Thunderbolt Raid Freeze Problem

[sdot2110]

I've been bothering with this problem for a while now and after lots of googling and trial and error i've decided to look for some help.

My Build:
Os X 10.11.3 El Capitan
Gigabyte X99-Gaming 5
Intel i7 5820k (OC to 4.45Ghz)
Corsair H110i
Zotac Geforce 980GTX Amp! Edition
4x4GB g.Skill Ripjaws 2800MHZ (xmp enabled)

PCI:
Firewire (can't recall which one right now...)
Asus Thunderboltex II

Audio: PreSonus FIREBOX
Video:
AOC 22"
Dell UP2715K

Storage:
SanDisk SSD PLUS 240GB (System)
Samsung 830 Series 256 GB (System Windows / Dualboot)
Samsung 850 EVO 1 TB
Variety of WD disk for Backup etc.

PSU: be quiet! BN253 Dark Power Pro 850W
Case: Nanoxia Deep Silence rev. 5

External Storage: Pegasus Promise R6

Drivers64uefi: EmuVariableUefi-64.efi
FSInject-64.efi
HFSPlus-64.efi
OsxAptioFix2Drv-free2000.efi
OsxFatBinaryDrv-64.efi


The Problem:
Since I've been working a lot with a thunderbolt Raid I like to bring from work to continue working at home, adding Thunderbolt support to my Hackintosh was essential for me. Sadly, Gigabyte stopped producing their own Thunderbolt add-in Card, so i was unable to get one; i tried then switching to an asus board, but those just kept dying on me for no reason (just a bad batch i guess?), so in pure despair, and after asking Gigabyte support, which recommended using the HP add-in Card, I just plugged my Asus ThunderboltEx Card in my Gigabyte board, and guess what, it worked instantly. At least at the beginning.

The Add-In card was recognized in UEFI as once as "Intel Thunderbolt" and, after research, configured with the following settings:
Thunderbolt - enabled
Security - Legacy
PCIe Cache-line Size: 128
Ignore TB Option Rom - Enabled
SwSMI Delay - 10ms
Device IO Resource Support - Enabled
Reserved mem per phy Slot - 1024
Reserved PMem per phy Slot - 1024
Reserved Memory - Maximum
Reserved IO per phy slot - 48

The Raid popped up in Finder instantly after reboot, as well as in system information (under SAS, as expected). Thunderbolt Kexts were deleted, as i read they aren't needed in Hackintosh since it's detected as SAS anyway.

My Problem: I'm working with FCPX, having a rather large library on my raid. Cutting works flawless 99% of the time, but everytime i start an action which includes writing lots of files (like rendering, exporting), the progress bar just stop; from this moment on, i can no longer address the raid at all. All Apps acessing the raid are frozen, most of the time they cant even be closed. I can still create a folder using the finder, but once i try to delete or rename it, its gone forever; the system wont shutdown (since it cant disconnect the raid) and even worse, once i force shutdown it, the raid won't shutdown automatically like its supposed to be, neither can it be shutdown using the power button, so im forced so disconnect the power, which is certainly not the best option for a raid holding 10tb of really important data...

Why is this a Hackintosh problem? Because I have no problem Copying, rendering or doing whatsoever using my Macbook or my Dualboot Windows, which is my workaround right now, but using my 2011 macbook for rendering is not the whole idea of a 2000€ system...

Things ive tried: Removing All Other PCI Cards, almost every setting in UEFI, trying it with Thunderbolt Kexts installed, trying diffrent PCI slot, checked of course file integrity, checked raid status with promise utility, tried to find anything in systemlog (doesnt seem to mention anything)

Right now im rather clueless. It seems to be some problem with a buffer overloading, maybe it's a problem with the ram fragmentation under x99 systems? (Trying to write to ram where its not supposed to once its starting to fill?); I can't see the settings being at fault, since they work allright under windows); right now im mainly blocked, because i don't no how to do future troubleshooting (like using the information of any crashlogs etc...) so im really hoping for any advice

 

[sdot2110]

Fun fact... after having this problem for months now i finally took the time to create this post; afterwards went back to bios to search through all options one last time... well found two i havent tried yet: set PCIe Slot Configuration from "Auto" to "3. Gen" (under Misc) and disabled PCH DMI ASPM (some sort of PCIe power mamagment?). Well, one of them ( i cant recall and i wont try) seemed to solve the problem... cutting, exporting and rendering for 2h straight now with no freeze at all... feeling so lucky right now

 

[sdot2110]

Fun was short, the options didn't seem to clear the problem after all, worked for one session and after the next reboot, bam, freeze after 5s. What DID solve the problem was upgrading to Sierra, but i guess it was mainly the update itself than anything that might have changed in between El Capitan and Sierra, so a clean El Capitan Install might have done the trick, too.

Conclusion: Thunderbolt now configured as unique ID, Raid is detected as Thunderbolt in profiler (didn't know that was possible?), even Promise Utility is working now (just froze before), aaaaand freeze free for one week now.

 

[mpro]

I have exactly the same problem with my Pegasus R8 and it drives me crazy as it occurs exactly when I really need a lot of work done. I will upgrade from El Capitan to Sierra and hope it fixes the problem. Thank you for sharing!

Would you be so kind and send a screenshot or a list of your BIOS settings?

Thx!

 

[sdot2110]

Hell mpro,

This post was a rather long time ago, and my hardware changed a bit since then. Im not sure if im able to recall the uefi settings ive been using back then. Whats your mainboard manufacturer? Maybe i can get the info from some ole pictures i took. Still, i think upgrading / reinstall is the most important part so solve this problem.

 

[mpro]

Hey sdot, thanks a lot for replying so quickly.

I didn't build the system myself, it's an ASUS X99 with a Asus TB ExII Card. Do you need more info?

Thx!

 

[sdot2110]

Hey mpro, im using an asus x99 myself by now, so my settings should be the same here. My thunderbolt settings are pretty default by now, you can find them here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/101fx7fnn6oekhu/AACS4zF5temXlZ_7L8fqfrrAa?dl=0. The way i feel about it, most other settings shoudlnr have any effect on the problem you describes. Id suggest you continue updating and come back to this post if the problem reappears.

 

[mpro]

Great! I'll be back after updating to Sierra. thx again

 

[mpro]

After upgrading to Sierra, everything seems to work again! Promise Utility now sees the Pegasus.

Thanks again!

 

[sdot2110]

Im happy i could help. This problem bothered me for so long...