[Solved] Unreliable boot

[davidbdyer]

My system successfully boots into High Sierra less than 50% of the time. When it fails I get the dreaded circle with a slash through it. When it works everything works, wifi, GPU video acceleration, sound, ect.

 

[davidbdyer]

I've had no problems until now since I built my system in 2014. I enabled the iGPU to get hardware video decode and it's been a little finicky ever since. I assume it's related to the iGPU.

 

[cmn699]

My system successfully boots into High Sierra less than 50% of the time. When it fails I get the dreaded circle with a slash through it. When it works everything works, wifi, GPU video acceleration, sound, ect.

• Based on your CLOVER contents, I wonder how your System can boot even 50% of the time.
• The CLOVER needs a 'total makeover' from its CLOVER/kexts/Other all the way to config.plist sections.
• I will just upload one screen shot of CLOVER/kexts/Other opened in Clover Configurator Vibrant to show the main hurdle Clover EFI Bootloader has to pass before it can carry your High Sierra System Disk to Desktop.
  • When you boot the Computer From BIOS the CLOVER tries to take over booting and looks insideCLOVER /drivers64UEFI folder and /CLOVER/kexts/Other folder to find required drivers to boot and the config.plist for directions to use them and in what order during the boot.
  • If these kext folders are not properly stocked with required kexts, boot can fail BEFORE or After the Disk reaches CBM screen for its onward boot to its destination screen.
  • In your CLOVER, the drivers64UEFI looks OK. Therefore the System usually will not fail before reaching CBM screen.
  • But, the CLOVER/kexts/Other is totally disorganized and boot can be a hit or miss.The required files are spread across two folders instead of all of them in /kexts/Other.
  • The numbered folders 10.6 to 10.13 are an unnecessary drag and often cause delayed booting. But if the 10.13 has only some of the needed kexts and an essential kext is in /kexts/Other, the System Disk may boot occasionally or not boot at all , the exact description you have posted.
• There are a lot more things wrong in the config.plist preventing a smooth working system.
• It can take sometime for me to go over and edit all of them to make it good and I may need to know a lot more about your System such as whether you are running any BT or Wifi on this PC etc because I see a lot of kexts in those folders (10.13 and Other).

 

[davidbdyer]

Thank you for taking a look at my setup and the suggestions. I originally had all of the kext in the same folder under 10.13 and saw that it was suggested to put FakeSMC.kext in the kext/other so I did. The motherboard came with the AzureWave mini card with the Boardroom chipset that supports wifi and bluetooth. Handoff and continuity are unreliable and if I try and use the wifi and bluetooth together the performance is really bad. I have the same issue in windows with wifi/bluetooth performance. Luckily I have a ethernet line ran straight to my desk. I have removed the serial numbers from my folder I uploaded because they are authentic form an actual 14,1 iMac, that died.

 

[davidbdyer]

I reduce the vram on my iGPU in the bios and so far every time I've rebooted this evening it's booted correctly.

 

[cmn699]

I reduce the vram on my iGPU in the bios and so far every time I've rebooted this evening it's booted correctly.

If you think you have accomplished all you want with your installation, please edit the Title of your Post with the Prefix [SOLVED] . If you have any other issues still pending, post with images to show the problem and then if everything is fixed edit the title so that others can read your post to solve similar problem in similar hardware.