<< Solved >> installer hangs at fakeSMCkeystore

[tangothansen]

I have run into a weird problem:
I have happily been running El Capitan, Sierra and High Sierra up until 10.13.4 on this system:

GA-B85M-D3H bios version F15 (mobo was born with the latest update)
i5 4690K no OC
4x8Gb HyperX
Nvidia GTX 750 Ti with webdriver

One day it died - black screen

I reset the bios, applied the ususal settings in bios and took my Unibeast USB stick with High Sierra that I had installed but got stuck at fakeSMCkeystore. Same with my older unibeast USB drive with Sierra. Tried different USB ports. tried wht IGFX - with Mojave Unibeast. After reading some forums articles, i suspected som fault in the USB ports. Made an Ubuntu flash drive to see if I could run Ubuntu from the stick, but that did not work. Then I was sure that the mobo needed replacement, but I checked to see if I could install Windows from a usb connected DVD drive. Succes!
Tried all sort of settings in Clover regarding USB. The weird thing is that originally I did not need to do much to get this mobo to work, and I could update all the way from El Capitan to High Sierra save for 10.13.6 which was impossible for me but I was happy with 10.13.4.

to sum up: I get to Clover bootloader - but installer is stuck at FakeSMCkeystore or right before - using cpus=1 can get me a bit further until panic at the core.

I will not surrender to Microsoft - please help

 

[tangothansen]

Here is my config.plist and other folder

Could anyone take a look please - I have also tried to reset EC Embeddes Controllers on the mobo following the advice holding for 30 sec power button after unplugging current and battery - same result

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Here is my config.plist and other folder

Could anyone take a look please - I have also tried to reset EC Embeddes Controllers on the mobo following the advice holding for 30 sec power button after unplugging current and battery - same result

Hi there.

I'm not sure there's enough info to work with but a few things sprang to mind:

1) You have your NVidia web-drivers disabled by command-line. Also the NvidiaWeb key is not enabled either.

2) You have the SIP level set to 0x3. You could try 0x67 which completely disables it (your choice, obviously).

3) The USB Port-limit removal patch is for Sierra so hasn't been updated for High Sierra. This might be intentional because you are running Sierra, but could affect which USB ports are active if you are still with High Sierra.

4) It might be that your EFI partition/Folder has been damaged. Windows would still boot okay with this, but macOS would probably have trouble. Check and repair etc.

5) I'm guessing you deliberately removed all the SMBIOS entries in your config.plist.

 

[tangothansen]

Hi there.

I'm not sure there's enough info to work with but a few things sprang to mind:

1) You have your NVidia web-drivers disabled by command-line. Also the NvidiaWeb key is not enabled either.

2) You have the SIP level set to 0x3. You could try 0x67 which completely disables it (your choice, obviously).

3) The USB Port-limit removal patch is for Sierra so hasn't been updated for High Sierra. This might be intentional because you are running Sierra, but could affect which USB ports are active if you are still with High Sierra.

4) It might be that your EFI partition/Folder has been damaged. Windows would still boot okay with this, but macOS would probably have trouble. Check and repair etc.

5) I'm guessing you deliberately removed all the SMBIOS entries in your config.plist.

Thank you so much for your observations.
Notice that it is the config list from the unibeast installer. I am trying to install Sierra, but I never get to to the Mac installer.
I have made completely new unibeast installeres with : High Sierra, Sierra and El Capitan - but I get the same result - installer hangs the same place. I have an empty SSD drive and the unibeast USB - that's all.
BIOS health report is showing a fully working system.
Originally it was a peace of cake installing with unibeast.
I will look into the SIP thing though.
By the Way - i have tried without the NVIDIA card in place using Intel HD4600 - but I get same result. Have tried all USB ports as well.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Thank you so much for your observations.
Notice that it is the config list from the unibeast installer. I am trying to install Sierra, but I never get to to the Mac installer.
I have made completely new unibeast installeres with : High Sierra, Sierra and El Capitan - but I get the same result - installer hangs the same place. I have an empty SSD drive and the unibeast USB - that's all.
BIOS health report is showing a fully working system.
Originally it was a peace of cake installing with unibeast.
I will look into the SIP thing though.
By the Way - i have tried without the NVIDIA card in place using Intel HD4600 - but I get same result. Have tried all USB ports as well.

Okay.

I think you need to try to pin-down what had taken place just before the black-screen you mention in the first post. Something must have changed. Clearly that is not hardware as you can boot Windows with no problem.

I'm sure you have already done this, but try a search for "FakeSMCKeyStore". There is quite a lot of guidance to be read.

 

[tangothansen]

SOLVED
It was a current problem. I manager to install Windows 10 and run it for a while. Then it became unstable and finally crashed completely. I changed the PSU and boom - all my problems were gone. I installer Sierra with no problems.
It looks like the Mac OS installer is more sensitive to an unstable PSU than Windows.