Using a Presonus Quantum Thunderbolt 2 Audio Interface...HELP

[luckyal]

I'm still not clear on the Step by Step way of proceeding, but I'll figure it out. Thank you so much both for your help! really appreciate it

Pop in the VRS-8 PCIe card into your Mac Pro. Reset NVRAM by holding CMD+OPT+P+R until you heard 3rd boot chime and you should be good. Some users have reported that you have to reboot a few times for the VRS8 to show up in the System Report.

 

[IOMstudio]

Thank You I'll try that first!!!

 

[IOMstudio]

Pop in the VRS-8 PCIe card into your Mac Pro. Reset NVRAM by holding CMD+OPT+P+R until you heard 3rd boot chime and you should be good. Some users have reported that you have to reboot a few times for the VRS8 to show up in the System Report.

Ok, I Reseted the NVRAM reinstalled the Driver and yes it Worked I opened Pro Tools and Reason and everything good I could se the VRS8 on System Preferences, System Report, and in Audio MIDI Setup, all good then I closed everything Shut Down the computer and turned off the VRS8 then turned it Back on and the Turned on the Computer and back to 0 again the VRS8 was gone again. Did I do something wrong? or is there anything else I should do?

 

[luckyal]

Ok, I Reseted the NVRAM reinstalled the Driver and yes it Worked I opened Pro Tools and Reason and everything good I could se the VRS8 on System Preferences, System Report, and in Audio MIDI Setup, all good then I closed everything Shut Down the computer and turned off the VRS8 then turned it Back on and the Turned on the Computer and back to 0 again the VRS8 was gone again. Did I do something wrong? or is there anything else I should do?

This is actually normal until Slate finds a way around requiring too much memory upfront. Your workaround, for now, has to be resetting NVRAM each time you decide to restart your computer. @joevt is a lot smarter than me and he may have other ideas, but this seems to be the source of problems with cards like VRS-8 and PreSonus quantum.

See more in this earlier post: memory allocation

 

[IOMstudio]

Thanks Man, Yeah I know Joevt Seems to like the Guru of this Things!!!!

 

[joevt]

The PCIe card worked ONLY after the issue with memory allocation was addressed. Basically I had to get thunderbolt to work in order to get the PCIe card to work. On a z390 Designaire, which has onboard Titan Ridge chipset and 2 thunderbolt ports, I had to scrap FakeSMC and replace with VirtualSMC. I'm not sure how the issue with VRAM is going to be addressed on a real Mac Pro without "hackintoshing" it as one would in order to implement Thunderbolt.

VRAM (actually DART/IOMMU) works on a real Mac Pro without hackintoshing it.

The single biggest reason that turns people away from running Thunderbolt on a real 2012 Mac Pro is that you have to wake up that same Thunderbolt driver in Windows using Bootcamp and then soft boot into macOS for it to function. The moment you disconnect your machine from power or do a regular shutdown, you have to boot into Windows and initialize the TH3 card again before soft booting into macOS again.

Takes a few minutes to boot Windows and warm boot to macOS. Or just never shutdown

This is actually normal until Slate finds a way around requiring too much memory upfront. Your workaround, for now, has to be resetting NVRAM each time you decide to restart your computer. @joevt is a lot smarter than me and he may have other ideas, but this seems to be the source of problems with cards like VRS-8 and PreSonus quantum.

I don't know why there would be a problem since DART/IOMMU works on the Mac Pro. Check the system logs for errors.

 

[IOMstudio]

Hi guys there is another problem, resetting the NVRAM seems to be working BUT!, it doesn't work just like that I have to disconnect all the cables from the VRS8 and the PCI, connect them again and then reset the NVRAM that's the only way its seems to be connecting. I can do that right now because I have my desk moved off the wall since I'm fixing other stuffs in the studio, but once its back in place I won't be able to do it that way. I've been reading this whole thread over and over again and the more I read the more I'm getting to understand more parts of it, I'm willing to do what ever it takes to get this interface working with my computer and I'll do it at my own risk, I just need some guidance. I already downloaded: Clover configurator, IOResgistryExplorer, MaciASL not sure if I need them but just in case, I notice that after page 8 on this thread you guys started figuring out the work around, there are som parts I understand some parts I still not, I'm trying to get a coder friend here Miami that can help me with it, thank you I don't wanna be a bother but I really need the help thanks.

 

[joevt]

Hi guys there is another problem, resetting the NVRAM seems to be working BUT!, it doesn't work just like that I have to disconnect all the cables from the VRS8 and the PCI, connect them again and then reset the NVRAM that's the only way its seems to be connecting. I can do that right now because I have my desk moved off the wall since I'm fixing other stuffs in the studio, but once its back in place I won't be able to do it that way. I've been reading this whole thread over and over again and the more I read the more I'm getting to understand more parts of it, I'm willing to do what ever it takes to get this interface working with my computer and I'll do it at my own risk, I just need some guidance. I already downloaded: Clover configurator, IOResgistryExplorer, MaciASL not sure if I need them but just in case, I notice that after page 8 on this thread you guys started figuring out the work around, there are som parts I understand some parts I still not, I'm trying to get a coder friend here Miami that can help me with it, thank you I don't wanna be a bother but I really need the help thanks.

If it's working, then I don't think there's anything else to do except figure out how to get it to work after a reboot (because you shouldn't have to reset NVRAM every time).

Turn the Mac off and the VRS8 off. Connect cables. Turn VRS8 on. Then turn Mac on. Does it work?

Restart (warm boot) Mac. Works? If not, try cold boot (turn off Mac, then turn on Mac).

Does the VRS8 appear in the PCIe list in System Information.app? When it works? When it doesn't work?

 

[IOMstudio]

If it's working, then I don't think there's anything else to do except figure out how to get it to work after a reboot (because you shouldn't have to reset NVRAM every time).

Turn the Mac off and the VRS8 off. Connect cables. Turn VRS8 on. Then turn Mac on. Does it work?

Restart (warm boot) Mac. Works? If not, try cold boot (turn off Mac, then turn on Mac).

Does the VRS8 appear in the PCIe list in System Information.app? When it works? When it doesn't work?

Well I actually I have been able to connect the interface three times only. Every time has been a different way If I try to replicate the exact same way to the prior time that I got the interface connected it doesn't work, so far I'm opting to just let the computer and the interface on the next time I get them to connect.

This picture is when the interface doesn't connect

This is when the interface gets connected

I forgot to take a picture of System information when it was connected


Maybe it has nothing to do with this problem but it called my attention the other day I saw a guy re activating Bootcamp on a not supported Mac he right clicked on the Bootcamp assistant app when to Show package content and then went to info.plist there was a black list of unsupported Macs he deleted the name of his Mac from the list then he was able to open Bootcamp assistant I'm wondering if the work around for this could be something like that

 

[joevt]

Well I actually I have been able to connect the interface three times only. Every time has been a different way If I try to replicate the exact same way to the prior time that I got the interface connected it doesn't work, so far I'm opting to just let the computer and the interface on the next time I get them to connect.

Is it failing because the driver isn't loading or because the PCIe device isn't detected? Run lspci from pciutils when it works and when it doesn't work.