[Solved] BCM943602CS - BT working, No WiFi

[StanStare]

I've fixed every problem on my hackintosh except for this. I actually need to post on a forum for help now!

I have a Clover El Capitan install with an Asus RoG Maximus Hero VI board (1150) and an i5 4670K CPU (shows as 800MHz but the benchmarks show otherwise). I have a GTX-770 card which is recognised OOB.

I have this setup as dual-boot with Windows 10 EFI under an iMac14.2 profile, iMessage and FaceTime working (before I even installed the combo card). I now have this BCM943602CS card installed which enables my BT magic mouse and Apple BT keyboard - but there's no WiFi at all. I use ethernet but I would have liked to try out handoff features.

I have tried two different PCIE slots, all of them are x1 speed anyway so what can the problem be? Do I need to do a reinstall of OSX or is that a bit drastic? I need to figure out if the Wifi is messed up pretty quick in case I need to return the card (I've almost had it for a week)!

I bought the card on Amazon described as "[New Version] ABWB 802.11AC WI-FI With Bluetooth 4.0 PCI-Express (PCI-E) BCM943602CS Combo Card For Hackintosh (MAC OS X) Airport Computers, Supports Hands-off".

Edit: I only load a few kexts, FakeSMC, AppleIntelE1000e and USBInjectAll are loaded by Clover and I have also installed Voodoo for audio (due to adding an SPDIF interface to the motherboard, nothing else worked for digital output).

 

[cnrd]

I've fixed every problem on my hackintosh except for this. I actually need to post on a forum for help now!

I have a Clover El Capitan install with an Asus RoG Maximus Hero VI board (1150) and an i5 4670K CPU (shows as 800MHz but the benchmarks show otherwise). I have a GTX-770 card which is recognised OOB.

I have this setup as dual-boot with Windows 10 EFI under an iMac14.2 profile, iMessage and FaceTime working (before I even installed the combo card). I now have this BCM943602CS card installed which enables my BT magic mouse and Apple BT keyboard - but there's no WiFi at all. I use ethernet but I would have liked to try out handoff features.

I have tried two different PCIE slots, all of them are x1 speed anyway so what can the problem be? Do I need to do a reinstall of OSX or is that a bit drastic? I need to figure out if the Wifi is messed up pretty quick in case I need to return the card (I've almost had it for a week)!

I bought the card on Amazon described as "[New Version] ABWB 802.11AC WI-FI With Bluetooth 4.0 PCI-Express (PCI-E) BCM943602CS Combo Card For Hackintosh (MAC OS X) Airport Computers, Supports Hands-off".

Edit: I only load a few kexts, FakeSMC, AppleIntelE1000e and USBInjectAll are loaded by Clover and I have also installed Voodoo for audio (due to adding an SPDIF interface to the motherboard, nothing else worked for digital output).

On my GA-Z170X-UD3 it would only work in either the top PCIE 1x slot (the one above the GPU (I assume that you have the GPU installed in the 16x slot) or in the bottom 4x slot. Our boards seems to have pretty much the same layout so try that or even try it in the second 16x slot (which will make the GPU run in 8x mode). Also check if it is detected in Windows (should show up in device manager even without drivers installed) and try reseating the card in the PCIE adapter.

 

[StanStare]

On my GA-Z170X-UD3 it would only work in either the top PCIE 1x slot (the one above the GPU (I assume that you have the GPU installed in the 16x slot) or in the bottom 4x slot. Our boards seems to have pretty much the same layout so try that or even try it in the second 16x slot (which will make the GPU run in 8x mode). Also check if it is detected in Windows (should show up in device manager even without drivers installed) and try reseating the card in the PCIE adapter.

Thanks for the reply. Only the Bluetooth showed up in device manager, no wifi at all.

I tried the top PCIE x1 port to begin with - indeed I do have my GTX770 in the x16 slot.

I suspect the card, so I will try and reseat it in the adapter when I finish work and I'll post back the result. I hope I don't have to send it back...

 

[StanStare]

Ok it is now working, when you mentioned the x4 slot I thought to myself that I'm pretty sure those PCIE slots are all x1.

I checked in the BIOS settings and found the PCIE_4_1 mode was set to x4, which also means it disables the other two slots. I switched this to X1 mode and it worked.

The Magic Mouse stutters horribly if wifi is switched on, but I use Ethernet so I switched it off. Even with wifi switched off handoff is now working perfectly with my iPhone 6S.

System Information never used to show the bluetooth connection as hand-off compliant, so I guess the bluetooth settings change once it's got some PCIE going on and wifi isn't really needed for handoff at all...

 

[cnrd]

Ok it is now working, when you mentioned the x4 slot I thought to myself that I'm pretty sure those PCIE slots are all x1.

I checked in the BIOS settings and found the PCIE_4_1 mode was set to x4, which also means it disables the other two slots. I switched this to X1 mode and it worked.

The Magic Mouse stutters horribly if wifi is switched on, but I use Ethernet so I switched it off. Even with wifi switched off handoff is now working perfectly with my iPhone 6S.

System Information never used to show the bluetooth connection as hand-off compliant, so I guess the bluetooth settings change once it's got some PCIE going on and wifi isn't really needed for handoff at all...

Great that you got it working!

I suspected that it had something to do the the PCIE lanes available. (I feel that Intel should somehow add some more lanes to the Prosumer (K and Z) series, as I'm beginning to feel kind of restricted with nvme drives and such...)

Not sure why the wifi is causing issues, could be something with interference, are you using 2.4GHz or 5GHz WiFi?
I've also heard something about the amount of power being delivered to those PCIE adapters being too low, that could also be the problem. (Not fixable without buying a new adapter).

 

[StanStare]

Great that you got it working!

I suspected that it had something to do the the PCIE lanes available. (I feel that Intel should somehow add some more lanes to the Prosumer (K and Z) series, as I'm beginning to feel kind of restricted with nvme drives and such...)

Not sure why the wifi is causing issues, could be something with interference, are you using 2.4GHz or 5GHz WiFi?
I've also heard something about the amount of power being delivered to those PCIE adapters being too low, that could also be the problem. (Not fixable without buying a new adapter).

I didn't connect the wifi to my router (I have an Ethernet cable anyway), just having it switched on makes the mouse stutter and freeze.

It doesn't need to be switched on for handoff, but the BT did need to be connected via PCIE before it would show that it is handoff capable though.

 

[StanStare]

I updated to MacOS Sierra, everything works except for handoff - I'm only using the FakeSMC kext. Again, BT is working only this time it actually shows that it's handoff capable in System Report - but it doesn't work. Any ideas?

 

[louden]

Just checking on this - I'm assuming you need a "Wireless WIFI Card to Desktop PC PCI-E Express Adapter Converter" to go along with the BCM943602CS chip, correct? Does that selection matter?

 

[StanStare]

That's correct. I purchased one on Amazon (description in my first post) that was a "combo card".

Which means someone had already paired it with an adapter - it's a little extra but I didn't want the hassle!

 

[MadMac1969]

Here's my experience: I tried each PCIe slot of my Asus Z97 WS motherboard (who has a PLX bridge for added lanes) And Wifi, Handoff and stuff are working ONLY if I place it in my second full 16x slot. I think this may be somehow solved with some BIOS settings... Any insight?