Hello,

I create this post, in part to share with everyone, my experience in installing Snow OS X Universal v3.5 on the Zepto A17 Hydra. I also post in hopes of receiving some assistance in tweaking the installation.


Introduction
The Zepto A17 Hydra was brought to market in late 2008 by Zepto Computers. It features a rebranded Clevo M570 laptop platform with, what can only be considered, quite a potent hardware backend.

My configuration consists of (i will update this list as I acquire more detailed information):
- Intel MoBo
- Intel Core2 Extreme QX9100 3,06GHz 12MB cache
- nVidia 9800 MGTX with 1GB VRAM
- 17" screen WUXGA 1920 x 1200 with both HDMI and DVI output
- 4 GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC8500 1066MHZ
- OCZ CORE 128GB SSD 2,5" SATA HDD
- Blu-ray/DVD-RW SATA
- Intel Wifi 533 ABGN 450 Mbit
- Bluetooth + 4xUSB2.0 + FireWire 800 + 4in1 Card Reader
- IR-Port
- 1xPC-CARD Slot
- Webcamera and Fingerprint reader
- An 8-Cell battery

The SSD is a OCZ CORE series one (generation one) HDD which i firmware patched manually to recive the same performance as the CORE series two (gen. two) type of drives.


Initial findings and install result
Ok... so I installed the iso-release of SnowOS X universal 3.5 without ANY trouble what so ever. Everything just worked like a charm.

I went through the pre-loader and arrived at the partitioning software wich just worked. My SSD drive was detected perfectly and I was able to partition it without any problems. I created one partition and then told the installer to go ahead and install to that very area.

The installer then ran without any interaction from me and when I came back to the PC about three hours later I was greeted by OS X asking me to connect a keyboard.

For some reason the laptop keyboard was no longer being detected (as it had been during the install process), the built in mouse pad had also ceased to function. I plugged in a USB-keyboard and mouse and had to reboot in order for them to be recognized by the OS. Finally I was passed the "Welcome to Mac OS X phase".

Ok, so after having gone through the setup phase I knew that:

1. Sound card was not working.
2. WLAN was not working.
3. Graphics driver was in "failsafe" (1024x768) mode.

Aside from these things, EVERYTHING works! It's kind of choppy since a proper gfx driver is not loaded... but it actually works.

I started up the system setttings dialog in OS X and went to town on the system information. To my surprise I found that the FireWire interface was detected, but only as a FW400 and not FW800. I also noted that my RAM was registering as DDR2 800MHz and not as DDR3 1066MHz, as they are supposed to. I did however get the full 4GB.

Further I also noted that the built-in BluRay reader and CDVD R/W had been detected and was working correctly.

It seemd as if the system had detected the on-board sound card but it was lacking some driver (or w/e) to utilize it (there was some data in the "sound card" field in the system information).


Questions

1. I found this thread regarding "drivers" for my 9800M GTX. How do I come to understand kernel extensions under OS X?
2. Any suggestions on how to get the sound card working?
3. What could be done to make OS X detect memory as DDR3 and FW800?
4. How come the built in keyboard and mouse pad stop working?
5. What tutorials would you recommend I read/watch in order to solve my performance/driver issues?

Any other, more general, suggestions are VERY welcome. I am VERY new to the whole OS X-on-a-PC thing so I welcome any help or input you can share.

Sorry about the long post, just wanted to make sure I had all the details in there.

Thank you in advance,
Gash