[Solved] GC-Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 Card

[bradleyandrew]

Hello,

I have a GA-Z170X-Gaming 5 Motherboard which is listed as compatible with the GC-Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 Add In Card which I picked up yesterday. I'm trying to get the card to work with the Motherboard and haven't had any luck.

The card is installed in PCIe Slot x4 as per the specification, the Thunderbolt Header Cable is all hooked up, though it's a very tight fit getting that card in the x4 Slot as well as plugging it in as their positions overlap slightly. Bad design!

Anyway, I put in a TB3 Drive and it will power from the both ports on the add in card but it won't actually read on the computer.

I have installed the Thunderbolt Software as soecced here:http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GC-ALPINE-RIDGE-rev-10#support-dl

In my Thunderbolt Software, it is displaying 'Unknown' for the 'Controller Driver Version' which to me says that the card isn't working or registering as existing on my system. Do I need to do a firmware update on the card?

I'm running BIOS F20, F21 just fixes some default CPU voltage issues and I found that it wrecks emulated nvram on Hackintosh so I reverted to F20. I have Thunderbolt enabled in BIOS with all settings set to spec with 'No Security', etc.

Has anyone else ran into problems with this card or could you suggest any troubleshooting steps?

I'm troubleshooting in Windows 10 64Bit at the moment, once TB is working then I'll work on making it work is macOS.

Thanks!

Kind Regards
Brad

 

[bradleyandrew]

Okay, so I have fixed the problem.

Turns out there is a setting in the BIOS under the subheader 'BIOS', towards the bottom of this menu there is an option called 'TBT USB3.1 Force Power' by default it is set to Enabled, I disabled it and everything worked. The Thunderbolt 3 Controller appears when booted into Windows 10 and drives will read.

One weird thing that is still happening though. I can use both ports on the TB3 Card under macOS, plug in two drives, one to each port, reboot as there is no hot swap and they will mount and I can use them no worries. But under Windows, only the top port will actually mount a drive, if I put it in the bottom port it shows up in my Thunderbolt Software Utility but Windows won't actually mount the partition, weird. I'm happy though as I'll only be using TB3 when under macOS and that works so sweet as!

 

[spyderfyre]

Okay, so I have fixed the problem.

Turns out there is a setting in the BIOS under the subheader 'BIOS', towards the bottom of this menu there is an option called 'TBT USB3.1 Force Power' by default it is set to Enabled, I disabled it and everything worked. The Thunderbolt 3 Controller appears when booted into Windows 10 and drives will read.

One weird thing that is still happening though. I can use both ports on the TB3 Card under macOS, plug in two drives, one to each port, reboot as there is no hot swap and they will mount and I can use them no worries. But under Windows, only the top port will actually mount a drive, if I put it in the bottom port it shows up in my Thunderbolt Software Utility but Windows won't actually mount the partition, weird. I'm happy though as I'll only be using TB3 when under macOS and that works so sweet as!

Question...
1. Does MacOS sleep and resume from sleep without problems with this card?
2. If so, does what you have connected to TB wake up without problems?
3. Were you able to test the speeds on it?
4. Have you seen anyone else online connect it successfully to other Z170 boards? If so, please share or point me to the instructions page.
Thank you

 

[marcuscwchan]

I am using a Z270 Gaming 5 and finally got Alpine Ridge to work in macOS when I changed "Other PCI devices" in BIOS (under the BIOS tab) back to "Legacy" instead "UEFI", but when I do that I encounter the problem of the display not waking up from sleep. Have you guys tried this? It looks like that means whenever I need to use a Thunderbolt drive (which is not often), I will just not let my computer to go to sleep (or do that and wake it up with a hard boot). It's a bit of a compromise but right now I don't think I have come up with an alternative. Hope this helps, and do share your experience if you have found a way to get around it!

UPDATE: actually I think the drive works no matter which setting ("UEFI" or "Legacy") I put in -- I was just rebooting too many times I got confused. I think previously the drive was a little wonky because it was a LACIE drive and apparently you need to format it using the utility that comes with it instead of using Disk Utility and even earlier I thought the drive wasn't picked up by macOS simply because I kept plugging it into the Thunderbolt 2 ports on the card, which is purely for connecting with the DisplayPort on the card (the Thunderbolt 2 ports actually says "DP in" on closer look). In no time does the drive appear on the desktop though like other hard drives do, and in "About My Mac" under the Thunderbolt section it still says "No drivers are loaded" but I guess I am happy as long as I can use the drive.

 

[mixedsoundZ]

I am using a Z270 Gaming 5 and finally got Alpine Ridge to work in macOS when I changed "Other PCI devices" in BIOS (under the BIOS tab) back to "Legacy" instead "UEFI", but when I do that I encounter the problem of the display not waking up from sleep. Have you guys tried this? It looks like that means whenever I need to use a Thunderbolt drive (which is not often), I will just not let my computer to go to sleep (or do that and wake it up with a hard boot). It's a bit of a compromise but right now I don't think I have come up with an alternative. Hope this helps, and do share your experience if you have found a way to get around it!

UPDATE: actually I think the drive works no matter which setting ("UEFI" or "Legacy") I put in -- I was just rebooting too many times I got confused. I think previously the drive was a little wonky because it was a LACIE drive and apparently you need to format it using the utility that comes with it instead of using Disk Utility and even earlier I thought the drive wasn't picked up by macOS simply because I kept plugging it into the Thunderbolt 2 ports on the card, which is purely for connecting with the DisplayPort on the card (the Thunderbolt 2 ports actually says "DP in" on closer look). In no time does the drive appear on the desktop though like other hard drives do, and in "About My Mac" under the Thunderbolt section it still says "No drivers are loaded" but I guess I am happy as long as I can use the drive.

Sorry but I have a hard time finding if those two DisplayPort 1.2 (DP1 & 2) connectors are capable of running Thunderbolt 2 device, because I want to plug a "UA Apollo Twin mkII" sound card. Or should I buy TH3 to TH2 adapter? Do you have anything on this?
Thanks

 

[itecaudio]

For anyone that has been struggling with this issue. I am using the Z270X-Ultra Gaming. It comes with an USB 3-C but in order to use Thunderbolt you must purchase the add on Card. I am using the GC-Alpine Ridge. Make sure to connect it to the 4th PCIE slot which in this board is the last one in the bottom. Also in the Bios Settings under Thunderbolt set your Security settings to none not User Authorization. I activated and update the firmware in windows first. I then fully shut down the computer, I am using the starTech TBT3TBTADAP Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter. Make sure all devices are on before rebooting into OS X. I can confirm it is working in 10.12.6 using an Apollo Twin Audio Interface. After doing this I deleted my windows hard drive because I will not be using windows in this computer all is working great.

 

[buyjoey]

Has anyone in here success that add-on Thunderbolt card with Coffeelake and the MB 300 series running HS?
I have the 8700K + GA-Z370 AORUS Gaming 5 btw, and confirmed its running on Win10 Pro, but a no-go on Mac side yet,

Hey,

I have 8700k and Gaming 7, but No luck at Windows...What about your bios setting for Thunderbolt? It shows me and the thunderbolt controller is start in the windows login. An I see daisy cain port 1, 2. But My monitor LG 5k is not tunred on. the other monitor Dp connected only work. And for MacOS, after booting start in clover, apple log became stop sign. it does not matter display connected or not, only when addon card disabled, it goes thru to login to MacOS.

My z170x Gaming7 had thunderbolt port for HD 530. it was working well,,,but this CPU and Board is trouble with UHD 630 as well. Please help me.

 

[buyjoey]

Can you upload your EFI Folder? I will look into it and see what I can do, thanks..

Now my UHD 630 is working well,

Thunderbolt is related to my EFI?

I will put my EFI w/o serial #

Thank you for your help!

 

[Nuts-N-Bolts]

Has there been any update on running the Alpine Ridge card in Z370 mobos? I'm trying to spec a Logic Pro/Pro Tools recording rig based off the Z370 AORUS Gaming 5, but I need Thunderbolt for my interface.

 

[BreBo]

@Nuts-N-Bolts, please update your profile (personal details) with your Motherboard or Make/Model, CPU and Graphics Card.

Profiles need to contain at least your primary system to assist others with helping you.