The Perfect Customac-Pro: X99-A II, i7-6950X, 128GB G.Skill TridentZ, Aorus GTX 1080 TI Xtreme

[kgp]

So @kgp @giacomoleopardo a bit of snag with the bios settings. In both the bios version 1401 and 1504 when I set "Launch CSM: to disabled" the 960 pro is not recognized by the bios nor does disk utility see it. I stepped though each setting to confirm it was this one causing it.

Which bios versions are you each currently running?

Also One other bit of feedback about the bios guide in bios version 1401 and 1504 PCIEX16_2 Slot Bandwidth: there is not setting "Standard Mode" just Auto 1x and 4x.

Any thoughts? Much appreciated.

Following my experience, the Samsung NVMe detection problem does not depend on "Launch CSM"! I do have "Launch CSM" disabled and my EVO 960 is very well detected always! I indeed faced Samsung NVMe detection problems in both mobo bios and disk utility at the very beginning when writing the M.2 guide. After a chat with ASUS, I upgraded the firmware of my EVO 960 with Samsung Magician in windows and all detection problems vanished immediately! Please carefully read my guide....

There is indeed an error concerning the PCIEX16_2 Slot Bandwidth BIOS setting in my guide: "Standard mode" should read "Auto". Thanks for the correction and advice! I will update my guide correspondingly asap.

P.S. By the way, I am currently running bios version 1504.

 

[kgp]

help me,help meView attachment 249716

?

How? Can you provide a little bit more of additional information?

 

[kgp]

Due to problems with the forum server, all my modifications of my guide from today and yesterday are apparently lost. I am currently working on their recovery.

Cheers,

KGP

Guide recovery more or less complete!

Cheers,

KGP

 

[ryward]

Following my experience, the Samsung NVMe detection problem does not depend on "Launch CSM"! I do have "Launch CSM" disabled and my EVO 960 is very well detected always! I indeed faced Samsung NVMe detection problems in both mobo bios and disk utility at the very beginning when writing the M.2 guide. After a chat with ASUS, I upgraded the firmware of my EVO 960 with Samsung Magician in windows and all detection problems vanished immediately! Please carefully read my guide....

There is indeed an error concerning the PCIEX16_2 Slot Bandwidth BIOS setting in my guide: "Standard mode" should read "Auto". Thanks for the correction and advice! I will update my guide correspondingly asap.

P.S. By the way, I am currently running bios version 1504.

Thanks for the note. I should have mentioned I updated to the latest bios on the 960 Pro before I started the process with the latest Samsung Magician For me, when I enable/disable CSM it will make my drive detected/not detected. Took me awhile to narrow it down to this, but it did unfortunately.

 

[kgp]

Thanks for the note. I should have mentioned I updated to the latest bios on the 960 Pro before I started the process with the latest Samsung Magician For me, when I enable/disable CSM it will make my drive detected/not detected. Took me awhile to narrow it down to this, but it did unfortunately.

Seems that the EVO 960 PRO needs another firmware lift, man! Sorry to hear that. The EVO 960 now really works flawless after the last firmware lift... You should comment the enable/disable CSM problem of the EVO 960 Pro directly to Samsung. I do not know if you already did. Normally, they act on such issues immediately. It might be better to phone instead of tweeting on their support channel. I think the issue and error is clear! After speaking the last time with the ASUS support hotline, I guess the responsibility for the above issue is clearly at Samsung's side.

Fallback option: Exchange the EVO 960 Pro with a EVO 960. In my opinion, the performance difference between both is not that crucial and dramatic anyway, when compared with the performance difference to a SSD or HDD.

 

[mm2margaret]

Seems that the EVO 960 PRO needs another firmware lift, man! Sorry to hear that. The EVO 960 now really works flawless after the last firmware lift... You should comment the enable/disable CSM problem of the EVO 960 Pro directly to Samsung. I do not know if you already did. Normally, they act on such issues immediately. It might be better to phone instead of tweeting on their support channel. I think the issue and error is clear! After speaking the last time with the ASUS support hotline, I guess the responsibility for the above issue is clearly at Samsung's side.

Fallback option: Exchange the EVO 960 Pro with a EVO 960. In my opinion, the performance difference between both is not that crucial and dramatic anyway, when compared with the performance difference to a SSD or HDD.

I have the Samsung 960 Pro, with bios 1504, and it works great. But I didn't try and update the firmware with Samsung's "Magician" software, because, there isn't a firmware update for the Samsung 960 Pro, only for the Samsung 960 EVO. As I don't have the EVO, I didn't touch the Samsung 960 PRO that I have, which works great, and I've had for several weeks with no issues (except, of course, you have to create a HackrNVME custom kext for it, as outlined in this guide) Perhaps either you have a bad Samsung 960 Pro, or maybe the Magician software did something it shouldn't have......

 

[kgp]

I have the Samsung 960 Pro, with bios 1504, and it works great. But I didn't try and update the firmware with Samsung's "Magician" software, because, there isn't a firmware update for the Samsung 960 Pro, only for the Samsung 960 EVO. As I don't have the EVO, I didn't touch the Samsung 960 PRO that I have, which works great, and I've had for several weeks with no issues (except, of course, you have to create a HackrNVME custom kext for it, as outlined in this guide) Perhaps either you have a bad Samsung 960 Pro, or maybe the Magician software did something it shouldn't have......

And I knew there was at least one person with a Samsung 960 Pro, perfectly working with this build and the X99-A II .. Many thanks for your reply @mm2margaret

The interesting thing is, that @ryward claimed that he did perform a firmware upgrade for the Samsung 960 Pro with Samsung Magician.

So my questions now is how he could have performed this firmware upgrade if there is no firmware upgrade for the 960 Pro at all? Samsung Magician automatically detects each connected NVMe and also performs the firmware upgrade automatically after pressing the respective button. There is no way to confuse with firmware versions of other products....

I am lost at this place...

 

[welkram]

Thanks a lot. I had spent almost 3 months for the trial, but not succeeded. Your post made my dream coming true. Now my build Asrock Taichi X99 with i7 6800K can work now.
But I still have an issue with my Asus ROG Strix GTX 1060 6GB card. It can be recognized only 256 MB of VRAM. What did I do wrong? Your advice will be very appreciated. I already installed latest NVdia webdriver and CUDA for mac.
Thanks.

 

[kgp]

Thanks a lot. I had spent almost 3 months for the trial, but not succeeded. Your post made my dream coming true. Now my build Asrock Taichi X99 with i7 6800K can work now.
But I still have an issue with my Asus ROG Strix GTX 1060 6GB card. It can be recognized only 256 MB of VRAM. What did I do wrong? Your advice will be very appreciated. I already installed latest NVdia webdriver and CUDA for mac.
Thanks.

It seems that the web driver is not properly loaded or does not properly work. Did you install the latest version: 378.05.05.05f02 ? Is the web driver really enabled? Check the NVidia Driver Manager in the menu bar.

 

[hooked]

Hi KGP,

Your guide works on GIGABYTE x99 Ultra Gaming for the exception of (in my case) XCPM.

I used your guide, however instead of VoodooHDA I did ssdt had patches. (Audio works)

Working:
Sleep/Wake, Audio before and after sleep, Ethernet, iMessage, USB, HW monitors etc.

Not working:
XCPM

machdep.xcpm.mode: 0

sysctl -n machdep.xcpm.vectors_loaded_count =0

However IPG has idle wattage at 18W and 68+W (during cinebench)
IPG also reports 1.2ghz idle and 4.00ghz during cinebench

Appears as if xcpm is working but not according to sysctl machdep.xcpm.mode

IPG Idle

• hooked
• Apr 21, 2017

IPG Cinebench GeekBench

• hooked
• Apr 21, 2017

GeekBench

• hooked
• Apr 21, 2017

kextstat|grep -y x86plat reports the following

80 1 0xffffff7f81fae000 0x17000 0x17000 com.apple.driver.X86PlatformPlugin (1.0.0) 4D7C495F-B088-3BC7-BE0B-86C0E7978CC0 <79 77 39 19 11 7 6 5 4 3 1>

118 1 0xffffff7f81fc5000 0x7000 0x7000 com.apple.driver.X86PlatformShim (1.0.0) D6D4635C-98C0-31C0-AE82-20D003A58ECF <80 79 77 7 4 3>

Also freqvectors are in my plist

But for the life of me I can not get xcpm to load, any ideas?

Thanks in advance.