790GX problems?

wanderson9 · #1 04-03-2009, 06:14 AM

Many people have been having problems installing OS X on their 790GX computers after a quick google search.

My error is during the boot up of the install cd, I get a "Still Waiting For Root Device error".
I have tried using LawlessPPCs mod of Zephyroth's 10.5.3 DVD that is supposed to work with Phenom but to no avail.

Below are my computer's specs, perhaps a developer could take a look and figure out a simple fix:

Biostar TA790GX Motherboard
AMD Phenom 9600+ Black Edition
3 GB WinTec Ram (2x1 DDR2, 2x512 DDR2)
Integrated Graphics (ATI HD Radeon 3300 Graphics connected by HDMI)
24" Asus LCD Monitor
Sony DVD-RW/+RW Drive (PATA)
500 GB Seagate Barracuda (SATA)
80 GB Western Digital Raptor (PATA)

P.S. I can assist a developer/troubleshooter with any questions they might have about this motherboard.

evvn · #2 04-03-2009, 12:06 PM

my spec:
biostar ta790gx xe
phenom 9950
lg dvd rw drive (sata)
seagate 80gb (sata)
seagate 250gb (sata)

im using lawlessPPC and it works fine..
maybe you can try to use sata dvd drive and connect your HDD and DVD sata connectors cable to sata5 or sata6 conectors in your biostar motherboard. i've try to connect my HDD to sata1 to sata4 connectors and it get "still waiting to root device". my friend told me its caused by jmicron chip compatible issue.

lanceomni · #3 04-03-2009, 02:02 PM

In your BIOS try changing your SATA Mode from AHCI to IDE if that option is available. Generally you can choose between AHCI, IDE & RAID though I have also seen IDE Mode reffered to as AHCI Off.

I don't have much experience with your mobo so there may be other chipset related issues but id check and see if this works first.

Evvn might have a point too as some motherboards, including mine, have two different SATA Controllers. You can referrence your mobo's spec sheet to see which ones are controlled by a particular controller.

Zeblade · #4 04-08-2009, 11:42 PM

hey guys.. I have a MA79gp-ud4h + Phenom II X4 940 3g. I installed ideneb 1.4 10.5.6, did ipc, XxX.. lol you name it. This last install was Ideneb 1.4 yet I lol dont remember what but I installed some fix's this time and now boots in fine every time, sound, video (ATI 3870) (QE,QGL all work). At 1st I could only get in to osx with -x ..

At the start I had my drive in sata 5 or 6 and found I could install (cd rom sata) with ahci on or off. I ended putting it in 1 then I started to get "waiting on root" unless ahci was on. I do get USBOHCI sleep.. something shows about 6 of them. No expert here. So it was from some FIX on the DVD that allowed me to boot in everytime with out -x or -F. So maybe someone can put it somewhere that this board does work.

malih · #5 04-28-2009, 12:20 PM

I've also experienced this problem, I usually use Native IDE mode for the hard disk, so I changed it to AHCI and it works just fine... the only problem is the Graphics Card driver. I wonder anyone know a link to a driver that support Radeon HD 3300 (the onboard graphics to 790GX)

wanderson9 · #6 04-30-2009, 10:53 PM

After changing the IDE to AHCI settings everything is working fine, had a little problem booting Vista but I installed that on a 60 GB IDE drive I had lying around.

malih · #7 05-01-2009, 12:46 AM

Actually, I was just installing using iPC 10.5.6 (and i think it was) PPF5 yesterday and I can freely use Native IDE, and when installing I checked the box for VIA-ATi SB and the JMicron stuff, so I'm now good with Native IDE.

Although still no luck with the Graphics.

wanderson9 · #8 05-02-2009, 01:21 AM

Crashed during install, now when I try and boot up the DVD I get further than I used to until I hit this error:

Code:

Kernel Version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.4.0L Mon Jun 9 19:30:33 PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.5.20.1/RELEASE_I386
System Model Name: TA790GX A2+ (TA790GX A2+)