High Sierra - was working now broken - any help welcome

[elsalvador99]

Hi Guys,

I installed High Sierra on my Z170N-WIFI with i3 cpu and 16GB and an NVME drive a while ago, using these guides & it was v.g. all round, thaks to those who write them - much appreciated.
A bit glitchy at the top left of the screen sometimes, but it all worked - dual booting win10 too.
I took some clonezilla copies of the system disc at various stages just in case...and maybe one of them was good.

Sadly, it recently stopped working.
What was I thinking updating the BIOS?
Anyway, as soon as the BIOS was updated, HS would no longer boot.
Even the USB stick booted the same. Got to the Apple logo & stopped at the beginning of the progress bar.
I reverted the BIOS back down to the version I originally had, F20. and started again, F7 to set defaults etc.

So I went through all ALL of the BIOS settings I could & found one which had changed.
And I replaced the NVME & restored one of the Clonezilla images & that appeared to restore OK, as it shutdown at the end.
There's no Clover boot menu anymore, it just boots into windows.
Getting a bit further with the boot process.
I'm sure that it's a BIOS setting, but I've been through them a number of times, so here they are:
Load Optimized Defaults (f7)
VT-d, disabled
Can't find any CFG-Lock, (can't disable it)
Secure Boot Mode, disabled
OS Type is set to "Other OS"
No IO Serial Port
XHCI Handoff set to Enabled
It's not a 6 series or x58 system with AWARD BIOS, disable USB 3.0

Also tried these values all tried, no difference:
XMP disabled
All Clocks - auto
All Voltage - auto
SmartFan - disabled
Fastboot - disabled
PXE-boot - disabled
Storage boot option - uefi/not used
Other PCI devices - uefi/not used
Initial Display - IGFX or PCIe no difference
Internal Graphics Support - Enabled / disabled / auto
Intel BIOS guard - disabled
Legacy USB Support - enabled / disabled

The USB stick boots exactly the same as the NVME, (but a bit slower of course).
Attached is the panic screen - says something about the intel graphics, but it's just internal 530 as it was before - and "initial display" setting doesn't make a bit of difference, not whether the Internal Graphics is EN/Auto/DIS.

I'm more than 50% sure that I've broken it, but as it's my only OSX platform I can't actually make a new installer & start again ;-(
So I'm hoping some kind soul will point me in the direction of a fix or the next diagnostic step.
Thanks in advance.
Salvador.

My cunning plan was to update the system to Catalina - apparently you can go straight there from HS. Just as well because there are no other OSX downloads available from the Applestore.

 

[P1LGRIM]

It's a graphics problem.
Make sure that the DVMT setting is at least 64mb.

If all else fails, at the Clover boot screen press the right arrow to go to Options -> Graphics Injection.
Select Inject Intel.
Set a Platform ID of 0x12345678

It might just let you boot (with unaccelerated graphics).

 

[elsalvador99]

Wow, how do you know such stuff?
I'm impressed and happy, thanks for that nudge, it's now working
I think I can prep a new install USB & move on from there I think...probably!

All the best
salvador

 

[elsalvador99]

Thanks again for that, at least I now have a desktop I can work with!

One strange thing though, I'm trying to write a Catalina installer on a 16GB usb stick, and none of my 16GB flash drives seem to be recognised. I even bought 3 new SanDisk 16gb drives hoping they'd work.

Very weird - all my ancient 4gb / 8gb flash drives work fine, all recognised. Nothing 16Gb or above works.
USB3 or USB2 slots the same.
Checked BIOS - it recognises 16g & 32g drives OK.
I have googled high & low & found nothing which indicates a "fix" for this issue - it's like it's all my own!
Any suggestions welcome!
Even alternative strategies like - will Mojave installer fit on an 8GB drive? IF so - then I install Mojave and that might enable me to build a catalina installer ?

Any suggestions welcome, thanks in advance.
;-)

 

[elsalvador99]

What a dumbass - it's SIERRA not HighSierra - if that makes a difference.

 

[elsalvador99]

...and somehow I found one! (i tried them all!)
For no apparent reason I found a Samsung 16g flash drive, which worked & I built a Catalina Installer.
Replaced the nvme drive with a new one (in case the installer was broken!)
Installed Catalina exactly by the book...
Then I got to Multibeast & got a little bit stuck.
I went with the obvious choices for a Z170N-WIFI, but it failed to boot up - in a strangely familiar way (like Sierra did above, about halfway through the progress bar).

I tried the suggestion above with the graphics settings & it worked - at least as a temp boot method.
I thought HD530 was OK in osx...there isn't an obvious setting in Multibeast, it's not HD630 or NVidia or ATI (is it?)
Does that mean there's a permanent way to fix that with a setting/driver/?
I would love to now have to inject that setting every time & use the HD530 properly (ie 4k).
Any assistance gratefully received.
Thanks in advance.


I'll make a complete list of the choices I've made in multibeast & what works later on.
Now I have to go & make my lovely wife a massive cappucino coffee, because.
;-)

 

[P1LGRIM]

Catalina is off topic in this High Sierra Desktop Support forum.

 

[elsalvador99]

OOps, sorry!