GMYLE ExpressCard to USB 3.0 and OSX 10.11 El Captain

[Lensjocky]

I'm trying to get my GMYLE ExpressCard-USB 3.0 working with OSX 10.11 El Captain on a 2009 Macbook Pro. While on Yosemite 10.10, I was able to load a generic USB3 kext using Multibeast. After downloading Multibeast 8.0 I don't see any such option. Am I missing something? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Microang]

Having the same issue on my 2011 macbook pro. I'm using the GMYLE card which was working fine up to Yosemite but now doesn't work and being forced back to USB 2.0 is really annoying. Anyone know how to get it working again?

 

[MaxDralle]

Hi guys, i hope, you can help me.

BTW: Sorry for my english, i'm still learning. If you find a mistake, you can keep it for free.

I have a late 2008 Macbook Pro w/OSX 10.11.4. I really love it. Works good. But then i thought it would be a great idea to buy a Gmyle USB3 card. It wasn't. It kept me for hours and hours from doing the really important stuff. No chance to make it work, even with your wonderful walkthroughs. I see the icon in the upper right corner, the card is recognized by the system but it does not load a driver. And i didn't find a download link for the latest driver versions.

Could you please help me?

Thank you very much!

Update: I just had to disable SIP. It worked. Thanks a lot, RehabMan!

 

[r0tt3n]

Hi everyone, here's how I added usb 3.0 to my mid-2010 macbook pro running MacOS Sierra 10.12.1 (this is the only way to get usb 3.0 on older macbooks running El Capitan or Sierra to my knowledge):

1. Buy the $14 GMYLE expresscard (other cards may work, but I haven't tested them, and this one is perfectly flush with the macbook's body)
2. Download MultiBeast for your OS (v9 for Sierra in my case)
3. Follow these instructions for disabling SIP (System Integrity Protection - sadly this is required)
4. Run MultiBeast and go Quick Start Tab -> Legacy Boot Mode, then go Drivers Tab -> check USB 3.0, then Build Tab -> Click Install (note: without legacy boot mode, multibeast always failed to mount the EFI, but this worked).
5. Once you see install complete, reboot, and now one, if not both of your usb ports should be lit up for USB 3.0!

In my personal tests, a brand new 6TB hard drive could only read/write at 10MB/s before, and now can get 80MB/s, so, mission accomplished!

Hope that helps,

- r0tt3n

 

[LeifIsStrange]

Hi everyone, here's how I added usb 3.0 to my mid-2010 macbook pro running MacOS Sierra 10.12.1 (this is the only way to get usb 3.0 on older macbooks running El Capitan or Sierra to my knowledge):

1. Buy the $14 GMYLE expresscard (other cards may work, but I haven't tested them, and this one is perfectly flush with the macbook's body)
2. Download MultiBeast for your OS (v9 for Sierra in my case)
3. Follow these instructions for disabling SIP (System Integrity Protection - sadly this is required)
4. Run MultiBeast and go Quick Start Tab -> Legacy Boot Mode, then go Drivers Tab -> check USB 3.0, then Build Tab -> Click Install (note: without legacy boot mode, multibeast always failed to mount the EFI, but this worked).
5. Once you see install complete, reboot, and now one, if not both of your usb ports should be lit up for USB 3.0!

In my personal tests, a brand new 6TB hard drive could only read/write at 10MB/s before, and now can get 80MB/s, so, mission accomplished!

Hope that helps,

- r0tt3n

Hey r0tt3n,
Thanks, worked for my MacBook Pro Late 2008.
I just have one problem; whenever I Boot my machine, im stuck in the multibeast Boot menu, Where i everytime have to select "exit", since otherwise im getting kernel panic.

Is there a war to disable that entire menu, letting The Mac just normally load El capitan?

Thanks, LeifIsStrange

 

[r0tt3n]

Hey Leif - unfortunately for you, I'm not an expert, so not sure how much I can help. TBH, last nov. was the first time I'd even heard of MultiBeast, and I only did the absolute minimum to get it working, share what I did, and haven't touched it since.

So, with that in mind, here are my two suggestions:

1) Try re-doing the process I described. I have no idea, but I suspect you might have missed the step where you select Legacy Boot Mode (again, pure guess).
2) You might also consider posting in the MultiBeast forum area - I'm sure they'd know better than I: https://www.tonymacx86.com/categories/multibeast.84/

Good luck!

 

[LeifIsStrange]

Hey Leif - unfortunately for you, I'm not an expert, so not sure how much I can help. TBH, last nov. was the first time I'd even heard of MultiBeast, and I only did the absolute minimum to get it working, share what I did, and haven't touched it since.

So, with that in mind, here are my two suggestions:

1) Try re-doing the process I described. I have no idea, but I suspect you might have missed the step where you select Legacy Boot Mode (again, pure guess).
2) You might also consider posting in the MultiBeast forum area - I'm sure they'd know better than I: https://www.tonymacx86.com/categories/multibeast.84/

Good luck!

First of all: Thank you for the super fast answer.
I did think of ticking that creepy 'Legacy mode' in the first attempt, but anyway redid it as you recommended. Unfortunately there is no effect...

What i found out: the strange boot mask that is loaded when powering the machine on, seems to be Clover, not MultiBeast.
If anyone knows how to remove that and just natively boot back in OS X, id be glad to hear it.

 

[r0tt3n]

No worries - FWIW - while it is technically a separate entity, I'd be surprised if the MultiBeast team weren't really conversant in its operation. Might be worth a post into there and see what comes back. At the very least, they might be able to point you to the next step in the journey, and hey, you might get lucky with someone who's already solved that problem .

 

[old-ep45-DS3r]

Worked for me on my late 2008 MBP 15"
After installing, I rebooted with the card installed, and only the back USB was working.
I then ejected the USB, powered off the card and removed it. Reinserted card and then both USB ports were working.

Thanks to everyone for helping.

Edit: running 10.11.6

 

[downieabz]

Hi everyone, here's how I added usb 3.0 to my mid-2010 macbook pro running MacOS Sierra 10.12.1 (this is the only way to get usb 3.0 on older macbooks running El Capitan or Sierra to my knowledge)

Many thanks, r0tt3n. I've just successfully followed your instructions and can confirm that I now have two USB 3.0 ports on my 15 inch MacBook Pro Early 2008 running El Capitan 10.11.6.

xbench overall results are as follows:

• internal 1TB Seagate hybrid SSD/HD 99.64
• external SanDisk SSD Plus 240 GB via standard USB 2.0 port 54.85
• external SanDisk SSD Plus 240 GB via Gmyle Expresscard USB 3.0 port 173.45

The internal drive results are pulled down by extremely low random 4K block read and write speeds (0.60 and 4.83 MB/s respectively) - apparently this is what 2.5 inch laptop drives are like. The 256K block results are nearer those of the external drive using USB 3.

Some observations:

• I was a little worried about choosing the wrong USB driver in Multibeast as there are two and the top one says something about allowing third party drivers - that turned out to be the correct one
• you don't appear to be able to hot plug anything plugged in to the Gmyle card - I'm having to restart before the system recognises what's plugged in, and I'm not about to unplug the card itself while the MacBook Pro is powered up
• the above is probably because System Profile doesn't see the USB 3.0 bus under USB or the drive under SATA (but it does see the mounted drive under Storage)
• unless someone knows differently, it is not possible to start up from an external drive plugged into the USB 3.0 Expresscard - you can't have everything!
• when the external drive is not found at boot, a boot screen comes up, defaulting to starting from the internal drive (which you can't use because the trackpad doesn't respond and an external USB mouse doesn't work either)
• if the above happens, plug the external drive back into one of the standard USB 2.0 ports and restart (it will boot from the external drive), then change the startup disk back to the internal drive, unplugging the external drive when the system shuts down

I bought my Gmyle card second hand on Amazon (where it warned that it didn't work on Macs!) so you may have trouble buying a card. As r0tt3n says, other cards may work but they are dirt cheap so you're not taking much of a risk buying one.