HOW TO SOLVE: Animated static static sand when trying on Installation boot-loader screen "only" on CATALINA, BIG SUR, MONTEREY

[Jo-Toku]

So I can see a pattern problem when hackntoshing laptops with Radeon Graphics cards.

Things are usually ok on intel IGPUs, and that is the majority of the bulk of the community.

However laptops with dedicated AMD are more rare since the majority of laptops hav nvidia. And many of Radeon cards don't have mux switch or aren't models compatible with Mac Os

Obseveration:

All of the laptops with the compatible GPU's have the same exact problem. They can install up to Mojave with no problems at all. The list of laptops are below:

1. Acer Predator Helios 500: Ryzen 7 2700, Vega 56, B450 Motherboard


2. HP Omen 17: Intel 7700HQ, RX 580 8GB


3. Asus ROG Strix GL702zc: Ryzen 7 1700, RX 580 4GB, B350 Motherboard

All of this laptops successfully install up to Mojave, with full Graphics acceleration.

Problems started with CATALINA 10.15

All of the installation started when Apple released Catalina. All of these laptop listed above showed the same issue. The installer is fine up to Mojave. The Os'es having problems are listed below:

1. Catalina

2.Big Sur

3. Monterey

Every single one of the laptops had issues with the last 3 OS releases. The problem shows as animate static sand instead of the installer page. Technically they all reach the installer page, but it wont graphically the menu.

I have connected external monitors to no avail, it just shows the grey color installation backdrop.

My perspective

Clearly Apple made some sort of overhaul starting Catalina, which it would make sense since is the starting point to an only 64bit OS. What I do not understand is why the compatible cards like the RX580 and the Vega can not properly render the installer page, but it works fine on High Sierra and Mojave.

Currently all of them are on Mojave and they work great.

I know laptops with compatible Radeon cards are very minimal when compared to intel IGPUs which is what most use for Hackintosh. But if anyone have some experience to solve this issue to solve the rendering issue on the installation page would be super

 

[xpkiller]

Hello, thank you in advance for your effort. I cleaned up my EFI a bit and deleted the files I didn't need. I also created the SSDT files with Windows because it runs on the laptop. I just couldn't create HPET, so I took one from github. I have now set MacBookPro16.3 SMBIOS, when I boot it for the first time I get to the system selection, then the computer switches off. I then changed to iMacPro1.1, so I got a little further, but from what I saw, after loading the VooDoo2C.Kexte, it stops somewhere and exits again: I attach my changed EFI and LOG file again.

 

[Edhawk]

1. Post a copy of your system DSDT.aml, I would like to see what happens when trying to generate SSDT-HPET.aml. The config.plist is missing the ACPI patches required to get the SSDT-HPET.aml working in OpenCore. So currently the HPET SDDT is doing nothing for your system.
2. I would recommend removing the Windows drive while trying to install macOS. As having the Windows drive present in the system can cause issues when troubleshooting or booting OpenCore for a macOS installation.
   1. I assume you have an NVME drive and SSD or laptop spinning HD present in laptop.
   2. So Windows and macOS will be installed on separate drives, is that correct?
   3. Also that you only have a single USB pen drive attached, the macOS installation drive containing the macOS Monterey Installer.
   4. That you are not looking to install macOS to another USB drive.
   5. Any issues with the USB ports will seriously mess with a second USB device/drive. It commonly does the same for the USB installation drive.
   6. If the macOS drive can be installed in either the M.2 connector or using the SATA connector that would always be the better option, as it is less likely the drive will be lost during the installation process.
3. While in Windows did you look at the Device Manager > Trackpad > Properties to clarify which type of Trackpad your laptop contains, i.e. ELAN, Synaptics HID?
4. There are a number of Drivers in the OC setup that are not being used/successfully activated. These should be removed from the Drivers folder and config.plist.
   1. screenshot form OC log showing unused Drivers.
5. The BlackOSX OC boot theme seems to be lacking a few parts. It might be better to revert to the Acidanthera -Auto boot theme, just while installing macOS.
   1. 
6. VoodooI2C.kext is not being injected correctly. Not sure what is causing this 'Invalid Parameter' issue, as the Plugin kexts are all loading without issue.
7. Voodooi2c.kext and other companion/plugin kexts injection success and failure.
8. The VoodooI2CSynaptics.kext is not being injected.
9. I am not sure that the ApplePS2Controller.kext will work with your laptop, as is a fairly old kext. The VoodooPS2Controller.kext might be a better option. Whichever you use they should never be used together, as that will just cause some unnecessary clashes.
10. I don't think that SMCSuperIO.kext is required for any AMD system, it is aimed at Intel systems.
11. You may need to add ECEnabler.kext to your /EFI/OC/Kexts folder and config.plist, to help with the Battery operation in macOS.

 

[xpkiller]

@Edhawk, I tidied up my things again. To your questions. I only have one SSD in my laptop (1TB divided into 500GB for Windows and the rest for macOS) I have two USB sticks, one has macOS, in this case Monterey, and the other only has the EFI to boot. Is not that right? I tried to create my own SSDT with SSDTTime on Windows. I'm sure I didn't do something right? I've never done this before and I don't know what to do? I was able to generate some, but I'm not sure. whether this is my data from the laptop? What do I have to do first with the program? I'm not the youngest anymore, sometimes it takes me a little longer to understand something! ;-) LG xpkiller

 

[Edhawk]

Dual booting macOS and Windows on a single drive needs to be undertaken in a specific way, with macOS being the first OS installed on the drive. Otherwise the drive is not going to be configured correctly for both OS’s to run via the boot loader. The EFI partition needs to be the first partition on the drive, the OS’s can then be installed in separate larger partitions.

Here is a link to a guide over at Tonymacx86 for dual booting on a single drive, it is old now but the OS installation process remains the same when using OpenCore.

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-multibooting-uefi.197352/

The alternative is to install the two OS’s on separate drives. I believe your laptop has an NVME M.2 connector, so you could add a second drive specifically for macOS if you wanted.

Here is another Tonymacx86 guide related to using Corpnewt’s SSDTTIME script. This guide was undertaken in macOS but the process is very similar in Windows.

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/custom-ssdts-using-corpnewts-ssdttime.318976/

Using separate drives is the better way to dual boot on a hack, as if you mess up the OpenCore boot process, you should still be able to select the other drive via the bios boot menu and have access to the OS.

 

[xpkiller]

@Edhawk, I guess I managed it with SSDTTime! I created a system folder in which the DSDT.aml was then created. So I could then create the required SSDT files and insert them into the ACPI folder. I also integrated the patch files. I connected the HDMI cable to the Smart TV again, the mouse and keyboard work with the VoodooPS2Controller.kext, but the touchpad doesn't yet. I hope it works at some point? I still have the animated sand on the LCD

I won't install the macOS right away, I want the entire boot process to run on my laptop LCD first. Then. I'm going to consider buying a small NVME drive to install macOS because I don't want to destroy Windows.

I'll add my current EFI with LOG and the DSDT.aml again

 

[Edhawk]

On a couple of my Intel laptop hacks I had to remove or disable the VoodooTrackpad.kext &/or VoodooMouse.kext from the config.plist. Both of which can be found in the VoodooPS2Controller.kext/Contents/plugin folder so the trackpad would work. Depending on which kext I had to remove or disable, the trackpad might work as a mouse or a trackpad, sometimes with only basic functionality. It can be a bit hit and miss as to which plugin kext would get the trackpad working.

When neither kext worked and I ended up I disabling or removing both of these plugin kexts, I had to use Voodooi2c.kext for the trackpad.

 

[Jo-Toku]

Dual booting macOS and Windows on a single drive needs to be undertaken in a specific way, with macOS being the first OS installed on the drive. Otherwise the drive is not going to be configured correctly for both OS’s to run via the boot loader. The EFI partition needs to be the first partition on the drive, the OS’s can then be installed in separate larger partitions.

Here is a link to a guide over at Tonymacx86 for dual booting on a single drive, it is old now but the OS installation process remains the same when using OpenCore.

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-multibooting-uefi.197352/

The alternative is to install the two OS’s on separate drives. I believe your laptop has an NVME M.2 connector, so you could add a second drive specifically for macOS if you wanted.

Here is another Tonymacx86 guide related to using Corpnewt’s SSDTTIME script. This guide was undertaken in macOS but the process is very similar in Windows.

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/custom-ssdts-using-corpnewts-ssdttime.318976/

Using separate drives is the better way to dual boot on a hack, as if you mess up the OpenCore boot process, you should still be able to select the other drive via the bios boot menu and have access to the OS.

He should stick to one OS per SSD. It can be troublesome when sometimes out of nowhere it breaks the Mac bootloader and need to go to Windows to fix it.

I believe the Motherboard accepts 2 drives

 

[xpkiller]

@Edhawk, again to the penultimate post from you, I had previously set Acidanthera -Auto, there are even more missing icons, so I used the BlackOSX OC boot theme, there are only 3 entries that are missing, but I don't think it's needed become?

Now my LOG file looks a little better, where the unnecessary files and entries have been adjusted. Have you looked at my DSDT.aml to see if it's OK? Now all I have to do is get to the install screen?

 

[Edhawk]

I haven’t had a look at the files you posted, as I have been using an iPad for the last two days, but I will, as soon as I get on one of my Hacks.

 

[Edhawk]

OK, I have had a look at the files you posted.

1. I have used the DSDT.aml to create some custom SSDT's for your laptop using Corpnewt's SSDTTime script. These are attached in the SSDTTime Results folder below.
2. I have used the SSDT's and patches to edit your EFI setup.
3. I have also added and removed a number of kexts, which I think will better suit your setup (hopefully).
4. I have replaced the Resources folder with the one I use on my B550M/R5 5600G/RX5700XT system. So this should work.
5. I have edited the config.plist, adding, removing and changing entries to hopefully (again) work with your laptop.
6. Too many changes to list at this time.
7. If you want to compare the new EFI to the old and the revised config.pilist with your old config be my guest.

Copy of the revised EFI-v1 is attached below for you to try.

I would recommend trying this EFI without making any changes to it. So we can see how it works, or not, and which issues if any are raised during the OpenCore/macOS boot and installation process.

 

[xpkiller]

Thank you very much for taking the time and then on the weekend. I'm happy that I found someone who can help me.
I adopted the EFI as is without changing anything. The boot process went through without stopping. I think the error messages have also decreased? After booting, the animated sand screen appears on the laptop again. I just couldn't connect the Smart TV via HDMI because my wife is watching TV!! I'll do that later. I'll attach the current LOG file from your EFI

EDIT: I was able to test it with HDMI. External USB mouse and laptop keyboard work, unfortunately touchpad doesn't. At the top right the battery is displayed with 100%, the laptop is also fully charged.

All good, have a nice weekend.

 

[Edhawk]

Adding ECEnabler.kext to the setup will have fixed/enabled the Battery display in the Apple Menu.

I removed both the Trackpad and Mouse plugin kexts from the VoodooPS2Controller.kext. To see if the built-in trackpad would work with the other input related kexts. I will add the Trackpad kext back in the revised EFI below, see if that helps in regard to the laptop trackpad.

1. Can you open Hackintool and do the following:
   1. Download and install the app, if you don't already have it installed.
   2. https://github.com/benbaker76/Hackintool/releases/tag/4.0.3
2. Navigate to the PCIe tab.
   1. Hackintool > PCIe tab with Export icon highlighted
3. Select the Export icon (bottom right side)
4. This will generate 4 x files on the Desktop.
5. Zip and attach the 4 x files so I can interrogate them.

Posting a screenshot showing the fully expanded PCIe tab would also be helpful.

Fully expanded Hackintool > PCIe tab example

 

[xpkiller]

@Edhawk, I would like to do that, but the hacking tool is a macOS program. I can only run this on my imac. That would have to run on my laptop, but I only have Windows 11 running there at the moment. What data do you need to have? I grabbed this from Windows Device Manager on my laptop.

 

[Edhawk]

I wanted to see if your laptop needed any ACPI pci-bridge fixes, specifically for the graphics. The screenshot above seems to indicate that isn’t the case. Doesn’t mean that other devices aren’t in need of help.

 

[xpkiller]

I've now done this on the laptop, I hope you can do something with it?

 

[Edhawk]

What the Asus laptop report files told me is this:

1. The ASMedia SATA controller (ASM2016) probably requires a pci-bridge fix in macOS.
   1. Corpnewt's SSDTTime option '9' with the IOReg Device to generate the correct SSDT-Bridge table.
2. Your laptop has an ELAN touchpad, not a Synaptics touchpad.
   1. So you need to change the VoodooI2C support kext to the ELAN kext.
3. Your laptop contains a Realtek RTL8822BE Wireless/BT card that is not supported in macOS.
   1. You need to replace this with a compatible Intel or Broadcom card for WiFi/BT functionality.
   2. Broadcom card if you want Apple Continuity/Handoff/AirPlay/AirDrop etc. in macOS up to and including Ventura.
4. Your laptop uses the B350 AMD Chipset, useful to know as it tells us we don't need a number of common Ryzen OC fixes.
5. Your laptop contains the Realtek ALC256 Audio codec, so the latest AppleALC.kext should work with your setup, with the correct layout-id in the config.plist.

The GPU-Z screenshot didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, unfortunately.

 

[xpkiller]

It's good to know that you can do something with the data. The sound card seems to work from the start when I integrated it with the ALC256, the chime tone is played when booting. I'll try that with the VoodooI2C. But I think the first EFI-v1 works better than the EFI-v2. I mean that some things just don't work over the HDMI transmission? I can use utility and formatting or erasing the hard drives. I can't open Safari, it just shows a blank page. (Ethernet cable plugged in, I don't know if it's already recognized by OSX?)? External USB mouse, keyboard and battery display also work.

 

[kidooe]

Hey, I hope you guys are doing okay so im another person have same issue with sand noise issue on HP omen laptop with i7 7700HQ and RX 580 8GB dedicated GPU, Intel igpu is disabled by default by HP so i can't use that. now the funny thing is i can use macos mojave without any issue but as soon as i go above mojave i get white noise screen but i use HDMI then i can able to see the installer but i want to use the LCD of the laptop. I'm attaching my EFI DSDT Ioregistryexplorer copy so if anyone here wanna help me out to fix this issue.

 

[xpkiller]

Even with the Elan driver I can't get the touchpad to work. I have already integrated the SSDT-Bridge table in the ACPI folder. If the Realtek RTL8822BE Wireless/BT is not supported by macOS, I can get a USB WiFi stick if necessary. Network should probably work? I just hope that the graphics card works and an image is displayed on the LCD?

 

[xpkiller]

Hey, I hope you guys are doing okay so im another person have same issue with sand noise issue on HP omen laptop with i7 7700HQ and RX 580 8GB dedicated GPU, Intel igpu is disabled by default by HP so i can't use that. now the funny thing is i can use macos mojave without any issue but as soon as i go above mojave i get white noise screen but i use HDMI then i can able to see the installer but i want to use the LCD of the laptop. I'm attaching my EFI DSDT Ioregistryexplorer copy so if anyone here wanna help me out to fix this issue.

Hello, it's best if you follow us here and follow the steps I did. The display problem is probably not so easy to solve. If it works then it should work for everyone else who has this problem