Mac OS X on x86 Hardware 2008–2024 Technical Archive
InfiniteMac OSx86 › OSx86 Core & 10.X › NVIDIA 9800 512MB GT - Issue
6,634 reads · 2009-10-02 – 2009-12-02
Dossier 10.X Core NVIDIA GeForce

NVIDIA 9800 512MB GT - Issue

Ok, as my first post, i understand there may be some serious amount of noobness, but i humbly request that you bear with me. I have been steadily working on installing and getting Mac OS X via iPC 10.5.6 PPF5 FINAL distro up and running…

Primary Author
@rkdowdy64 Published 2009-10-02
Collection
OSx86 Core & 10.X
Archival Footprint
6,634 historical reads · 4 curated field notes (from 8 dispatches) · 2009-10-02 – 2009-12-02
Credited Voices (5)
@rkdowdy64 (4)@vladrxpx@kemi01@thorazine74@numblock

Ok, as my first post, i understand there may be some serious amount of noobness, but i humbly request that you bear with me.

I have been steadily working on installing and getting Mac OS X via iPC 10.5.6 PPF5 FINAL distro up and running smoothly. I did extensive research and tried iDeneb first before iPC. After 16 tries at the installation (after 5 failed attempts with iDeneb, i finally managed to get booted into Mac OS X and everythi seemed to work fine.

At first i had good resolutions (22" Gateway monitor displaying 1650x1080 native) but no internet. well, i fixxed the internet, and managed to being installing new software and such. I am an avid World of Warcrack addict, and thought all was well after fighting with the installation for a little bit (namely, the computer doesn't like to go to sleep then wake back up in the middle of the install)

And all seems to be going great. WoW installed.

WoW patched.

i rebooted my PC

and came in and everything still looked good.

i clicked on the WoW icon, and *poof*

"World of Warcraft cannot start; failure to start 3d Acceleration"

Well, i know it does not say exactly that, but it's the 3d Acceleration error.On my iPC distro, i did install the 9800GTX drivers for NVIDIA. there are others options i have installed, but everything works fine. i can currently browse the internet, have good connections, and i had managed to figure out most every bump so far on my own.

But this 3d Acceleration error has my mind boggled.:-/ I see some posts talking about efi strings and gfx strings, perhaps a bad .kext or it's not registering properly because i have a XFX NVIDIA 9800 GT as opposed to a GTX.

To clarify, the card is a XFX NVIDIA 9800 GT with 512MB of GDDR3 RAM.

I am comfortable editing just about anything, but i would like a ton of detail, pictures help too. sometimes, links to other posts in other places don't do me as much good. I do my best to give as much info as possible, and i hope to recieve a bunch of info back in return.

I've managed to remove all other errors aside from this one. please, if anyone can help or lay out for me a good way or tactic, or a great post somewhere, i am open to your thoughts, help, and opinions.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. for any posts regarding my issue.

Author Updates & Technical Revisions

Follow-up dispatches by @rkdowdy64

Author Update #1 @rkdowdy64 2009-10-05

i did that and killed my startup, it gave me a kernal panic.

perhaps i did something wrong?

Author Update #2 @rkdowdy64 2009-10-05

Ok, i should say that i had done that on my previous install. on my fresh install (from fixing it from where i made it unbootable) i just performed the actions outlined to me.

i got a good reboot. (otherwise i wouldn't be typing this out) and i still feel like i am missing something here.

Author Update #3 @rkdowdy64 2009-10-06

yep, still no go. i followed the instructions and still, no 3d acceleration

i am so close to giving up. and by that point i usually figure it out. perhaps something will come to me soon, i just gotta keep trying at it.

Synthesized Community Field Notes

4 technical responses curated from 8 original dispatches

Field Note #1 @vladrxpx 2009-10-05

i too have xfx nvidia 9800 gt 512mb.
but i cant provide any pictures because i've done this long time ago, and i'm using 10.6.
anyway..
just use osx86tools and create an EFI string (google it). follow the guide on creating the graphics EFI string.

here ya go.. use this guide :

aquamac.prob oards.com/index.cgi?board=hack1&action=display&thread=509&page=1

worked for me

Field Note #3 @thorazine74 2009-10-11

You may need to update Leopard to a more recent release or at least update the NVIDIA kexts to get your card supported in 10.5.6.
Support for a card is definitely not the same in between different OS versions, many nvidia cards that work in Snow would not work in 10.5.6, you can install new nvidia drivers on old OS versions but thats not guaranteed to work.
You can check NVDANV50Hal.kext plist for which device ids are supported in your installed version, if your card's device id is not there it may not work.

Field Note #4 @numblock 2009-12-02

Worked

I'm a noob at this os or osx for that matter. This is definitely a beautiful OS. If I want to learn how to move around the OS X do I keep it here or can I have a link to a good beginners website dealing with Snow leopard or Leopard? (waiting for kind replies).:)
(Actually running Snow Leopard 10.6.1 in a Sager).

Sources & Contributor Provenance (5 credited usernames · Thread #4303)
UsernameDossier ContributionDispatchesActive Window
@rkdowdy64Primary Author42009-10-02 → 2009-10-06
@vladrxpxContributor12009-10-05
@kemi01Contributor12009-10-10
@thorazine74Contributor12009-10-11
@numblockContributor12009-12-02