<< Solved >> Big Sur USB 3.0 ports not working

[PrasadK]

Hardware: intel Sandylake i7 4Gz Quad core CPU, Intel HD Graphics 530, 32GB, Gigabyte GA-H170M-DS3H motherboard, ALC887, TL-WD4800 wifi card, Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 2TB M.2 NVMe

I installed Big Sur 11.6 few weeks back by following the OpenCore documentation and used latest OpenCore DEBUG version. Everything is mostly working as intended except for USB 3.0. One of the port is detected USB 3.0 devices and rest don't detect 3.0 but detect 2.0. I have done the USB mapping process. Even the one detaching the 3.0 doesn't detect 3.1 drive. I am 100% sure that at certain point the USB 3.0 was working properly but it stopped working suddenly. I don't remember making any changes that should have caused this but I might be wrong and perhaps ports were working before I did extensive tweaks to get graphics working - I can't backtrack those changes. I have attached config.plist and EFI folder structure. Any help provided will be great.

 

[Edhawk]

Sounds like your system is just activating the first 15 USB ports, 14 x USB2 and 1 x USB3.

That means your USBMap.kext is not being used. Even though it is shown in the EFI structure and has a corresponding entry in your config.plist.

You don't have the Kernel > Quirk > XhciPortLimit option enabled in your config. Could be your USBMap.kext is misconfigured. Post a copy of the kext so we can see which ports you are activating.

You have the AirportItlwm.kext in your setup, alongside the AirPortAtheros40.kext. Why? You said you were using the TL-WD4800 wifi card, it doesn't use the AirportItlwm.kext. Are you also using and enabling an Intel WiFI card?

I assume your User Profile system description is out of sync with your current system, as you don't have anything in your setup to disable the Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti GPU. This GPU is not supported beyond High Sierra as it requires the Nvidia Web Drivers.

 

[PrasadK]

@Edhawk
Thanks for the response.
I have tried the XhciPortLimit option enabled as well but results were same.
I didn't see USBMap in kextstat command.
I fixed my profile now to remove NVidia.
I will remove AirportItlwm.kext - it was a leftover.

 

[Edhawk]

This is what your USBMap.kext shows, when the USBMap/Contents/info.plist is viewed in ProperTree:

USBMap.kext/Contents/Info.plist - USB ports

1. The kext contains all the USB ports from your system, all 22 ports.
2. The two large red rectangles contain USB ports that have been disabled within the kext, these are denoted by the #port setting.
3. The port-count figure <0E000000> in the small red rectangle, tells us that the kext should be activating 14 ports.
4. The kext only activates these ports: HS01, HS02, HS03, HS04, HS05, HS06, HS13 and HS14. 8 of the possible 15 ports you could choose to activate. None of them are Physical USB3 ports.
5. Only HS13 & HS14 are not set with the USB3 connector type (3). These two ports are set as USB2 (0).
6. Your motherboard has the following USB ports:
   1. 8 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)
   2. 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (2 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)
7. So while the 2 ports on the back panel are possibly set correctly, the 4 ports from the Internal USB headers are not.

So you have the start of a USB configuration kext, but it is not setup correctly. I don't use the USBMap script so can't tell you how to fix this using that process.

I would therefore recommend you create a new USB configuration, by reading and following this guide by UtterDisbelief: - https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/the-new-beginners-guide-to-usb-port-configuration.286553/

 

[PrasadK]

@Edhawk,

Thank you for detailed note. Looks like I missed to insert the USB 3.0 device to all ports during the port mapping process. The instructions you gave worked for most part, however, I noticed that my USB keyboard/mouse wasn't working for some reason on most ports except 2 of them after USBInjectAll. It took a while to figure that out but after that it was easier. Thank you again.