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It is really a pain in the neck to make work the 3.0 USB ports in a custom mac if you are a person who uses a PC as a tool and not as a life.
UPDATE September 2020: These instructions help you to get your USB 3.0 ports working, however, as many have mentioned, it could lead to an unstable performance of your Hack. In my case, I changed my PSU for a Corsair HX 850i and connected the corsair link to a USB port and my hack started waking up every minute if set it to sleep. So you can perform this instructions and later, read [B][U]UtterDisbelief[/U][/B]'s post to finish configuring your USB ports properly:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/the-new-beginners-guide-to-usb-port-configuration.286553/
After you finish using my steps you can skip to Step 2 in UtterDisbelif's thread to set your hack more properly or you can just start directly at his thread, the result should be the same.
Again, thanks UtterDisbelief for sharing those steps!
So, Conitinuing with my contribution:
Ive read countless threads and posts and asked moderators a lot of questions which they, by the way, answered partially. What a shame! And got some information to write this post.
For me, I use the computer as a tool, thus, I have plenty knowledge in many many things, but not in Computer Science, however, I consider myself as a very skilled computer user.
A little bit of explanation:
Why does 3.0 USB ports don't work? Well, the reason is pretty simple, however, not every thread explains it easily. Each USB 3.0 port actually is 2 ports in one: One 3.0 and one 2.0 IN THE SAME PORT! And they, all mighty gods of Apple, when writting OSX Software, have limited the port number to 15 (don't ask me why).
So, as the OSX boots, it will only "read" up to 15 ports, starting from the 2.0 USBs. It turns out, at least in my case, that there are more than 15 USB ports in my computer, and, guess what? the 3.0 ports (also called SS) are from 16 until 30 so the OS, does not care about them.
So, you need to tell the OS (using some patches when booting) That there are more ports after port number 15, so it can "read" them.
What I did.
After trying many threads (countless hours reading and trial and error). I got an Idea of how this works.
First I installed mojave (thanks Pastrychef) and after that, I updated it to 10.14.5. At this point many people complain that their USB 3.0 stopped working due to the update to 10.14.5. That was not my case because mine never did after installing mojave 10.14.4.
So, if you are as lost as I was, try doing this:
Step 1:
Download the "Hackintool" Utility. (there is not a very easy user's manual on this one).
Step 2:
Run The Hackintool and click on the "bootloader" tab. A list of patches will appear.
Step 3:
Look for these ones on the list:
USB Port limit patch #1/4 10.14.x modify by ...
USB Port limit patch #2/4 10.14.x modify by ...
USB Port limit patch #3/4 10.14.x modify by ...
USB Port limit patch #4/4 10.14.x modify by ...
Step 4:
Click on the checkbox at the left. (take a look at this image)
Step 5:
Cross your fingers and, from the icons at the center bottom of the screen, click on the "apply bootloader patches" one, the one on the right.
It will ask you where to save them, be sure to save the changes to your config.plist file in your EFI Unit (where you boot clover).
Step 6:
Reboot
Step 7:
Download the "IORegisty Explorer" tool
Step 8:
Run IORegistry Explorer
Step 9:
On the top right corner, at the search bar, type: USB (or HCI). The screen should change to something like in this image:
If you see a list with items starting with HS and SS followed by some numbers, CONGRATULATIONS my friend, you got it working.
WARNING.
I've read some posts that, after getting your USB 3.0 ports working by fixing this 15 port limit (kind of what we did), you should/must create your DSDT file (or whatever that is). Because there could be some issues with the memory. I don't know what that means actually and how could that affect your rig. If I ever get to know what that is and how to do it, I will update this thread. If you find it before me, I would appreciate it if you leave a comment below.
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2020 (part 1): Following the thread that I mentioned avobe will help you to create the needed kext to use only the ports that you need in your hack, leaving the rest unused by the kernel making your hack more stable.
I hope this saves you many "but-seated" hours.
Cheers!
UPDATE September 2020: These instructions help you to get your USB 3.0 ports working, however, as many have mentioned, it could lead to an unstable performance of your Hack. In my case, I changed my PSU for a Corsair HX 850i and connected the corsair link to a USB port and my hack started waking up every minute if set it to sleep. So you can perform this instructions and later, read [B][U]UtterDisbelief[/U][/B]'s post to finish configuring your USB ports properly:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/the-new-beginners-guide-to-usb-port-configuration.286553/
After you finish using my steps you can skip to Step 2 in UtterDisbelif's thread to set your hack more properly or you can just start directly at his thread, the result should be the same.
Again, thanks UtterDisbelief for sharing those steps!
So, Conitinuing with my contribution:
Ive read countless threads and posts and asked moderators a lot of questions which they, by the way, answered partially. What a shame! And got some information to write this post.
For me, I use the computer as a tool, thus, I have plenty knowledge in many many things, but not in Computer Science, however, I consider myself as a very skilled computer user.
A little bit of explanation:
Why does 3.0 USB ports don't work? Well, the reason is pretty simple, however, not every thread explains it easily. Each USB 3.0 port actually is 2 ports in one: One 3.0 and one 2.0 IN THE SAME PORT! And they, all mighty gods of Apple, when writting OSX Software, have limited the port number to 15 (don't ask me why).
So, as the OSX boots, it will only "read" up to 15 ports, starting from the 2.0 USBs. It turns out, at least in my case, that there are more than 15 USB ports in my computer, and, guess what? the 3.0 ports (also called SS) are from 16 until 30 so the OS, does not care about them.
So, you need to tell the OS (using some patches when booting) That there are more ports after port number 15, so it can "read" them.
What I did.
After trying many threads (countless hours reading and trial and error). I got an Idea of how this works.
First I installed mojave (thanks Pastrychef) and after that, I updated it to 10.14.5. At this point many people complain that their USB 3.0 stopped working due to the update to 10.14.5. That was not my case because mine never did after installing mojave 10.14.4.
So, if you are as lost as I was, try doing this:
Step 1:
Download the "Hackintool" Utility. (there is not a very easy user's manual on this one).
Step 2:
Run The Hackintool and click on the "bootloader" tab. A list of patches will appear.
Step 3:
Look for these ones on the list:
USB Port limit patch #1/4 10.14.x modify by ...
USB Port limit patch #2/4 10.14.x modify by ...
USB Port limit patch #3/4 10.14.x modify by ...
USB Port limit patch #4/4 10.14.x modify by ...
Step 4:
Click on the checkbox at the left. (take a look at this image)
Step 5:
Cross your fingers and, from the icons at the center bottom of the screen, click on the "apply bootloader patches" one, the one on the right.
It will ask you where to save them, be sure to save the changes to your config.plist file in your EFI Unit (where you boot clover).
Step 6:
Reboot
Step 7:
Download the "IORegisty Explorer" tool
Step 8:
Run IORegistry Explorer
Step 9:
On the top right corner, at the search bar, type: USB (or HCI). The screen should change to something like in this image:
If you see a list with items starting with HS and SS followed by some numbers, CONGRATULATIONS my friend, you got it working.
WARNING.
I've read some posts that, after getting your USB 3.0 ports working by fixing this 15 port limit (kind of what we did), you should/must create your DSDT file (or whatever that is). Because there could be some issues with the memory. I don't know what that means actually and how could that affect your rig. If I ever get to know what that is and how to do it, I will update this thread. If you find it before me, I would appreciate it if you leave a comment below.
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2020 (part 1): Following the thread that I mentioned avobe will help you to create the needed kext to use only the ports that you need in your hack, leaving the rest unused by the kernel making your hack more stable.
I hope this saves you many "but-seated" hours.
Cheers!
Last edited: