<< Solved >> Hackintosh After 1yr: Struggling w/ System Instability

[idontevenexercise]

This community has been so helpful to me in the past, so I'm hoping that someone can come to my rescue again.

I've been using my hackintosh as my main machine for at least a year, and for the most part I've been very pleased with it. However, I've noticed in the last few months or so, the system has become increasingly unstable, to the point where macOS locks up multiple times a day, and I've started losing unsaved work (at least until the last autosave) because of it. The issue manifests in the same way, and always during use (but not necessarily high load). The foreground app (can happen with any app, but occurs most frequently with Photoshop CC and Capture One Pro since that's where I spend most of my time on the machine) will appear to seize up during some routine operation. I'll get the spinning beachball. The dock reports that the application is not responding. So I force quit the foreground app.

Relaunching the app I was using doesn't work. The dock icon will just pulse but the app never launches. Other previously open apps may continue to function. For example, if the browser was open, I can browse the web. However, the Finder is also unresponsive once this state occurs. I can tell it to Relaunch, causing the dock and menu bar to disappear, but things don't return to normal. I can't summon new Finder windows. Sometimes if I can force quit enough apps (because they all start locking up) I can successfully restart via the Apple menu. More often than not though, I have to simply power cycle my machine.

Reboot fixes the issue, and macOS operates normally again, but the beachball sometimes recurs within minutes, other times after hours. It's super annoying, and so I've put a lot of time already into trying to fix it myself before posting here. This is what I've tried so far:

• Updated Clover to the latest stable version (am running v4862).
• Updated my drivers to what I believe are the correct and minimum set of UEFI 64-bit drivers for my build: DataHubDxe-64; SMCHelper-64; ApfsDriverLoader-64; AptioMemoryFix-64; EmuVariableUefi-64; NvmExpressDxe-64; HFSPlus-64.
• Experimented with different versions of AptioFixDrv. Made no difference.
• Disabled any legacy kext patches that are no longer needed.
• Verified all my BIOS settings are correct for my hack.
• Reduced my CPU overclock to a safe level (4.5GHz, 1.38V).
• Disabled my RAM XMP profiles.
• Verified overclock stability in Windows 10 using various overclocking tools.
• Reduced the aggressiveness of the CPU power profile set via the HWPValue variable.
• Verified correct and up-to-date Nvidia web drivers are installed for my system.
• Installed latest macOS updates for High Sierra.
• Inspected the logs via the Console app, looking for errors/clues at the time of recent freezing of the Finder. Disabled Bluetooth (via USB dongle) after discovering it was spamming the logs every second.
• Checking that "put hard disks to sleep when possible" is unchecked, as some people suggested in other threads that this could cause lockups.

The problems seem to have started after the last couple of macOS point updates (I'm currently running 10.13.6 since there are no Nvidia web drivers yet for Mojave for my Maxwell video card), but I can't be sure. The updates from 10.13.4 and 10.13.5 both went smoothly as far as I can remember, and I haven't been tinkering with my machine or configuration at all. Once I got literally everything working many months ago, I pretty much left things alone and used the machine for work.

I should mention that there are a few slightly unusual things about my setup:

• I dual boot with Windows 10. Windows has always worked flawlessly for me, including recently.
• Windows runs off its own dedicated 400GB PCI-E NVMe drive. This drive is detected by macOS (appears in System Report) but does not mount (fine by me).
• I have a 500GB SSD connected via SATA that is disabled via the BIOS. I use this as my clone target for Carbon Copy Cloner when making any changes/updates to my hackintosh, as an insurance policy. When I am not cloning to the drive, I disable it in BIOS to stop it from mounting in macOS, appearing in Clover at boot, or being modified in any way by accident or during an update.
• I created a custom SSDT to map all my USB ports specific to my motherboard per RehabMan's guide. They all work AFAIK.
• I often work with media files on a Synology DiskStation NAS device, over a 10GbE connection via AFP. I've noticed that when the stability issues I'm having occur, I often can't read/write to the NAS at all. Probably due to the Finder locking up. AFAIK nothing wrong with the NAS.

Except for macOS becoming unresponsive a few times a day now, there are no other symptoms of problems with my setup. I've never experienced any kernel panics, graphical or audio glitches or other weirdness with this setup. But the unpredictable instability forcing me to reboot multiple times a day is driving me mad. I should mention that I suck at using the Console app in macOS, so it's possible I've missed something in the logs - I just don't know what to look for, or where to look in there.

Please help! I'm out of ideas on how to find out what's going on with my hackintosh.

config.plist attached (serial #'s etc. redacted for privacy).

 

[idontevenexercise]

Bump.

 

[Bob_the_Tomato]

My two cents...
First, let me say that this post is the most beautifully formatted post I've seen outside the stickied guides! Well done!

My hack sometimes hangs when writing to my Drobo NAS. I've had to write the files to a local HD and then use the Finder to copy the files to the NAS. It doesn't happen often but when it does it will hang the Finder hard and force me to relaunch it from the Force Quit option. I would look in that direction since it appears to be similar. A quick troubleshooting option would be to disconnect the machine from the network drive for a test and see what happens. Remember to NOT try to open any bookmarked files that are on that drive!

 

[idontevenexercise]

My two cents...
First, let me say that this post is the most beautifully formatted post I've seen outside the stickied guides! Well done!

My hack sometimes hangs when writing to my Drobo NAS. I've had to write the files to a local HD and then use the Finder to copy the files to the NAS. It doesn't happen often but when it does it will hang the Finder hard and force me to relaunch it from the Force Quit option. I would look in that direction since it appears to be similar. A quick troubleshooting option would be to disconnect the machine from the network drive for a test and see what happens. Remember to NOT try to open any bookmarked files that are on that drive!

Thanks for the reply @Bob_the_Tomato. I spent time on the post because I figured it would be much more likely to get solved if I provided enough clear information. I see so many posts on forums where people ask for help but provide basically nothing to go on...

Anyway, I've been using the NAS with my hackintosh for a long time, but this problem is relatively recent. Regardless, I will try your suggestion of disconnecting from my NAS (which I had set to mount automatically on login, btw), to see if the issues still occur, and then report back. I will say that often when I get the beachball I'm working with a file that is stored on the NAS (and have been for some time before the issue occurs). However, my understanding is that the foreground app - be it Photoshop or something else - will work off an in-memory copy that was previously read from disk (be it a NAS or local drive). Unless I save, the app autosaves, or in some cases I zoom in beyond the currently available preview image, there shouldn't be any reason to read/write to the network, as I understand it. Also, unlike your experience, I'm unable to relaunch the Finder once this condition occurs. A reboot is the only option if I want things to behave normally again.

Jeez, I hope it's not the NAS, because being unable to work seamlessly with networked drives would be a deal-killer for using my hackintosh as a daily driver...

Just this morning I've also been looking at the tail of the system.log from the last minute or two before I was last forced to force-quit Photoshop and reboot my machine. I'm Googling each line to see what turns up, but perhaps something would jump out to someone here:

Jan 31 12:13:57 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.04000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000): Service only ran for 4 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 6 seconds.
Jan 31 12:13:57 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.02000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000): Service only ran for 4 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 6 seconds.
Jan 31 12:13:57 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.01000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000): Service only ran for 4 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 6 seconds.
Jan 31 12:14:01 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.03000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000): Service only ran for 7 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 3 seconds.
Jan 31 12:15:56 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.adobe.Photoshop.47416[730]): Service exited due to signal: Terminated: 15 sent by Dock[344]
Jan 31 12:15:56 jHT Capture One 12[2962]: BUG in libdispatch client: kevent[mach_recv] monitored resource vanished before the source cancel handler was invoked
Jan 31 12:16:00 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.UserNotificationCenterAgent[2972]): Service exited due to signal: Terminated: 15 sent by CrashReporter[2963]
Jan 31 12:16:01 jHT spindump[494]: BUG in libdispatch client: dispatch_mig_server: mach_msg() failed (ipc/send) msg too small - 0x10000008
Jan 31 12:16:04 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.WebKit.Networking.10C0B4EB-5813-4316-B75C[800]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1
Jan 31 12:16:04 jHT systemstats[53]: assertion failed: 17G5019: systemstats + 914800 [D1E75C38-62CE-3D77-9ED3]: 0x40
Jan 31 12:16:06 --- last message repeated 4 times ---
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT Finder[348]: BUG in libdispatch client: kevent[mach_recv] monitored resource vanished before the source cancel handler was invoked
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.AirPlayUIAgent[458]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.universalaccessAuthWarn[574]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.talagent[345]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.adobe.accmac.ACCFinderSync[391]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.storeuid[507]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.lateragent[616]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.CoreLocationAgent[490]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.coreservices.uiagent[2518]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.brother.utility.USBserver.47324[484]): Service exited due to signal: Terminated: 15 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.brother.utility.NETserver.47320[485]): Service exited due to signal: Terminated: 15 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.cloudphotosd[433]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.getdropbox.dropbox.garcon[393]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.dropbox.activityprovider[538]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.noticeboard.agent[462]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.imklaunchagent[406]): Service exited due to signal: Terminated: 15 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.universalaccessd[342]): Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.eizo.ColorNavigator7.49740[403]): Service exited due to signal: Terminated: 15 sent by loginwindow[95]
Jan 31 12:16:06 jHT systemstats[53]: assertion failed: 17G5019: systemstats + 914800 [D1E75C38-62CE-3D77-9ED3-5F6D38EF0676]: 0x40
Jan 31 12:16:07 --- last message repeated 13 times ---
Jan 31 12:16:07 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.imfoundation.IMRemoteURLConnectionAgent): Unknown key for integer: _DirtyJetsamMemoryLimit
Jan 31 12:16:07 jHT sessionlogoutd[2985]: DEAD_PROCESS: 95 console
Jan 31 12:16:07 jHT systemstats[53]: assertion failed: 17G5019: systemstats + 914800 [D1E75C38-62CE-3D77-9ED3]: 0x40
Jan 31 12:16:07 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.imfoundation.IMRemoteURLConnectionAgent): Unknown key for integer: _DirtyJetsamMemoryLimit
Jan 31 12:16:08 --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Jan 31 12:16:08 jHT com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.quicklook[3057]): Endpoint has been activated through legacy launch(3) APIs. Please switch to XPC or bootstrap_check_in(): com.apple.quicklook
Jan 31 12:16:08 jHT shutdown[3067]: SHUTDOWN_TIME: 1548954968 621214

 

[Bob_the_Tomato]

What version of PS are you using? I fired up Illustrator for the first time in a few years and it demanded that I install Java to run. I did and then Illustrator would work. As you can tell, I have not ever used the subscription version as I don't need it that much so I am still on CS6.

 

[idontevenexercise]

@Bob_the_Tomato I'm running Photoshop CC 2019 v20.0.2 (the current subscription version). It was rewritten a while ago to no longer use Java, which was removed from macOS if I recall.

 

[idontevenexercise]

@Bob_the_Tomato I finally solved my issue. For anyone else having problems with their hackintosh and the Finder/foreground apps locking up when using a NAS with your hackintosh, here's what you need to know:

1. Don't use the AFP protocol for network file shares (network paths beginning with afp://). Use SMB or NFS instead for connecting to network shares. AFP is a legacy protocol that is no longer being supported/maintained by Apple, and it doesn't appear to play nicely with hackintosh.
   
   
2. Out of the box, AFP is faster in new versions of macOS because Apple stopped using the well known Samba implementation of SMB, in favor of an in-house implementation called SMBX. I think it was a licensing issue. However, we want to use the SMB protocol to stabilize our system when using a NAS. Unfortunately, Apple crippled SMBX transfer speeds by requiring packet signing by default as a (likely unnecessary) security precaution. This is easily remedied by disconnecting from any SMB shares, and executing the following command in your Terminal to disable packet signing:
   

   printf "[default]\nsigning_required=no\n" | sudo tee /etc/nsmb.conf >/dev/null

For good measure, also make sure your versions of Lilu, WhateverGreen, etc. are up to date. Mine weren't. A quick run of MultiBeast and a reboot fixed that minor issue too.