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

[Itshuta]

Some more questions about the rear green audio jack...

• Are you connecting a headphone?
• If so, is the jack fully inserted?
• Does the same headphone work on the front?
• Is the volume of the rear jack turned up?
• Are there any other applications running that might be locking up the rear audio jack?
  • For example, Audirvana Origin locks up the sound output device that user selects within the app

• Are you connecting a headphone? Yes
• If so, is the jack fully inserted? Yes
• Does the same headphone work on the front? Yes
• Is the volume of the rear jack turned up? Yes
• Are there any other applications running that might be locking up the rear audio jack? Nope. I use Soudsource and loopback but I have turned them off while investigating.

 

[CaseySJ]

• Are you connecting a headphone? Yes
• If so, is the jack fully inserted? Yes
• Does the same headphone work on the front? Yes
• Is the volume of the rear jack turned up? Yes
• Are there any other applications running that might be locking up the rear audio jack? Nope. I use Soudsource and loopback but I have turned them off while investigating.

We can also try Layout ID 16.

If you have Windows or Linux installed, it would be good to check if the rear audio jack works there.

 

[CaseySJ]

@CaseySJ​

On installing Sonoma I installed kext to use Intel wi-fi as instructed and it worked. In the last two days wi-fi cannot be enabled. I re-downloaded and re-installed the kext and checked the config.plist settings. Re-booted and still no wi-fi. I am using ethernet connection but this is irritating.
Don't know what happened.

I experienced exactly the same thing on my Z390 Designare. Unfortunately I have still not found a solution. I may try replacing the CNVi module with a newer Intel WiFi 6 module (AX100 or newer).

WiFi 6E AX210 NGW WiFi Card​

Would this one work?
If so out of the box?

UPDATE:
The standard Intel WiFi/BT module on my Z390 Designare is working properly again! So what changed?

• I installed the latest AirportItlwm build from October 2023
• I'm also running Sonoma 14.3 (release)

 

[etorix]

If you have Windows or Linux installed, it would be good to check if the rear audio jack works there.

If you do not have Linux installed, a LiveUSB is enough to check whether the hardware is working as intended.

 

[Itshuta]

We can also try Layout ID 16.

If you have Windows or Linux installed, it would be good to check if the rear audio jack works there.

Well Layout ID 16 is working but the rear green audio Jack is using headphones as the output now.
This is a temporary fix but I’ll have to fix it because this might give me some problems when using audio plugins.

 

[CaseySJ]

Well Layout ID 16 is working but the rear green audio Jack is using headphones as the output now.
This is a temporary fix but I’ll have to fix it because this might give me some problems when using audio plugins.

The name of the jack is purely cosmetic. It has no functional effect.

 

[sykko]

Technically there is a software-only method for flashing the Thunderbolt firmware, and it works through macOS itself. But the method is extremely time-critical. It gives us a 20-second window of opportunity immediately after boot, during which the firmware can be flashed. But because the Winbond W25Q80DV is a page-programmed chip, and a page is 4K bytes, even though we modify only about 6 bytes in a single page we nevertheless need to reprogram the whole page. Sometimes this can finish within 20 seconds, but most of the time it cannot. If the 20-second window expires before the full page has been programmed, it will leave the firmware in a corrupted state. It will then be necessary to use an external flasher such as the Raspberry Pi. So the software method is like playing Russian roulette. And that is why Elias and I decided not to publish any information about the software procedure.

Using the Raspberry Pi is the best way to flash the on-board Titan Ridge firmware chip. The Pi can be used for other tasks, so it's not a wasted one-time purchase.

Hey CaseyJ, thanks for the amazing guide and research.

I was following the guide to flashing the Thunderbolt chip on Designare z390 - to enable hot plug, and maybe other devices. But I failed miserably. Now the clip can no longer attach to the chip because I tried so many times, and couldn't succeed; it just slips now, doesn't hold. It's possible that I either erased or fried the chip in the process, too? Because at first I tried it with the 5V programmer, and moreover, after I measured the voltage (after trying it 200 times because I have 400 iq), it turned out it wasn't even 5Vs, but 13V (WTH?). Nevertheless, I bought the other programmer after (3.3v) and tried, but tough luck. I wasn't able to bring the chip to a state where I can read the contents, but tried a lot in the process like the yellow led and the dim red led and the clip just slips and repeat for several hours. The clip at this point can no longer attach as I said, because the wires of the chip are ground to such a level.

And after, I gave up. I turned the computer on and voila, there's the Thunderbolt bus in system information, obviously since I didn't flash it with anything - it couldn't be a good sign, and yes it doesn't detect plugged devices anymore, neither in Windows nor macOS. I am thinking i erased the contents or fried it somehow? I am also getting USB enumeration errors during boot that I wasn't getting before (Ventura).

So I want to give the software only option a try if that's possible even at this stage since there's nothing left to lose. Could you share the details of this process with me?

How to programmatically read ThunderBolt firmware from UEFI

ThunderBolt firmware is stored in its own SPI flash and is updatable from the OS. The system's UEFI firmware is also able to access its configuration data in the flash - users are able to change the

stackoverflow.com

 

[CaseySJ]

Hey CaseyJ, thanks for the amazing guide and research.

I was following the guide to flashing the Thunderbolt chip on Designare z390 - to enable hot plug, and maybe other devices. But I failed miserably. Now the clip can no longer attach to the chip because I tried so many times, and couldn't succeed; it just slips now, doesn't hold. It's possible that I either erased or fried the chip in the process, too? Because at first I tried it with the 5V programmer, and moreover, after I measured the voltage (after trying it 200 times because I have 400 iq), it turned out it wasn't even 5Vs, but 13V (WTH?). Nevertheless, I bought the other programmer after (3.3v) and tried, but tough luck. I wasn't able to bring the chip to a state where I can read the contents, but tried a lot in the process like the yellow led and the dim red led and the clip just slips and repeat for several hours. The clip at this point can no longer attach as I said, because the wires of the chip are ground to such a level.

And after, I gave up. I turned the computer on and voila, there's the Thunderbolt bus in system information, obviously since I didn't flash it with anything - it couldn't be a good sign, and yes it doesn't detect plugged devices anymore, neither in Windows nor macOS. I am thinking i erased the contents or fried it somehow? I am also getting USB enumeration errors during boot that I wasn't getting before (Ventura).

So I want to give the software only option a try if that's possible even at this stage since there's nothing left to lose. Could you share the details of this process with me?

How to programmatically read ThunderBolt firmware from UEFI

ThunderBolt firmware is stored in its own SPI flash and is updatable from the OS. The system's UEFI firmware is also able to access its configuration data in the flash - users are able to change the

stackoverflow.com

Hello @sykko,

Nice name!

The software-only option absolutely requires a working Thunderbolt controller and firmware. If the firmware is corrupt or the firmware Flash ROM chip is damaged, the software option cannot be used.

But let's see your IOReg file (IORegsitry Explorer -> File -> Save As...) to assess the current state of the controller/firmware.

 

[sykko]

Hello @sykko,

Nice name!

The software-only option absolutely requires a working Thunderbolt controller and firmware. If the firmware is corrupt or the firmware Flash ROM chip is damaged, the software option cannot be used.

But let's see your IOReg file (IORegsitry Explorer -> File -> Save As...) to assess the current state of the controller/firmware.

Hey... thanks for the reply, here's the ioreg file attached

 

[achillespilot]

Hi @CaseySJ, thanks again for all your work over the years on this build! I’m finally ‘retiring’ mine, but will continue to use it as a sort-of NAS server. With that in mind, I’m stripping it down to make it as simple and efficient as possible. For the last couple of days I’ve been trying to figure out how to remove graphics card support and revert to the iGPU. It’ll be headless once setup. I have trawled through quite a few posts and tried to think back to configuring this years ago, but anything I’ve tried so far has been unsuccessful and has failed to load into Mac OS at all. Any help much appreciated! Ta.