[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

[CueMaxX]

@CaseySJ , @NorthAmTransAm ,

thank you to both of you so much for sharing all of this knowledge and expertise on this forum! I was a quiet reader so far, but I slowly am getting confident with my experience regarding TB3.
I am trying to get Thunderbolt to work fully, meaning, that I specifically want ThunderboltIP to work, which, as far as I know, requires "No Drivers are loaded" to not be present.

I have been able to achieve that with my Gigabyte Titan Ridge 2.0 (CaseySJ's NVM50-Mod-Firmware and modified SSDT), but I have tried everything I could imagine to bring up my ASUS ThunderboltEX3 (Rev B I guess) so far.

I am using a test environment with OpenCore and Monterey with the SSDT-File available on HackinDROM (I think it's from CaseySJ, changed to my RootPort RP05) and so far I have been testing mainly different combinations between firmwares and TB_Header Options. My mainboard has a TB Header, I have already tried it that way, I have tried connecting Pins 1 and 3 and connecting nothing at all. Here you can see what works:

	Original firmware from Card	NATA's firmware (NVM18)
Hotplug	working	card disappears from IOREG when plugging in device
Device attached before boot	working	card does not show up in IOREG
Drivers loaded/ThunderboltIP	does not work	does not work

By the way, there is no difference between having the jumper connected vs having the header connected vs not having connected anything to the TB_Header at all as far as I remember.

Since NATA's firmware leads to the card being shown in IOREG only when no device is connected, I guess that my card does not want to start properly with that firmware. I diffed both firmwares in a hex editor and found like 9 differences (each difference had one to a few dozen bytes changed) and tried to find out which byte leads to my card not showing up at all when a device is connected.

It seems to be this only difference (original firmware is on the left side):

Meaning: As soon as 004081 contains a0, the card works, hotplug works, no matter whether the rest of the firmware is taken from NATA or from the original firmware. Drivers Loaded/ThunderboltIP does not work in both cases.

I will also attach an IOREG screenshot of the Gigabyte TR 2.0 (which works in every aspect) and two screenshots of the ASUS TBEX3 (one with a device attached, one without), which looks a lot different.

If you need anything else, just hit me up. It would be so cool and super nice if you have any suggestions what I could try to make it work.

Kind regards and best wishes
-cuemaxx

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi CaseySJ, I tried with that EFI and played around with changing necessary changes like AMD card, and Samsung NVME changes. But this is similar one I tried before and apart from that it's always restarted while opening. I opened verbose mode and took a picture of it but I am not sure why it is doing reboot and can't manage to proceed macos because of this, any idea?

This might be related to BIOS configuration. The EFI folder in this thread requires CFG-Lock to be disabled in Boot section of BIOS. Please try that and see if system boots up.

 

[CaseySJ]

@CueMaxX

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for the detailed post.

As you can see, Thunderbolt Bus is not getting activated on Asus EX-3. It is fully activated on GC-TR.

We always had a difficult time with the Asus EX-3. I even damaged mine after a botched firmware flashing attempt!

@NorthAmTransAm - do you have any recommendations for salvaging the Asus EX-3? I have always recommended GC-TR ever since damaging the Asus EX-3.

 

[jakobyen]

This might be related to BIOS configuration. The EFI folder in this thread requires CFG-Lock to be disabled in Boot section of BIOS. Please try that and see if system boots up.

Thanks CaseySJ, I will try this but it seems I don’t have that option on my BIOS version. I have BIOS version F8 . So it seems I need to update the BIOS, do you have any suggestion of version of BIOS?

 

[CaseySJ]

Thanks CaseySJ, I will try this but it seems I don’t have that option on my bios version. I have bios version F8 . So it seems I need to update the bios, do you have any suggestion of version of bios?

That is an old version so it's a good idea to try BIOS F9g from here:

[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

What is the model name/number of your LaCie Rugged? All LaCie Mobile drives are USB 3, but LaCie Rugged models come in several varieties. Does the LaCie Mobile mount... ...when connected via USB-C to USB-A cable? ...when connected via USB-C to USB-C cable to front panel USB-C port (if you have...

www.tonymacx86.com

In this version, CFG-Lock is already disabled by default. But please remember to configure the rest of BIOS parameters based on this:

• Press F2 to toggle to Advanced Mode.
• Press F7 to Load Optimized Defaults.

Now make the following settings:

• Tweaker
  • Advanced CPU Settings → VT-d → Enabled
  • Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.) → Profile 1
• Settings
  • Internal Graphics → Enabled
  • Above 4G Decoding → Enabled
  • Thunderbolt(TM) Configuration
    • Security Level → No Security
      This will trigger a 'Save & Exit' dialog so press ESC to close the dialog.
    • Discrete Thunderbolt(TM) Configuration
      • Thunderbolt USB Support → Enabled
      • GPIO3 Force Pwr → Enabled
  • USB Configuration
    • XHCI Handoff → Enabled
• Boot
  • Windows 8/10 Features → Other OS
  • CSM Support → Disabled

 

[macs4me]

The modified F9i from Page 1. That's interesting....

I am going to install that one shortly. Is it possible for you to share your EMI folder? I assume you are using OpenCore

 

[CaseySJ]

I am going to install that one shortly. Is it possible for you to share your EMI folder? I assume you are using OpenCore

It's already shared. Please see spoiler at the top of Post 1 labeled Quick Reference to Mini-Guides and Micro-Guides. In Section 1 of that you'll find a list of OpenCore releases.

 

[dreamwhite]

Hi there, I'm having issues with the TB3 bus activation. The mobo is a Z390 Designare with BIOS F9I. Is it reported to be working? Eventually what should I do? I flashed the TB3 card using the TBTFlash.exe tool with the NVM67-CASEYSJ.bin firmware

 

[jakobyen]

That is an old version so it's a good idea to try BIOS F9g from here:

[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

What is the model name/number of your LaCie Rugged? All LaCie Mobile drives are USB 3, but LaCie Rugged models come in several varieties. Does the LaCie Mobile mount... ...when connected via USB-C to USB-A cable? ...when connected via USB-C to USB-C cable to front panel USB-C port (if you have...

www.tonymacx86.com

In this version, CFG-Lock is already disabled by default. But please remember to configure the rest of BIOS parameters based on this:

• Press F2 to toggle to Advanced Mode.
• Press F7 to Load Optimized Defaults.

Now make the following settings:

• Tweaker
  • Advanced CPU Settings → VT-d → Enabled
  • Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.) → Profile 1
• Settings
  • Internal Graphics → Enabled
  • Above 4G Decoding → Enabled
  • Thunderbolt(TM) Configuration
    • Security Level → No Security
      This will trigger a 'Save & Exit' dialog so press ESC to close the dialog.
    • Discrete Thunderbolt(TM) Configuration
      • Thunderbolt USB Support → Enabled
      • GPIO3 Force Pwr → Enabled
  • USB Configuration
    • XHCI Handoff → Enabled
• Boot
  • Windows 8/10 Features → Other OS
  • CSM Support → Disabled

CaseySJ, you are the Master!

After upgrading the BIOS, as you said CFG-Lock is disabled with BIOS settings (except I couldn't do CSM Support → Disabled) and worked brilliantly. Now the Bluetooth automatically worked and related AirDrop, etc.

I tried a few times and I figured CSM Support - Disabled my system did not boot up, I tried 2 times and I had to do CMOS reset. So I leave it Enabled, I don't know what would affect leaving it enabled.

To keep track and let others know My CSM Support Enabled settings like this:

• LAN PXE Boot Option ROM - Enabled
• Storage Boot Option Control - UEFI
• Other PCI devices - UEFI

Thank you again and this thread is awesome.

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi there, I'm having issues with the TB3 bus activation. The mobo is a Z390 Designare with BIOS F9I. Is it reported to be working? Eventually what should I do? I flashed the TB3 card using the TBTFlash.exe tool with the NVM67-CASEYSJ.bin firmware

Hello, can you please describe how you flashed the Thunderbolt firmware? We need to use an external CH341a SPI flash ROM reader/writer. I believe TBTFlash.exe is a Windows application, but that app cannot flash a modified firmware.