- Joined
- Jul 23, 2012
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- 22
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- HackPro
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- i7-2600K
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- Gigabyte GV-R6870C 1GB
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UPDATED - SUCCESS! Mountain Lion - USB 3.0 - Gigabyte UEFI Success!
I have been battling with USB 3.0 functionality on my Hack Pro since I installed Mountain Lion, and I think I have finally had some success. I want to try to detail each step of the way and what the outcomes were for them, so here goes.
1. After upgrading to UEFI (U1h) on my GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 1.3, I made sure that "xHCI Handoff" and "EHCI Handoff" were both enabled, and that both USB 3.0 headers were active.
2. Selected the NEC/Renasas kext from MultiBeast. Fixed Permissions, Rebuilt Cache. Reboot
3. Upon reboot, ports were recognized as "USB 3.0 Super-Speed Bus" in system profiler, but both of my USB 3.0 card readers (one realtek, and one kingston) would show up as connected with a max link speed of 480Mbps. Also, when a card was inserted, nothing would happen, nothing would mount.
4. I purchased a Syba 2-port USB 3.0 PCI-E x1 card - N82E16815124113 from NewEgg, which is based on the AsMedia 1042 controller. I installed the card and rebooted. Upon reboot, the only difference was that a third "USB 3.0 Super-Speed Bus" was added to my list in System Profiler.
5. I downloaded the CalDigit ML kext from CalDigit's support site and it didn't work either, after reboot, I KP'd.
6. Got my KP fixed by removing the CalDigit package, then I removed the PXHCD kext from /S/L/E, repaired, rebuilt, and rebooted. Upon reboot, none of my USB 3.0 ports were recognized.
7. Found a post on OSX86.net, which detailed the process and a zip file for getting the AsMedia 1042 working under ML, but stated that a DSDT patch was required. I don't have a DSDT, so I figured that I was boned. Since I was looking for a hail mary, I installed the kexts from that post using KextBeast and rebooted. KP!!, great...
8. Got back to functional, and found a piece of software at CalDigit's site called "CalDigit Uninstaller", so I DL'd and ran it. Turns out, there is a CalDigit kext included with ML, CalDigitHDPro.kext or something like that. The uninstaller removed that kext (I'm assuming, not totally sure the entire process that it runs.) and rebooted the machine. NO KP!
9. After reboot, I tried reinstalling the kexts from the OSX86.net post above. Ran KextBeast, rebooted.
10. Upon reboot, ALL of my USB 3.0 ports (including the on-board ones) show up in System Profiler as "CalDigit USB3.0 Super-Speed Bus", and just like when using the MultiBeast kext, both of my USB 3.0 card readers show up with a max link speed of 480Mbps. The HUGE difference this time is that when I insert a card into either the AsMedia ports or the on-board ports with either card reader, the card is instantly recognized and mounted!! Woo-Hoo!
11. The card readers are the only USB 3.0 devices that I have, so I don't have confirmation that another device will mount at 5Gbps or not. I am disappointed that the card readers link at 480Mbps, but this is the most progress I've made, and everything is working.
So... Really long story short, remove your PXHCD kext, repair/rebuild/reboot, Run the CalDigit Uninstaller, reboot, KextBeast the kexts from osx86.net, reboot, and you should have funtional USB 3.0 ports without the add-in card that I purchased.
I hope that someone who owns a USB 3.0 external HDD will follow this procedure and post successful results showing a 5Gbps link speed in System Profiler.
So here is the update. I got a USB3.0 SATA dock from NewEgg today. I plugged in a 500GB 7200 RPM Hitachi DeskStar SATA II HDD. I formatted the drive to one HFS+, GUID partition, then I ran BlackMagic disk speed test. When attached to the USB 2.0 ports, this was the result:
Then, I plugged the same drive into one of my "480Mbps" USB 3.0 ports, and this was the result:
72MB/s is waaay higher than the theoretical limit of USB 2.0 (@ 60MB/s), and is right in line with what I expect the write performance on rotational media to be.
To further prove that Mountain Lion is lying as far as the link speed is concerned, I plugged in an 8GB Kingston DataTraveler. It was also prepared with a single HFS+ GUID partition scheme. Plugged in to USB 2.0 port, here is the result:
OK, so this thing is slow as all hell, but when I plugged it in to USB 3.0 port:
still a significant improvement over the 2.0 port.
I will report further once I test with a SATA III SSD in the docking station, but for now, I am convinced that this is working as USB 3.0 should be!
I have been battling with USB 3.0 functionality on my Hack Pro since I installed Mountain Lion, and I think I have finally had some success. I want to try to detail each step of the way and what the outcomes were for them, so here goes.
1. After upgrading to UEFI (U1h) on my GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 1.3, I made sure that "xHCI Handoff" and "EHCI Handoff" were both enabled, and that both USB 3.0 headers were active.
2. Selected the NEC/Renasas kext from MultiBeast. Fixed Permissions, Rebuilt Cache. Reboot
3. Upon reboot, ports were recognized as "USB 3.0 Super-Speed Bus" in system profiler, but both of my USB 3.0 card readers (one realtek, and one kingston) would show up as connected with a max link speed of 480Mbps. Also, when a card was inserted, nothing would happen, nothing would mount.
4. I purchased a Syba 2-port USB 3.0 PCI-E x1 card - N82E16815124113 from NewEgg, which is based on the AsMedia 1042 controller. I installed the card and rebooted. Upon reboot, the only difference was that a third "USB 3.0 Super-Speed Bus" was added to my list in System Profiler.
5. I downloaded the CalDigit ML kext from CalDigit's support site and it didn't work either, after reboot, I KP'd.
6. Got my KP fixed by removing the CalDigit package, then I removed the PXHCD kext from /S/L/E, repaired, rebuilt, and rebooted. Upon reboot, none of my USB 3.0 ports were recognized.
7. Found a post on OSX86.net, which detailed the process and a zip file for getting the AsMedia 1042 working under ML, but stated that a DSDT patch was required. I don't have a DSDT, so I figured that I was boned. Since I was looking for a hail mary, I installed the kexts from that post using KextBeast and rebooted. KP!!, great...
8. Got back to functional, and found a piece of software at CalDigit's site called "CalDigit Uninstaller", so I DL'd and ran it. Turns out, there is a CalDigit kext included with ML, CalDigitHDPro.kext or something like that. The uninstaller removed that kext (I'm assuming, not totally sure the entire process that it runs.) and rebooted the machine. NO KP!
9. After reboot, I tried reinstalling the kexts from the OSX86.net post above. Ran KextBeast, rebooted.
10. Upon reboot, ALL of my USB 3.0 ports (including the on-board ones) show up in System Profiler as "CalDigit USB3.0 Super-Speed Bus", and just like when using the MultiBeast kext, both of my USB 3.0 card readers show up with a max link speed of 480Mbps. The HUGE difference this time is that when I insert a card into either the AsMedia ports or the on-board ports with either card reader, the card is instantly recognized and mounted!! Woo-Hoo!
11. The card readers are the only USB 3.0 devices that I have, so I don't have confirmation that another device will mount at 5Gbps or not. I am disappointed that the card readers link at 480Mbps, but this is the most progress I've made, and everything is working.
So... Really long story short, remove your PXHCD kext, repair/rebuild/reboot, Run the CalDigit Uninstaller, reboot, KextBeast the kexts from osx86.net, reboot, and you should have funtional USB 3.0 ports without the add-in card that I purchased.
I hope that someone who owns a USB 3.0 external HDD will follow this procedure and post successful results showing a 5Gbps link speed in System Profiler.
So here is the update. I got a USB3.0 SATA dock from NewEgg today. I plugged in a 500GB 7200 RPM Hitachi DeskStar SATA II HDD. I formatted the drive to one HFS+, GUID partition, then I ran BlackMagic disk speed test. When attached to the USB 2.0 ports, this was the result:
Then, I plugged the same drive into one of my "480Mbps" USB 3.0 ports, and this was the result:
72MB/s is waaay higher than the theoretical limit of USB 2.0 (@ 60MB/s), and is right in line with what I expect the write performance on rotational media to be.
To further prove that Mountain Lion is lying as far as the link speed is concerned, I plugged in an 8GB Kingston DataTraveler. It was also prepared with a single HFS+ GUID partition scheme. Plugged in to USB 2.0 port, here is the result:
OK, so this thing is slow as all hell, but when I plugged it in to USB 3.0 port:
still a significant improvement over the 2.0 port.
I will report further once I test with a SATA III SSD in the docking station, but for now, I am convinced that this is working as USB 3.0 should be!
