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

[S1lla]

new chip, new try... I used padding method to get the Firmware to the needed Size
Windows just bricked my Chip...



@CaseySJ : No, there are no guides out there but I am very familiar with such type of boards.
If you want I can write an guide here on tonymac for it, just need some time...
At the moment some other stuff is more important but I would do that as a thank you for all the work you guys did here for us.

Without any SSDT and AIC Connector bridged.



@CaseySJ Padded Firmware which was shown in the pictures attached.

 

[CaseySJ]

@loghound I was so excited to come across your post because I've been in the very same situation. I am on a Gigabyte Aorus Z390 Xtreme motherboard, using the Fenvi T919 card for WiFi + Bluetooth. WiFi works great, but the Bluetooth has come and gone and is generally unusable.
I restarted my Hackintosh and turned off WiFi to see if Bluetooth would work any better.. it did not. So I then turned off my Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000 router all together, just to see if WiFi might still be interfering with my Bluetooth.
Sadly, it also didn't seem to make any difference.
I was curious if you've continued to have reliable Bluetooth so long as you keep 2.4GHz off?
Or if you've found any other culprits for poor Bluetooth performance?

Have you tried connecting an outboard antenna to the Bluetooth port (see @trs96's post here). If I may borrow the screenshot from that post:



We can attach an outboard WiFi/BT antenna to the Bluetooth connector. We can use the antenna that comes in the Designare Z390 box, or something like this from Amazon.

 

[CaseySJ]

new chip, new try... I used padding method to get the Firmware to the needed Size
Windows just bricked my Chip...

View attachment 455923

Did you use a Thunderbolt Firmware Updater utility in Windows? If so, does the firmware file need to be of a certain size?

The screenshot shows two Receptacle 1s and two Receptacle 2s. This usually occurs when the Thunderbolt Bus ID is not the same between ThunderboltDROM (byte #2) and ThunderboltConfig (byte #1).

@CaseySJ : No, there are no guides out there but I am very familiar with such type of boards.
If you want I can write an guide here on tonymac for it, just need some time...
At the moment some other stuff is more important but I would do that as a thank you for all the work you guys did here for us.
...

This guide can be very helpful for those looking to build an equal-powered alternative to the new Mac Pro.

 

[S1lla]

@CaseySJ Under Windows I used the ch341A tool to flash the firmware as it was in the first try but that only bricked the chip and I couldn't resurrect it.
I soldered a new one and just padded the bin until it had the right size and flashed it afterwards in MacOS via Flashrom.
I don't think that it would work to flash it via the standard Windows tool since the file must be verified otherwise it won't work.

The screenshot was made without an SSDT in the EFI Folder and also without an AIC Cable connected,
will try to apply something asap and check how it works then.

If you want you can send me something testwise.

 

[johnny7874209]

It is OOB? Do you use any ssdt?

Hello @johnny7874209,

Have you tested the following:

• Thunderbolt device connection to Port 1?
• Thunderbolt device connection to Port 2?
• USB-C device connection to Port 1?
• USB-C device connection to Port 2?
• Hot plug capability on both Port 1 and Port 2?

Sorry, I have to make a correction. The original firmware from iMac19,1 should go with SSDT, and its situation is the same as NVM23.

My motherboard: H170m-D3H

• Thunderbolt device connection to Port 1: Good
• Thunderbolt device connection to Port 2: Good
• USB-C device connection to Port 1: boot with devices plugged
• USB-C device connection to Port 2: boot with devices plugged
• Hot plug capability on both Port 1 and Port 2:Good

Update:

I found a strange thing! If the card is flashed firmware from BlackmagicDesign eGPU, the USB-C hotplug works normally.

 

[Elias64Fr]

Hello!

I flashed original Thunderbolt 3 firmware from iMac 19.1 to my GC-TITAN RIDGE, and now it works perfectly!

Besides, I also tested BlackmagicDesign eGPU firmware on GC-TITAN RIDGE. It seems like a miracle that the card can be recognized by my MacBook Pro! Maybe DIY an eGPU is feasible.

View attachment 455903

Hi @johnny7874209

Could you send us your screenshot of thunderbolt system report with GC-Titan-ridge flashed with Apple firmware and related IOReg IOThunderboltPort1 screenshot ?

 

[bugsyraz]

Guys, I just want to know this clearly, as it doesn't come accross easily here. Do Z390 Designare owners need to hardware flash the Winbond chip in order to get TB3 working properly?
Is there a solution without hardware flashing it?

 

[S1lla]

@Elias64Fr

 

[johnny7874209]

Hi @johnny7874209

Could you send us your screenshot of thunderbolt system report with GC-Titan-ridge flashed with Apple firmware and related IOReg IOThunderboltPort1 screenshot ?

No problem. Here you are!

As you can see in the picture, the firmware version is "47.1". That is the latest Thunderbolt 3 firmware for iMac19,1.

 

[CaseySJ]

Guys, I just want to know this clearly, as it doesn't come accross easily here. Do Z390 Designare owners need to hardware flash the Winbond chip in order to get TB3 working properly?
Is there a solution without hardware flashing it?

At this time yes we need to use an external flasher. We're looking into the possibility of using Linux, but that may take a while.