Almost perfect Yosemite build except for freezing (Z97X-UD5H, 4690k, GTX 970)

[shayne233]

The build:


Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H
Intel 4690k
Gigabyte GTX-970
Samsung 840 Pro SSD
HyperX Fury Ram (2x 8GB 1600mhz)


I did a clean install of Yosemite on this system with hardly any issues.
-Installed without graphics card with -v
-Installed only basic multibeat config (fakeSMC, chimera, basic boot options, Mac Pro 3,1)
-Installed Nvidia Drivers


Everything works except audio, but after playing with a few audio kexts with no luck, I just decided to use a USB audio device.


It runs beautifully, but occasionally the entire system freezes. By freeze I mean FREEZE. Everything is frozen, including the mouse. No or anything, and I have to reboot. The cause of the freeze is very mysterious to me. No specific thing seems to cause it. It has frozen while typing into a text document, while plugging in a flash drive, force quitting an application, and even just with the screen saver running. Also, sometimes it will freeze within 5 minutes after a boot, or 3 hours after, so runtime doesnt seem to be a factor.


The only thing I can think of that might cause the issues is that I have the processor overlocked to 4.1ghz. However, I am skeptical that this is the cause, because I previously had it overclocked to only 3.9ghz, and the crash rate was about the same. Also, it does not crash when I run CPU benchmarks. I would try running OS X with the stock clock speed, but I am having issues resetting the clock speed with this motherboard. Reseting, and even flashing the bios doesn’t revert it. I used Gigabyte’s EasyTune software in my Windows partition to overclock, which now seems like a mistake.


If anyone could help me, I would be abundantly grateful, and will be very happy to make an in-depth post about this build, because except for the freezing, it is a beautiful hackintosh.

 

[frankJXL]

This problem occurs for me also exactly a year ago. My board was Z77X-UD5H with i7 3770. The behaviour is identical, in which the system freezes up completely.

It's been a year now, and it hasn't happened ever since. The ONLY thing I can think of is that I've moved location many times, and the issue fixed itself as I moved around the country.

Refering to my previous thread, it seems like the issue is difficult to track. As far as I know, it could be due to difference in voltage that causes this issue.

Here's my thread from years ago.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-h...complete-system-freeze-ud5h-i7-gtx-670-a.html

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[shayne233]

Thank you so much for that link. Im surprised I couldn't find a thread that relevant to my problem by searching. After reading through the potential solutions, I decided to try to disable the internal LAN controller in the bios since that seemed to be the issue for many of the posters. I will report back after some time to announce whether or not it worked.

Again, thank you for replying.

 

[Asus-Freak]

I would think the first step is to fix the bios reset/clear problem. If you can't reset the bios to default because of the OC tuner software, who knows what else is hosed in the bios... A call to Gigabyte Support or maybe a Gigabyte forum is the next step.

 

[Grymmie]

Not sure about this, but...

I had issues with System Profile Definitions. Utilizing a Z87 chipset vs. your Z97, I had the same kind of 'freezing' until I went from a 3,1 profile (Mac Pro) to a 14,2 profile (iMac i7-4771).

My thoughts are that these profiles aren't just for show, especially with the boot loaders being stiffer to maintain stability than Apple's proprietary hardware.

 

[shayne233]

Not sure about this, but...

I had issues with System Profile Definitions. Utilizing a Z87 chipset vs. your Z97, I had the same kind of 'freezing' until I went from a 3,1 profile (Mac Pro) to a 14,2 profile (iMac i7-4771).

My thoughts are that these profiles aren't just for show, especially with the boot loaders being stiffer to maintain stability than Apple's proprietary hardware.

Yeah I don't necessarily understand how the different profiles exactly affect a system, I just know from reading various posts on this forum that they definitely differ with certain things.

However, it has been well over 24 hours since I disabled the LAN controller and I have had 0 crashes/freezes what so ever and my machine has been running flawlessly. Though this may be a fluke, I have high hopes that this did solve the issue as I would probably have had a few freezes by now considering how frequent it was.

For anyone looking to do the same thing, the bios setting is called 'PCH LAN Controller' and it's under the 'Peripherals' section and I just set it to 'disable'.

Thank you to those who posted and especially to frankJXL for linking to my thread. My love hate relationship with my hackintosh has shifted dramatically more towards love

 

[shayne233]

It has now been just about 4 days since I have disabled the LAN controller and I haven't had a single hiccup. I am now 99% sure that it was definitely the issue, and if I don't have any issues by Sunday, I will construct a build guide for this system.

 

[RobertPaulson]

It has now been just about 4 days since I have disabled the LAN controller and I haven't had a single hiccup. I am now 99% sure that it was definitely the issue, and if I don't have any issues by Sunday, I will construct a build guide for this system.

Hey Shane, how's your build doing? Are you still getting those freezes?
How did you disable the LAN controller? I've helped my friend build a very similar pc except his mobo is z97x-ud7 th and now he's getting random freezes...

 

[shayne233]

I was actually just about to make an update post!


My computer was running perfectly since my last post, until I updated to iOS 10.10.1, where I would get freezes that resembled the ones I received before disabling the LAN controller. Thankfully I made a backup before updating, and after replacing the 10.10.1 partition with the backed up 10.10 partition, the freezes disappeared.


What I did to disable the LAN Controller:


Turn computer on


Press F2 when the Gigabyte logo pops up


The modern BIOS UI will show up, and you should just click the arrow icon to the
right of the ‘Security’ option


You will now be in the more traditional BIOS. Press the right arrow key until you are in the ‘Peripherals’ menu, and PCH LAN Controller will be the second option. Just disable it, save, and exit.

 

[RobertPaulson]

Thanks for replying, I've tried disabling, but i don't have a wifi card yet so I'm dependent on ethernet for now to access the internet. Also, I'm running 10.10.1 and as you're suggesting it might be the cause of the freezing. I'm wondering wether to go back to 10.10 and probably have a few different bugs to work out or wait till someone figures out a fix on 10.10.1

Thanks for the insight and update