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High Sierra Random Freezing

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Can you explain what that means and how to do what you did so that "everything works normally?" This all looks like jargon to me.

No, it's not a "jargon", in fact is simple, I just use a MacPro6,1 smbios and "everything works normally", I mean no freezing, sleeping working, audio, video, bluetooth and etc. In my Clover Kext Folder I have AppleALC, Lilu, IntelMausiEthernet... no need for WEG. If you wish, later I can send my EFI folder so you can have a look on it.
 
So it might be something that is cpu model related - like power management, speedstep and so on. If the change of model helped - @prcmelo - does the speedstep still work for you? My setup did not like 6,1 there was no video out, though I could screenshare and revert the changes.

But what I did next was to disable speedstep by changing cpu-latency setting in clover efi to value that disables it completely. So far so good, haven't got hang in last 24 hours, while previously it couldn't survive the night (idle, no load).

I won't jump into any conclusions, and even if disabling speedstep helps, this is not a proper fix, just a workaround.
 
So it might be something that is cpu model related - like power management, speedstep and so on. If the change of model helped - @prcmelo - does the speedstep still work for you? My setup did not like 6,1 there was no video out, though I could screenshare and revert the changes.

But what I did next was to disable speedstep by changing cpu-latency setting in clover efi to value that disables it completely. So far so good, haven't got hang in last 24 hours, while previously it couldn't survive the night (idle, no load).

I won't jump into any conclusions, and even if disabling speedstep helps, this is not a proper fix, just a workaround.

I disabled any CPU speedsteps, xmp, and power management options via my BIOS and Clover on my desktop (now there are no sleep options in System Preferences, only screen off settings) and it seems to have fixed my freezing. Not ideal, but works for me, for now. The freezing always seemed to occur just after I came back to my computer after the monitor was off, or when I was watching Twitch and browsing the web and the CPU would get hit a little hard.

Hardware/Software:
  • Mac OS 10.13.6
  • Clover, no Chameleon
  • EVGA z170 Stinger
  • i7 6700k
  • 2 x 8GB EVGA 3200mhz RAM (without XMP, 3000mhz)
  • GTX 1070ti
  • Alienware AW3418DW, 3440x1440 @ 120hz
  • Samsung 840 120GB
  • Samsung 850 500GB
  • HGST 10TB HDD
Symptoms included (once it started freezing up):
  • keyboard and mouse still worked
  • sometimes could still interact with apps
  • dock and menubar almost always froze solid after 1 click
  • suddenly not being able to load new apps, or actions within an app
  • streaming video would stop
  • attempts to travel to web pages would result in just endless loading
  • couldn't close apps, couldn't restart, couldn't shut down
  • continued attempts to interact with the system resulted in more of the interface locking up
Kexts/basic config used:
  • Nvidia web drivers
  • whatevergreen.kext (fix black screen, no video output over displayport, after boot)
  • lilu.kext
  • nvram.plist on my efi partition
  • IntelMousiEthernet.kext
  • iMac17,1 SMBIOS - switched from iMac 18,3 (didn't black screen after boot with iMac 18,3 - so I tried it for a bit, before switching back to using whatevergreen.kext)
  • Nonworking ALC1150 - using Soundblaster Omni USB 5.1 Sound
---

I will post back if it freezes again. After reading through these 23 pages, I know we've been down some rabbit holes thinking the issue was fixed when it wasn't. I know this isn't a real fix, but at least the system has been stable for 2 days.
 
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I did also go through all 23 pages, but considering there wasn't definitive answer I did not change anything. I am not really big fan of firing shots in the dark. The only thing I did now was disabling speedstep, and only speedstep through Clover EFI. That came after thinking how hanging happens only when computer is near idle, and after reading comment that changing mac model to specific one did fix it.

I Did also confirm using HWmonitor that CPU speed doesn't change. Sleep works fine. Just woke my computer from sleep this morning, uptime is 1 day 8 hours.
 
I did also go through all 23 pages, but considering there wasn't definitive answer I did not change anything. I am not really big fan of firing shots in the dark. The only thing I did now was disabling speedstep, and only speedstep through Clover EFI. That came after thinking how hanging happens only when computer is near idle, and after reading comment that changing mac model to specific one did fix it.

I Did also confirm using HWmonitor that CPU speed doesn't change. Sleep works fine. Just woke my computer from sleep this morning, uptime is 1 day 8 hours.

I had already tried a bunch of the things mentioned in the thread before I'd read them, but it's helpful to see other's troubleshooting steps.

I had one freeze last night. I decided to try an older clover backup I have on a USB stick to see if it helps. Do you happen to have to emulate nvram as well?
 
@rjsmith2007

I do believe I have nvram emulation working - due to csr settings I think, was long time ago I set it up, so.. I don't know the real reason for having it there, but its up and running.

I'm also happy to report that I haven't had any :beachball: hangs so far since disabling speedstep :)
 
@rjsmith2007

I do believe I have nvram emulation working - due to csr settings I think, was long time ago I set it up, so.. I don't know the real reason for having it there, but its up and running.

I'm also happy to report that I haven't had any :beachball: hangs so far since disabling speedstep :)

I reinstalled Mac OS and removed EmuVariableUefi-64.efi to get rid of nvram emulation and things are working great. I also switched to using Mac 14,2. I even re-enabled speedstep and turbo boost. Haven't had a freeze since for 3 days.

Also got my ALC1150 working thanks to this script: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ra20xyw94bpkkgl/audio_cloverALC-130_v0.6.command?dl=0

Script source here: https://github.com/toleda/audio_CloverALC

At the dropbox link, I modified the script to change the location of my mounted USB EFI partition (/Volumes/BOOTLOADER/EFI/CLOVER). I use the USB for testing and then copy the clover install over to my hard drive when things are working.

Geek Bench: https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/10368641

Clover folder: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3wiq5758e162ipd/CLOVER.zip?dl=0

I'm sure there's a lot of extra junk in the Clover install. I might weed through it, but I'm just happy things are working. :D
 
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Is your speedstep working? Why do you think EmuVariableUefi is relevant?

My situation is back to random :beachball: - so.. back to square 1.

It sucks.
 
Lets have another theory, shall we? :)

I'm counting 5 days of uptime so far - and what did I change - I did move my SSD to another port, served by different controller. It is still SATA3, but no hangs anymore. In fact, there were couple of hickups, that were looking like it is going to lock-up the same way as before, but (miraculously) the OS was able to recover from that in a matter of seconds.

So there is this one more thing to try - move your SSD (*) to another port, by another controller - if possible, and observe.

(*) yes I did intentionally skip the "if you have SSD" cause I would just love to believe that our trouble with HS is caused by SSD.. Anyone with this problem, but not having SSD, now it is time to come out! ;)

(**) my board has 3 different types of SATA ports, first group is handled by ICH and that is just SATA2, then there is Marvell 9128 which is apparently SATA3 and also JMB362 for eSATA group. Now this is quite odd and confusing, cause I did originally had SSD hooked on to 9128, and now on something else which is detected in HS as "Generic AHCI", and "Link speed: 6 Gigabit" - and that one is different from "5 Series Chipset" that I also have listed there. I get 370+ MB/sec on reading, which is clearly more than sata2 link speed.. but neither ICH or JMB362 should be able to do more than SATA2.


UPDATE:
9 days uptime, so it is definitively SATA port issue. Maybe SATA3 related, maybe specific controller, but works for me!
 
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