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

[CaseySJ]

NVM50? Interesting......would love to hear how it goes over time. I have a Titan Ridge, and was wondering if NVM50 would be of value over NVM33. Can I assume you're running NVM50 on a Titan Ridge?

Yes, running patched NVM50 on GC-Titan Ridge. So far, so good!

FYI, Gigabyte Z490 Vision D ships with Thunderbolt firmware 50. I'm not going to touch that thing for at least a few days.

However, neither BIOS F2 nor F3 has CFG-Lock. VarOffset for MSR 0xE2 on Vision D seems to be 0x3E, but default value is 0x0 (disabled). Correction: Default is enabled (i.e. MSR 0xE2 is locked). And the standard procedure using modified Grub shell does not work. Gigabyte appears to be using a newer UEFI format.

Currently installing Windows and Linux, then macOS (sometime tomorrow). Installing macOS last means that neither Windows nor Linux will tamper with the macOS EFI partition.

 

[Junologue]

Edit: I've replied to the wrong person! Doh! Sorry, @Junologue. Could you please create some pics that zoom into the three areas circled on the attached picture. I need to see if all components are intact.

Hi @jiffyslot.

I'm in the same boat. I 'killed' a GC-Titan Ridge a year or so ago when I was using the Z370 Gaming 7 motherboard, so I replaced it with a new one.

I discovered a couple of weeks ago why, like yours, the system is not seeing it. When I had it mounted in the very bottom slot of the Mobo, the fan on the Sapphire RX 580 above it (I had two of them installed) which is a very wide card (2.3 slots?), hit the components on the TB3 card and removed a surface mount resistor and a capacitor. I've checked and found okay both of the EEPROMs (green & blue) on my TB3 card, so it's most likely these components or I have 'zapped' one of the other support IC's.

I can most probably get mine going if I replace the resistor (3K Ohm) which is most likely being used as a pullup or pulldown, but the missing capacitor is so small I think I would have trouble replacing it. I believe this capacitor is just a decoupling capacitor and most probably I can get by without replacing it.

If you can shoot some high-resolution images of the back-side of the board, I can check to see if like me you are missing any, and if so, tell you what value(s) they are.

Thank you so much for taking your time! Here are attaches images, let me know if they work.

 

[joostiphone]

Hopefully you will not abandoning this oldies Z390 Project (sry this was a reply on your sick new z490 parts).

 

[jb007]

Thank you so much for taking your time! Here are attaches images, let me know if they work.

Everything seems intact and nothing missing (unlike mine).
I guess the next step is to see if the EEPROM's are readable and are correct.

I just noticed that it has a JTAG interface (unpopulated) on the component side. I have test hardware that can read/write and send commands via the JTAG all IC's connected via this interface. The JTAG interface could help me find my fault by interrogating the IC's. Hopefully, the JTAG functionality has not been locked out by Gigabyte.

 

[lth1301]

FYI, Gigabyte Z490 Vision D ships with Thunderbolt firmware 50. I'm not going to touch that thing for at least a few days.

@CaseySJ
By the way, which RAM are you using with your Z490 Vision-D?
I'm getting 10900k/Vision-D but haven't decided on RAM yet.

 

[Elias64Fr]

FYI, Gigabyte Z490 Vision D ships with Thunderbolt firmware 50. I'm not going to touch that thing for at least a few days.
View attachment 471808
However, neither BIOS F2 nor F3 has CFG-Lock. VarOffset for MSR 0xE2 on Vision D seems to be 0x3E, but default value is 0x0 (disabled).
View attachment 471809

Currently installing Windows and Linux, then macOS (sometime tomorrow). Installing macOS last means that neither Windows nor Linux will tamper with the macOS EFI partition.

Hello @CaseySJ,

Good news that Z490 Vision D include Titan ridge component with a new firmware version. Have you tried patching it with same methodology ?

On second time, we could try porting this 50 patched FW on Z390 Designare .

Could you post this .bin file ?

 

[CaseySJ]

Hello @CaseySJ,

Good news that Z490 Vision D include Titan ridge component with a new firmware version. Have you tried patching it with same methodology ?

On second time, we could try porting this 50 patched FW on Z390 Designare .

Could you post this .bin file ?

Bonjour @Elias64Fr,

I used Ubuntu 20.04 to read the Vision D Thunderbolt firmware. Attached is the first 512KB of the active partition.

Once all components arrived yesterday, I spent the afternoon assembling the PC and installing Windows and Linux. So have not patched the firmware, but this is certainly high on the list. Does the attached NVM 50 look similar or identical to the version you have (except for DROM of course)?

MacOS is almost fully installed now using a slightly modified version of OpenCore 0.5.8 EFI from the mini-guide. Vision D is remarkably similar to Z390 Designare in most respects. Will post more updates on macOS progress soon.

 

[CaseySJ]

@CaseySJ
By the way, which ram are you using with your Z490 Vision-D?
I'm getting 10900k/Vision-D but haven't decided on RAM yet.

I'm using two 16GB G.Skill TridentZ modules running at 3200 MHz. The new board has many extra headers, which actually seem liberating. There's even a 2-segment LED post code display. Will have more to say soon.

 

[CaseySJ]

Hopefully you will not abandoning this oldies Z390 Project (sry this was a reply on your sick new z490 parts).

No, the Z390 Designare will not be abandoned! Vision D is remarkably similar to Z390 Designare. Now that I have both, I can tell you with high degree of confidence: the two systems are virtually the same. There is just no need for Z390 Desiganare owners to even think about upgrading to Z490. If you do, the novelty will wear off after a day or two and you'll have buyer's remorse. We should save our money for Z590!

Z390 Designare and Coffee Lake are still state of the art on the Intel platform.

New owners, however, have no choice but to purchase Z490. The new build guide will be for them.

 

[Junologue]

Everything seems intact and nothing missing (unlike mine).
I guess the next step is to see if the EEPROM's are readable and are correct.

I just noticed that it has a JTAG interface (unpopulated) on the component side. I have test hardware that can read/write and send commands via the JTAG all IC's connected via this interface. The JTAG interface could help me find my fault by interrogating the IC's. Hopefully, the JTAG functionality has not been locked out by Gigabyte.

Thanks for your time. I'll check that on Friday or whenever it arrives =) I'll update you about the progress.

@CaseySJ I still need to have things powered on at boot, but i can live with that.
I am so glad that i daisy chain hotplug works for me, (I've heard that people don't usually get it working?)

I have a UAD Satellite that also chains a Focusrite Clarett,

Hackintosh > UAD Satellite > Clarett

And, as long as the UAD Satellite is powered on at bootup, I can then turn off everything in the chain, or just 1 of the units, and still everything loads up properly afterwards.

I don't really feel the need to flash it anymore, since it works so well now on original firmware. If anyone could come up with a very good reason to still do so, speak out. ;D

Thanks @CaseySJ @djlild7hina and @jb007 for your amazing help and valuable time. Couldn't be more grateful

/Juno