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[Solved] Black screen after "Load optimised settings"

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Mar 3, 2014
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Motherboard
Asus Z87 PRO
CPU
i5-4670K
Graphics
RX 580
Mac
  1. iMac
  2. MacBook
  3. MacBook Pro
  4. Mac mini
  5. Mac Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
OK the history with this is that a few years ago I first tried to install OSX on this mobo (H87N-WIFI) using integrated graphics. I couldn't get it to work no matter what I tried. Then I bought and installed the NVIDIA Geforce GTX650 and things abruptly went pretty smoothly and have been very good for years running Mavericks then Yosemite. My recent attempts to install first ElCapitan and more recently Sierra have been dismal failures despite many many hours of reading and trial and error. Then I thought, well I never did get the integrated graphics to work so I'll have another stab at that. Success - using new versions of Clover and playing around for a while it works perfectly in Yosemite. I even got cocky and began to plan using the GFX card in another build - after I'd finally got Sierra installed that is.

So banging my head against a brick wall, multiple Clover config.plist permutations and multiple guides followed with various different UEFI-64 drivers tried, I finally realised that some people seem to be suggesting that making the BIOS "load optimised defaults" prior to resetting them to those recommended was a standard part of their installation procedure. Now whether it really is or whether they are just making sure that the BIOS is good to go, I've no idea. What I do know is that an hour ago I had a perfectly working Yosemite install (and cloned back up) and that since I reset the BIOS to "load optimised settings" (its F8 btw) and then went on to disable things like:

BIOS Settings (Sanity Check)
  • Press DEL during boot to access BIOS
  • In BIOS Features:
    • Fast Boot: Disabled
    • Intel TXT(LT) Support: Disabled
    • VT-d: Disabled
    • Windows 8 Features: Other OS
    • Boot Mode Selection: UEFI & Legacy
    • LAN PXE Boot Option ROM: Disabled
  • In Peripherals:
    • Initial Display Output: PCIe 1 Slot (if graphics card installed)
    • XHCI Mode: Smart Auto
    • XHCI Hand-off: Enabled
    • EHCI Hand-off: Enabled
(cut and pasted from the ammulder's thread linked to above)

Importantly of course I have my Initial Display Output set to Intel GFX. (The PCIe slot has the recommended TPLink WIFI card now) and then 64M and Max unlike the above. But otherwise I have checked and triple checked the BIOS settings and I'm totally confused. If anyone can make any suggestions? For e.g.

1) Is it worth trying to update the BIOS to F9? Would that be likely to make updating the OS to Sierra any easier?
2) Do BIOS become corrupted? I understand this MOBO has some sort of dual BIOS but I really don't know what that means to me in this situation?
3) Should I just give in and stick the GTX650 back in?

Thanks for reading all this. I will post again regarding installation difficulties in the relevant forum, I just want to get back to where I started an hour ago for the time being.
 
Quick update: I finally remembered all the initial problems I had three years ago or thereabouts with the secure boot on this motherboard, especially without a discrete gfx card installed (for some bizarre reason). Back then, thinking I was being "secure", I entered Administrator and User Passwords and created mayhem for myself.

I had to do stuff with the CMOS jumper to reset the BIOS back then, and now when I don't get just a black screen (instead of the Clover boot screen) I get a red rectangle with "invalid signature detected check secure boot policy in setup" -none of which was happening (for years) before I did the stupid 'load optimised settings' trick. That said, I appreciate I SHOULD be able to load such settings, disable a few key options, and be good to go. BUT what I'm seeing is that at the bottom of the BIOS features page, scrolling right down past the selectable Administrator Password and then User Password (both blank) there is in white text, System Mode State - User then Secure Boot State - Enabled

So of course I've used the jumpers to try to reset the BIOS just now, but it still (after three goes) states that Secure Boot state is Enabled with no option I can see to change it. There's even videos released by Gigabyte showing how to switch it off in different mobo's BIOS settings - but there do not seem to be any selectable options anywhere? BTW Go back a page to System Information and it states that my Access level is Administrator, so I surely should be able to change whatever I need to?

Any ideas please?

Don't know if it will help someone help me, but my BIOS looks like the one pictured here while most references I see when searching have a newer BIOS GUI that was only available on the Z87 Gigabyte boards, not mine.

Though the manual does not mention it, I'm wondering / dimly remembering if maybe I should be removing the motherboard battery to fully reset the BIOS to turn off the secure boot state? Having used macs exclusively since 1990 the whole notion of dealing with a BIOS is very unfamiliar.
 
Last edited:
OK got it fixed :)
Turns out that the setting to disable the Secure Boot is ONLY available when you change Other OS to Windows 8 temporarily. Make this change then scroll down, disable secure boot, then change Windows 8 back to Other OS, save the BIOS settings and everything goes back to how it was before 'Load Optimised Settings'! This maybe a vagary of my particular board but hopefully it will help someone else.
Now back to trying to get Sierra installed!!!
 
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