removed the two screws and lifted from the bottom and flipped the system board (from left side, since the ports are holding it in place. Popped out the 1GB DIMM and popped in my 2GB DIMM. That's it. Now you need to put everything back together.




Putting System Back together.
1a. System Board. Flip it back in position, slide in right-side first. Replace the two screws.
1b. Plug any cables back in from the system board.
2a. Replace the palm rest bracket. Just place it over the bottom of the case, and snap it back in place. It will be more secure when you replace the screws. Screw down the 4 screws on the top of the palm rest bracket. You may see it snap in after tightening the screws. Tight, but not too much, since small phillips screws will strip easy.
2b. Reconnect the 4 cables, one on top and three along the bottom.
3. Hard drive. Slide in HD and replace the one screw.
4. Palm Rest. Align and Snap in. Re-route ribbon cable under the arrow passage and reattach to cable lock.
5. Replace the keyboard. Align four tabs on bottom of keyboard and snap in place, bottom first. Turn over and replace the 3 screws that secure the keyboard.
6. Flip the 10v over and replace the 5 screws in to hold the palm rest bracket.
7. Reinstall mini-WiFi card and re-attach black and white antenna cables. Make sure you follow the arrow/triangles so that you have the right wires attached. [Thanks Leganto]
8. Replace WiFi card door and secure the captive screw.
9. Replace battery and cross fingers. Press power and check Setup to make sure it's recognizing your memory.

The whole memory upgrade took 30 mins. I never opened a Dell before, but it's much easier than a PowerBook/iBook G4 hard drive upgrade! You need to be careful with static and not rushing through this. Allocate a solid 30-40 min block and don't let anyone interrupt you. You need to concentrate and not do something like tip over your dimpled box top screw holder and then hunt for screws.

Back to Mac OS X install (followed the Mini9 Guide for 1 USB Flash Drive):
1. No need to Press F2 to change firmware settings, the 10v was all ready set with the correct settings for Mac OS X install.
2. Restored 10.5.0 onto the 8GB Flash drive
3. Removed some optional language/developer installs to fit all the Dell Mini hackintosh files and 10.5.7 upgrade
4. Ran DellEFI Bootloader 3.3 (for 2GB models, use 3.2 for 1GB)
5. Pressed F12 to boot off USB Flash Drive
6. Formatted the drives with 1 partition, all for Leopard.
7. Started install. No issues with tabbing to buttons, everything was visible.
8. Made sure I had named the partition correctly (OSXMINI9). The postinstall script is hardcoded with this HD name. You can rename after it's done.
9. I used DellEFI 1.2a5 (Worked surprisingly well), no issues since I turned a few things off first (turned off Restore the 10.5.5 keyboard, Remote CD, Disable Hibernate) Turned on: Install Chameleon, Install Dell Mini 9 Drivers, Hide DellEFI files, Generate a system specific dsdt.aml file and Fix bluetooth. Remember, everytime you're running DellEFI, you need to be in safe mode, so no kernel extensions are running.
10. Booted back into Mac OS X 10.5.0, upgraded to 10.5.7 from Combo installer.
11. Booted into OS X safe mode and Ran DellEFI 1.2a5 again, same items turned on and off (see #9).
12. Reboot-Turned off Legacy USB support so I can wake from sleep and plug in a USB Mouse.
13. Updated 10v BIOS to A02 (ok, I'm pushing my luck ). Get the DOS version, so you can run it from the command line when you boot off the USB flash drive.
14. Grabbed my spare 1GB USB flash drive, Made it bootable with HP USB boot drive. Follow the instructions, you first need to make the USB drive bootable. Then copy the BIOS for DOS files to the USB drive.
15. BIOS upgrade went well, no problems.

Fix the Dell Mini WIFI issue:
1. Open Network in the System Preferences
2. Remove everything except Ethernet 2
3. Reboot
4. Open Network again
5. Add AirPort

Now the Menu Item signal strength works, WiFi stays on after reboot and it feels more like a Mac.

Get Headphones/Mic Input and Speakers to work
1. Go to: /System/Library/Extensions and delete AppleHDA.kext (and AppleHDA.kext.orig folder if it exists)
2. Download the KEXT package from:

Get Microphone and Audio In working on your Hackintosh!

3. Get KEXT Helper and unzip

http://web.mac.com/v1.42ghz/Kext_Hel...elper%20b7.zip

3. Open the Thireus .zip and you now have to choose one of the following (_r8 worked well on my 10v):

* 0.2.2_r8_Thireus_release_light (lower volume)
* 0.2.2_r8_Thireus_patched_extreme (higher volume)

I chose extreme since I wanted the ability to crank the volume. If you have kids listening to headphones, use light.

4. To install the KEXT, drag the VoodooHDA.kext ON TOP of KEXT Helper (it's a droplet app). Enter your admin password (you were in an Admin account, right?)
5. Reboot, now you have speaker, headphones and mic inputs working. Adjust in the Apple Sound System Preference.

Note: All info pulled from the OS X forums (http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/dell...d-no-sound.htm and Touchpad Driver installer and uninstaller), thanks Anguish and disgruntledlurker!

Make the Dell Mini 10v Trackpad Feel like a Mac Trackpad
1. Get Touchpad driver v_17 from Melkort (and installer by northmendo) http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/963163/Touchpad_17.dmg (V18 seems a bit unstable for the 10v)
2. Make sure you're back in your trusty Admin account.
3. Make sure you uninstall any previous attempts to install one of Melkort's touchpad drivers (since you're working on a new install, this is moot, right?)
4. Open the Touchpad_17.dmg
5. Run script application (double-click) install touchpad V17
6. Restart and now go to the System Prefs and turn on what you like.

I use edge scrolling since 2 finger seems a bit wonky right now. Also, adjust your sensitivity and now the trackpad is much more friendly.

There you go, the closest thing you can get to a sub-3lb, sub-$400 Mac.


Observations on Day 2:
1. Love the feel of the Mini 10v, keyboard is great and I'm already naturally typing. Six-cell battery is getting 5-6 hours of use, recharge in a couple of hours. Battery feels like it's not solidly in place, moves a small amount, but I use it for a handle and keyboard tilt stand.
2. Hate the trackpad. I have to use two hands/two fingers to click on items. I wish they used Apple's no-button trackpad innovation - turn off the area at the bottom of trackpad so it acts like a button.
3. Resolution is fine, I use Terminal and type "defaults write -g AppleDisplayScaleFactor 0.8" (without quotes) to get the windows to automatically resize if I'm having issues viewing anything. I set it back since it makes some of the menu items wonky ("defaults write -g AppleDisplayScaleFactor 1.0")
4. Trying to install Snow Leopard 10A354 later today, it's going to take 2 hours
5. Installed DropBox (2GB free storage)
6. Bluetooth A2DP works great and I can listen to my music on my $25 Kensington bluetooth headset. Make sure you select the Bluetooth menu item, scroll to your headset and choose Use Headphones from the submenu instead of headset. Headset is for single-ear, mono bluetooth devices.
7. I did have some issues with "wake from sleep", follow the very large thread. Disabling Legacy USB support will let the 10v wake from sleep, but after it sleeps, it won't restart, but seems to shut down with power light still on. I usually press the power button to make it reboot. Not sure if this is a problem, but waiting for new instructions from the MyDellMini forums.

Observations after 1 week
1. I couldn't be more happy with the forums posted on MyDellMini.com. The Admins are doing their best to keep things running and everyone from fighting : )
2. The OS X forum is one of the best repositories of risk-takers. I now have a 99.9% Mac. There are some small, nitpicky things, but it's near perfect.
3. Now, I shift to cosmetic. I need to cover the lid Dell logo and the under-screen bezel logo. I'll post my pics when I get back from vacation. I'm going to try a brushed metal, laser friendly sticker that will print inverse in black and leave the silver showing.
4. Finally, I want to thank Melkort and Anguish for all their support to the mission. I wouldn't have my hackintosh if it weren't for both of them and the contributors to the forums!

Thanks!