If you own an old computer that you want to turn into a Hackintosh, you'll probably have to fiddle with its BIOS, which is basically a traditional-style settings page for your motherboard. Since 2012, the BIOS standard has largely been replaced by UEFI, a newer (and better-looking) interface for managing motherboard settings. However, we believe that enough Hackintoshes these days still use BIOS to warrant a guide for it. Gigabyte motherboards have traditionally been the most widely recommended brand for Hackintoshes, so that's what we'll be covering in this tutorial.
Not sure whether your computer's Gigabyte-brand motherboard uses BIOS or UEFI? Here's a quick guide to differentiating between the two: the interface of BIOS is usually monochrome and entirely text-based. Meanwhile, the interface of UEFI usually has pictures, and allows you to use your mouse pointer. If your Gigabyte motherboard uses UEFI, check out our UEFI settings guide instead.
To enter the BIOS on my own computer's Gigabyte P67A-D3-B3 motherboard, I have to press the delete key when it boots (before the operating system starts). Different manufacturers set different keys for opening the BIOS.
If your Hackintosh already has Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion installed, the only thing you'll need to change in the BIOS is the 'Boot Device', so that USB drives have highest priority.
If your Hackintosh doesn't have any version of Mac OS X installed yet, you have to change a few extra BIOS settings. Before starting, reset all of your BIOS settings to their factory defaults. On Gigabyte motherboards, you can reset your BIOS settings to their default by selecting 'Load Optimized Defaults' on the main page of the BIOS. Once your BIOS is running on its defaults, you need to change these three settings:
Boot Device - Change the boot device of your computer so that 'USB-HDD' is first. You need to do this for Unibeast to work. After you finish installing Mac OS X, you should change this setting back to default, so that 'Hard Disk' is the first boot device (this optional, but it will speed up your boot times).
HPET - Change this to 64-bit.
SATA Control Mode (your BIOS might call this a different name) - This will probably already be set to 'SATA', 'IDE', or 'RAID'. Change it to 'AHCI'. Mac OS X only works with AHCI.
Keep in mind that the BIOS on most motherboards do not support using a mouse, so you'll probably have to navigate through the BIOS with the arrow keys on your keyboard. Press 'Enter' to change a selected option in the BIOS. On my Gigabyte motherboard, I have to press F10 to save my changes.
Computer Specifications:
Mother Board: GA Z77-DS3H rev 1.0 bios update 9.0, Intel Z77 Express Chipset, integrated audio Realtek ALC887, integrated network Atheros GbE LAN chip.
CPU: Intel i5 3470 box, 3.2GHz / 6MB Intel HD 2500 Graphics (not used cause it’s not supported by Os X )
Graphics Card: Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 650 OC 2GB DDR5
SSD SATA III OCZ Vertex 4 VTX4-25SAT3-128GB (connected to SATA III 0 port)
G-Skill 2×8 GB 1600MHz DDR 3 Ram memory
USB keyboard and mouse![Laptop Laptop](https://imgv2-1-f.scribdassets.com/img/document/178628441/original/5516894fdd/1597508634?v=1)
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/1/8/5/118558279/619327422.jpg)
Learn more about UEFI & BIOS boot process in Hackintosh Without correct Bios configuration system will not boot but boot issues are not only caused by Bios so read the guide Debugging your Hackintosh to know more about Hackintosh boot problems. Setting up Legacy BIOS Boot (Chameleon or Clover).
Not sure whether your computer's Gigabyte-brand motherboard uses BIOS or UEFI? Here's a quick guide to differentiating between the two: the interface of BIOS is usually monochrome and entirely text-based. Meanwhile, the interface of UEFI usually has pictures, and allows you to use your mouse pointer. If your Gigabyte motherboard uses UEFI, check out our UEFI settings guide instead.
To enter the BIOS on my own computer's Gigabyte P67A-D3-B3 motherboard, I have to press the delete key when it boots (before the operating system starts). Different manufacturers set different keys for opening the BIOS.
Here you go, my AMD Hackintosh running 10.6.8 Everything is working, sound, lan, video drivers. I've made a guide about it, you can read it on: http://www.in. This tutorial shows how to install 32bit OS X 10.6.3 on a Gigabyte GA P35-DS3P main board and update to OS X 10.6.7 with Pentium D processor (Pentium D processor and NVIDIA 7200GS are the reason why installation should be 32 bit and not 64 bit (owners of dual core or quad core processor and NVIDIA 8xxx cards or later can follow this tutorial and install it with legacy 64 bit vanilla kernel)).
If your Hackintosh already has Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion installed, the only thing you'll need to change in the BIOS is the 'Boot Device', so that USB drives have highest priority.
If your Hackintosh doesn't have any version of Mac OS X installed yet, you have to change a few extra BIOS settings. Before starting, reset all of your BIOS settings to their factory defaults. On Gigabyte motherboards, you can reset your BIOS settings to their default by selecting 'Load Optimized Defaults' on the main page of the BIOS. Once your BIOS is running on its defaults, you need to change these three settings:
Boot Device - Change the boot device of your computer so that 'USB-HDD' is first. You need to do this for Unibeast to work. After you finish installing Mac OS X, you should change this setting back to default, so that 'Hard Disk' is the first boot device (this optional, but it will speed up your boot times).
HPET - Change this to 64-bit.
SATA Control Mode (your BIOS might call this a different name) - This will probably already be set to 'SATA', 'IDE', or 'RAID'. Change it to 'AHCI'. Mac OS X only works with AHCI.
GA Z77-DS3H is quite good and not so expensive mainboard for Hackintosh systems running Os X 10.7 or later. It’s not OOB since you will need to add and remove some kexts to make it fully functional + set up your bios. This new generation of motherboard uses UEFI Bios so DSDT.aml in not needed anymore. All you will need is a few extra kexts for your Network, Audio and Serial-ATA interface… Also this tutorial includes setup for Nvidia GTX 650 graphics card, which is used instead of default CPU’s Intel HD 2500 graphics.
Computer Specifications:
Mother Board: GA Z77-DS3H rev 1.0 bios update 9.0, Intel Z77 Express Chipset, integrated audio Realtek ALC887, integrated network Atheros GbE LAN chip.
CPU: Intel i5 3470 box, 3.2GHz / 6MB Intel HD 2500 Graphics (not used cause it’s not supported by Os X )
Graphics Card: Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 650 OC 2GB DDR5
SSD SATA III OCZ Vertex 4 VTX4-25SAT3-128GB (connected to SATA III 0 port)
G-Skill 2×8 GB 1600MHz DDR 3 Ram memory
USB keyboard and mouse
Requirements:
Mac Os X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 (download from app store, or try search torrents if just wanna test if your system is capable to run Os X. Os X Mountain Lion costs only 20$, so please buy it…)
USB drive 8 GB or more
GA-Z77-DS3H pack
Unibeast / Multibeast
Kext utility
Mac Os X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 (download from app store, or try search torrents if just wanna test if your system is capable to run Os X. Os X Mountain Lion costs only 20$, so please buy it…)
USB drive 8 GB or more
GA-Z77-DS3H pack
Unibeast / Multibeast
Kext utility
This tutorial is for educational purposes only. You, of course, assume all responsibility for choosing to follow this tutorial. Also, OS X EULA states that you can run Lion on Apple labeled hardware only.
First of all you will need to create your Bootable Mountain Lion USB Installer. To do that using Unibeast follow this tutorial and find out how to create bootable Mountain Lion USB installer using Unibeast. There are also other ways to create bootable USB, using myHack or even manually, or you can buy USB drive with ML Installer from App Store.
Once you get or create your Unibeast USB installer navigate to /System/Library/Extensions (/S/L/E) folder on USB and rename (disable) AppleTyMCEDriver.kext to AppleTyMCEDriver.kext.orig (you can name it as you like, just extension must be different than .kext). With this kext you will be able to boot only in safe mode, otherwise you will get Kernel Panic. If u create your USB Install drive with myHack this kext will be removed automatically, and backed up in Extra folder.
For Gigabyte GTX 650 change GraphicsEnabler from Yes to No and remove PCIRootUID=1 string in org.chameleon.Boot.plist file on your USB installer in /Extra folder.
Unplug any hard disk, except one you are using for OSX install… The same thing is with pci cards, remove any pci cards except your graphics card.
Plug in your ML USB Installer in black USB 2.0 port (do not use blue USB 3.0 ports).
Start computer and go to your BIOS by pressing del key at boot, under BIOS Features disable VT-d (not sure why but with this option enabled I got KP), under Peripherals set SATA Mode as AHCI, leave your Internal graphics at Auto (amount of memory will not affect your system cause we will not use Internal Graphics card since Intel HD 2500 Graphics card is not supported by Os X). Here are some photos of GA-Z77-DS3H BIOS settings on working hackintosh system.
At the end press F10 to save BIOS settings and exit.
Start your computer and boot ML USB Installer (Press F12 at start on Gigabyte to select USB as your start device) and at chameleon boot prompt type “-v npci=0x2000” without quotes and press Enter. You need npci=0x2000 under kernel flags to avoid losing console output during boot after the “PCI Configuration begin” message appears. -v is not needed, but it’s better to know what is happening with your boot…If you still get Kernel Panic, try to boot with “-x -v npci=0x2000” flags.
Now your installation should start, select your language, agree to the terms and from the top menu select Disk Utility. Here you should see all hard drives connecting to your computer. Pick the one you want to install Mountain Lion on and select the Partition tab. In options select GUID Partition Table then choose Mac OS Extended Journaled as the format and name it HDD. Then click Apply.
Close Disk Utility and go through the installer like normal. When it comes to the install screen just pick the Mountain Lion disk and then click install. This will take quite a while so be patient.
Close Disk Utility and go through the installer like normal. When it comes to the install screen just pick the Mountain Lion disk and then click install. This will take quite a while so be patient.
After installation finishes reboot back into the UniBeast USB drive. This time select your HDD to boot from instead of ML Installer, type “-v npci=0x2000” without quotes and then continue with your boot.
When Os X ML starts, go to Applications / System Preferences / Security & Privacy, unlock it to make changes and under General tab select Allow applications downloaded from Anywhere.
This will allow you to use MultiBeast and other third party software.
Start Multibeast, select EasyBeast Installation. I also included patched DSDT.aml for this motherboard, but there was no difference on system with or without of this file, since this board uses UEFI BIOS, DSDT.aml is not needed. You can use it anyway. In that case select UserDSDT or DSDT-Free Installation and copy DSDT.aml from GA-Z77-DS3H pack to your desktop.
Under Drivers & Bootloaders / Drivers / Audio / Realtek ALC8xx / Without DSDT / ALC887/888b select v100302 Current.
Under Drivers & Bootloaders / Drivers / Miscellaneous select FakeSMC. This is mandatory kext and it is required for booting Os X. Also under Miscellaneous select NullCPUPowerManagement which will prevent kernel panic without of proper HPET DSDT edits.
Under Drivers & Bootloaders / Bootloaders select Chimera v1.11.1 r1394
For Nvidia GTX 650 graphics card go to Customization / Boot Options and select GraphicsEnabler=No.
For Nvidia GTX 650 graphics card go to Customization / Boot Options and select GraphicsEnabler=No.
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/1/8/5/118558279/619327422.jpg)
Click continue and proceed with your installation. Don’t reboot after you done. First go to your computer system hard drive root, and now you will see Extra folder created by Multibeast.
Right click on org.chameleon.Boot.plist file inside /Extra folder and open it with text edit.
Under Kernel flags key replace darkwake=0 string with npci=0x2000 string. Save your file. Now you can restart computer, and this time boot it without of USB from your hard drive and without of entering any flags.
Copy AtherosL1cEthernet.kext and LegacyAppleAHCIPort.kext from GA-Z77-DS3H pack to /System/Library/Extensions folder and run Kext utility. Restart your computer. AtherosL1cEthernet.kext will fix your ethernet card and with LegacyAppleAHCIPort.kext system will recognise Intel 7 Series Chipset under Serial-ATA Device Tree in System Information.
If Using SSD Disk install Trim Enabler to enable SSD trim option and keep your SSD drive fast and healthy. Restart again to enable trim.
Nvidia GTX 650 card will be recognised as NVIDIA D14P1-30 until you install original Nvidia driver . Also GTX 650 supports Nvidia CUDA drivers so if you are in video editing this is must have.
And that should be it, your hackintosh is ready to use ?
UPDATED TO 10.8.3 via Software Update went without of major issues, after update reinstall audio kext using multibeast (or back it up before update and put back after update, and run kext utility) and re-enable Trim Enabler…
Here is a short video showing how this tutorial was made, it’s created on the same computer on which tutorial was made using Adobe After Effects…
i sus from piko film on Vimeo.
And some About This Mac screenshots of working Os X 10.8.2 ML:
Mac Os X For Gigabyte Galaxy
Enjoy your new hackintosh ?