MP 7,1 MacPro7,1 PCIe Card Trouble...

[DM666]

Moved a working Areca ARC-1883x PCIe SAS host card from my 2012 Mac Pro to a new macpro7,1 (2019).

The macpro7,1 has 2 MPX GPU modules, an Afterburner card, and the Apple I/O card. So, 2 empty PCIe slots.

The slot in which the ARC-1883x card is installed is showing as empty in the PCI Cards tab of About This Mac, as well as in System Info. The drivers (kernel extensions) are not loading, which makes sense since the OS sees no card in the slot. I switched slots and still no joy. I'm trying to troubleshoot things and need some advice.

Questions/Comments:

1. Wouldn't a PCIe card show in "About This Mac" or "System Info" without any drivers installed? If the slot shows as "empty" does this mean that the PCIe card is "dead" or (see #2)?
2. Would an older firmware on the card make it not recognized with the macpro7,1? Note: The firmware should be current as it was updated in the older macpro5,1 after Big Sur came out (the current OS running on the macpro7,1).
3. I noticed that macOS had a kext of the same name installed with Big Sur in /System/Library/Extensions. The drivers I installed are located in /Library/Extensions, as expected. Is this an issue?
4. The card had been working in the older MP after its GPU went "poof" (displays got garbled briefly, then went black and the macpro5,1 shut itself down after 30 seconds, or so; subsequent attempts to start up the macpro5,1 resulted in start-up chime, ~5 sec. pause, reboot, repeat; some testing showed everything working okay except for the GPU; after removing the GPU, the macpro5,1 worked fine in headless mode). I put the card back into the macpro5,1 but couldn't screen share into the machine (running a cloned start-up drive). So, that didn't pan out. I don't have another GPU I could use to try to boot the macpro5,1 with the ARC-1883x card in it (to see if the card shows up).
5. I guess I could have damaged the card when moving it... I may get another card but would like to figure things out more definitively first...

Thanks for any assistance!


UPDATE:

I heard back from Areca technical support and also chatted on the phone with an Apple support person.

Both said that an installed card should show a PCIe slot as being non-empty when looking in System Information and the "PCI Cards" window (from About This Mac). This recognition is a basic ("BIOS" level) confirmation that the slot is occupied.

If an installed card is damaged, the Mac Pro may not start up, or the power indicator light might flash amber.

Only once the slot shows something installed would you then possibly need to consider bandwidth allocation issues...

I hope this helps someone else! Cheers!

 

[ivion]

Moved a working Areca ARC-1883x PCIe SAS host card from my 2012 Mac Pro to a new macpro7,1 (2019).

The macpro7,1 has 2 MPX GPU modules, an Afterburner card, and the Apple I/O card. So, 2 empty PCIe slots.

The slot in which the ARC-1883x card is installed is showing as empty in the PCI Cards tab of About This Mac, as well as in System Info. The drivers (kernel extensions) are not loading, which makes sense since the OS sees no card in the slot. I switched slots and still no joy. I'm trying to troubleshoot things and need some advice.

Questions/Comments:

1. Wouldn't a PCIe card show in "About This Mac" or "System Info" without any drivers installed? If the slot shows as "empty" does this mean that the PCIe card is "dead" or (see #2)?
2. Would an older firmware on the card make it not recognized with the macpro7,1? Note: The firmware should be current as it was updated in the older macpro5,1 after Big Sur came out (the current OS running on the macpro7,1).
3. I noticed that macOS had a kext of the same name installed with Big Sur in /System/Library/Extensions. The drivers I installed are located in /Library/Extensions, as expected. Is this an issue?
4. The card had been working in the older MP after its GPU went "poof" (displays got garbled briefly, then went black and the macpro5,1 shut itself down after 30 seconds, or so; subsequent attempts to start up the macpro5,1 resulted in start-up chime, ~5 sec. pause, reboot, repeat; some testing showed everything working okay except for the GPU; after removing the GPU, the macpro5,1 worked fine in headless mode). I put the card back into the macpro5,1 but couldn't screen share into the machine (running a cloned start-up drive). So, that didn't pan out. I don't have another GPU I could use to try to boot the macpro5,1 with the ARC-1883x card in it (to see if the card shows up).
5. I guess I could have damaged the card when moving it... I may get another card but would like to figure things out more definitively first...

Thanks for any assistance!

Hi I think I had the same problem. Did you try manually allotting PCI-e bandwith through the special PCI-e bandwith app (About this Mac > PCI-e > Configure). Make sure that you allot one lane less than 100%, eg 50% (even if it makes the other go to 175% for example). Then restart. Does the Areca now show up?

 

[DM666]

Hi I think I had the same problem. Did you try manually allotting PCI-e bandwith through the special PCI-e bandwith app (About this Mac > PCI-e > Configure). Make sure that you allot one lane less than 100%, eg 50% (even if it makes the other go to 175% for example). Then restart. Does the Areca now show up?

Hey, thanks for the response!

From what I believe and have been told, the card should show up in the "About This Mac -> PCI Cards" window as occupying the slot. This would be the first step in knowing that the Areca card is even recognized by the system. Right?

There is no option to change the assigned pool for the slot, in which the Areca card was installed. I may call Apple Support.

I'm guessing that if the card isn't recognized by macOS then all else is moot. The questions would be: Could a card show up as recognized due to a lack of compatible drivers (kexts) or firmware, or should a "good" PCIe card show up in the slot regardless?

I have a request for help in process with an Areca rep. I may contact Apple support, too. Thanks again, you helped me refine my thoughts about the issue (if I understood you correctly).

Cheers.

 

[DM666]

I updated my original post to hopefully help others...

 

[cutterman]

I am using one of the 1883-series cards in a 7.1 and have not seen this problem. Did you check the card by trying it in another computer? Sounds like it might be damaged

 

[ivion]

Hey, thanks for the response!

From what I believe and have been told, the card should show up in the "About This Mac -> PCI Cards" window as occupying the slot. This would be the first step in knowing that the Areca card is even recognized by the system. Right?

There is no option to change the assigned pool for the slot, in which the Areca card was installed. I may call Apple Support.

I'm guessing that if the card isn't recognized by macOS then all else is moot. The questions would be: Could a card show up as recognized due to a lack of compatible drivers (kexts) or firmware, or should a "good" PCIe card show up in the slot regardless?

I have a request for help in process with an Areca rep. I may contact Apple support, too. Thanks again, you helped me refine my thoughts about the issue (if I understood you correctly).

Cheers.

Glad to help! You maybe already have solved the issue. The problem I had is that the Areca card won't show up in the PCI-e allocation mac app (or anywhere) if the bandwith for its group exceeds 100%. That's why in my case I had to change the allocation of the A and B group manually (instead of automatic) and leave at least 25% bandwith free (eg. 75% filled) for one group. Then restart. After the restart the Areca card should be visible. After this step you can optimize the manual PCI-e bandwith slot allocation (but do not let the bandwith for the group of the areca card exceed 100%).

Tip 2: Also if you use the Apple ports card (with extra usb-a, thunderbolt and headphone jack), do not let it reside in the same bandwith allocatiol group/pool as the Areca 1883x. As connecting an external drive / usb-stick / device, etc. will cause the bandwidth to exceed the bandwidth needed in that pool (I have one pool at 175%, which is fine) and thus cause the Areca 1883x card to be hidden again.

Hope this is of any help : )

 

[zebity]

Hi Ivion & others,

not sure if you are still using your Mac Pro 2019 with Afterburner & Areca ARC-1883, but I have hit the same problem.

I have Mac Pro 2019 (Sonoma 14.6.1) with W6900X (slot #1), Afterburner (slot #5), Areca ARC-1883LP (slot #6) & Apple I/O (slot #8) PCIe cards installed.

Every time time I have both Afterburner & Areca ARC-1883LP installed then Areca card gets "lost".

Both Afterburner and Areca work ok when separately installed.

But I cannot get them both visible at the same time.

I have tried both "Automatic Bandwidth Configuration" and Manual Configuration with the "Expansion Slot Utility".

I have tired to change the order I added the Afterburner and Areca to allow me to put Areca into "Pool B" with 75% Allocation so that Afterburner will then end up on "Pool A" with 100% Allocation, but this does not work as as soon as I have both Afterburner and Areca install the Areca is no longer visible and so can cannot manage the Allocation.

I have also changed Afterburner from slot #5 to slot #4, again no difference, Areca is invisible still.

Looking at the "System Report" (you can see that the Areca is not visible in report) there seems to be a lot of "Thunderbolt" devices on the PCI report, which are not visible as part of allocation:

Any suggestions how I might get my Mac Pro to work with both Afterburner and Areca ?

NOTE: I have installed the latest firmware on Areca card and latest ArcMSRu drivers into MacOS.

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE #1:

Upgraded MacOS to Sequoia, moved Areca ARC-1883LP from slot #6 to slot #7 and reset to "Automatic Bandwidth Configuration.
Boom!! Areca card now visible again and auto configured correctly (Apple I/O + Areca in Pool B and Afterburner in Pool A):

I had previously put the Areca in slot #6 so the fan had more breathing space (it is now blowing straight up on the Apple I/O card).

Cheers from Oz,


Zebity