GA-Z68XP-UD3 Boot Loop

[JimNasium]

Just finished a new build with a GA-Z68XP-UD3 and an i7 3770K, and I get to the point where I complete the install of Lion on my Drive (an Intel SSD). I used UniBeast to get Lion from the Mac USB drive onto my USB, used BridgeHelper 4.0.1 (5 didn't work for some reason), and get through the OS X Install process. I go to run MultiBeast and I'm pretty sure I'm installing the necessary things, but whenever I finish installing stuff from MultiBeast when I shut down, take out the UniBeast drive and re-boot I get an endless restart loop.

I've also tried applying BridgeHelper to my Lion drive after MultiBeast and had the same outcome.

Am I missing something in MultiBeast, or am I missing another step somewhere? My BIOS is set to AHCI and it all works great until I try to boot straight from the SSD in stead of through the USB to the Lion drive.

Here's a screenshot of the MultiBeast settings I've tried - sorry it's split in two shots, my screen isn't big enough to get it all in one.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Jim

 

[purplegreen41]

Hi, JimNasium,

Looking at your MultiBeast selections, you appear to have an incorrect driver for your on-board Ethernet. Your board should choose one of the two Realtek Ethernet options. I have no idea if that could cause your boot loop problem.

Were you able to get your system working? I'm about to try installing a 3700k processor in my GA-Z68XP-UD3.

Thanks!

 

[purplegreen41]

Hi, JimNasium,

Were you able to successfully run a mixed configuration of an Ivy Bridge processor on Z68XP motherboard? I'm about to try doing this because I need PCIe x2 support for a storage expansion card in my system, and I'm looking for tips from others who've tried.

Sandy Bridge processors can only negotiate PCIe x1 x4 x8 x16, but the PCIe SATA III expansion cards that I've found are almost all PCIe x2 (with the exception being http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempossdpro.html). Ivy Bridge, however, can also negotiate PCIe x2, which is all that's actually needed to get full SATA III speeds from two SSD.

Thanks!

 

[Going Bald]

Hi, JimNasium,

Were you able to successfully run a mixed configuration of an Ivy Bridge processor on Z68XP motherboard? I'm about to try doing this because I need PCIe x2 support for a storage expansion card in my system, and I'm looking for tips from others who've tried.

Sandy Bridge processors can only negotiate PCIe x1 x4 x8 x16, but the PCIe SATA III expansion cards that I've found are almost all PCIe x2 (with the exception being http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempossdpro.html). Ivy Bridge, however, can also negotiate PCIe x2, which is all that's actually needed to get full SATA III speeds from two SSD.

Thanks!

A PCIe x2 card in a PCIe x3 slot wil run at PCIe x2 speeds. The PCIe x3 slot is backwards compatible.

 

[purplegreen41]

Hi, Going Bald,

I think there may be some confusion about PCIe generation 2 and PCIe generation 3 vs. how many lanes of PCIe there are (e.g. x2 = 2 lanes). The number of lanes that can be negotiated depends on the processor.



For more information:
In the comments on this YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTT5tfylS3c

I found the following:
Did your z68 have a Sandy Bridge or an Ivy Bridge? A PCIe slot connected directly to the Sandy Bridge will not do x2. You have to look at a block diagram of your mother board to see how each slot is connected.

This is consistent with this datasheet from Intel which states that the 2nd Generation Intel Core processors do not support 2x PCIe.
— The port may negotiate down to narrower widths
— Support for x16/x8/x4/x1 widths for a single PCI Express mode
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/ww...eets/2nd-gen-core-desktop-vol-1-datasheet.pdf

Based on this other comment on the YouTube video:
If the card doesn't show up in About This Mac, then use Terminal.app:
ioreg -l -w0 > ioreg.txt
Look for the Accelsior card: "pci1b4b,9230".

I was able to use a Linux command line utility, lspci (lspci -vv), to find the PCIe link width for my Accelsior:
02:00.0 SATA controller: Unknown device 1b4b:9230 (rev 10) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 5GT/s, Width x2, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <512ns, L1 <64us
ClockPM- Suprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
LnkSta: Speed 5GT/s, Width x1, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-

My understanding is that "LnkCap" means link capabilities ("IOPCIExpressLinkCapabilities") and LnkSta means link status ("IOPCIExpressLinkStatus"). So, the Accelsior has the capability of operating at x2, but it's only being used by my system at x1. Because x1 has a max throughput of 500 MB/s, I'll never be able to get the maximum 820 MB/s speed from the Accelsior using my current system.



The datasheet for the 3rd Generation Intel Core Processors (Ivy Bridge) states that PCI Express (PCIe) x2 will be correctly negotiated:
— The port may negotiate down to narrower widths
— Support for x16/x8/x4/x2/x1 widths for a single PCI Express* mode
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/ww...eets/3rd-gen-core-desktop-vol-1-datasheet.pdf

Note also that many SATA3 (6G) PCIe cards are marketed as x4 but are actually x2.

 

[Going Bald]

Hi, Going Bald,

I think there may be some confusion about PCIe generation 2 and PCIe generation 3 vs. how many lanes of PCIe there are (e.g. x2 = 2 lanes). The number of lanes that can be negotiated depends on the processor.

You are probably right. PCIe2.0 vs PCIe3.0 is the 2nd generation vs 3rd generation and has nothing to do with the number of lanes available to the gfx slots.

Lanes available to each slot it totally dependent on the mainboard substrate to the CPU socket and what the CPU will handle. You have a finite set of total lanes. The more cards you install, the less lanes/card are available - simple math.
This is why an x16 (16 lanes) slot will only operate at x8 when a second gfx card is in the x8 slot.

Some high end and very expensive gaming boards actually have 4 slots rated x16/x8/x8/x8 (one of the Asus Maximus boards IIRC) for use with 4-way SLI gaming with 4 gfx cards installed. Beats other boards that would wind up with x4/x4/x4/x4 with 4 gfx cards installed.