Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis problems

Hi,

I hope there are some smart people here who can try to figure out with me what is going wrong with my setup.

So I'm a professional Audio Mixing Engineer and I have a studio.
I'm using Avid Pro Tools Ultimate as my DAW along with an Avid HDX Card (DSP Based Audio PCIe 2.0 x4 card).

For a long time I used it direct in the system on a PCIe x8 slot, just working fine.
Earlier this year I found out it was possible to get Thunderbolt working on a MacPro with a Titan Ridge AIC.
So my older system that was an Z77X-UD5H system was the perfect system to try it out.

So after two days of try and error with the Titan Ridge Card and an 'Sonnet Echo III TB Expansion Chassis',
I figured out that when using an SSDT for HotPlug, the PCIe card [AVID HDX] was recognized in IORegistryExplorer, but the 'Client / Driver' won't connect.
When I disabled the SSDT for HotPlug, the 'Client / Driver' finds the card and connects it.
So for some reason with the SSDT the driver can't find the card, but if you look at the IOREG, the card has still the same DeviceID.

So, any smart people who can try to find a solution with me or get me in a direction I have to look.

I attached some screenshots from SSDT Injected, not injected and the TB Chassis connected to my MacBook Pro.

I switched over to an X299X system with onboard Thunderbolt and no flashed firmware, because I don't need it.
With SSDT injected, card not connecting, without SSDT, card connects

Some questions and clarifications:

• Avid HDX DSP card is plugged into a Sonnet Echo III Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis?
• The Sonnet Echo III is connected to your Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H with a flashed GC-Titan Ridge AIC?
• Without hot plug SSDT, the Avid HDX is fully operational?
• With hot plug SSDT, the Avid HDX is seen in IOReg, but driver is not fully loaded?
• Then you moved the Sonnet Echo III to the Gigabyte X299X Designare with un-flashed on-board Titan Ridge?
• Same issue is observed as on the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H with GC-Titan Ridge AIC?

Because the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H and X2992X Designare both have internal PCIe slots, does the Avid HDX work properly when connected directly into an available PCIe slot?

Thunderbolt expansion chassis tend to be finicky on Hackintosh.

OK:
- Yes, it's in the Chassis
- It's was on the z77x-ud5h system with modded Titan Ridge Card.
- Correct, without HP SSDT, the driver connects to the card
- Correct, you see the PCIe device but no driver connection
- Yes, I decided not to flash the firmware, because no need of the NODE or BUS
- Correct, same issue as with Titan Ridge Card

Yes, before I moved to Thunderbolt AIC for z77x-ud5h system it was in the system itself working perfectly.
Don't have a screenshot of that anymore.

Yeah, I understand they can be finicky, but strange it works without HP SSDT

CaseySJ said:

Some questions and clarifications:

• Avid HDX DSP card is plugged into a Sonnet Echo III Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis?
• The Sonnet Echo III is connected to your Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H with a flashed GC-Titan Ridge AIC?
• Without hot plug SSDT, the Avid HDX is fully operational?
• With hot plug SSDT, the Avid HDX is seen in IOReg, but driver is not fully loaded?
• Then you moved the Sonnet Echo III to the Gigabyte X299X Designare with un-flashed on-board Titan Ridge?
• Same issue is observed as on the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H with GC-Titan Ridge AIC?

Because the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H and X2992X Designare both have internal PCIe slots, does the Avid HDX work properly when connected directly into an available PCIe slot?

Thunderbolt expansion chassis tend to be finicky on Hackintosh.

Click to expand...

This is a known problem with Thunderbolt expansion chassis, but I am surprised it fails with a flashed controller card (with SSDT) as well. Do you have a Thunderbolt SSDT with correct DROM? Was it generated by HackinDROM?

Hi,
Yes, the Titan Ridge 2.0 on modded NVM50 had a SSDT by HackinDROM.
Maybe it was because of the old motherboard, it wouldn't work correctly.

So you're suggesting to do a flash on the chip for my X299X to test it out ?

BerndVP said:

Hi,
Yes, the Titan Ridge 2.0 on modded NVM50 had a SSDT by HackinDROM.
Maybe it was because of the old motherboard, it wouldn't work correctly.

So you're suggesting to do a flash on the chip for my X299X to test it out ?

Click to expand...

Flashing the firmware, particularly for an on-board controller, is risky. I would actually recommend the following:

• Install the AVID DSP directly into a PCIe slot or
• Disable the hot plug SSDT and power on the Sonnet Chassis before booting the system

I think you'll have the best reliability by installing it directly into an available PCIe slot on the motherboard.

I can tell you that the chassis powers on when I start the system and powers off when shutting down the system, without the SSDT.
It starts when it sees a TB connection.

I only hope that the CalDigit TS3 Pro works this way…

I know it's risky, but it's possible, do you think it will help further for debugging ?
If needed I can put an FireWire Card and an USB 3.0 Card in the Thunderbolt chassis to see if this visible with an SSDT injected ?

So a little update,
I received my CalDigit TS3 Pro yesterday.
Today had the time to finally plug it in the system.

The CalDigit is on the First Thunderbolt Port [attached picture, the left port]
The Sonnet Echo III at the second Thunderbolt Port [right port]

I re-injected the HP SSDT and now something new happens:
The CalDigit isn't connecting to the needed drivers,
but the Sonnet Echo III with Avid HDX Card is connected to the driver.

I attached some screenshots.

I swapped the ports around so TB1 is Sonnet, TB2 is CalDigit and did the same tests: