My homemade Hackintosh
was working great until the automatic software update popped up while I
wasn't around. If this had been a real Mac, clicking OK would
have been no problem, but since this is a Hackintosh, it meant trouble.
When I got home, the Mac side had gone bye-bye, and only the Windows
side was working.
I tried everything I knew. I read up at the blog and forums. Nothing
worked.
I tried starting over, but I
couldn't boot from the original DVD install disc. If I booted from the
Mac OS X install disc, I would see the spinning wheel of death.
Eventually I ran out of time and ideas, and my Hackintosh became a
Windows 7-only PC.
For months my son had to use Windows for all his web surfing and
game playing.
During all this time, I tried fixing the Mac with no luck. I managed
to boot into Mac OS X, but the USB would not work, which meant that we
could not use a keyboard or mouse. You cannot install software without
the keyboard and mouse.
I was stumped on what to do.
In hindsight, we always had a few minor problems. Since this was a
dual Mac/PC, we used the iBoot
startup disc to get to the bootloader so we could chose either Mac
OS X or Windows. This should not have been necessary, but we had
trouble booting directly into the bootloader.
I found a new rescue disc called
rBoot. Using it, I was able to reboot and then swap in the Snow
Leopard DVD. Then I booted into Safe Mode by holding down the
Shift key during startup. This turned extensions off.
Suddenly, I was at the desktop and the mouse was working. Now what
to do?
When I stuck in a USB flash drive, the computer would crash. That
meant I couldn't use a flash drive to transfer files. Safe Mode was
disabling some USB features.
I tried Safari, and it would work. The problem was that many sites
would crash the browser. I turned off Java and JavaScript, and that
improved the stability of websites.
Now back to the forums to find out what to do.
My Hackintosh has a Sandy Bridge processor. This came out after Snow
Leopard was released. Because of this, earlier versions of Snow Leopard
have to be patched to work. The latest Snow Leopard version, 10.6.8, is
supposed to be able to work with the Sandy Bridge processor. The advice
was run an updater patch and then run the 10.6.8 combo update.
I tried.
For good measure I ran some other support software and a driver
updater. Then I ran the updater patch and rebooted. Everything appeared
to be working.
Next I tried the combo update. This time I lost USB again. That sent
be back to the drawing board. I had to restart in Safe Mode.
After a series of reboots, patches, and such, I thought that it was
finally working. I turned the computer back over to my son to use with
some limitations. Not everything was working smoothly, and the longer
he used it, the more new issues showed up. I kept trying to fix things
until it all fell apart and the USB stopped working again.
I'd had enough, and he was stuck using Windows again.
This is the frustration with working in a completely new area. You
don't know when you are doing something smart or dumb. Despite knowing
enough to build a Hackintosh, I did not know enough to recognize what
my problem was.
Again my son asked me to fix the Hackintosh. I agreed to give it
another try.
This time I remembered to use the -v (for verbose this will
list everything that is happening) setting for every startup/install.
Things did not go smoothly. It froze booting into Mac OS X. I
added -x to boot into Safe Mode. It froze again, but with a
different message. Then I added GraphicEnabler = No. Finally I
was at the desktop and I could run the installer.
After getting the installer to work, I ran the 10.6.8 updater. It
crashed during the install, and I had to start all over again. I was
slowly learning what to do better each time.
Some error messages were useless. They told me that the computer had
a kernel panic but did not explain why. Other error messages hinted
that the problem was with the audio driver. I expected this, but trying
to fix the audio driver before caused some of the problems with the USB
not working.
After reading a few more websites, I decided to try VoodooHDA. The computer
crashed after reboot. It was dinnertime, so I turned it off and had
dinner.
After dinner, my son started the computer and got right into OS X.
Everything was working, and we no longer needed the iBoot disc to get
to the bootloader. The Hackintosh was a Hackintosh again, not just a
Windows box.
I learned several big lessons. The first is that if you build a
Hackintosh, turn off the automatic updater. Deal with the updates
manually after you read about possible issues.
The second lesson is that Macs are great because they work. Building
a Hackintosh is fun, but you have to be prepared for fixing any problem
that comes along. This can be an ordeal for those of us not experienced
enough to fix weird hardware and software problems.
The final lesson was that the newest hardware, like the Sandy Bridge
processor, can be the most desired, but it will initially have the
least support. If you can live with last year's hardware, you will have
a better chance for success. 
