iATKOS | United Kingdom

Full build info: https://au.pcpartpicker.com/b/Nxt8TW

TLDR;

• Monterey/Opencore 0.9.X [Dortania]
• i7 10700K CPU
• Deepcool LS720 CPU cooler
• Gigabyte Z490M
• Corsair Vengeance Pro 4 x 16GB
• WD SN750 500GB (macOS boot)
• WD Blue SSD 500GB (win boot)
• WD Blue SSD 1TB (macOS storage)
• WD Blue SSD 1TB (win storage)
• Sapphire Nitro+ RX6600 XT (currently out for second RMA)
• Fenvi FV-T919
• Corsair RM750e 750W PSU

Context: - Had a working hack in March this year (Monterey, OC 0.9.0 or 0.9.1), was in the final stages of signing OC and putting the keys into the BIOS but had to put it aside to concentrate on uni for a few months using Windows only.

Fast forward to now, I have time off and wanted to update OC and resign the keys before putting them into the firmware. So I grabbed OC 0.9.4 debug and went about replacing the OC files in a copy of my EFI on a flash drive. I also updated my kexts using Lilu and Friends, then finally did a snapshot of the OC folder for the config.plist. I booted from USB, there were no issues, so I replaced the EFI on my boot drive (kept a backup of the working EFI before doing so).

Problem: - On boot, the GUI and boot chime were absent. OC vanished from the BIOS boot priority menu. The default sound output in macOS reset to headphones rather than internal speakers. The debug file output has ceased despite all debug configs being left in place. Verbose boot output indicates 2/4 drivers are being found (previous logs from working EFI show all 4 drivers being picked up by OC on boot). I tried rolling back to my known working EFI. This did not fix any of the issues (completely removed the EFI contents and replaced with the known working EFI).

Resolution/troubleshooting attempts: - double checked the GUI, audio, debug and picker configs in the plist; all were fine - double checked all OC files used were from the same OC model; all from 0.9.4 debug - double checked all resource files were up to date; all from June 23 - updated Propertree and redid the snapshot; did not help - double checked snapshot had correctly selected drivers and kexts; they were all correctly placed and configured - double checked EFI file structure; all correct - restored older known working EFI onto boot drive; issues persisted despite problematic EFI being completely erased first - reattempted booting from USB (with newer OC 0.9.4); all GUI, chimes and sound working perfectly from USB. This was true for the older EFI (0.9.1 I think) as well

Conclusions: - OC 0.9.4 is not the problem as restoring to working EFI based on OC 0.9.1 did not resolve the issues. This suggests to me something related to the drive itself, perhaps the EFI partition, particularly since the USB did not encounter the same problems. - OC configs appear to not be applied during start up despite being present e.g. No debug files are being generated. Therefore, either something is preventing OC configs from executing correctly or Windows has gotten its grubby bits into the EFI partition during its last update

Point of the post: - Any suggestions on what to try next to troubleshoot? It's difficult when I can't get OC to generate debug files!