<< Solved >> SAMSUNG 870 SSD inconsistent booting when internal drive

[Feartech]

I have been searching the net for sata-unsupported.kext and USBPorts.kext and have been unable to find them.

Are you able to provide me links to where I might get them, thanks.

I note "FAQ Laptop" in your previous post, just to clarify mine is constructed tower/desktop not a laptop.

you create your own USBPorts.kext with hackintool
the guide explains this:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...to-usb-port-configuration.286553/post-2029768 if you have read it

also SATA-unsupported.kext is the first to show up on a google search but here you go

 

[GeorgeJames]

Thanks for your indulgence. I really did try to find the kext and yes there were lots of posts about sata-unsupported.kext but none I could see for down load, it obviously needed your expertise and eagle eye.

So I put sata-unsupported.kext in clover/kexts/other but got the same fault. The Samung 870 SSD (Mojave) will boot after the computer has been shutdown but will not if do a restart.

Thanks for link to USB-ports creation I will tackle that in the morning.

I would obviously be very grateful for other thoughts and explanation.

 

[GeorgeJames]

EUREKA

Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing.

This afternoon I thought I would do the ridiculous experiment by changing the SATA port on the motherboard.

No.5 has the DVD writer connected

No. 3 & 1 had either been the connections for 850 SSD or WD platter drive

Both those HDs worked perfectly.

So I had been using one or other of those ports for the 870 and getting this inconsistent booting.

I changed the 870 from No.1 randomly to No.0 and it worked perfectly. (The new bloke on the block wanted the podium spot!)

I have been through many iterations both changing the BIOS to select the boot loader drive from 850 to 870, booted from shutdown AND restart and everything works perfectly.

“It is not for us to reason why….”

I find that incredibly amazing solution having spent days and early hours of the morning changing kext or rerunning multi-beast, reforming, searching and reading lots on the net etc etc etc.

If the ports worked for 850 and WD why didn’t they work for 870?

I just hope this now saves many people many hours of heartache if they have a similar problem.

I particularly thank Feartech for his patience and help.

 

[GeorgeJames]

Although I have found a solution I have checked that the SSD will ONLY perform correctly in SATA port 0 not in ports 1-5.

Reading further posts of similar problem a long term solution might be to install AppleAHCIport.kext but I am reluctant to try in case I end up worse off.

Is it likely to work?

Any idea whether I would be able to delete if something goes wrong? (I can boot from 2 other hard drives)

Any particular version of this kext for Mojave?

I am also a little confused whether it should be installed in ~/library/extensions (with a special programme?) or ‘installed’ in EFI/CLOVER/KEXT/Other.

Any advice please?



Ps AHCI selected in BIOS

 

[Edhawk]

With your Coffee Lake system you need to use CtlnaAHCIPort.kext, not AppleAHCIPort.kext for any unsupported or dropped SATA controllers.

Any and all Third-Party kexts should be installed in /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other folder.

 

[GeorgeJames]

Thanks Edhawk for your suggestion and advice.

I did install CtinaAHCIPort.kext into efi/clover/kext/other.

Shutdown and restarted all fine.

Moved SSD 870 to Port 1 from Port 0. Restarted from shutdown and booted fine into SSD 870. Did a restart and got the same error with ‘still waiting for boot device’ when trying to boot MacOS from SSD 870.

Put back SSD 870 into Port 0 all fine and dandy.

So back to the drawing board.

 

[GeorgeJames]

I shall briefly recap. I have Samsung 850 SSD installed on a motherboard SATA port. It works perfectly on ports 0-5.

I also have Samsung 870 SSD but it will only work perfectly in SATA 0.

When in SATA ports 1-5 it will boot from cold but if the computer is restarted (warm boot?) I get the error “Still waiting for root device”.

Sumsung suggested I returned the 870 for testing. They found no error but that’s another story. They also upgraded the firmware.

Unfortunately the problem persists.

I have tried the previous suggestions above without success.

It occurred to me that it might not be a missing kext etc but if it boots from cold but not warm what’s the difference in that process that stops it working? Is it ‘loading’ something in cold but not warm?

Anything else anyone can suggest would be gratefully received.

 

[GeorgeJames]

One of Gigabyte's suggestions was that I flash the BIOS.

I was very reluctant to do that especially as Gigabyte’s website said don’t do unless you have to. I did not want to end up with a brick.

I had F7 installed and although there was F14 I was advised by Gigabyte that I couldn’t go back if I was worse off. So not to go beyond F13.

So took the plunge and flashed from F7-F10 without trouble but the SSD870 would still only reboot from SATA P0. I did not, though, end up with a brick, MacOS and programmes etc worked.

I had saved a copy of the F7 profile in the hope I could use without having manually to change settings. Unfortunately it was unreadable in F10. Luckily I had a hard copy of the changes something for all of us to remember for the future.

So flashed F10-F13 and although things did not go smoothly, eventually Samsung 870 SSD both booted and re-booted (warm boot) in any SATA port.

Neither Samsung nor Gigabyte have given an explanation as to why the 870 SSD did not perform the same as 850 SSD and got the error “still waiting for boot device”.

Problem solved and I still have a working Hack, not a brick, after flashing the BIOS twice.