[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

[CaseySJ]

Hey CaseySJ.

#1 – I’ve changed my SMBIOS lately from iMac 19,1 to test iMac Pro 1,1 and MacPro 7,1 and now back to iMacPro 1,1 and I’m now having a strange issue where my Messages won’t deliver and new ones don’t show up. Everything else iCloud related works fine. I’ve tried logging out and back into icloud but same thing. I’m using native NVRAM; maybe that’s got something to do with it. Any idea what might be causing the non deliveries and inability to get new text updates?

#2 – Also, earlier I thought I saw that you said there was something possibly wrong with the SSDT for AMD acceleration I sent you. What did see anything weird in it?

I looked at the SSDT again yesterday and it's perfectly OKAY.

EDIT: #1 – I figured it out. Would still like your thoughts on #2 though when you get a chance. I also am testing the Radeonboost.kext way for GPU injection and it seems to be a winner as well with no configuration needed in config.plist. Nice speed improvement.

For issue #1, was it due to missing en0 in System Information --> Ethernet?

 

[CaseySJ]

...
Now I remembered another question: Why is it that important to only flash the chip with the blue dot? Why not green? Why not both?
...

On GC-Titan Ridge, blue dot chip contains Thunderbolt firmware, but green dot chip contains Texas Instruments Power Delivery (PD) firmware. PD is necessary to manage and deliver power to connected devices (i.e. if you want to charge a laptop computer through Thunderbolt port).

 

[CaseySJ]

@faithie999 @Elias64Fr Firstly, thanks for putting together the custom firmware for the NUC8i3BEH. And major thanks for @CaseySJ too! Can one of you tell me where the ROM chip is on the NUC8i3BEH? I have the same model and I'm planning on flashing it with the custom firmware @CaseySJ has attached in post #16395. Attaching the mainboard images below. Help is appreciated! Thanks

View attachment 464547
View attachment 464549

First look for any chip with 8 pins (four on one side, four on the other). Then look closely at the label on the chip. Does it say:

• Winbond / W25Q80DV...
• MXIC / MX25L8006E...

The chip should be in close proximity to the Thunderbolt controller (Intel JHL 6xxx or 7xxx). It could even be behind the Thunderbolt chip (i.e. on the other side of the board).

 

[hamzab]

Every two years or so Intel releases a new CPU socket that prevents existing motherboards from using new CPUs. This is not entirely a bad thing because progress marches on and support for legacy parts cannot continue for long periods of time. Because Z390 boards will likely cease production in a couple of months, new users wishing to duplicate this build will probably look to the Z490 successor. So this build guide will adapt accordingly, but support for Z390 Designare will continue. So no worries there.

I'm not sure whether I'll personally upgrade to Z490 -- at this time the value proposition for me is just not there. Have you seen the suggested pricing on Z490? The Vision D might be US$393 versus US$269, which is a 46% increase in price. But most of all, the performance of my two Z390 systems is already more than I need.

Agreed, especially on the laptop side. I have not considered building a laptop Hackintosh simply because Apple has so many excellent choices at different price points. My 2012 MacBook Air is still going strong, but the new rumored 14" MacBook Pro is calling my name!

The 13" MacBook Air line is also quite good value for money now based on the specs you get! The 14" MBP is also calling my name, if it comes with a dGPU that'll basically seal the deal for me!

Anyhow, my wallet is just happy that you'll be continuing to support the Z390! For me too this is more power than I've had in a long time (compared to my previous specs), so I'm good for at least 3 years from now!

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi Casey,

So after trying out all the solutions that you listed with nothing working, I suspected that it might be hardware related. I went and change both the DP cables. I cycled them through all the ports at 1.1 and 1.2 DP again and somehow it worked with the new cables on 1.1 DP. I thought that only 1.2 DP allows for 4k 60hz but apparently 1.1 DP does work with my dual 4k at 60hz from system report section. Also netflix DRM started working too, without any shikigva boot args. Before this I was trying everything on 19,1 SMBIOS and nothing worked for safari netflix, all black screen with sounds. Hopefully this can be helpful to someone else.

Thank you so much for your help!

Good to know! Can you please clarify:

• After setting both monitors to DP 1.1 (via on-screen menu in the monitor) the dual-monitor system started to work again (even at 4K 60)?
• What is the make/model of the monitor(s)?

 

[CaseySJ]

Hi @CaseySJ ,

Regarding ** Micro-Guide: Unlocking MSR 0xE2 on Gigabyte Designare Z390 **,
I plan to try this guide but I wanted to ask first if I can use it on my motherboard which I flashed to the latest bios F10c.
Can I unlock my motherboard(z390 Aorus Elite) using the file you attached?

The micro-guide is specifically for Z390 Designare so please try the following general guide:

[SUCCESS] Gigabyte Designare Z390 (Thunderbolt 3) + i7-9700K + AMD RX 580

*** Mini Guide: Using UEFITool and ifrextract to View Firmware Settings *** Background: The term 'BIOS' is not the technically correct term for the firmware that runs on UEFI motherboards. The proper term is simply firmware. On most motherboards, pressing DEL key during startup will launch the...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[CaseySJ]

@iRamon,

Sorry to hear that. After Step 1 in which flashrom said "VERIFIED", the chip was correctly programmed. In Step 2, the missing SSP1 and SSP2 ports were probably due to Thunderbolt SSDT. It would have been best to stop and report the problem here because we would troubleshoot that by examining the system log as follows:

log show --last boot | grep ACPI

We would also have looked at the complete IOReg file to determine if flashing itself was okay.

Suggestions:

• Run IORegistryExplorer and capture a screenshot of RP05. I suspect there won't be much there, but let's have a look.
• In the worse case it is possible to desolder and replace the Thunderbolt chip. But we should ask an experienced technician to do this. A local PC repair shop might have everything on-hand, including replacement W25Q80DVIS chips and the ability to flash them. They will just need the Thunderbolt firmware you captured from the chip.
• Because you created 3 backup files of the firmware, please type the following in Terminal: strings Backup1.bin and post just the last 25 or so lines of the output.

P.S. That is probably the best example of problem-reporting I've seen so far. Exceptionally detailed and organized.

 

[SuDoDmz]

I'm not sure whether I'll personally upgrade to Z490 -- at this time the value proposition for me is just not there. Have you seen the suggested pricing on Z490? The Vision D might be US$393 versus US$269, which is a 46% increase in price. But most of all, the performance of my two Z390 systems is already more than I need.

I'm trying to resist, just reading the News, but I can so see myself goin' for it (PCIe 4.0, must have )

Btw; have you examined the mouse lag issue with OC? (I could swear I saw anpother user reporting mouse lags, these past few days)

 

[rj510]

@faithie999 @Elias64Fr Firstly, thanks for putting together the custom firmware for the NUC8i3BEH. And major thanks for @CaseySJ too! Can one of you tell me where the ROM chip is on the NUC8i3BEH? I have the same model and I'm planning on flashing it with the custom firmware @CaseySJ has attached in post #16395. Attaching the mainboard images below. Help is appreciated! Thanks

For the NUC8, instead of externally flashing the chip, you might be better off running "Thunderbolt Patcher" after installing MacOS using the guide at osy86/HaC-Mini. This GitHub repository has a complete installer as well as instructions how to get TB working using an app created by the developer. The basic instructions there (copied from 'Installation.md') are to:

1. Download the installer and run **HaCMini.pkg**
2. Run the installer to completion
3. If you've selected to install _Native Thunderbolt_ support, run **Thunderbolt Patcher** from Applications after rebooting and patch your Thunderbolt controller.

 

[faithie999]

@faithie999 @Elias64Fr Firstly, thanks for putting together the custom firmware for the NUC8i3BEH. And major thanks for @CaseySJ too! Can one of you tell me where the ROM chip is on the NUC8i3BEH? I have the same model and I'm planning on flashing it with the custom firmware @CaseySJ has attached in post #16395. Attaching the mainboard images below. Help is appreciated! Thanks

View attachment 464547
View attachment 464549

sorry for the delay in responding.
first--I deserve no credit for producing the firmware. that is all thanks to Elias/caseysj and a host of others.

it's been a couple of weeks, but IIRC it is the chip on the back side (fan side) at the very bottom of the your picture, right next to the metal housing that covers the back side of the SDcard slot. it doesn't say Winbond on it but it does have a model number--along the lines of 25Q80DV... the letter after V on the designer mobo is S but I think the one on the NUC is N.

I used the "low-priced" SOIC clip and it interfered with the SDcard metal housing. so I recruited one of my wife's nail files and sanded off the square edge of the clip where it interfered. there is quite a bit of plastic before you risk getting into the metal part of the contacts so don't fear, but remove just a bit then try it, then remove a bit more if necessary. you can tell visually when you've removed enough and the clip seats firmly on the chip's contacts.

in my experience I didn't need to use a resistor or capacitor to read the chip. I just connected the wires between my RPi2B and the clip and followed the rest of the guide.

good luck!