HP ProBook 4430s Hackintosh
I bought an HP ProBook 4430s from e-bay just to build a Hackintosh laptop.
This laptop is known as one of the best Hackintosh-able laptops with very little modification to the hardware, according to the list here:
http://www.macbreaker.com/2012/09/best-hackintosh-laptops-2012-mountain-lion.html
I followed this page, which is the best site for any Hackintosh info:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/hp-probook/77057-guide-installing-mountain-lion-hp-probook.html
Getting the Mountain Lion Installation app was easy (from torrent). However, the OS is cheap so if you want to try, please buy it from App Store. Building a boot USB stick was not so easy. I have a White Macbook with Mac OS X Leopard. I tried to run Unibeast on it but the app fails every time it tried to write to the USB drive. Tried 3 times and always the same result. I almost gave up on it and I thought all I have is a useless 14 inch laptop. Then it occurred to me how about using the Mountain Lion VM I created on Shuttle DS61. I worried that I might not be able to use the USB port. I tried it and to my surprise the app ran perfectly. I inserted the resulting USB stick and turned on the HP, there was brief bootloader screen but it goes straight to Windows. I went back to DS61 and ran the Unibeast one more time and inserted the USB to HP. This time it booted to Chameleon and I selected Installer disk and the Mac OS X installation screen came up. I followed the above web site to finish OS X installation. After about 30 minutes the whole thing was over. I shut down the HP and turned on with the USB stick and selected Mountain Lion disk and wait impatiently for the OS X screen to come up. The screen stayed dark gray and it won't move. I forced to shut down and restarted and it stayed the same. Again I almost gave up. Now I can't even use Windows.... Then I tried to rebuild the OS X install disk again. I found out when I ran HP Book Installer I missed to check which OS X version to install. I checked all the options I needed to select and ran the app. I checked Low Screen Resolution option. And I installed the OS X on the HP. I divided the 500GB hard disk into 2 partitions so I can install Windows on the second partition later. This time I got boot:0 error. Oh, no. Then the guide above has a link to this problem, which is
http://www.tonymacx86.com/25-boot0-error-official-guide.html
I unmounted the drive from Disk Utilities and opened a Terminal window and typed in exactly
dd if=/usr/standalone/i386/boot1h of=/dev/disk0s2
And "Enter"
After reboot, I was greeted by a Mac OS X Welcome screen. I finally have a functioning Macintosh laptop with Mountain Lion on it.
Everything except Wifi is working. I will need to find a USB wifi adapter if I want a real working laptop. I tried NETGEAR WG111US Wireless Usb Adapter but it did not work. The LAN port works so I am currently using NETGEAR WNCE2001 Ethernet to Wireless Adapter. It works but I need to run a network cable and a USB cable into the laptop so it does not look pretty. Someone on the net suggested this USB wifi stick works with Mountain Lion.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CLMJLU/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26725410_item
I placed an order on Amazon.
The wifi card came and it works. It's tiny so it's almost invisible. The range is narrow so I have to move the laptop closer to the access point. I am currently updating this post with my HP ProBook Hackintosh.
The whole process is very well documented and there were very few surprises so I do recommend you try if you have a patience and time and money. If you feel you are not skilled enough, buy a Macbook Air. It's not very expensive. Only gripe about the whole things is we need to have a working Macintosh to prepare the installer, which really defeats the purpose of doing this. I used DS61 VM, but it cost about $600. You might as well buy a new Mac. I just did it to prove it could be done by me, and can show off that I have a Hackintosh laptop to a few friends. I don't have benchmark tests to prove but the performance is equivalent of my White Macbook.
I installed Windows 7 Professional 32 bit on the remaining partition. I had to reinstall Chameleon to get back boot selector to choose either booting from Mac OS or Windows.
This laptop is known as one of the best Hackintosh-able laptops with very little modification to the hardware, according to the list here:
http://www.macbreaker.com/2012/09/best-hackintosh-laptops-2012-mountain-lion.html
I followed this page, which is the best site for any Hackintosh info:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/hp-probook/77057-guide-installing-mountain-lion-hp-probook.html
Getting the Mountain Lion Installation app was easy (from torrent). However, the OS is cheap so if you want to try, please buy it from App Store. Building a boot USB stick was not so easy. I have a White Macbook with Mac OS X Leopard. I tried to run Unibeast on it but the app fails every time it tried to write to the USB drive. Tried 3 times and always the same result. I almost gave up on it and I thought all I have is a useless 14 inch laptop. Then it occurred to me how about using the Mountain Lion VM I created on Shuttle DS61. I worried that I might not be able to use the USB port. I tried it and to my surprise the app ran perfectly. I inserted the resulting USB stick and turned on the HP, there was brief bootloader screen but it goes straight to Windows. I went back to DS61 and ran the Unibeast one more time and inserted the USB to HP. This time it booted to Chameleon and I selected Installer disk and the Mac OS X installation screen came up. I followed the above web site to finish OS X installation. After about 30 minutes the whole thing was over. I shut down the HP and turned on with the USB stick and selected Mountain Lion disk and wait impatiently for the OS X screen to come up. The screen stayed dark gray and it won't move. I forced to shut down and restarted and it stayed the same. Again I almost gave up. Now I can't even use Windows.... Then I tried to rebuild the OS X install disk again. I found out when I ran HP Book Installer I missed to check which OS X version to install. I checked all the options I needed to select and ran the app. I checked Low Screen Resolution option. And I installed the OS X on the HP. I divided the 500GB hard disk into 2 partitions so I can install Windows on the second partition later. This time I got boot:0 error. Oh, no. Then the guide above has a link to this problem, which is
http://www.tonymacx86.com/25-boot0-error-official-guide.html
I unmounted the drive from Disk Utilities and opened a Terminal window and typed in exactly
dd if=/usr/standalone/i386/boot1h of=/dev/disk0s2
And "Enter"
After reboot, I was greeted by a Mac OS X Welcome screen. I finally have a functioning Macintosh laptop with Mountain Lion on it.
Everything except Wifi is working. I will need to find a USB wifi adapter if I want a real working laptop. I tried NETGEAR WG111US Wireless Usb Adapter but it did not work. The LAN port works so I am currently using NETGEAR WNCE2001 Ethernet to Wireless Adapter. It works but I need to run a network cable and a USB cable into the laptop so it does not look pretty. Someone on the net suggested this USB wifi stick works with Mountain Lion.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CLMJLU/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26725410_item
I placed an order on Amazon.
The wifi card came and it works. It's tiny so it's almost invisible. The range is narrow so I have to move the laptop closer to the access point. I am currently updating this post with my HP ProBook Hackintosh.
The whole process is very well documented and there were very few surprises so I do recommend you try if you have a patience and time and money. If you feel you are not skilled enough, buy a Macbook Air. It's not very expensive. Only gripe about the whole things is we need to have a working Macintosh to prepare the installer, which really defeats the purpose of doing this. I used DS61 VM, but it cost about $600. You might as well buy a new Mac. I just did it to prove it could be done by me, and can show off that I have a Hackintosh laptop to a few friends. I don't have benchmark tests to prove but the performance is equivalent of my White Macbook.
I installed Windows 7 Professional 32 bit on the remaining partition. I had to reinstall Chameleon to get back boot selector to choose either booting from Mac OS or Windows.
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