The New Beginner's Guide to USB Port Configuration

The four Renesas ports on the Z97X-UD5H are supported in macOS. They worked perfectly fine on my Z97X-UD5H board.

Post a copy of your USBPorts.kext so we can see what you are using/have configured for this system.

I have attached a copy of the USBPorts.kext I created for my Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H system. This was mounted in a Fractal Design R5 case, which incorporated the following case ports/devices.

• Pair of USB3 ports top front of case
• Pair of USB2 ports top front of case
• Akasa USB2 card reader, with single USB2 port case front

1. The case front USB3 ports were connected to the single USB3 header on the motherboard (HS01/HS02 & SS01/SS02).
2. The case front USB2 ports and the card reader were connected to an internal USB Port splitter, so a single USB2 header (HS07 & HS08) could serve both the ports and card reader device.
3. The other USB2 header served the Bluetooth module (HS12)

USB2 header splitter 1 to 4

Image of splitter used to quadruple the number of USB ports available from the single USB2 header.

This is how I configured the USB ports on the rear I/O plate for the Z97X-UD5H.
8 ports active

This is how I configured the USB header ports on the motherboard for the Z97X-UD5H.
7 ports active

The USBPorts-Z97X-UD5H.kext contains the settings for these 15 ports.

Hope this is helpful.

Edhawk,
On MSI I9 MB Ventura build I just revamped the Wifi Bluetooth card to a late 2017 Apple Imac card. Apple Broadcom BCM943602CDP – 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with Bluetooth 4.2.
I had my HS11 port blocked out so I redid my port kext and the card works and shows Bluetooth but nothing is discoverable. I this a problem with Ventura and is it fixable?
What does dicoverable Off mean? I realize you cannot connect a Iphone even as a test item.

The “Discoverable - Off” is a bug in Ventura. Mine says the same but Bluetooth devices connect just fine.

When connecting an iPhone or iPad I usually start by connecting it by USB wire. As the system needs to ‘Trust’ the connection between the two devices. Then the Bluetooth iPhone to Mac/Hack works.

Do you have any Bluetooth related kexts or patches enabled in your setup, from using a previous WiFi/BT card? If yes make sure to remove/disable them and see if that helps.

I am trying to Map my USB ports, but nothing changes in Hackintool 3.9.3 when I plug in a USB device. I have done the USBInjectAll.kext and a Port-Limit Removal Patch for Catalina.

- Antec twelve hundred v3 case with 3 front USB ports (2 are running off of a usb2 port on mobo, and 1 is running off a usb3 port)
- Rosewill card reader+usb in a USB 3 port on the mobo

Wired keyboard, wireless usb mouse plugged in to the front two USB2 ports

When I plug a thumb drive into any port, including ones on the back of the computer, it shows on my desktop, but nothing changes in hackintool. Thoughts?

Are you using SSDT-EHCx-Off.aml to switch your USB ports from the EHC1 and EHC2 controllers to the XHC controller?

If not, try adding the attached SSDT to your setup. I use this SSDT on all my Haswell Hacks fro this purpose.

You also then don't need the EHC1 to EH01 and EHC2 to EH02 rename patches, but going by the screenshot above you don't appear to be using them anyway.

This SSDT should be added to the /EFI/CLOVER/ACPI/patched folder, if you are using CLOVER.

It should be added to the /EFI/OC/ACPI folder and config.plist ACPI > Add section, if you are using OpenCore.

If the USB devices continue to appear on the Desktop and not show in Hackintool, then you probably need to use IORegistryExplorer to identify the ports being activated each time you insert a USB2 or USB3 pen drive. I would recommend using IOregistryExplorer v2.1 linked below.


You will then need to export a full USBPorts.kext, which will have to be manually edited to match the USB Ports you want to activate.

The Hackintool screenshot above is already shown you 3 x USB3 ports that you need to include - SS02, SS05 & SS06.

You can ignore the 2 x PR12 & 2 x PR01 entries as they will disappear when you use the SSDT attached below. Th ports associated with the PR01 entries should appear against an XHC port.

That didn't work and now I have a new problem, none of the USB ports, nor the ps2 port work. I'm staring at my login screen. How can I get rid of that SSDT-EHCx_OFF.aml? I tried connecting the drive to my real mac laptop and to a windows box, but it's not reading the drive. The mac laptop sees it in disk utility, but the finder doesn't see it.

<solved> I checked off the box in the clover boot screen. options-ACPI Patching-Tables Dropping-Drop SSDT-EHCx_OFF.aml , and it worked. But now how do I go about doing your suggestion before trying the IOregistryExplorer? Is their a certain reason the SSDT-EHCx_OFF.aml froze all my ports?

SSDT-EHCx_OFF.aml is tasked with disabling the EHC1 and EHC2 USB controllers, so all the USB ports are moved to the XHC controller. Nothing more and definitely wouldn't cause your USB ports to be frozen.

I assume if the connected USB devices were not connected to one of the first 15 ports, it could make it look like all the USB ports were frozen. When in fact it is just your setup has the devices using ports outside the first 15 limit.

As you have your Mouse and keyboard attached to the case front USB3 ports (SS05 & SS06), and your card reader attached to SS02, these devices wouldn't be active. As they are not within the first 15 ports. HS01 - HS14 inclusive & SS01 would be the active ports, when no other instruction (configuration) is present.

The first 15 ports (14x USB2 and 1 x USB3) will always be active in macOS by default.

Connecting your Keyboard and Mouse to the top two USB2 ports (Black tang) on the Rear I/O plate would be the best option in your case, when using the SSDT. That way they would be within the first 15 port limit.

FYI. Mapping/configuring your USB ports is much easier in macOS Catalina where the XhciPortLimit Quirk works.

I am using catalina to try this, I wasn't able to get Big Sur to work, I still have the prohibitory symbol. I tried again and tested every port, none work when the SSDT-EHCx_OFF.aml is being used.

If you are using Clover boot loader don’t forget to add the USB Port Limit patches for Catalina to your config.plist and USBInjectAll.kext to your /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other folder.

I would also recommend you use version Clover_r5119 or r5120 as those two releases don’t require any OpenCore entries.