<< Solved >> Unable to access High Sierra installer, shows prohibited symbol when loading

[bendahsie96]

Hello all. I am brand new here and I am also brand new to Hackintoshing. I have finally built my custom gaming PC that I've always wanted, replacing the iMac that I am currently using. However, since I have used a Mac for the last 8 years, I want to be able to install OS X on it to use as my main operating system beside Windows.

I am having a difficult time accessing Disk Utility on the new PC. When I attempt to open the installer via Clover, the Apple logo appears and the progress bar begins to load. However, when the bar reaches about 2/3 of the way to the end, I am presented with the prohibited symbol and am forced to restart the PC. I have tried many different configurations to get it to load (including installing Clover from scratch), but the only time I can get the progress bar to actually show up is when I use High Sierra Unibeast to create the installer with no other modifications made to the config.plist, kexts, or anything else. Since this is my first time I'm sure I'm missing a vital step to get it to boot, such as missing kexts or missing EFIs in the drivers64UEFI folder, so any help would be very much appreciated. I'll include the EFI folder so you may see what I might need.

The specs are as follows:
Motherboard - Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX LGA1151
CPU - Intel Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core
Cooling unit - Corsair H100i RGB PLATINUM 75 CFM Liquid CPU cooler
Memory - Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200
Storage drives - x1 Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME SSD, x2 Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" SSD
GPU (currently uninstalled for easier primary OS X installation) - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC 6G, 3X Windforce Fans, 6GB 192-bit GDDR6, Gv-N166SGAMING OC-6GD

BIOS settings (most everything is Optimized Defaults with these things changed):
BIOS version: F10
M.I.T.: -> Advanced Memory Settings -> X.M.P = Profile1
BIOS: Fast boot = Disabled; Windows 8/10 Feature = Other OS; CSM Support = Disabled; Secure Boot = Disabled
Peripherals: Intel PPT = Disabled; USB Configuration (Legacy USB Support = Enabled, XHCI Hand-off = Enabled, USB Mass Storage Driver = Enabled, Port 60/64 Emulation = Disabled); Network Stack = Disabled
Chipset: VT-d = Disabled; Internal Graphics = Enabled; DVMT Pre-Allocated = 64M; DVMT Total Gfx Mem = 256M; Audio Controller = Enabled; Above 4G Decoding = Enabled; PCH LAN Controller = Enabled; Wake on LAN Enable = Disabled; IOAPIC 24-119 Entries = Enabled; Aperture Size = 256MB
Power: Platform Power Managed = Disabled; ErP = Enabled

My theories:
-RAM frequency is too high
-BIOS settings are incorrect
-Missing necessary kexts/EFIs
-config.plist is incorrect

It may also be worth noting that I installed the bootloader on a Transcend 128GB external USB SSD.

The EFI is here. Thanks in advanced for all your help. I am going to continue trying to boot in the meantime.

 

[P1LGRIM]

Please read and comply with the rules, in particular the one regarding profiles.
Link to profile - Just three items - Motherboard (or prebuilt system), Processor (CPU) and Graphics.

 

[bendahsie96]

Please read and comply with the rules, in particular the one regarding profiles.
Link to profile - Just three items - Motherboard (or prebuilt system), Processor (CPU) and Graphics.

My bad, I shall rectify that. I do apologize for not properly creating the thread, first time I've ever done this.

 

[P1LGRIM]

I installed the bootloader on a Transcend 128GB external USB SSD.

Because of file system limitations the installer must be created on a partition of 32GB or less.

 

[bendahsie96]

Because of file system limitations the installer must be created on a partition of 32GB or less.

Okay, I repartitioned the drive and I'm installing it on a partition of 30GB. I'll report back with results.

 

[bendahsie96]

Because of file system limitations the installer must be created on a partition of 32GB or less.

No luck, went straight to prohibitory symbol this time for some reason.

 

[P1LGRIM]

No luck

Luck plays no part.

When booting from USB means that there is a problem finding a valid System folder to start up from on your USB flash drive.
This is usually because the flash drive is in a USB3 port.
If this is the case move it to a USB2 port, if it is already in a USB2 port move it to another and try again.
Repeat until you have tried all USB ports.
Use a USB2 flash drive.
If it still doesn't work you could try another flash drive.
It can be caused by using a flash drive that is greater than 32GB, if this is the case you must create a partition of 32GB or less.
Try connecting your USB flash drive using a USB2 hub.
You might also try enabling Legacy on your USB3 ports in your BIOS settings.
Set XHCI Handoff to Enabled in your BIOS settings.
Ensure that Fast Boot is not enabled in your BIOS settings.
At Clover Boot Screen select Options > PCI devices > USB Ownership and USB Injection.
May require USBInjectAll.kext in /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other/.
May require XHCI-unsupported.kext in /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other/. (Click Download repository).
May require a USB Port Limit patch.

 

[bendahsie96]

Luck plays no part.

When booting from USB means that there is a problem finding a valid System folder to start up from on your USB flash drive.
This is usually because the flash drive is in a USB3 port.
If this is the case move it to a USB2 port, if it is already in a USB2 port move it to another and try again.
Repeat until you have tried all USB ports.
Use a USB2 flash drive.
If it still doesn't work you could try another flash drive.
It can be caused by using a flash drive that is greater than 32GB, if this is the case you must create a partition of 32GB or less.
Try connecting your USB flash drive using a USB2 hub.
You might also try enabling Legacy on your USB3 ports in your BIOS settings.
Set XHCI Handoff to Enabled in your BIOS settings.
Ensure that Fast Boot is not enabled in your BIOS settings.
At Clover Boot Screen select Options > PCI devices > USB Ownership and USB Injection.
May require USBInjectAll.kext in /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other/.
May require XHCI-unsupported.kext in /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other/. (Click Download repository).
May require a USB Port Limit patch.

Trying all of these. Thanks so much for your help, it's much appreciated.

 

[bendahsie96]

Luck plays no part.

When booting from USB means that there is a problem finding a valid System folder to start up from on your USB flash drive.
This is usually because the flash drive is in a USB3 port.
If this is the case move it to a USB2 port, if it is already in a USB2 port move it to another and try again.
Repeat until you have tried all USB ports.
Use a USB2 flash drive.
If it still doesn't work you could try another flash drive.
It can be caused by using a flash drive that is greater than 32GB, if this is the case you must create a partition of 32GB or less.
Try connecting your USB flash drive using a USB2 hub.
You might also try enabling Legacy on your USB3 ports in your BIOS settings.
Set XHCI Handoff to Enabled in your BIOS settings.
Ensure that Fast Boot is not enabled in your BIOS settings.
At Clover Boot Screen select Options > PCI devices > USB Ownership and USB Injection.
May require USBInjectAll.kext in /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other/.
May require XHCI-unsupported.kext in /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other/. (Click Download repository).
May require a USB Port Limit patch.

Okay, so some good news and some bad news.
I was finally able to get it to boot into the installer. I erased my hard drive with Windows on it and repartitioned it (since it'll be very easy to reinstall) and went to install High Sierra. It rebooted back into Clover so I selected the HFS drive. Unfortunately that is where I encountered another prohibitory symbol, both on the HFS drive and on the external drive.
Is there something I'm missing here?

EDIT: It's working again, guess it just needed a couple reboots. I'll see if I can get it working.

 

[P1LGRIM]

I encountered another prohibitory symbol

If you are booting from USB then it is usually a USB controller or configuration problem and likewise if you are booting from SATA then it is usually a SATA controller or configuration problem.

Suggest you use the forum Search tool, you are not the first and there are guides for hardware similar to your own.