OpenCore corrupting BIOS?

[pgh550]

Hi, there

I have a miserable life since switched to OpenCore on Dell XPS 15 9560. Whenever the machine reboots, 1 out of 20 times I can get into the OpenCore Boot Menu, the machine either goes into dark screen or displays a bunch of error message in tiny tiny font on my 4K screen for less than 1 second, before I could not even take a picture. The OC boot seems have memory, but a bad one, I could not even get into the BIOS option screen, it just either goes dark or flashes some error message in cycles. About 1 out of 20 times F12 key can bring up the BIOS option screen.

I came arross the LauncherOption option, thought that would change BIOS (bymy rough reading of OC documentation, I am not a very persistent documentation reader. Also the OC documentation is not very easy to read). So I disabled the LauncherOption and reset the NVRAM, but still the same behavior.

One non-standard way I am doing things is on the EFI partition, I have multiple EFI folers, like EFI, EFI.69. EFI.71, EFI.72, as I tried to back up the previois working configurations. Is this a problem? Dell XPS 15 BIOS allows to define boot sequence with each option pointing to one folder's OpenCore.efi. Somehow the one pointing to BOOTx64.efi just boot into dark screen.

I am not entirely sure it was an issue with my usage, becuase the behavior is not consitent. When finally it sucessfully boot, reboot will not work until trying 20 times or so. Consequenly OS version upgrade is always a hassle.

Can anyone help? Or point to somewhere with a clear and readable explanation about the OC boot process? Thanks.

 

[Feartech]

Hi, there

I have a miserable life since switched to OpenCore on Dell XPS 15 9560. Whenever the machine reboots, 1 out of 20 times I can get into the OpenCore Boot Menu, the machine either goes into dark screen or displays a bunch of error message in tiny tiny font on my 4K screen for less than 1 second, before I could not even take a picture. The OC boot seems have memory, but a bad one, I could not even get into the BIOS option screen, it just either goes dark or flashes some error message in cycles. About 1 out of 20 times F12 key can bring up the BIOS option screen.

I came arross the LauncherOption option, thought that would change BIOS (bymy rough reading of OC documentation, I am not a very persistent documentation reader. Also the OC documentation is not very easy to read). So I disabled the LauncherOption and reset the NVRAM, but still the same behavior.

One non-standard way I am doing things is on the EFI partition, I have multiple EFI folers, like EFI, EFI.69. EFI.71, EFI.72, as I tried to back up the previois working configurations. Is this a problem? Dell XPS 15 BIOS allows to define boot sequence with each option pointing to one folder's OpenCore.efi. Somehow the one pointing to BOOTx64.efi just boot into dark screen.

I am not entirely sure it was an issue with my usage, becuase the behavior is not consitent. When finally it sucessfully boot, reboot will not work until trying 20 times or so. Consequenly OS version upgrade is always a hassle.

Can anyone help? Or point to somewhere with a clear and readable explanation about the OC boot process? Thanks.

your EFI is not a dumping ground...

you should only have 1 folder in your EFI partition called EFI

 

[pgh550]

your EFI is not a dumping ground...

you should only have 1 folder in your EFI partition called EFI

Thanks for the reply. I've removed the other EFI folders but hesitate to try it now as it is too painful to reboot. I'll see if the issue goes away when reboot next time.

But, even if I used EFI partition a dumping ground, the behavior should be consistent and deterministic, right? What causes all these random behaviors?

 

[Feartech]

Thanks for the reply. I've removed the other EFI folders but hesitate to try it now as it is too painful to reboot. I'll see if the issue goes away when reboot next time.

But, even if I used EFI partition a dumping ground, the behavior should be consistent and deterministic, right? What causes all these random behaviors?

not sure, zip and upload your EFI

 

[tedyun]

Hi, there

I have a miserable life since switched to OpenCore on Dell XPS 15 9560. Whenever the machine reboots, 1 out of 20 times I can get into the OpenCore Boot Menu, the machine either goes into dark screen or displays a bunch of error message in tiny tiny font on my 4K screen for less than 1 second, before I could not even take a picture. The OC boot seems have memory, but a bad one, I could not even get into the BIOS option screen, it just either goes dark or flashes some error message in cycles. About 1 out of 20 times F12 key can bring up the BIOS option screen.

I came arross the LauncherOption option, thought that would change BIOS (bymy rough reading of OC documentation, I am not a very persistent documentation reader. Also the OC documentation is not very easy to read). So I disabled the LauncherOption and reset the NVRAM, but still the same behavior.

One non-standard way I am doing things is on the EFI partition, I have multiple EFI folers, like EFI, EFI.69. EFI.71, EFI.72, as I tried to back up the previois working configurations. Is this a problem? Dell XPS 15 BIOS allows to define boot sequence with each option pointing to one folder's OpenCore.efi. Somehow the one pointing to BOOTx64.efi just boot into dark screen.

I am not entirely sure it was an issue with my usage, becuase the behavior is not consitent. When finally it sucessfully boot, reboot will not work until trying 20 times or so. Consequenly OS version upgrade is always a hassle.

Can anyone help? Or point to somewhere with a clear and readable explanation about the OC boot process? Thanks.

You can take a video of the boot process and focus it on the area where the OC messages appt. Then you can freeze frame the videos.

Another way to do it is to use ocvalidate. It usually tells you the same errors although I’ve occasionally seen errors even after a clean bill of health from ocvalidate.

OC does install things in the BIOS. One of them is a memory quirk. It must also do something else because my BIOS boot menu also lists OpenCore as a boot option.

You can keep your unused EFI’s in your regular partition. Personally I keep a copy of my active EFI and the previous version, just in case things go sideways with the active one. I got into this habit when I was learning how to configure the config.plost and kept screwing up. But Feartech is right, and I should probably stop doing this, ie., keep the backup EFIs on a separate partition and/or USB drive.

 

[pgh550]

not sure, zip and upload your EFI

 

[Feartech]

you still have EFI.71... why?

 

[pgh550]

You can take a video of the boot process and focus it on the area where the OC messages appt. Then you can freeze frame the videos.

Another way to do it is to use ocvalidate. It usually tells you the same errors although I’ve occasionally seen errors even after a clean bill of health from ocvalidate.

OC does install things in the BIOS. One of them is a memory quirk. It must also do something else because my BIOS boot menu also lists OpenCore as a boot option.

You can keep your unused EFI’s in your regular partition. Personally I keep a copy of my active EFI and the previous version, just in case things go sideways with the active one. I got into this habit when I was learning how to configure the config.plost and kept screwing up. But Feartech is right, and I should probably stop doing this, ie., keep the backup EFIs on a separate partition and/or USB drive.

My model has a 4K screen. The font is very tiny. Tried to take a video but could not read. Played with different UIScale and resolution, only get the OC boot menu bigger, but still the tiny tiny text before and after the boot menu.

For whatever OC may install into BIOS, it should not make it hard to get into BIOS setup or option menu. I flushed the BIOS, the same behavior reminds. Hard to get into BIO setup or option screen

Also why OC can't just pause there without going into reboot immediately?

 

[Feartech]

My model has a 4K screen. The font is very tiny. Tried to take a video but could not read. Played with different UIScale and resolution, only get the OC boot menu bigger, but still the tiny tiny text before and after the boot menu.

For whatever OC may install into BIOS, it should not make it hard to get into BIOS setup or option menu.

Also why OC can just pause there without going into reboot immediately?

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none of your systems show 4k screen......

 

[pgh550]

you still have EFI.71... why?

I had removed the EFI.71, but just uploaded them together as they were both in EFI partition which caused all these problems.