Black screen with blinking cursor after updating Clover

BIOS reset did nothing. Trying to boot from Catalina drive gives the Reboot error while trying to boot from the usb drive gives the blinking cursor.

I think these issues were the same as when I tried to switch to Opencore bootloader. I might have tried a more recent version of Clover as well that gave me the same issues and so went back. Now theres no way for me to go back since I have no access to my Catalina install.

What I find odd is that it wont’t even load Clover or Opencore. Doesnt seem to matter anymore what route I take.

Middleman said:

Hmm okay. This is very strange. Let's see if something in your BIOS has changed (it can happen sometimes). You need to have them as booting using UEFI mode and SATA mode using AHCI. Also turn off CSM and Secure Boot if you can. XHCI handoff needs to be enabled.

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BIOS settings are ok mate.

In Windows MiniTool Partition Wizard shows my Usb drive (8GB) as GPT with 2 partitions where the first one is 200MB in size called BOOT and is a FAT32 (EFI System Partition) set to active and the other is unallocated space.
Maybe it shouldnt be EFI System Partition type but just a regular type?

Snowy said:

In Windows MiniTool Partition Wizard shows my Usb drive (8GB) as GPT with 2 partitions where the first one is 200MB in size called BOOT and is a FAT32 (EFI System Partition) set to active and the other is unallocated space.
Maybe it shouldnt be EFI System Partition type but just a regular type?

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That seems normal to me, although I would say on my end of things using EaseToDo's Partition Wizard, on one of my Monterey drives, one partition is called EFI System Partition (formatted as FAT32), but I have two Unused Partition spaces. The first partition space (931GB) would be the main macOS install marked as Other format but the second one (128MB size) remains unallocated.

I am thinking since I have 3 partitions on my drive and you have only 2 that may be the cause of the non-booting. Don't forget with Catalina it isn't unlike previous macOS setups as it now uses APFS containers. If you don't have it set correctly it may cause issues.

And have you tried to create the OC installer using MacRecovery & Rufus yet? I'm asking you because maybe the way you've created the installer is somehow behind this problem of the system not seeing the drives? Otherwise why doesn't both bootloaders not see your system?

Other than that, do you have another USB stick you can use? That can also cause problems sometimes.

Already had Python installed so tried to the dortania guide but nope, already throwing an error that python cannot be found. Same stuff when I tried Opencore becore, getting worse every step I make.
Im starting to think Im scrwd again but wont’ give up since I know my Catalina install is fine, only bloody bootloaders are making a mess again.

Snowy said:

Already had Python installed so tried to the dortania guide but nope, already throwing an error that python cannot be found.

Click to expand...

Download and install latest Python.

P1LGRIM said:

Download and install latest Python.

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www.python.org

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I did, twice so made a repair.
This guide: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...installer-using-opencore.296375/#post-2108796 didnt throw that python error but same issue when trying to boot from USB, blinking cursor.
I just noticed I still have another USB pen drive (32GB) laying around and it holds 3 partitions. 1 EFI 200mb FAT32 (EFI System partition) then a 28GB and another 128MB with unallocate space. I probably used this one before trying Opencore.
Ill try putting EFI on this one.
I do think im scrwd with Opencore though since Ive seen others with the same issues until they went back to clover.

update: alright windows or ++explorer can’t read the partitions so scrwd again. Keeps on getting better doesnt it.

update: when using partition explorer it shows an EFI folder with Clover and seems to be related to the one I was using in my catalina install so maybe I did create a backup. I cannot boot from the usb drive though, same issue, blinking cursor again.

The other USB drive has Monterey install on it along with clover and I believe it’s a copy of my catalina clover. But why doesnt it boot?
I know I could complete Monterey installation before but it always wrote to preboot partition instead of my main partition so I gave up.
So now Im trying to retrieve the clover EFI folder from the usb drive on my old laptop (flickering screen because of broken monitor cable) that has linux mint installed.
If I can’t get a USB bootloader working with or without macos installation or recovery then Im scrwd big time.

Snowy said:

The other USB drive has Monterey install on it along with clover and I believe it’s a copy of my catalina clover. But why doesnt it boot?
I know I could complete Monterey installation before but it always wrote to preboot partition instead of my main partition so I gave up.
So now Im trying to retrieve the clover EFI folder from the usb drive on my old laptop (flickering screen because of broken monitor cable) that has linux mint installed.
If I can’t get a USB bootloader working with or without macos installation or recovery then Im scrwd big time.

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Okay (that sounds rather worrying). How about a BIOS update for your board, have you tried that at all?
Another issue could also be, you could have RAM or USB port that is damaged that is causing this?

But all this only happened after updating Clover. We go from broken bootloaders to faulty hardware, that can’t be right.
Im almost 100% certain it’s related to the bootloader because when I tried opencore before I had the same issues.