tonymacx86's Skylake Thunderbolt 3 Test Build: GA-Z170X-UD5-TH - i5-6600K

SpaceGhost23 said:

I just got Thunderbolt to work on my build after all this time. The crazy thing is that I only changed one setting. In the BIOS, I moved the Thunderbolt I/O from zero to 8. The other settings are Unique ID, Ignore Thunderbolt Option ROM, and that's it.

I also booted into my Windows 10 drive and went into device management in order to go through the PCIE, USB, Thunderbolt etc. -right clicked and then updated as many parts that would run an update. I was surprised that everything from my the PCIE bridges to my ATI Radeon card actually had newer firmware.

When I booted back into El Capitan......My CalDigit Thunderbolt 2 dock was visible and the usb drive that was plugged into it was mounted and visible and I can even HOTSWAP!!!

There was only one issue. I attempted to daisy chain more Thunderbolt devices through the CalDigit dock and when you do that, it stops working.

GA-Z87x-UD7-th (rev. 2.0)
Intel Core i7 4771 LGA 1150
ATI Radeon HD
Other Hardware:
OWC 480 GB Mercury SSD [El Capitan osX]
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB
1 TB [internal for separate file storage]
1 TB [Windows]
2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Thunderbolt
32 Gb G.Skillz Sniper 2400 mhz ddr3

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SpaceGhost23 said:

Focus on the last line on the BIOS Screen, the Reserved I/O. I adjusted it from 0 to 8 and that caused the Thunderbolt to show up consistently. Last night, I increased it to 16 to test the allowance to daisy chain thunderbolt devices from one port, but it made no difference on that issue.

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lspci -nnvt

SpaceGhost23 said:

Focus on the last line on the BIOS Screen, the Reserved I/O. I adjusted it from 0 to 8 and that caused the Thunderbolt to show up consistently. Last night, I increased it to 16 to test the allowance to daisy chain thunderbolt devices from one port, but it made no difference on that issue.

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mljohn said:

I'm running F21 BIOS and the options are different. Bottom 2 lines are default.

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Rational said:

Wished I had found this thread earlier. I wanted to share my success today in getting my onboard Thunderbolt 3 working!!!

I have a Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 TH motherboard with an Intel i7 6700K, GTX 980 running 4K@60Hz with 32gb memory and a Focusrite Clarett 8pre over TB2 cable using the Apple TB3>TB2 adapter.

I think the key points were:
1. After running the Gigabyte thunderbolt firmware install utility (In Windows), you MUST go into the Program Files x86 folder > Gigabyte > TB Firmware folder and run the .exe file there to ACTUALLY update the firmware. Takes 2 min or so and counts up from 0% to 100%. Then be sure to shutdown, pull power for 30 seconds. I did a minute. Gigabyte didn't make this clear to me when I asked their support for help. They just sent me the download link and said to 'install it to update the firmware'.

Here's the link they sent me: http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Utility/mb_utility_thunderbolt-fw_z170x-ud5-th.zip

2. The bios settings are KEY! I figured these out on my own just before finding this thread sadly. But the last few posters already had it figured out it seems. I happened to already upgrade my bios to F22a thinking it might help. Not sure if its required or even helped, but my options were different than prior versions it seems.

Here are pics from my BIOS settings:

Code:

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/WmSSCFo6sZpN4GxNQQx5Njtd7i2wngJSC3aSOVj8Dgn

These are WORKING 100%! Been testing now for 3+ hours RELIABLY with reboots and it keeps the Focusrite as the chosen sound card after reboots. I'm also getting 1.5ms latency roundtrip!

I'm so stoked. Been wanting this to work now for months. Finally got it working today.

I also own a Universal Audio uaudio Apollo Twin Duo Thunderbolt gen1 and will test that next.

So please share this info with anyone who wants to know "How to get Thunderbolt 2 or 3 working with the Focusrite Clarett8pre".

In fact, I'm thinking of creating a specific thread on here for users trying to get their Focusrite Clarett 8pre and Apollo working. Should I? Might help others like me find the answers faster.

Tested with Cubase Pro 9.0.0 and 9.0.20 successfully. Smooth as butter.

Like I said, I'll share more once I test the Apollo.

Also, I installed MacOS Sierra 10.12.6 earlier today before beginning. Not sure if it has more in it that helped or not...

Summary of settings:
Gigabyte F22a bios:
Peripherals>Thunderbolt(TM) Support = Enabled
Thunderbolt Boot Support = Disabled
ThunderBolt Detachable Graphics Support = Disabled
Skip PCI OptionRom = Disabled
Security Level = No Security
Reserved Memory = 256
Reserved PMemory = 32

Then all the typical settings to get OSX to work:
FYI, I learned today that if XHCI Hand Off is DISABLED, that OSX WOULDN'T BOOT AT ALL today. Once enabled it booted. So after the bios upgrade make sure to put everything back to these specialized settings so that your MacOS Sierra will boot again.

Peripherals > XHCI Hand-off = Enabled
Chipset > VT-d = Disabled

Internal Graphics = Disabled (I'm using a GTX980. Read that shutting off the onboard Intel graphics helps the CPU run cooler as 1/2 the CPU die is graphics. Not sure if that's really true, but would love to confirm this if so. About it helping it run cooler I mean.

Chipset > IOAPIC 24-119 Entries - I have these off currently and it is working. Read that it may not matter after Sierra. Can anyone confirm?

BIOS > Windows 8/10 Features = Other OS

Peripherals > Trusted computing = Disabled (Not sure this matters? I have it disabled currently and it is working.)
Peripherals > Super IO Configuration = Disabled
Peripherals > Intel(R) Bios Guard Technology = Disabled (Not sure this matters? I have it disabled currently and it is working.)

Please let me know if the above could be enabled as they might be nice security features to have in place and active. If so I'll update my summary guide here.

Hope that helps!

Edit: I haven't tested it in Win 10 yet. I'll try that next and let you know as well.

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Rational said:

View attachment 273245

Yep. Well said SpaceGhost.

And guess what? The Apollo is working too!!! Muwahahahahahahaha. It's a good day.

Just some specifics. I downloaded the latest UAD drivers from uaudio.com . v930 for the Mac. Actually had them installed prior to all of my above post. But when I plugged in the Apollo and booted up it stated that it required a firmware update and asked to proceed. Just out of curiosity I tried playing some audio before applying the Apollo firmware update and it worked! Then applied the firmware and shut off the Apollo as instructed then turned it back on, but it wouldn't play audio until I rebooted the PC.

But it works now! Yeah baby. Even the input works as evidenced by the input level meter in settings. Didn't realize this had an onboard mic...

Anyway, couldn't wait to share the good news. I'll try booting into indows 10 next.

And notice I updated the first post with the version info on the firmware file Gigabyte sent me. Hope it helps.

Edit: And the exact drivers I used for the Focusrite Clarett are:
Mac: Focusrite Control 2.1.7
14/06/2017

Update: The Apollo worked immediately as soon as I booted into Win 10. It applied some auto update immediately to the software on its own but was working both before and after that. I'm downloading the v930 version for Win now as it still has the old drivers on my Win10 drive. But it's working no problem already.

I'll test the Focusrite next in Windows and let you know.

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