Clean install only boot in safe mode Samsung 860 SSD

[NicolaNicolas]

Hello,

I have replaced my hard drive with a SSD Samsung EVO 860 on my Macbook 13 mid 2012 - 2,5 GHz - 4 Go.

I have made a clean install of El Capitan. This was working very well, I tested this for 30 minutes.

I have then reformatted the disk and made a clean install of Mojave.

I can only boot in safe mode.

When in normal startup, the progress bar stops and the Macbook doesn't boot.

I have tried to reset the NVRAM PRAM. I have also tried to repair the disk in Recovery Mode. I have disabled all the extensions via Preference System.

I have read users that are using the same configuration with perfect results: 2012 Macbook, Mojave, EVO 860 SSD.

Here is the Etrecheck report bellow.

Any help will be great, thank you in advance

EtreCheck version: 5.2 (5029)

Report generated: 2019-04-23 22:47:25

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 3:34

Performance: Good

Sandbox: Enabled

Full drive access: Disabled

Problem: Other problem

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.

Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems or opportunities for improvement.

Upgradeable RAM - This machine has upgradeable RAM that would help its performance.

Limited drive access - More information may be available with Full Drive Access.

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

MacBook Pro Model: MacBookPro9,2

1 2,5 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-3210M) CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM - Upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1600 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1600 ok

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 351

Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 1280 x 800

Drives:

disk0 - Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB 500.11 GB (Solid State - TRIM: No)

Internal SATA 6 Gigabit Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 [APFS Container] 499.90 GB

disk1 [APFS Virtual drive] 499.90 GB (Shared by 4 volumes)

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) (Shared - 13.21 GB used)

disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared)

disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared)

disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 1.07 GB used)

Mounted Volumes:

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD 499.90 GB (484.38 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /

disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM] (Shared - 1.07 GB used)

APFS

Mount point: /private/var/vm

Network:

Interface en0: Ethernet

Interface fw0: FireWire

Interface en1: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n

Interface en3: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

System Software:

macOS Mojave 10.14.4 (18E227)

Time since boot: Less than an hour

Safe Mode: Enabled

Notifications:

Notifications not available without Full Drive Access.

Security:

Gatekeeper: Enabled

System Integrity Protection: Enabled

System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded] 16 Apple tasks

[Loaded] 190 Apple tasks

[Running] 95 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded] 39 Apple tasks

[Loaded] 192 Apple tasks

[Running] 104 Apple tasks

Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded] com.apple.installer.osmessagetracing.plist (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)

Audio Plug-ins:

AppleTimeSyncAudioClock: 1.0 (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: 6.0.11 (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)

AirPlay: 2.0 (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)

AppleAVBAudio: 740.1 (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)

BridgeAudioSP: 5.39 (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)

iSightAudio: 7.7.3 (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)

Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!

Performance:

System Load: 0.80 (1 min ago) 1.71 (5 min ago) 1.50 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O speed: 2.67 MB/s

File system: 65.15 seconds

Write speed: 508 MB/s

Read speed: 532 MB/s

CPU Usage Snapshot:

Type Overall

System 2 %

User 3 %

Idle 95 %

Top Processes Snapshot by CPU:

Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)

EtreCheck 10.37 % (App Store)

Other processes 8.61 % (?)

Dock 0.12 % (Apple)

SystemUIServer 0.08 % (Apple)

SafariBookmarksSyncAgent 0.05 % (Apple)

Top Processes Snapshot by Memory:

Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)

EtreCheck 402 MB (App Store)

Safari 90 MB (Apple)

Finder 69 MB (Apple)

Spotlight 56 MB (Apple)

suggestd 48 MB (Apple)

Top Processes Snapshot by Network Use:

Process Input / Output (Source - Location)

helpd 2 MB / 21 KB (Apple)

mDNSResponder 16 KB / 8 KB (Apple)

apsd 5 KB / 3 KB (Apple)

netbiosd 751 B / 354 B (Apple)

SystemUIServer 0 B / 64 B (Apple)

Virtual Memory Information:

Physical RAM: 4 GB

Free RAM: 488 MB

Used RAM: 2.16 GB

Cached files: 1.37 GB

Available RAM: 1.84 GB

Swap Used: 0 B

Software Installs (past 30 days):

Install Date Name (Version)

2019-04-23 XProtectPlistConfigData (2102)

2019-04-23 Gatekeeper Configuration Data (165)

2019-04-23 EtreCheck (5.2)

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

Directory /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports is not accessible.

Enable Full Drive Access to see more information.

End of report

 

[treekram]

You mentioned the following: "I have disabled all the extensions via Preference System."

Does this mean that when you go into System Preferences -> Extensions, when you select "All", something appears on the right? If you don't have 3rd-party extensions, it would say "You have not installed any extensions".

Your EtreCheck report doesn't show any 3rd party extensions. In previous EtreCheck reports I've seen, these would be listed even if it wasn't activated. I don't know if something has changed in how EtreCheck reports extensions.

Working in safe mode but not in regular mode on a Mac which has extensions is typically means there's a problem with the extensions. If you did install any extensions, you might want to try a clean install again and try running the computer before installing extensions and then add them one-by-one to see which one causes the problems.

If you haven't installed any 3rd-party software yet, then there's 2 things to try. 1) These MBP models are known for having HDD cables that degrade over time. If you haven't had it replaced recently, you might try a new cable. However, your problems are not typical of the problems that the HDD cable causes. 2) You might want to enable "Full Disk (Drive) Access", re-run EtreCheck and see if it uncovers anything. The following link describes steps to enabling Full Disk Access. It's meant for the Carbon Copy Cloner software so just apply it to EtreCheck instead of CCC.
https://bombich.com/kb/ccc5/granting-full-disk-access-ccc-and-its-helper-tool

 

[NicolaNicolas]

Thank you for the detailed reply.

In Preference System, I have "You have not installed any extensions".

Here is the new report with full drive access:

EtreCheck version: 5.2 (5029)

Report generated: 2019-04-24 19:37:33

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 3:37

Performance: Good

Sandbox: Enabled

Full drive access: Enabled

Problem: Other problem


Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.


No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.


Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems or opportunities for improvement.


Upgradeable RAM - This machine has upgradeable RAM that would help its performance.


Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

MacBook Pro Model: MacBookPro9,2

1 2,5 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-3210M) CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM - Upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1600 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1600 ok

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 351


Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 1280 x 800


Drives:

disk0 - Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB 500.11 GB (Solid State - TRIM: No)

Internal SATA 6 Gigabit Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 [APFS Container] 499.90 GB

disk1 [APFS Virtual drive] 499.90 GB (Shared by 4 volumes)

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) (Shared - 13.73 GB used)

disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared)

disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared)

disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 1.07 GB used)


Mounted Volumes:

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD 499.90 GB (483.86 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /


disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM] (Shared - 1.07 GB used)

APFS

Mount point: /private/var/vm


Network:

Interface en0: Ethernet

Interface fw0: FireWire

Interface en1: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n

Interface en3: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge


System Software:

macOS Mojave 10.14.4 (18E227)

Time since boot: About an hour

Safe Mode: Enabled


Notifications:


/Applications/EtreCheck.app

one notification


Security:

Gatekeeper: Enabled

System Integrity Protection: Enabled


System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded] 17 Apple tasks

[Loaded] 188 Apple tasks

[Running] 96 Apple tasks


System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded] 39 Apple tasks

[Loaded] 198 Apple tasks

[Running] 98 Apple tasks


Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded] com.apple.installer.osmessagetracing.plist (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)


Audio Plug-ins:

AppleTimeSyncAudioClock: 1.0 (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: 6.0.11 (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)

AirPlay: 2.0 (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)

AppleAVBAudio: 740.1 (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)

BridgeAudioSP: 5.39 (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)

iSightAudio: 7.7.3 (Apple - installed 2019-04-16)


Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!


Performance:

System Load: 1.35 (1 min ago) 1.42 (5 min ago) 1.33 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O speed: 0.40 MB/s

File system: 65.50 seconds

Write speed: 508 MB/s

Read speed: 531 MB/s


CPU Usage Snapshot:

Type Overall

System 2 %

User 2 %

Idle 96 %


Top Processes Snapshot by CPU:

Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)

EtreCheck 7.88 % (App Store)

com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (5) 3.91 % (Apple)

Other processes 3.83 % (?)

com.apple.WebKit.Networking 0.17 % (Apple)

SafariBookmarksSyncAgent 0.04 % (Apple)


Top Processes Snapshot by Memory:

Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)

EtreCheck 413 MB (App Store)

com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (5) 275 MB (Apple)

Safari 91 MB (Apple)

AppleSpell 72 MB (Apple)

suggestd 64 MB (Apple)


Top Processes Snapshot by Network Use:

Process Input / Output (Source - Location)

mDNSResponder 41 KB / 8 KB (Apple)

apsd 5 KB / 3 KB (Apple)

com.apple.WebKit.Networking 4 KB / 2 KB (Apple)

netbiosd 5 KB / 558 B (Apple)

SystemUIServer 0 B / 64 B (Apple)


Virtual Memory Information:

Physical RAM: 4 GB


Free RAM: 196 MB

Used RAM: 2.47 GB

Cached files: 1.34 GB


Available RAM: 1.53 GB

Swap Used: 0 B


Software Installs (past 30 days):

Install Date Name (Version)

2019-04-23 XProtectPlistConfigData (2102)

2019-04-23 Gatekeeper Configuration Data (165)

2019-04-23 EtreCheck (5.2)


Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

2019-04-24 19:17:32 ScreenSaverEngine.app CPU (3 times)

Executable: /System/Library/CoreServices/ScreenSaverEngine.app


2019-04-24 13:53:19 com.apple.WebKit.WebContent CPU (2 times)

Executable: /System/Library/Frameworks/WebKit.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent


End of report

 

[NoBoMac]

Dumb question: did you try to install a second time from Recovery, without wiping the drive? Maybe something got messed up during the install, and an install on top of what is already there might shake things loose.

 

[treekram]

I don't see anything in the latest EtreCheck report that would point a specific problem. I also can't think of an obvious solution to your problem. But you can try the following and maybe something will turn up.

- If you have any device connected to the MBP when booting, disconnect them and try booting. Also, if you boot without the power cable connected, try with external power.

- As I said earlier, it may be the HDD cable but your problem isn't typical of systems that have the HDD cable problem. If possible, you should try booting using the SSD from an external USB enclosure and see if that makes a difference.

- Try reseting the SMC. I don't think that's the issue but it's easy to try.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

- Try running the Apple Hardware Test. This is tricky because I'm seeing reports that this no longer works on systems with later OS's. On my 2012 Mac Mini which runs High Sierra, neither the local nor the Internet Apple Hardware Test works (at one point the local AHT worked, then stopped working but the Internet AHT worked but now that has stopped working as well). The Apple Hardware Test isn't that good at finding a lot of problems so it's not a big loss if it doesn't work for you.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

 

[NicolaNicolas]

Dumb question: did you try to install a second time from Recovery, without wiping the drive? Maybe something got messed up during the install, and an install on top of what is already there might shake things loose.

Thank you for the suggestion.

I have tried to install again from recovery, without formatting the drive. The install on top didn't shake things loose unfortunately

 

[NicolaNicolas]

I don't see anything in the latest EtreCheck report that would point a specific problem. I also can't think of an obvious solution to your problem. But you can try the following and maybe something will turn up.

- If you have any device connected to the MBP when booting, disconnect them and try booting. Also, if you boot without the power cable connected, try with external power.

- As I said earlier, it may be the HDD cable but your problem isn't typical of systems that have the HDD cable problem. If possible, you should try booting using the SSD from an external USB enclosure and see if that makes a difference.

- Try reseting the SMC. I don't think that's the issue but it's easy to try.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

- Try running the Apple Hardware Test. This is tricky because I'm seeing reports that this no longer works on systems with later OS's. On my 2012 Mac Mini which runs High Sierra, neither the local nor the Internet Apple Hardware Test works (at one point the local AHT worked, then stopped working but the Internet AHT worked but now that has stopped working as well). The Apple Hardware Test isn't that good at finding a lot of problems so it's not a big loss if it doesn't work for you.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

- I do not have any device connected.

- I have tried the SMC reset, but this didn't change the issue.

- When I try to run the Hardware Test, I cannot connect to the Wifi for some reason.

After trying this various suggestions:

- I have formated the disk again, and I have performed a clean install of El Capitan again (via USB key).

The Macbook is booting and working very well. So here are my 2 questions:

1 Is this a proof that the cable is not the issue?

2 What can I try to install Mojave?

Thank you!

 

[NicolaNicolas]

Another question:

As I replaced the Hard Drive with a SSD, can I still have an appointment with a Genius at the Apple Store?

Thank you

 

[chabig]

When in normal startup, the progress bar stops and the Macbook doesn't boot.

Just curious...how long are you waiting. It might take a while the first time, and boot progress bars are not reliable. I would suggest waiting at least several hours just to be sure.

 

[treekram]

I should suggested trying verbose mode earlier. If possible, try it and see what the last message(s) are before the stall.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201573

It would be unlikely that the HDD cable is the problem if you can run El Capitan. But it would still be helpful if you can try booting from the SSD in an external enclosure to see if it works there.

There is something in the EtreCheck report about the ScreenSaverEngine.app having generated diagnostic messages. Have you changed the background screens?

When you contact Apple to make an appointment for the Genius Bar, you can ask them if they'll help you with a Mojave installation problem on the mid-2012 MBP with a 3rd-party SSD. I wouldn't think that should be a problem but I don't know.

 

[NicolaNicolas]

I should suggested trying verbose mode earlier. If possible, try it and see what the last message(s) are before the stall.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201573

It would be unlikely that the HDD cable is the problem if you can run El Capitan. But it would still be helpful if you can try booting from the SSD in an external enclosure to see if it works there.

There is something in the EtreCheck report about the ScreenSaverEngine.app having generated diagnostic messages. Have you changed the background screens?

When you contact Apple to make an appointment for the Genius Bar, you can ask them if they'll help you with a Mojave installation problem on the mid-2012 MBP with a 3rd-party SSD. I wouldn't think that should be a problem but I don't know.

Thank you again for the suggestions.

I don't think I had changed the background screens, maybe only change the desktop background (?)

I will try to have an appointment at the Genius Bar and report here.

Thank you.