Something is screwy with my graphics/boot

[hapa17]

months back, i updated clover as i routine would do. i forget what version i was on, but whatever i updated to screwed up my graphics. i'd boot, but the screen would go black after the apple logo. in verbose mode, it'd get so far, then go blank, so it's basically impossible for me to see at what point it goes dark. it seemed like it would boot all the way, just no graphics.

eventually i boot with integrated graphics, which work, roll back my clover installation, switch back to my rx 580, and everything seems fine. i decide to leave well enough alone.

fast forward a few months to NOW, i decide i'm going to try updating it again so i can get big sur running on my hackintosh. so i update applealc, lilu, and whatevergreen. all fine. then i update my smbios from 14,2 to 15,1, knowing big sur doesn't support 14,2. also fine. then i update clover to r5127.

boom, i run back into the screen blanking out on boot problem. ok, i can just roll it all back again, no problem. i switch over to integrated graphics, re-install clover r5116. cool. then somewhere during that process, things go sideways.

it hangs on boot. in the process of swapping graphics sources, i unplug my rx 580 from the power source while the computer is still on. oops. not sure if that matters, but from then on, the screen during post is all wonky. instead of being proper resolution, it's all big. when i try to switch back over to integrated graphics, it doesn't work. i just get a black screen with a blinking underscore. i start futzing around with bios settings. nothing seems to be working. if i enable integrated graphics, it hangs on boot at "Scan Entries." i cant even get into bios from here. i have to flash my cmos again just to get back to bios.

after more tinkering, i've got it so the bios is the proper resolution, but i can only access it via my gpu. i can get to the clover bootloader from a usb installer running r5111, but then the screen blanks out during boot, just like it did months ago. seems like the computer is on, but no graphics. still can't get integrated graphics to work at all.

i'm intensely frustrated. can anyone offer any help at all? please. i beg you.

my machine is pretty old: i7-4770k cpu, GA-Z87X-UD5 TH, rx 580

if you need any further information about my system or situation, let me know. thank you in advance for any help.

 

[hapa17]

now r5111 freezes here. i don't know wtf is going on. at this point i'm just tweaking bootflags here and there, bios settings here and there. i'm lost. HELP.

 

[hapa17]

i got it to boot through to the blank screen again. i can also get it to fully boot from the recovery partition, though i can't really do anything from there, can i? why would my screen work in recovery mode (off a unibeast usb) but not work booting the regular SSD with the same usb?