Infinite ACM loop on boot-up High Sierra

[jezzalencko9]

Just when I thought I was making progress...

I made a working drive for High Sierra, boots up fine with the EFI in use. Followed EXACTLY same process (same USB installed stick with Unibeast) to create another drive. The only difference is this new one is a Samsung EVO 870 1Tb whereas the other one was a smaller Samsung 850 250Gb.

Duplicated the EFI folder on the EFI partition. Created new SMBIOS details.

First problem was I was just hanging on Clover at "scanning entries" with Clover version 5121 whenever I had this new drive connected. Even happened when booting up from the EFI on my working drive. So I disconnected the new drive so that I could get into working drive and update Clover to 5149. Doing so enabled me to be able to boot into working drive whilst new drive was connected which then allowed me to copy new Clover/EFI over to new drive.

The next problem is that now when I boot this drive up I get the infinite loop per the attached. Looking at similar problems/threads I saw it might be related to NVIDIA drivers, so with nv_disable=1 I was able to (one time) boot in to new drive. But I then tried updating nvidia drivers and now I can't even get in with nv_disable=1. I have to use bootflag -x as well now to even boot in. (othewise I'm just back to the infinite ACM loop).

I thought maybe I could update to Monterey (which was my ultimate goal) and it might wipe clear these boot-up issues, but I get a "The update cannot be installed on this computer" message when I try that.

One thing I did notice (with working drive EFI as well) is that not all my RAM slots are getting defined. I don't think this is related to my main problem, because doesn't seem to be effecting my working drive, but probably something I'd like to resolve eventually if anyone knows how?

I've run out of ideas except to install High Sierra from scratch again on this new 1Tb drive. But it's very frustrating because it makes no sense to me that on one drive I can have no issues, and I duplicate the whole process and EFI folder to another drive and it doesn't boot up!

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[jezzalencko9]

Looping back on this to close it out with some lesson's learnt which might hopefully help others. These are important points/steps which worked for me and I don't see getting mentioned much (at least for High Sierra install).

When creating a new system:
1.) Have NO drives added except USB and the drive you want to install to. In fact, reset CMOS with only these connected then run shell from Clover to remove ghost boot entries with bcfg dump. This will be the solution to addressing constant 'A2' boot errors from mobo as well.
2.) First step is change date/time in BIOS to around when your install file was downloaded. Do this in BIOS direct first (not from Terminal when booted into USB since this can lock you out from going back into install).
3.) Make sure you format your destination drive to AFPS.
4.) During the install there will be an auto-reboot. Make sure during the reboot that you boot back to the USB stick (EFI partition on it) and allow Clover to automatically select into 'Install prebooter from preboot'. This will complete the install.
5.) Don't add ethernet during the initial setup. Stay disconnected. This caused me problems when I tried adding it here.
6.) Run Multibeast but don't bother adding anything here.
7.) If you have a running drive with working EFI folder you can attach this now, boot into it, then copy EFI folder from the EFI partition over to new drive.
8.) Apply new SMBIOS details from these instructions.
9.) When finally booted into working system, make sure to turn off energy saving and screensavers. It will shut down machine when triggered otherwise.

Thanks.