[Question] Can a Sony Vaio VPCF24M be Hackintoshed?

[cypherbg]

Hi All,

First of all, thank you for the great work that you are doing on here!

As I am not that savvy hardware wise, can you advise if this laptop can be Hackintoshed and what version will it be suitable for it if yes?

I got the laptop around 6 or 7 years ago, so it's quite old.

Here are the specs:

Architectural

CHİPSET

Intel® HM65 Express Chipset.

Processor

PROCESSOR NAME

Intel® Core ™ i5-2450M Processor

POWER AND PERFORMANCE

With Intel® Turbo Boost Technology

PROCESSOR SPEED ​​(GHZ)

2.50 with Turbo Boost up to 3.10

L3 CACHE (MB): 3

NUMBER OF CORES: 2

Graphics

GRAPHİC CARD NAME

NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M GPU

VİDEO RAM MEMORY SİZE: 2 GB

Memory

MEMORY SİZE (GB): upgraded to 8 GB (2x4)

MEMORY SPECİFİCATİONS

DDR3 SDRAM

MEMORY SPEED ​​(MHZ)

1333

Currently it has a 640GB HDD, but will swap out for a Kingston 240 SSD.

And that's about it.

Thanks!

[MaLd0n]

[ref]cypherbg[/ref], yes, work

use sierra or high sierra

[cypherbg]

[ref]cypherbg[/ref], yes, work

use sierra or high sierra

 

Thank you for the fast reply.

[cypherbg]

Hi again,

Okay, so I made a flash drive per your instructions on a Mac, but I am not able to boot from it.

I am able to boot a Linux USB although.

Any help will be appreciated.

[onemanosx]

upload picture where screen is stuck

[cypherbg]

It doesn't get stuck anywhere. It doesn't boot from the flash drive, even when pressing the F8 key.

It's like it doesn't recognize the flash drive as a bootable drive.

But it boots a Mint bootable flash drive.

Can it be because the BIOS version is old or? (I've never tinkered with BIOS)

[onemanosx]

Check bios' boot drive order and make necessary changes.

[cypherbg]

I've done that. Boot order is:

USB

CD

HDD

Is it possible that it doesn't recognize the flash drive because of old BIOS version? Or because of the file system of the flash drive?

I was able to boot and install Linux Mint the other day from another flash.

EDIT: Here's some of the BIOS information:

 

BIOS Information
Vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
Version: R2160V3
Release Date: 09/23/2011
Address: 0xF0000
Runtime Size: 64 kB
ROM Size: 4096 kB
Characteristics:
	PCI is supported
	PNP is supported
	BIOS is upgradeable
	BIOS shadowing is allowed
	ESCD support is available
	Boot from CD is supported
	Selectable boot is supported
	EDD is supported
	8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
	CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
	ACPI is supported
	USB legacy is supported
	AGP is supported
	Smart battery is supported
	BIOS boot specification is supported
	Function key-initiated network boot is supported
	Targeted content distribution is supported
	UEFI is supported
BIOS Revision: 21.60
Firmware Revision: 21.60

[onemanosx]

Probably bad image write to usb

[cypherbg]

Probably bad image write to usb

 

Will try and re-flash from Windows.

[cypherbg]

Okay, so I've tried flashing from Windows- once with the Win32 tool specified in the instructions and one more time, just for the heck of it, with Rufus, and the laptop still didn't boot from it (also tried one more time to flash from the Mac).

I thought that it may be the flash drive, so I made a Mint bootable flash and I was able to boot from it, so it's not the flash.

[onemanosx]

Okay, so I've tried flashing from Windows- once with the Win32 tool specified in the instructions and one more time, just for the heck of it, with Rufus, and the laptop still didn't boot from it (also tried one more time to flash from the Mac).

I thought that it may be the flash drive, so I made a Mint bootable flash and I was able to boot from it, so it's not the flash.

 

May sound silly, but it has happened countless times with new users, did you extract the zip file and create usb image with the .raw file? I personally prefer creating disc image in a Mac using terminal command or as recommended, using etcher.

Other than the basics above, I have no idea.

[cypherbg]

May sound silly, but it has happened countless times with new users, did you extract the zip file and create usb image with the .raw file? I personally prefer creating disc image in a Mac using terminal command or as recommended, using etcher.

Other than the basics above, I have no idea.

 

Yep. Extracted the files, on Mac used Etcher and on Win- the Win32 program. Did everything by the guide.

Will give it a go with the command, but can you tell me what command exactly?

[onemanosx]

diskutil list <-- find out your usb stick

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX <--- diskX is your usb stick

sudo dd if=[drag the .raw image to the terminal] of=/dev/rdiskX bs=1m

[cypherbg]

diskutil list <-- find out your usb stick

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX <--- diskX is your usb stick

sudo dd if=[drag the .raw image to the terminal] of=/dev/rdiskX bs=1m

 

Thanks!

Will try it this way, when I have more spare time.

Cheers!

[cypherbg]

A dumb question:

-I should be using this guide:

---> Nehalem, SandyBridge, IvyBridge, Haswell, Brodwell <---

-or this guide:

[Guide] Install MacOS with Olarila Image, Step by Step, Install and Post Install, Windows or Mac

I was doing the second guide, but maybe I should try the first one?!

And for the first one I should write the image file and then install Clover and then try to boot from it?

[onemanosx]

[Guide] Install MacOS with Olarila Image, Step by Step, Install and Post Install, Windows or Mac

 

 

Follow the updated second guide.

[cypherbg]

Well, I made the flash drive using the terminal commands, but still it would not boot from the USB.

I even dowloaded a new image.

I recon that it may not recognise the USB as bootable.

[onemanosx]

Weird. Never had problems booting from image. You might want to look into your bios settings or flashing mobo bios if its available.

[cypherbg]

Weird. Never had problems booting from image. You might want to look into your bios settings or flashing mobo bios if its available.

 

The BIOS settings are limited. Aside from the boot order, the only other thing that is available is Intel virtualisation to be toggled on or off.

From what I saw under Linux for the BIOS, both UEFI and Legacy are supported.

I've never messed with updating the BIOS so... I looked up if there are any new BIOS updates available from Sony, but was not able to find any.

[onemanosx]

set Intel virtualisation off and choose boot from USB in UEFI (if available) manually.

I have had success booting image from an even older laptop, a core 2 duo system. So, I dont see how your laptop cant boot. Use a different USB port if its available (USB 2.0 is preferable)

[cypherbg]

set Intel virtualisation off and choose boot from USB in UEFI (if available) manually.

I have had success booting image from an even older laptop, a core 2 duo system. So, I dont see how your laptop cant boot. Use a different USB port if its available (USB 2.0 is preferable)

 

Virtualization is off. No success.

Tried on all 3 of the ports and no luck (all of them are USB 2.0). Flash drive is USB 3.0.

I'm almost 100% sure that the BIOS is locked and I'm not able to boot because of this. Will look around the web for a way to unlock/flash/mod it.

I've just tested the flash on my wife's Lenovo laptop and it booted without issues.

[onemanosx]

Sorry, cant be of further help to your specific Sony laptop. Gd luck!

[cypherbg]

Sorry, cant be of further help to your specific Sony laptop. Gd luck!

 

You've done enough, dude!

Thanks for everything.

Will update the thread once I have progressed with the BIOS.

Cheers!

[onemanosx]