Samsung Nvme and super slow Boot on Monterey

[Buntschwalbe]

I have a configuration with OC and everything was working flawless until I've updated to Monterey Beta. The Beta runs quite well on my Machine, except booting time. It takes about 130 seconds from entering the password until I can see the apple desktop. I'm using a Samsung 970 evo m.2 Nvme (1tb), and the slow boot time seems to be linke to this ssd coupled with Monterey.
I'm wondering, if other use Nvme from Samsung and have encountered the same Problem! Please share your experiences.

 

[Paulo Freitas Valvator]

yes i have the same problem, i made a copy to an ssd and it's very fast.

 

[Nenad1976]

I have a configuration with OC and everything was working flawless until I've updated to Monterey Beta. The Beta runs quite well on my Machine, except booting time. It takes about 130 seconds from entering the password until I can see the apple desktop. I'm using a Samsung 970 evo m.2 Nvme (1tb), and the slow boot time seems to be linke to this ssd coupled with Monterey.
I'm wondering, if other use Nvme from Samsung and have encountered the same Problem! Please share your experiences.

I have the same problem. I updated my macbook pro 15 (mid 2015) with samsung evo 970 1 tb. It was working great with Big Sur and boot time was normal. After today update to Monterey boot time is 3 minutes. After boot it seems that everything is working fine. Does anyone knows how to solve this problem with slow boot time?

 

[netchov]

Same here: Macbook pro 2015 Mid 15" with Samsung NVMe 970 Pro. Once it loads everything runs fine but boy it takes about 2-3 min to load. Recorded the verbose login. Once it gets to my laptop over iCloud I will review and comment.

 

[Buntschwalbe]

Now People upgrade to Monterey and more people will have this Issue.
One thing that could be worth a try, is to format the disk to guid instead of apfs. I'm not sure if this is a workaround. And keep in mind, by formating your drive you'll delete everything. So better backup first.

 

[netchov]

I have 4 sections that take 30 sec.

- Port powering off 30 sec
- init_featuresflags 30 sec
- dirhelper 20 sec
- continue system boot 30 sec

Here is the video file:

 

[netchov]

Now People upgrade to Monterey and more people will have this Issue.
One thing that could be worth a try, is to format the disk to guid instead of apfs. I'm not sure if this is a workaround. And keep in mind, by formating your drive you'll delete everything. So better backup first.

GUID is used by AFPS. Those are 2 different things. GUID Partition Map and then you put APFS containers on it.

 

[Buntschwalbe]

GUID is used by AFPS. Those are 2 different things. GUID Partition Map and then you put APFS containers on it.

Right. I meant to formate in Hfs+ instead of APFS....

 

[netchov]

HFS+ is rubbish so I would not advise it. Plus I am not sure if the operating system will allow you to install on HFS+

 

[SuperFluffyBunny]

Getting 6-7 min boot times between apple logo and desktop on Monterey - was fast on Big sur. Any insight?
Opencore 0.7.4 + updated Kexts
8700k Coffee Lake
48GB RAM
Asus 370-E
Samsung 970 Evo 1TB
Asus 6800XT

 

[Buntschwalbe]

I assume it's a Problem with Samsung and TRIM, connected to MacOs Monterey. (See here)
No workaround at the Moment, except swapping the NvME to a SSD or a different NvMe from another Manufacturer (phison-controller).

 

[neuromask]

I have same problem with long boot time (about 1-2min) after update to Monterey. Big Sur it wasn't super fast, but was ok.
OC 0.7.4
Samsung 970 evo plus 1tb NVMe

After research: this is related to samsung ssd controller. Here is more info:

SSD hall of fame needs new entries · Issue #192 · dortania/bugtracker

Guide Anti-Hackintosh Buyers Guide (link) After our discovery of a severe bug in the TRIM implementation of practically all Samsung SSDs we spent time investigating which SSDs are affected by all k...

github.com

I ordered new NVMe SSD WD Black 1TB and will clone system there to see if it fix the problem.

 

[Buntschwalbe]

I ordered new NVMe SSD WD Black 1TB and will clone system there to see if it fix the problem.

Should definitely fix the issue.

 

[tianxia]

Have you tried to upgrade the hard drive firmware?

 

[Buntschwalbe]

Have you tried to upgrade the hard drive firmware?

Yes. Firmware was up to date.

 

[tianxia]

Yes. Firmware was up to date.

seems like the partition map or the file system was borked during Monterey upgrade from Big Sur. Even from the Monterey USB Installer I couldn’t erase the drive, I had to boot into windows and remove all partitions with diskpart. Then did a fresh install of Monterey and boot time is really short now.

Have you tried this method?

 

[tianxia]

seems like the partition map or the file system was borked during Monterey upgrade from Big Sur. Even from the Monterey USB Installer I couldn’t erase the drive, I had to boot into windows and remove all partitions with diskpart. Then did a fresh install of Monterey and boot time is really short now.

Have you tried this method?

This method works

 

[Nenad1976]

This method works

This method is for hakintosh or normal mac?

 

[tianxia]

This method is for hakintosh or normal mac?

for hackintosh. i guess it still works for normal mac.

ps. i erased the drive from the monterey usb installer

 

[Nenad1976]

for hackintosh. i guess it still works for normal mac.

ps. i erased the drive from the monterey usb installer

I fix it. Clean install was the fix. I erased subvolumes and drive from Monterey USB installer and now boot time is back to normal.

 

[niho]

I fix it. Clean install was the fix. I erased subvolumes and drive from Monterey USB installer and now boot time is back to normal.

I was havin slow boot times with Samsung ssd on Monterey. I also tried fresh installed. I thought it was fixed. But after I restored my user data from my backup, now the boot time is again 2 minutes. I've tried different brand ssd, boot is 30 seconds.

 

[Nenad1976]

I was havin slow boot times with Samsung ssd on Monterey. I also tried fresh installed. I thought it was fixed. But after I restored my user data from my backup, now the boot time is again 2 minutes. I've tried different brand ssd, boot is 30 seconds.

Have you earsed the drive and additional subvolumes before fresh install ( from usb installer)? From usb installer I have choosen clean install and later after installing os I have choosen migration from back -up.

 

[niho]

Yeah, completely erased and did a fresh install.

 

[chriz74]

Check that you don't have an SD card in the slot. Boot hangs trying to figure it out. I also noticed similar behavior with an USB HUB connected.

 

[sneeble]

There is a new version of the EVO 970 Plus Firmware available. The previous version was firmware version 2B2QEXM7, the new version is 4B2QEXM7. Unfortunately, I've been unable to confirm what the firmware does as Samsung does not provide release notes. However, when I tried to update the firmware, it reports that no compatible firmware was found.
I believe that might be because this version of the firmware is intended for the Elpis controller which is used in the 980 rather than the original Phoenix controller.

It is likely that this firmware will limit the write performance problems observed with the new Elpis, which drop drastically when the Intelligent TurboWrite cache is full. Samsung made this change of controller in the specifications of the SSD 970 EVO Plus to resolve production difficulties probably linked to the global pandemic.

It may also be simpler and more cost effective to produce only one controller for the 970 EVO Plus and 980 PRO instead of two.

The firmware for the remaining EVO 970 editions has not been updated yet.

So I guess we have to put up with the slow boot speeds and goodness knows what other general instability for a little while longer or do what others have done and changed NVME SSDs to another manufacturer.