Leopard in to a Non-Apple Computer? - Part3

Having only one hard disk detected in my mac was somehow irritating as I need to move out some of my favourite files from the "missing" hard disk to the "visible" hard disk in Windows before I could access it from my Mac. I've been figuring on this for around 2 days and I've done enough google'ing yet I found no solutions on this yet. However on the 3rd days, I found out a clue when I take a look on my Hardware Properties in my Windows Vista. This is the possible culprit :
Hard disk 1 - Location 0 (Channel 0, Target 0, Lun 0) and
Hard disk 2 - Location 0 (Channel 0, Target 0, Lun 0) too while
Optical Drive - Location 0 (Channel 1, Target 0, Lun 0).


Hence obviously there is some problem with the channel as it was not suppose to have 2 drive plugged in the same channel. By taking out my computer's casing and take a look on my mainboard, it has 3 pairs of SATA interface where 2 pairs are powered by Intel ACHI8, and a pair of Gigabyte own interface. By plugging only one device to each pair of the SATA interface, it corrects up the Channel listing. Reboot the computer and logged onto my Mac, yes... it shows up both of my hard disk and also optical drive living happily with each other.


Hard disk issue solved, however LAN interface was not running as expected. Did a google and it was solved by following this guide here.

After the LAN was up and running, WiFi is the next item on the list. This really makes me smack my head as I was pairing up hardwares to make sure that it was able to run in Mac, however I forgot to choose a Mac compatible WiFi adapter. I got a Prolink WG2000R WiFi adapter which I have no idea what chipset it was using, so the only thing I can do is guess. After a few guessing which makes me almost gave up and settle down with cables, the RaLink driver works like charm. I followed the guide in the InsanelyMac forum which explains on how to makes RaLink WiFi adapter works proerply in Mac and now I got the WiFi works in my Mac.


Problems solved. This is my Mac screen caps.. :)

Annoying System Beep Sound

Few weeks ago, I was working on one of the SCCM issues and I was reading the execmgr.log using Trace32.exe. Annoyingly each time I select/highlight a row in the logs, the system speaker would starts beeping.


Well there are several methods to solve a problem actually. In few years back, I might have the idea of disabling the system speaker, or just open up the CPU and unplug the cord which connecting from the machine’s mainboard with speakers. However this time, I would spend some time on it and find out what really causing the system speaker to beep. The tools that I would be using are Process Monitor from SysInternal.


From the Procmon trace, it shows that trace32.exe was anxiously searching for a wav file which having an improper name. Now we knew that the System Beep was triggered as Windows having issue on finding a proper *.wav file when an event was triggered. This raised another question, “What event was triggered? And where it defines the wav file to be played?”. Looking back to the Process Monitor, it actually point me to HKey_User\[UserSID]\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\Default\CCCSelect\.current . Upon open up the keys using Registry Editor (Regedit), it clearly shows that the key carries some weird ASCII values in the Data field. By delete the value from the specified key, it actually solves my issue. Now no more annoying beep sounds from system speakers anymore. :)

Leopard in to a Non-Apple Computer? - Part2

Continue from my previous post.... Slot the IATKOS dvd into my optical bay, and let's have fun. Installation of the OSX actually is rather straight forward, and it takes me about 15mins - 20mins with my machine. A quick walk in Google brings me to the OSX installation guide which is here.

Basically my first attempt actually failed as it keeps on looping in the mac account settings page. Looking into Google, it tells me that I would need to unplug or disconnect any network devices or disable LAN in BIOS.

Welcome screen appeared telling you that "Hey, you have installed a Mac"

Mac account setup screen

Well the trick doesn't work at first as it brings me to a deadly "Kernal Panic REBOOT" screen. No matter how many times I reboot my machine, I end up on the same deadly screen.

Kernal Panic Restart Screen

Holding my breath, I reformat my Mac Volume and start everything over again. This time, I excluded almost most of the items in installation option and yes, I managed to get back the Mac OSX welcome screen. The loop starts again from Mac OSX welcome screen to mac account setup wizard. I reboot my machine and reconfigure my BIOS again, and this time it works. I finally get into the MAC.

Everything is cool however there are several issues with my MAC.
1. First of all, it only detects one of my Hard drive instead of both of it.
2. Second, neither my NIC nor WLAN/WiFi Adapter being recognized properly.
3. Third, booting up Mac OSX tooks quite a long time compared to Vista.

In Part3, I would tells you how I solve 3 of these issues. Stay tuned. ;)

Leopard in to a Non-Apple Computer?

As most of us know that in order to run a Macintosh/Apple OS, you would need to buy a Mac from Apple or add some amount to Job Steve's pocket. However with the help of a developer and geek, it actually enables you to install Mac right on your standard pc. Honestly speaking, with the migration of Mac from PowerPC platform to Intel platform, the idea of running Mac OS in PC gets much more simpler.

I bought my computer last year, and what I was trying to do is to make my setup as close as the real Mac. Due to the budget constrains, it might not be 100% identical with the real Mac of course. This is the specifications of my computer :

Processors : Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo E6600 - 2.4GHz
Mainboard : Gigabyte 965P - DS3 (Intel 965 Chipsets)
Ram Module : 2GB DDR2 667MHz
Graphic : Colorful - ATi X1950 with 256MB memory and 256bit.
Optical : LG DVD writer (SATA)
Hard Drive : Western Digital SATA WD2500KS + WD6400AAKS

The other parts which I didn't mentioned here was not important as it would support anyway.

Now get the tools ready and ready to go :
- An iATKOS_V1_R2 DVD
- GOOGLE and insanemac forum.

Stay tuned for part II.

This is what happen when the Apartment's Management gets hungry

Yesterday afternoon around 12pm, My housemate messaged me and informed me that my car was clamped. The most furious thing is that my car was parked at the correct bays, which is reserved for my unit, so by any means they shouldn't clamp my wheels. Sound's ridiculous isn't it?

Of course in order to release my clamp, I went to talk to the staff in the management office. I was clamped with the reason of no apartment stickers was sticked on my windscreen. First of all there is no single notice stated that vehicles without stickers will be clamped, and the worse thing is that they demand RM50 from me in order to release the clamp.

It really boils up my blood, and they thought that they are the king in this apartment. Luckily the supervisor of the security guards know me, and he open up the clamp for me. Else I would rather pay locksmith to open this thing than giving those idiots RM50. They find all ways to earn our money and finding all the lame excuse for it. Sigh.... if you want to buy/rent an apartment in future, do some research on the apartment's management.