Computer Freeze with Broken Cursor

[bluestarstudios]

Hi all,
I recently set up my first Hackintosh and overall it's working like a charm. Having said that, this week I updated the following kexts to their latest versions: Lilu, VirtualSMC, WhateverGreen, AppleALC. Since then, I've had a strange bug happen six times (I actually had it happen TWICE just now as I was typing this post).

The first thing is the computer lets out an electrical screech/buzz through my external monitor(s). It literally sounds like a high voltage electricity buzz.

In certain cases, the sound happens for a few seconds and then disappears, but in most cases it goes on and on indefinitely.

At the same time the computer freezes up, I can still move my cursor, but can't click on anything. Keyboard also becomes unresponsive. Depending on the instance, the cursor itself either breaks apart (some of the pixels go off-axis), whereas in other instances it turns into a big pixelated square.

I managed to film both instances.

The only way out of the situation is to do a hard restart of the computer.

Here’s my setup:
- Intel Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz Eight-Core LGA 1151 Processor.
- Motherboard: Z390 Designare.
- Case: Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C.
- Power Supply: EVGA 750 G3.
- Graphics Card: Radeon RX580.
- Drives: 2x Samsung 860 EVO.
- RAM: HyperX Predator 4x16GB 3600MHz DDR4.
- Cooler: NH-D15S.
- Fenvi FV-T919 wireless network adapter.
- 3x 27” 2k LED Acer monitors.
- MacOS 10.14.6.


Any ideas as to what this may be and how to fix it? Let me know what I should provide to help solve this faster.
Thanks a lot!

 

[bluestarstudios]

This keeps on happening. I updated Lilu, VirtualSMC, WhateverGreen, and AppleALC to their latest versions yet again (as of now, those are: 1.4.5, 1.1.4, 1.4.0, and 1.5.0 respectively). The problem still occurs. Interestingly enough, since I've updated these, the high voltage buzz no longer seems to happen, but the broken cursor and complete system freeze up still happens. Currently, it's about 1–2 times a day.

(I updated the thread title accordingly).

PLEASE help and advise as to what this may be and how I can fix it.

Thanks!

 

[CaseySJ]

Here are some initial questions / suggestions to get a better feel for the problem:

• Was the Sapphire RX 580 purchased new? If not, was it used previously for crypto currency mining (in which case it might have a modified VBIOS)?
• Does the Sapphire RX 580 have a toggle switch to go between Silent and Overclock (OC) modes?
• Have you tried removing various components in an effort to isolate the problem via process-of-elimination? There aren't too many components that can be removed, but some key components can:
  • GPU can be removed and we can use iGPU to drive a monitor (preferably with a simply "USB-C to DisplayPort" cable. The on-board HDMI port can also be used, but will require a framebuffer device-property injection.
  • Fenvi FV-T919 can also be removed.
  • All monitors can be disconnected except for one.
• Then we should check the integrity of all power cable and data cable connections.
• If you have a battery-backed UPS (uninterruptible power supply) that may be worth using.

A more brute force option is to find a spare SSD (even a 128GB SATA SSD) and install fresh copy of Mojave. If the fresh copy behaves correctly, we can suspect that something has gone awry on the main SSD and take appropriate steps.

 

[bluestarstudios]

Hi @CaseySJ, thanks for jumping in with suggestions. To answer your questions:

• The Sapphire Pulse RX 580 was purchased brand new. Unopened in original packaging.
• No toggle switch on this model.
• I believe the graphics issue is related to some software issue more than a hardware one. But maybe I'm wrong about this...
• I checked all power cables today, and all looks good.
• I don't have a UPS unit at this point, but I do have a power conditioner to help clean up the current.

The strange thing is that I can go 2-3 days without the problem occurring, and then it'll randomly happen again. Always with the same effect (broken cursor + static noise).

This is a brand new Hackintosh (literally set it up a month ago). Brand new vanilla MacOS install with brand new components. So, in theory, things should work like a charm.

I found another closed thread that describes the same issue, but on 13 pages offers limited details as to how it was truly solved.

<< Solved >> - i9-9900k, Asus Maximus XI Hero, Rx580 8Gb Pulse, Random Freezes

Yes I have disable already Security in Bios and have also in acpi/patched these two amls. Still its not showing. I have double checked the guide but I will do it once again and report tomorrow. About fcpx I have my 2 monitors also connected with DisplayPort to my Pulse Rx580 8gb. I will try the...

www.tonymacx86.com

Any other suggestions for what might be worth trying?

 

[bluestarstudios]

Hi @CaseySJ , I'm sure you're super busy, but just wanted to check in and see if you had any other suggestions to test this and figure out what's going on?
On a side note, this build was based on your fantastic article showcasing success with the Gigabyte Designare Z390. So thanks for that!

 

[bluestarstudios]

Hi @CaseySJ

Hope you're well. So in a weird twist, I may have stumbled on something that may be a clue?
So the weird crackling sound / system freeze happens roughly 1–3 times a week right now. What I've noticed is that when I force shut down the computer, upon turning it back on, sometimes the Clover "Automatic boot in 3 seconds" countdown takes much longer between each second. Rather than taking 3 seconds, the countdown takes 6, or 9. With each second being double or triple it's intended duration. It's as if the system clock was broken. I've found that if I let the system boot completely, I'm instantly met with the same broken cursor, crackling sound, and frozen system as before. I have to force shut down the computer and reboot again until I see the Clover automatic boot countdown work correctly.

Could this be a clue?

 

[CaseySJ]

Hello @bluestarstudios,

That is also strange. Reminds me of the line from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, "if we were to go by the book, hours would seem like days." If each second is doubling or tripling in duration, you have some gremlins that may be tricky to identify.

But let's do the process of elimination:

• First, shutdown the system and flip power switch to OFF.
• Remove two of the four DIMMs -- either A1/B1 or A2/B2.
• Remove the Fenvi FV-T919 WiFi/BT card.
• Boot the system and enter BIOS.
• Disable X.M.P. Profile 1
• Now boot into macOS and see if the glitches reappear. Hopefully you have wired Ethernet because it might take one or more days before the problem recurs.

I know we're changing 3 variables all at once, but that's okay. If the problem disappears, we can then undo one of these changes at a time.

What version of BIOS are you running?

 

[bluestarstudios]

Great suggestions! In the meantime, I revisited your original build post steps and realized that I may have screwed up how I connected power to the Motherboard, as rather than connecting the power to the ATX_12V_2X4, I only connected the ATX_12V_2X2. Wah-wah.





So I just redid the power connections to use the ATX_12V_2X4 instead.


Afterward, I booted the computer up and timed Clover's automatic boot. The 5-second countdown still lasted 15 seconds. So 3x slower than it should be. Interestingly, the system clock once MacOS loads counts seconds correctly, so I'm curious as to what that's about.


I'm gonna see if re-doing the power cables fixed anything. If not, I'll run the suggested troubleshooting that you posted.


As for my BIOS, I'm on version F6 from 3/14/2019.

 

[bluestarstudios]

Ok, sadly, redoing the power cables did nothing. Still the same crackling issue. So I did as you suggested. BIOS came back with default settings which was weird, so I went back into your article and set it up as per your suggestions (but with X.M.P. Profile disabled. The first boot was amazing. Each second of the automatic bootup countdown in Clover was flawlessly 1 second long. So great. But every reboot since has sadly been plagued with the same issue. Each second is now roughly 2 seconds long. (Rather than 3, so that's better I guess?)

Interestingly enough, after the second reboot BIOS now shows settings that didn't exist before when I set it up first. Things relating to the CPU, etc. So not quite sure what that's about.

Additionally, the screen does a lot of flickering as the OS is booting up. (Attaching video in case this means anything).

I'm using HyperX Predator Black 64GB kit 3600MHz DDR4 CL17 DIMM XMP. So with the two removed, and X.M.P. Profile disabled, system now shows at 32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4, which I guess is expected (right?).

Will test this setup for a bit to see how things roll and if the weird crackling freeze up reappears.

 

[CaseySJ]

Have you tried Bullet #3 from my first reply above, namely:

• Set IGPU to enabled in BIOS (it's probably enabled already)
• Set Platform ID to 0x3E9B0007 in Clover (simply post your config.plist with serial numbers removed from SMBIOS if you'd like help with this part)
• Then shutdown the system and flip power switch on PSU to OFF -- *mandatory*
• Now disconnect both monitors from the RX 580
• Physically remove the AMD RX 580
• Connect one monitor to HDMI port on rear IO panel
• Boot up the system and observe the behavior (Clover countdown, screen flicker, garbled mouse cursor, etc.)