The New Beginner's Guide to USB Port Configuration

[Feartech]

Sorry if this has been asked before, I tried searching prior to posting. I'm having trouble with my USB3 ports quickly disconnecting with external drives. They seem to mount okay, but disconnect relatively quickly when in use (copying files, sometimes even browsing folders). I tried two different external drives with the same result, but USB3 flash drives appear to work just fine. If I plug the same drives into a USB2 port, everything works fine, just at a lower speed. These drives also work fine on a MacBook Pro. Sort of stumped as to what may be the cause.

I believe unrelated, two entries pop up in the USB section of Hackintool even after I removed them prior to exporting my USBPorts.kext (PR01 and PR12). Initially I had XHC, EHC1, and EHC2. After renaming and adding USBPorts.kext, I'm down to XHC and EH01. Hackintool tells me PR01 and PR12 are both from EH01. Let me know if I can provide anything what would be helpful.

Thanks!

hs01 is set to usb2.0 but you also have ss01 set to usb3.0

hs01 should be set to usb3.0 along with your other hs ports that has ss ports set to usb3.0

 

[Michael4824]

hs01 is set to usb2.0 but you also have ss01 set to usb3.0

hs01 should be set to usb3.0 along with your other hs ports that has ss ports set to usb3.0

Do they always map that way? When I used Hackintool, this was my mapping. Apologizes for the chicken scratch handwriting.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Do they always map that way? When I used Hackintool, this was my mapping. Apologizes for the chicken scratch handwriting.

No, they don't but it seems ASRock has done so on your motherboard. Easy to see why.

HS01 / HS02 are USB2 only ports with no USB3 equivalent so ASRock started their USB3 ports where HS03 is, with SS01.

Agreed, it's not very intuitive. Not all Z97s are like this.

Just make sure if the port is blue you set the USB3 flag because even for the USB2 functionality of the port, it still has USB3 contacts. If it's black it's set as USB2.

For motherboard headers the same applies but you need to research which port is which etc.

 

[Michael4824]

Great, so it sounds like I have the right mapping (minus HS07 being USB2 only port, which I corrected), but I still have the intermittent USB3 dropping external drives.

 

[OutAndGone]

Many thanks for the hard work and sense of community here. I am a newbie hackintosh. Looking thru the thread, I didn’t see that anyone had already asked the questions that I’d like to pose. I have two:

First one:
Since, I built this computer with the help of an experienced friend, I've had some weird USB behaviors. None that stopped my work, or that were unbearable. But I had some issues that were just weird and difficult to reproduce. Are these the kinds of situations that warrant using your guide and tools?

Finally:
I have a GA-Z97X-GAMING 7 motherboard using Yosemite for audio recording and mixing. Are your guide and tools appropriate or compatible with this OS?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Amble]

Thanks for this great guide, finally I can do this without spending a day with it

One Question though. Nothing connected on the USB ports, Z270n-wifi shows two devices. On HS08 and SS08 both have "Bluetooth USB Host Controller" and USR2 has "AppleUSBXHCI Root Hub Simulation".

When testing with USB sticks none showed up on HS08/SS08 or USR*. I didn't try the USB type C port and USB2 header on the motherboard is not connected to anywhere, so it is also untested with USB sticks.

Bluetooth USB Host Controller device is native BT/Wifi card from 2017 iMac (m.2 slot with adapter), why is it showing up on USB and should I count it as 2? Also what is USR2 AppleUSBXHCI Root Hub Simulation? If I would keep the USR2, would that count as 1 or 2?

 

[Amble]

Continuation of previous post.

Here's how it is everything disconnected from USB ports, usbinjectall and PLR patches. Notice that the Bluetooth USB Host Controller is on both HS08 and SS08.

Now after testing all the USB ports I can see that these are the USB3 ports and (devices?) I want to keep.

*S01 USB3 on front panel
*S02 USB3 on front panel
*S03 USB3 on back
*S04 USB3 on back
*S05 USB3 on back
*S06 USB3 on back
*S08 Bluetooth USB Host Controller? (Seems to be the 4.2 BT card from iMac 2017)
USR2 AppleUSBXHCI Root Hub Simulation?

After disabling everything not used, adding new kext into Clover, disabling PLR patches, deleting usbinjectall and reboot I get this. I assumed that Bluetooth USB Host Controller and AppleUSBXHCI Root Hub Simulation should be internal. However now Bluetooth USB Host Controller is gone from SS08 and AppleUSBXHCI Root Hub Simulation is no longer on USR2. If I disable the HS08 and SS08 Bluetooth USB Host Controller then I lose bluetooth that is connected into M.2 slot.

Now I can further disable SS08 and USR2 and nothing seems to have affected. Disabling just SS08 doesn't affect BT, just HS08. On this screenshot I already have all USB devices attached.

Any ideas what's going on here?

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Continuation of previous post.

Here's how it is everything disconnected from USB ports, usbinjectall and PLR patches. Notice that the Bluetooth USB Host Controller is on both HS08 and SS08.

View attachment 442673
Now after testing all the USB ports I can see that these are the USB3 ports and (devices?) I want to keep.

*S01 USB3 on front panel
*S02 USB3 on front panel
*S03 USB3 on back
*S04 USB3 on back
*S05 USB3 on back
*S06 USB3 on back
*S08 Bluetooth USB Host Controller? (Seems to be the 4.2 BT card from iMac 2017)
USR2 AppleUSBXHCI Root Hub Simulation?

After disabling everything not used, adding new kext into Clover, disabling PLR patches, deleting usbinjectall and reboot I get this. I assumed that Bluetooth USB Host Controller and AppleUSBXHCI Root Hub Simulation should be internal. However now Bluetooth USB Host Controller is gone from SS08 and AppleUSBXHCI Root Hub Simulation is no longer on USR2. If I disable the HS08 and SS08 Bluetooth USB Host Controller then I lose bluetooth that is connected into M.2 slot.

View attachment 442676

Any ideas what's going on here?

I'll take a look when I'm back at my desk shortly. In the mean time list the kexts you have in EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other and Library/Extensions. Your config.plist (less serials etc).

 

[Amble]

I'll take a look when I'm back at my desk shortly. In the mean time list the kexts you have in EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other and Library/Extensions. Your config.plist (less serials etc).

He's the full Clover folder. I removed the serials and id's. macOS is 10.15.2.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

He's the full Clover folder. I removed the serials and id's. macOS is 10.15.2.

Okay, before we tackle USB ...

A few suggestions for config.plist if hardware is as your profile. I may be wrong so take care experimenting:

1) The only ACPI Rename you need is probably the HDAS to HDEF.

2) Un-tick all the ACPI "Fixes" and then tick the "FixShutdown" one.

3) Remove boot-flag "-disablegfxfirmware"

4) In the Graphics section deselect "InjectATI" (un-tick if using Clover Configurator).

Right, on to USB:

Your motherboard has 7x USB3 ports and 2x USB2 ports. This makes for a maximum number of ports of 16x.

Therefore you should see HS01 to HS14 and SS01 to SS07 in Hackintool. However it is possible Gigabyte have altered the usual layout and the port numbers do not correlate.

I get the impression you have USBInjectAll.kext installed in Library/Extensions ? It should not be used if USBPorts.ext is in place. Otherwise it will just confuse the scenario.

You can use USBInjectAll and the port-limit removal patches to open up all possible ports, however Gigabyte do not implement the full contingent on such a small motherboard. USBInjectAll will still open all it finds and the patch aims to reveal 26. Hence the USR ports.

I take it you have removed Gigabyte's default wifi/BT card and installed your own Broadcom one?

Let me know how you get on, then we can move forward.