Asus Z690 ProArt Creator WiFi (Thunderbolt 4) + i7-12700K + AMD RX 6800 XT

[Rag]

Hello @Rag,

Some questions:

• Is Ethernet cable connected to 10GbE Aquantia port all the time? This can cause repeated sleep/wake failures that will eventually cause system to crash
  • We should unplug Ethernet cable from 10GbE port before letting computer sleep
  • Hopefully we can find a solution, but until then we just have to tolerate this inconvenience
• I would not suspect thermal paste yet. Let's first see if disconnecting cable from Aquantia solves the problem

OK. thanks. @CaseySJ

I'm going to leave it off, just remove it, or do I need to change something in the EFI?

 

[CaseySJ]

OK. thanks. @CaseySJ

I'm going to leave it off, just remove it, or do I need to change something in the EFI?

We just need to disconnect Ethernet cable from 10GbE port. No change needed to EFI.

 

[f1zzas]

Hi, @CaseySJ, I were wondering what motherboard to choose. Currently in Germany I can get these motherboards for such prices:
Asus ROG Strix B660-I - 230€
Asus ROG Strix Z690-I - 360€
Mainly, I don't need Thunderbolt port, and I more prefer to save money on motherboard. The only thing keeping me to buy this Z690-I motherboard is that you already made pre-configured EFI files for this MB. So, is it hard to make identical config for B660-I motherboard?

Share your thoughts please, thank you!

 

[Anklebiter]

How important is XMP? Lack of support for 4 memory sticks has been the main reason I haven't jumped on the build bandwagon for this guy.

I disabled XMP so I could use four 32GB modules. I currently have them running at 3000Mhz, and could probably get higher with testing. Everything works as expected in MacOS and Windows.

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi, @CaseySJ, I were wondering what motherboard to choose. Currently in Germany I can get these motherboards for such prices:
Asus ROG Strix B660-I - 230€
Asus ROG Strix Z690-I - 360€
Mainly, I don't need thunderbolt port and I more prefer to save money on motherboard, but the only thing keeping me to buy this Z690-I motherboard is that you already made pre-configured EFI files for this MB. So, is it hard to make identical config for B660-I motherboard?

Share your thoughts please, thank you!

Hello @f1zzas

The Asus B660-I should be fine. We may need to adjust the USB port map if this board has a slightly different USB configuration than the Z690-I.

 

[Pin3ro]

Are Thunderbolt 2 devices compatible with that Thunderbolt 4? Because I got a LaCie ,and it didn't connect

 

[dehjomz]

I know Monterey is coming close to its end of life. However, Apple seems to have fixed the Bluetooth bug we've been observing on x86, where the BluetoothHD process would consume 100% CPU usage when the system is resumed from sleep. The latest 12.6.2 (21G317) seems to have resolved the problem.

I don't know about others, but I am remaining on Monterey for a few more months and will update to Ventura after 13.3 or so. Monterey was rough around the edges at the start, but has been refined like fine wine. I am testing Ventura on a separate APFS Volume, and it's not yet ready for prime time, in my opinion.

 

[Rag]

We just need to disconnect Ethernet cable from 10GbE port. No change needed to EFI.

@CaseySJ Thanks

Well, since Saturday, I haven't turned off the machine anymore and removed the 10GB network cable, until today it hasn't booted.

The machine hasn't been turned off for more than 50 hours... I'm going to keep it without turning it off or restarting for another 3 or 4 days... to see if it happens again.

I'm reporting it, because maybe other colleagues may have an unexpected restart problem and be the same problem.

 

[gandem]

@CaseySJ Thanks

Well, since Saturday, I haven't turned off the machine anymore and removed the 10GB network cable, until today it hasn't booted.

The machine hasn't been turned off for more than 50 hours... I'm going to keep it without turning it off or restarting for another 3 or 4 days... to see if it happens again.

I'm reporting it, because maybe other colleagues may have an unexpected restart problem and be the same problem.

Like @dehjomz I run Ventura on a separate drive for testing, but I typically wait to upgrade to a new OS after 2nd round of updates. Even then, it takes plugin developers a while before they officially bless their software, so I prefer to be on the cutting edge, not the bleeding edge.
I've really been pushing my system lately on MacOS 12.6.1, with no known issues or unexpected restarts. Only issue I've experienced is the sleep issue when using the 10GbE port. I don't use sleep often to allow for rendering in video and 3D apps, so not much of an issue for me. Plus, I have moved to the Intel port, and sleep seems to function fine.

EDIT to change OS reference to 12.6.1

 

[dehjomz]

Like @dehjomz I run Ventura on a separate drive for testing, but I typically wait to upgrade to a new OS after 2nd round of updates. Even then, it takes plugin developers a while before they officially bless their software, so I prefer to be on the cutting edge, not the bleeding edge.
I've really been pushing my system lately on MacOS 12.6.2, with no known issues or unexpected restarts. Only issue I've experienced is the sleep issue when using the 10GbE port. I don't use sleep often to allow for rendering in video and 3D apps, so not much of an issue for me. Plus, I have moved to the Intel port, and sleep seems to function fine.

My M1 Max came with Monterey 12.0.1, so I didn’t have any choice but to use it. The initial iterations were BAD if you used your Mac with a Thunderbolt dock. Sleep while connected to a TB4 dock would cause kernel panics Issues that I didn’t experience with Titan Ridge.

Also, early versions of Monterey had memory leak issues, and many times I’d check the Activity Monitor, and several GB of swap usage was in use, even though I have 32 GB RAM. Then I got the TS4, and that was nightmare at first - kernel panics when resuming from sleep, especially if the dock was connected to the computer when you restarted (say for an OS update or some other reason). But Apple resolved the issues on its end, and Caldigit with the help of Intel, issued a firmware update for the Goshen Ridge that resolved the issues. 12.5 was when Monterey was pretty good. And 12.6 is even better. Smooth as butter no issues, Macintosh up for 40 days no problems no kernel panics no memory leaks no swap usage. Like fine wine.

Regarding the ACQ113c Aquantia LAN port, it seems to have an issue with the s3 power management state. Perhaps there’s a BIOS setting or even macOS power management setting that can be adjusted. One thing I’ve noticed is that on Windows, when it goes to sleep, the Aquantia controllers are turned off with no activity on the link. But on macOS, when it goes to sleep, the Aquantia adapters enter a low-power state with the link remaining up and connected to the switch at 100 Mbps. Windows and macOS handle sleep differently as it pertains to the AQC107 and AQC113c. It could be that when macOS goes to sleep, the switching into the low power state triggers an instant wake.

On early Z690 BIOS's, I tried toggling various power management settings in the BIOS (e.g., L1 and L2 states etc). However, that effort was fruitless and some toggles resulted in the AQC113c becoming disabled during S3 sleep, necessitating a cold boot to bring it back to life. So I just left everything to default and haven’t tried any tweaks/toggles on the 2103 BIOS.

On an earlier BIOS I didn’t have any issues with sleep + a cable being connected to the AQC113C. But on BIOS 2103, I find that when I first reboot from windows into macOS, the first sleep cycle has an instant wake if a cable is connected to the AQC113c. But then the second and subsequent sleep cycles, it goes to sleep normally. Of course, others may have a different experience than me.