Which USB3 Express Card to buy?

[Fl0r!an]

Hi!

 

I own a late 2008 MacBook Pro running 10.9. About two and a half years ago I bought an AKE USB3 Express Card, which used to work quite fine with decent speed using PXHCD, only had some minor bugs.

Since I upgraded to 10.8, the card will instantly freeze my MacBook when it's inserted. When I boot with the express card inside the slot, OSX will freeze with a gray screen (verbose mode says that it just finished scanning PCI devices). Same happened after a clean install (even without any drivers installed), and same happens with 10.9, so I think I'll need a new express card (unless one of you knows how to fix that).

 

Here is what I'd like to have:

 

- short 1-port Express Card 34, that can reside inside the MacBook all the time (just like the old AKE one: http://www.abload.de/img/pci-e-usb3-0-express-cjuj0.jpg)

- possibility to get extra power from an USB port, so I can run 2.5" hard drives without power adapter

- chipset that works with the native OSX driver, so I don't have to fiddle with any kexts after system updates

 

Is there any express card like that? The first point is definitely a must, the others would be nice to have.

 

Thanks for your help!

[6828]

It's funny how things change.

 

I just got my MBP 17" running with the [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] 5.5.3 driver pack for my AKE USB 3.0 card, upgraded to Mavericks and got a Kernel panic like you.

 

Stupidly I thought I'd corrupted my install so I spend 24 hours copying my 512 SSD, re-installing a fresh copy of Mavericks and still got the Kernel panic.

 

Pulled the Express card and everything booted fine, put it back in and BANG, no joy.

 

I don't know what made me more embarrassed or angry, all the work I did over 24 hours, or that I didn't even think to pull the Express card first.

 

So here's hoping there is a card of some kind that we can both get so we can use USB 3.0.

 

I'm pretty sure the Express card wont shut my Mac down if I run on an external USB HDD for boot up though (OSX 10.9). That's why I thought I had a dodgy install on the SSD.

 

Maybe there's hope for the AKE after all ?

 

Tony

[Fl0r!an]

Okay, I've done a bit research:

 

OSX 10.8 added native USB 3 support for Intel controllers and some newer Fresco chipsets (I think FL1009 and FL1100).

Our AKE USB 3 express cards use the Fresco FL1000 chipset. I could imagine that the native Apple driver tries to initialize our express cards which fails because of the unsupported chipset. Other USB cards (e.g. NEC based) are left in piece because the device ID is unknown. From what I've read, some people complain that 10.8 killed their USB3 card (mostly FL1000-based), but no one has come up with a solution, so I think currently there's nothing we could do.

 

As mentioned above, there are some PCI Express based USB3 expansions that are supported natively (FL1009 and FL1100). The problem is, I couldn't seem to find any express cards using these chipsets at all, so there's currently no native USB for older MacBook Pros.

 

As there seems to be no "perfect solution", I've ordered the ITEC USB 3.0 Express Card for about 17€: It features a NEC/Renesas chipset and an extra power plug for external hard drives. Got it today, installed GenericXHCI and it worked fine. Only issue so far: It disappears during sleep, so I have to pull it out and insert it to make it work again. Speed is fine, got about 110MB/s write and 180MB/s read with my SanDisk stick.

Sadly I couldn't test my external 2.5" disk yet, because the USB cable is too wide to insert it beside the cards power cable. Without this cable, the card will crash when the HDD starts spinning (with USB sticks or self powered hard drives it's not needed of course).

[caseyfriday]

Thanks for doing the research on the USB3 chipset necessary for 10.9! I found this card and just purchased it (will be here in 17-28 days), and it is said to natively support USB3 in 10.8 and higher with no driver installs needed. I know it's not flush like you said you wanted, but it'll work for me, since I just want native, quick USB3 capability.

 

Anyhow, I hope what you got works out for you, and if not, be sure to check that card out too.

[hope2]

Not Long Ago I found a peripheral manufacturer called Inateck provide USB3.0 express card for Mac computer and Mac Pro desktops.

Using PCI-E USB 3.0 interface express card, it's in keeping with PCI-E 2.0 specification, as well as theoretical transfer speed reaches in order to 5.0Gbps.

As long as there is extra PCI-E connector on your own motherboard, it can guide two USB 3.0 interface, allowing faster transfer speeds and time savings.

[uelly]

Okay, I've done a bit research:

 

OSX 10.8 added native USB 3 support for Intel controllers and some newer Fresco chipsets (I think FL1009 and FL1100).

Our AKE USB 3 express cards use the Fresco FL1000 chipset. I could imagine that the native Apple driver tries to initialize our express cards which fails because of the unsupported chipset. Other USB cards (e.g. NEC based) are left in piece because the device ID is unknown. From what I've read, some people complain that 10.8 killed their USB3 card (mostly FL1000-based), but no one has come up with a solution, so I think currently there's nothing we could do.

 

As mentioned above, there are some PCI Express based USB3 expansions that are supported natively (FL1009 and FL1100). The problem is, I couldn't seem to find any express cards using these chipsets at all, so there's currently no native USB for older MacBook Pros.

 

As there seems to be no "perfect solution", I've ordered the ITEC USB 3.0 Express Card for about 17€: It features a NEC/Renesas chipset and an extra power plug for external hard drives. Got it today, installed GenericXHCI and it worked fine. Only issue so far: It disappears during sleep, so I have to pull it out and insert it to make it work again. Speed is fine, got about 110MB/s write and 180MB/s read with my SanDisk stick.

Sadly I couldn't test my external 2.5" disk yet, because the USB cable is too wide to insert it beside the cards power cable. Without this cable, the card will crash when the HDD starts spinning (with USB sticks or self powered hard drives it's not needed of course).

I've got the same ITEC USB 3 card but it doesn't work for me. I have an MBP 17" mid 2010 and installed the genericusbxhci v1.27/26 and every time the card is plugged in a got a kernel panic with mavericks on boot up. could you tell me how you get it working?

[uelly]

I've got the same ITEC USB 3 card but it doesn't work for me. I have an MBP 17" mid 2010 and installed the genericusbxhci v1.27/26 and every time the card is plugged in a got a kernel panic with mavericks on boot up. could you tell me how you get it working?

Now I`ve found the problem on my mac and it's called Mavericks or in digits OSX 10.9. The Problem here is that mavericks breaks support for the ExpressCard slot on the 17" MBP mid 2010 and only on the 2010 models.

first step i've done earlier was that i buy another card http://www.amazon.de/ExpressCard-Express-Adapter-Converter-5-0Gbps/dp/B008XUFJIM/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1390314194&sr=8-10&keywords=usb+3+4port+expresscard this card uses the FL1100 a said before and is natively support on osx since 10.8.2... But when the card arrived and i put it in my mbp nothing happened... then i try to install maverick on a new partition... nothing happened...then i do a lot of google search an found out that many users with the same mbp model have lost their support for their ExpressCard slots.

And the way to cheat around this was for me to delete the IOPCIFamily.kext from the mavericks installation, install the IOPCIFamily.kext from an 10.8.5 combo update repair permissions several times and rebuild kextcache.

after reboot my system runs stable and after plugging the card in i've got usb3 super speed with the AppleUSBXHCI kext loaded.

Now my only problem is that my external hdd stop working after several minutes, but i think i could fix this...

so stay tuned.

 

(sry for my bad English, i'm from germany)

[UFOGoldorak]

Just wondering where everyone stands on this months later.. 

 

I just installed http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005YXD4I8/ref=pe_385040_30332190_TE_dp_1 using [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]'s generic usb3 kext.  It went smoothly and its operating just fine on my early '09 17" MBP.

 

However, what got me to purchase this card was reading about bootable expresscard SSD in some machines.  So i thought I would try it out on a usb3 flash/thumb drive instead with OS 10.9 beta.  Obviously I can't use cards using extensions so the search goes on..  Booting off of USB2 is pretty slow so I was really hoping the machine would pick up on this card and just go but hey for $14 I now have a and couple of fast usb3 ports so not all is lost.

 

Has anyone found a card thats native to these machines yet?

[Fl0r!an]

So, with OS X 10.11 coming here's an update on this:

Apple has totally reworked their USB stuff, so GenericXHCI is broken as of today and by looking in their devsite it doesn't look like an update was coming soon.

Surprisingly my ITEC USB 3.0 Express Card which I bought 2 years ago is automatically picked up by the Apple driver.  Devices plugged will be detected, but sadly they don't work at all. 

This looks like this:

 

Luckily in the past 2 years a new ExpressCard with the natively supported Fresco chipset has come up: Nanotech USB 3.0 ExpressCard

I'll wait a little since I don't necessarily need USB3 in my MBP at the moment, maybe someone comes up with an updated driver or a solution to use Apples driver. If this won't happen, the Nanotech card will be my choice.

[Inside_line]

Greetings,

 

Just wanted to post a response I got from the seller of the NanoTECH expresscard, Local338, regarding chipset of this card.  This is the first I've heard ASMedia chipset is supported natively.

 

Hello, it's ASMedia chipset, same as the Highpoint Rocket USB 3.0 using one, 100% compatible & working well with OSX , El Capitan 10.11 as Well, Regards

[Groovenuts]

IM SORRY IF THIS IS WRONG THREAD !

 

Can someone please help me! I’m going a bit mental trying to find info.

 

Will any type of “USB 3 – Express Card 34” with “Any type of External drive attached” work as a bootable drive?????

 

I’m running a mid 2009 macbook pro (5,2)

 

I’m trying to create a clone of my operating system 10.5.8 onto an external drive so I can install El Capitan on my main internal drive.

 

In Theory if I can boot from a USB 3, express card 34 this will be quicker than the firewire option I already use.

 

I’m aware there are “filemate SSD” options but I’d prefer to boot from an external drive via USB 3.

 

I currently have a Lacie USB3 Porsche Drive Hooked up to a Lacie Express Card 34.

 

I have installed drivers in two different operating systems – 10.5.8 & Yosemite

Both read like this ;

 

Type: USB eXtensible Host Controller

Driver Installed: Yes

MSI: No

Bus: PCI

Slot: ExpressCard

Vendor ID: 0x1033

Device ID: 0x0194

Subsystem Vendor ID: 0xffff

Subsystem ID: 0xffff

Revision ID: 0x0003

Link Width: x1

Link Speed: 2.5 GT/s

 

Does : MSI – NO mean It’s not bootable or am I missing something?

 

Any help would be REALLY APPRECIATED!!!

I’m willing to take my laptop anywhere to get this working as it’s holding me up installing X2 SSD internal drive.

 

To cut a long story short I need to run my 10.5.8 from a boot drive the fastest way I possibly can! all research points towards this option?

 

Cheers!

 

Krisso

[TheRacerMaster]

I don't think it's possible to boot from an ExpressCard/PCIe USB 3.0 card on MacBooks/Mac Pros that don't natively have USB 3.0.

[Groovenuts]

What if the card has Native Support?

 

I've spoken to Apple who have been really cool with helping me try to get the express Card to work. Through some basic process of elimination we discovered the card will not startup before any OSX is fully booted. Holding option key and -plugging card in, leaving card in, inserting bus power etc will not get my clone drive to show whilst in (option) boot mode.

 

Have also tried booting in recovery mode, then disk utility to see if it shows however it does not.

 

However whilst booted OSX (snow leopard & Yosemite) both recognise the USB 3 express 34 when in the startup disk app. It lets me choose the disk I'd like to boot from. One of those being my cloned Porsche drive running though express card.

 

I rang LaCie in US and they were useless telling me they are now owned by seagate blaa blaa.

They still support e-sata express cards so what's the difference!?

 

Anyway i don't think its a power issue as when I plugged a usb stick into express card its lights would flash like whilst in normal USB port. I can also hear the Porsche drive spinning up but nothing is happening.

 

Things left to try - buy LaCie USB stick and see if it reads on command boot screen.?

 

I have a rugged drive with bus power try plugging that in to express card 34, therefor having 2 items powered (card & drive).?

 

Find a driver that will wake card whilst booting???!!!

 

Any help, knowledge would be great!

[TheRacerMaster]

Unless the Mac natively has USB 3 (e.g. it already has USB 3 ports), you cannot boot from a USB 3.0 PCIe card or ExpressCard because it does not have the proper EFI drivers (which are used during startup) for USB 3 controller support.