iMac 19,1 with 9900K stuck at 5GHz, no power management possible

[jasperlevi]

I only noticed this recently. Maybe it's been going on for a long time, but my Hackintosh, with the following config, has the processor going full tilt at 5GHz. I have observed the CPU using several utilities, but it just isn't clocking down, even when idle.

Specs:

• Board - Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master
• CPU - Intel i9 9900K overclocked to 5GHz
• GPU - Sapphire AMD Radeon 5700 XT 8 GB
• RAM - 32GB Corsair Vengeance LPDDR 2400 MHz
• Samsung 970 EVO Pro x 1TB x2 NVME M.2 drives

I also have Manjaro Linux booting up on the same config, and that shows the processor going through all the different clock speeds, and idling nicely at 800 MHz when idle. I have also tried a MacPro 7,1 config from this (Olarila) website, but that also shows the processor pegged to the max all the time.

Please find my EFI folder attached here for investigation. I have removed some heavy files and folders from there so that I would be able to upload it within the limit of 5 MB. Any help is greatly appreciated. I'd like to continue using the iMac 19,1 SMBIOS, and not have to switch to MacPro 7,1 please.

Thanks! 

EFI-Olarila.zip

[MaLd0n]

https://olarila.com/topic/5676-hackintosh-efi-folder-with-clover-and-opencore/

[jasperlevi]

Hi @MaLd0n I have downloaded the EFI from the link you gave, and booted up from that as well. The same issue persists. The CPU stays pegged at the top frequency only.

Please help...

Edited January 21, 2025 by jasperlevi

[MaLd0n]

clear cmos and disable only CSM

[jasperlevi]

I did that, and still no joy. Is there something that could be selected in the OC plist that could cause the CPU to stay full-tilt? I am basically using your EFI, with the SMBIOS changed to iMac 19,1.

[jasperlevi]

I've tried everything. Also tried older EFI backups. Reset the BIOS and reinstalled the BIOS update. Nothing works.

@MaLd0n you're my only hope now...

[MaLd0n]

Use my efi folder with macpro7,1

don't change nothing and check if solve

[jasperlevi]

2 hours ago, MaLd0n said:

Use my efi folder with macpro7,1

don't change nothing and check if solve

I used it 'as-is' but there has been no change. I don't know what is messed up here. Biggest issue is that I have only recently noticed the CPU racing. I have no real idea when it started acting up like this.

[jasperlevi]

@MaLd0n I checked IORegistryExplorer and it's showing nothing under the CPU section. Pls see the screenshot. Does that give any indication of what might be wrong? I did a bit of googling about it, but couldn't really come up with anything helpful. Maybe it will make sense to you...

 

Screenshot 2025-01-23 at 11.01.53 PM.zip

[MaLd0n]

U need scroll ioreg for check

[jasperlevi]

40 minutes ago, MaLd0n said:

U need scroll ioreg for check

@MaLd0n Can you tell me what to check for? I have a 9900K, so I guess I am looking for PR00?

EDIT: Ok, I found it much lower down in the IOReg. There are 16 entries for PRxx, corresponding to the 16 threads.

So it seems I am back to Square One - that earlier I was thinking that maybe XCPM was not loading properly, but it looks like XCPM is loading just fine. So why is my processor always stuck to its top speed (whether I overclock it to 5 GHz, or I leave it at its default turbo values)?

Edited January 23, 2025 by jasperlevi

[MaLd0n]

bios in full default

[jasperlevi]

4 minutes ago, MaLd0n said:

bios in full default

@MaLd0n Already did that. No luck so far. I have also reinstalled the BIOS update file. Nothing.

[MaLd0n]

Mistery!

[jasperlevi]

Do I need CPUFriend or something?

[MaLd0n]

U can use but is not mandatory

[jasperlevi]

UPDATE: The whole thing was happening because of this app called MacDroid. MacDroid has a known bug (which they have cleverly not documented) that it hogs 1-2 CPU cores and runs fileproviderd which uses high cpu cycles. I determined this by exiting apps from my menu bar one by one, and then saw the cpu usage go down once I exited MacDroid. Some googling confirmed this to be an issue as well. So, sorry for all the unnecessary trouble with this post.

@MaLd0n I do have one more issue that has cropped up suddenly. I have the system booting up nice and smooth, but recently, there is a long gap after the apple logo (with the slider) and before the login screen comes up. It takes almost a full minute before the login screen comes up. The machine seems like it reads one of the external drives (I hear the hdd spinning and the heads clacking) before showing me the login screen. Can we do something to fix that?