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

[augustopaulo]

You've been waiting for full Thunderbolt support for a long time, so of course we'd love to get your feedback on the new firmware. Have you been able to extract and make a backup of the current firmware on your AORUS Xtreme? The modified firmware may or may not work, but because the AORUS Xtreme is fairly similar in layout to the Z390 Designare, it's worth a try.

Of course I will!

On my 1st attempt to read the TB3 chip from motherboard, I realised that I would have to remove the motherboard from backplate in order to gain access to the chip...

So, waited until further TB3 developments and since now my son and myself are now home in isolation for few weeks (maybe months) as prevention measure against the Covid-19 virus, I'll then have more time to read & write the new onboard TB3 & SSDT as soon as it comes out.

Fingers crossed & thanks again for the tremendous time & testing spent by you, @Elias64Fr & others!!

 

[CaseySJ]

Of course I will!

On my 1st attempt to read the TB3 chip from motherboard, I realised that I would have to remove the motherboard from backplate in order to gain access to the chip...

So, waited until further TB3 developments and since now my son and myself are now home in isolation for few weeks (maybe months) as prevention measure against the Covid-19 virus, I'll then have more time to read & write the new onboard TB3 & SSDT as soon as it comes out.

Fingers crossed & thanks again for the tremendous time & testing spent by you, @Elias64Fr & others!!

I assume you're in Italy so first of all we hope you're all coping as well as possible with the national lockdown. We're facing increasingly tighter restrictions in Silicon Valley. Apple has closed all of its stores around the world except for those in China.

Reading the on-board flash chip might be difficult. I've been trying this morning without success, but will check with Elias to see what I'm doing wrong. This is one of the main reasons I've not publicly released the modified Designare firmware -- because reading/writing to the Designare SPI Flash ROM chip is still proving difficult. So a little more effort is needed before I can create a reliable procedure/mini-guide.

 

[CaseySJ]

I receive today a my new board ! High Point Rocket Raid 3740A, I install 5 SSD Samsung Evo 860 2TB - Total 10 TB. This board is very simple install, and fantastic work Hackintosh. No need drivers etc, plug and play. This result:

Have you installed the 5 Samsung SSDs internally or externally? If external, which enclosure are you using?

 

[CaseySJ]

@augustopaulo, @rj510,

While we wait for the new firmware to be released, it would be very helpful if you can try to extract the firmware from your motherboard. No rush; whenever you can.

It doesn't have to be Designare Z390. Any motherboard with on-board Titan Ridge will suffice.

I would like to know:

• What device (CH341a, Raspberry Pi, Reveprog-IS) are you using?
• Did you have any luck reading the firmware?
  • Please try to read the firmware 3 to 5 times and compare their checksums using shasum filename.
• If you can, try disconnecting Pin 3, Pin 7, or both Pins 3 and 7 from the SPI ROM chip. Does it make a difference?

If you've already done this, please summarize your results/observations. Was it difficult? Was it repeatable? Did the checksums match every time? How difficult was it to position the SOIC8 clip? Did you have to many modifications to the clip? Etc.

 

[watora2019]

I just finish my SSDT-TBTonPCH just can use eGPU and Thunderbolt 3 dock by cold-plug before boot，and no TB device tree appear，Every thing work well without hotplug，Can you help me fix it？

 

[Rag]

Have you installed the 5 Samsung SSDs internally or externally? If external, which enclosure are you using?

Hello @CaseySJ internal... This 3740A support 16 HD. (This model 3742A, support 8 internal and 8 external)

 

[scottkendall]

Networking and target disk mode do not work. So what's different/improved from what we have now on our standard Z390's?

No, there is not, and, no, it does not work, yet. But the path to getting it working is Firmware & SSDT not just SSDT. Maybe @CaseySJ and crew will prove me wrong but it seems even they have determined that Firmware is the best route. So the improvement is a better path forward. In addition the current implementation of TB3 in IMC mode does not work for me, and when I could actually get hot plug I got broken sleep.

Improvement for me - is that cold/warm boot plug, Hotplug, EGPU/externalPCI device, and sleep. The networking shows up and even looks like it wants to connect so in time the fine people of this forum will get that working also.

 

[scottkendall]

No, just in TB network mode.

See below:
Left: Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme (win10 64bits - TB3) Right: MacBookPro retina 2015 (TB2)

Peer to Peer TB networking mode does not work for me! I am using an Alpine ridge AIC with Flashed Firmware and 2018 Mac mini. They do recognize they are connected to each other, the IO reg pops something up. But no connection between the two systems is established.

 

[dgsga]

@scottkendall I think all of our approaches are imperfect as it’s a work in progress. I have An ASRock motherboard with built in Alpine Ridge and have managed to get a full Thunderbolt tree with drivers loaded, TBT and USB-C Hotplug by using an SSDT with no firmware mod. It’s based mainly on the great work done by @Elias64Fr and @CaseySJ. I’m still not convinced it’s working properly, am waiting for the arrival of a thunderbolt cable so I can test using a tbt2 cable and an Apple tbt2 to tbt3 adapter to connect the hack to a real MacBook Pro. I can’t mod the firmware as the board has the crippled Alpine Ridge 6240 Low Power chip. I’ll post the SSDT if it doesn’t turn out to be a delusion...

 

[scottkendall]

@scottkendall I think all of our approaches are imperfect as it’s a work in progress. I have An ASRock motherboard with built in Alpine Ridge and have managed to get a full Thunderbolt tree with drivers loaded, TBT and USB-C Hotplug by using an SSDT with no firmware mod. It’s based mainly on the great work done by @Elias64Fr and @CaseySJ. I’m still not convinced it’s working properly, am waiting for the arrival of a thunderbolt cable so I can test using a tbt2 cable and an Apple tbt2 to tbt3 adapter to connect the hack to a real MacBook Pro. I’ll post the SSDT if it doesn’t turn out to be a delusion...

Thats great for you and anyone else that can get a limping TB to work with just an SSDT. For the rest of us there is firmware. And as Casey has noted that Firmware could be the path forward.

** Thunderbolt Bus/Local Node Interim Update **​

@Elias64Fr has modified the native Thunderbolt firmware on the Designare Z390 -- similar to the DSM2 modified firmware for GC-Titan Ridge! Most of the core functionality is operational, but some final issues remain with XHC (USB) controller.

Preface:

• Initially we wanted to avoid flashing/modifying the Designare Z390 Thunderbolt firmware because:
  • The MXIC Flash ROM chip was proving very difficult / impossible to read and write reliably.
  • The procedure is more invasive and risky than simply installing a SSDT.
• However, after many weeks of effort, it seems that modifying the firmware may be the best option for the near term.
• There is just not enough publicly available information about Titan Ridge control registers (at this time) to create a fully operational SSDT.
• @Elias64Fr found a reliable way to read and write to the Designare Z390 SPI Flash ROM.