Renesas USB 3.0 PCIe Card Detected by Catalina But Working Very Slowly

[Gutz_Otoole]

I found this device on Newegg.

What prompted me to buy it was a customer comment. He said the card worked well in his old Mac Pro running El Capitan. At only 15.99 USD it seemed too good a deal to pass up.

I installed the card and ran the USB 3.0 NEC installer created by chris1111, available on Github here: https://github.com/chris1111/USB-3.0-NEC

Unfortunately, it doesn't work on my hack running 10.15.7 though it's frustratingly close to working:

As one can see the OS sees the device on the PCI bus and it correctly IDs the SanDisk thumb drive I used to test it under Windows 10 (which runs the card correctly with no read/write or power issues).

According to the documentation, the chipset is Renesas uPD720201.

 

[beelzebozo]

You can try installing this kext:

https://github.com/chris1111/USB-3.0-NEC

 

[Gutz_Otoole]

beelzebozo, I have already installed the kext created by chris1111 as I noted in my opening comment in this thread.

This is a good opportunity to add more information. Evidently, I didn't give the Renesas card a chance. When I first tried to read a thumb drive I saw no indication that it was mounted and useable. However, yesterday I discovered that if a storage device is left connected for at least eight minutes its icon will appear on the desktop. Clicking on the icon requires about two more minutes for files to appear in a Finder window. Launching Preview to read a file displayed in that Finder window takes a further five minutes. Closing the file takes another five minutes. Shutting down the computer with a device attached to the Renesas USB 3.0 bus takes three to five minutes.

In summary, the PCIe USB 3.0 card works but very, very, very slowly. Perhaps someone can suggest a fix?

 

[beelzebozo]

beelzebozo, I have already installed the kext created by chris1111 as I noted in my opening comment in this thread.

This is a good opportunity to add more information. Evidently, I didn't give the Renesas card a chance. When I first tried to read a thumb drive I saw no indication that it was mounted and useable. However, yesterday I discovered that if a storage device is left connected for at least eight minutes its icon will appear on the desktop. Clicking on the icon requires about two more minutes for files to appear in a Finder window. Launching Preview to read a file displayed in that Finder window takes a further five minutes. Closing the file takes another five minutes. Shutting down the computer with a device attached to the Renesas USB 3.0 bus takes three to five minutes.

In summary, the PCIe USB 3.0 card works but very, very, very slowly. Perhaps someone can suggest a fix?

Did you setup a USB port limit? Maybe it will help.

 

[Gutz_Otoole]

I have not set up a USB port limit. However, I will look into that and report back.

 

[Gutz_Otoole]

I tried the USB Port Limit patches by PMHeart. Now Catalina won't boot. I see the Apple logo and no progress bar. Fortunately, I saved the unpatched config.plist.

 

[Gutz_Otoole]

I'm back. I was able to use a Windows app called Explorer ++ to access the EFI on my Catalina boot drive and restore my config.plist to its state before applying the USB Port Limit patches. There were three patches available and I applied all three, which was evidently a mistake.

Some guidance would be appreciated.

 

[P1LGRIM]

The USB constraints only apply to those ports with Intel controllers.
It is unlikely that port limit patches will have any effect on your add-in card.

 

[Feartech]

I'm back. I was able to use a Windows app called Explorer ++ to access the EFI on my Catalina boot drive and restore my config.plist to its state before applying the USB Port Limit patches. There were three patches available and I applied all three, which was evidently a mistake.

Some guidance would be appreciated.

The New Beginner's Guide to USB Port Configuration

Important Update: June 2023 From Big Sur 11.3 on the built-in OpenCore XhciPortLimit quirk no-longer worked as described. This became a known "bug", though in reality it was Apple changing their internal code, making a simple "peek and poke" to keep it operating, a difficult task. However, with...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[Gutz_Otoole]

The USB constraints only apply to those ports with Intel controllers.
It is unlikely that port limit patches will have any effect on your add-in card.

Any thoughts on why the Renesas card is running so slowly? According to the chris1111 github page, the USB 3.0 NEC.pkg should work under Catalina.