Allegro Pro USB-C 8-Port PCIe Card Support Library

Description: ASMxHCI_FWUpdateV1291_251230700240V1.exe is a Windows app that updates ASMedia ASM3142 firmware to revision 251230700240 in the following Sonnet Technologies products:

Allegro Pro USB-C 8-Port PCIe Card (USB3C-8PM-E)

Allegro Pro 4 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A PCIe Card (USB3-PRO-4P10-E)

Allegro Pro 4 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C PCIe Card (USB3C-4PM-E)

Allegro USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C PCIe Card (USB3C-2PM-E)

McFiver PCIe Card (G10E-USBC-M2-E)

Fusion Dual 2.5-inch SSD RAID PCIe Card (FUS-SSD-2RAID-E)

Note: This release provides a fix for controller detection failure with certain motherboards with Intel® 800/700/600 Series desktop chipsets.

Description: This is the English quick start guide for the Allegro Pro USB-C 8-Port PCIe Card. This is revision E of this document.

None of Sonnet's Cards with USB 2.0 or USB 3 (either Type A or Type C) ports support the Apple SuperDrive. You must use a built-in USB 2.0 or 3.0 port on your Mac.

According to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5630, "The Apple USB SuperDrive is compatible with Mac models from 2008 and later that don't have a built-in optical drive."

All Sonnet Allegro (and Fusion Dual 2.5" SSD RAID) PCIe Cards use a macOS pre-installed driver.

These cards are compatible with macOS 10.10 in the MacPro 3,1; 4,1 & 5,1 and in Thunderbolt 2 Expansion chassis.

These cards are not compatible with macOS 10.11, due to a bug in the Apple driver.

These cards are compatible with macOS 10.12 (2)-10.14 in the MacPro 5,1 and in Thunderbolt 2 & 3 Expansion chassis.

These cards are compatible with macOS 10.15-macOS 12 in the 2019 Mac Pro and in Thunderbolt 2 & 3 Expansion chassis.

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Notes:

- These cards are not compatible with Thunderbolt 1 expansion chassis.

- macOS 10.12 erroneously reports a 5Gbps connection when connected at 10Gbps.

- The maximum Apple-supported OS for the Mac Pro 3,1 and 4,1 is OS X 10.11. Dosdude1 offers patchers to allow installation of newer versions of macOS. The Apple USB 3 driver in these patched newer versions will support the Allegro cards.

- Performance of the Allegro cards may be limited by the Mac Pro 5,1 PCIe 2.0 bandwidth.

These cards are compatible with only Thunderbolt 2 or 3 PCIe expansion chassis; they are not compatible with Thunderbolt 1 PCIe expansion chassis (unless they have been upgraded to Thunderbolt 2).

All current and recent Sonnet USB 3 cards have resettable fuses to protect the ports from an overcurrent condition. To reset the fuses, you must remove power to the card by shutting down your machine. (Restarting is not sufficient.) After turning the computer back on, the ports should start working again. If the fuses continue to trip, then you may have a device that draws too much USB Bus power (more than 2 Amps).

USB 3 is the specification revision published by the USB Implementers Forum. Dot 0, dot 1, or dot 2 is the revision level of the specification. USB 3.2 superseded USB 3.1, which superceded USB 3.0. Each version of the specification retained what was in the previous specification and added something new. USB 3.1 added 10Gbps. USB 3.2 adds 20Gbps.

Our cards have not changed. We have updated the naming on our web site to conform with the latest specification.

This chart may help...

USB 3.0____USB 3.1___________________USB 3.2________________

USB 3.0 -> USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gbps) --> USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps)

..................USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) -> USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps)

.............................................................USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps)

The uniqueness of Sonnet USB 3.2 products is each USB port has a USB power switch (MOSFET) that manages and monitors the current flow of the USB port. The USB switch limits the current draw when a new USB device is connected minimizing the voltage droop of the main USB 5V power rail, thereby protecting devices connected to other USB ports from going offline because of port power droop. The USB switch is also a very effective current limiter that does not degrade over trips the way a resettable poly-fuse would.

I am having power problems with my Allegro USB PCIe Card.

If you are experiencing issues with your Allegro USB PCIE card, try the following troubleshooting steps.

When you connect any USB peripheral to the device, is anything shown in About This Mac > System Report > Hardware > USB?

1) Regarding the issue: this may be that the USB devices are pulling more than 2A of power per device.
The Allegro cards include resettable fuses built into these cards’ ports that will trip when a connected device pulls more than 2A of power. Have you tried connecting one device to port 1, and another to port 4?
See our tech note here for more details, and how to reset these.

2) Also, we found that many hard drive and USB peripheral manufacturers will include a gen 1 low power USB 3 cable with their devices.
These cables do technically meet the requirements of a USB 3 cable, but, are often not super speed, not gen 2, and will not universally function at higher speeds.

Other customers have reported similar issues of non-connectivity, disconnections, or, being limited to slower speeds with our Allegro Pro card before as well.
These cases were resolved by the use of a higher quality and fully functional USB 3 cable.
We also note that some USB devices use a USB-C to USB-A port, but our cards only have USB-A or USB-C, necessitating the need for an adapter cable.
We do not know specifically which types of USB adapter cables you would need, but we can recommend a cable similar to these USB cables from Tripp-Lite, Cable Matters, Belkin, or Monster (if you can find the Monsters for cheap)
We would recommend only buying one of the cables, and testing it with one of the devices. Make sure that the cable is listed as ‘10Gbps compatible’ or ’super-speed, high-power, certified’ or similar.

If you are still having trouble, this may be a problem due to a voltage drop in the USB cable. Using a shorter or thicker cable can end up being the correct cable for your application, particularly for complex devices like the BMD.

In general, these cables should work with USB peripherals drawing up to 2A of current:
Type........Power-Carrying Wires....Cable Outside Diameter....Maximum Cable Length

USB 3..........20 AWG...............................6.0mm..............................1m ( 3 ft)

Generally, the gauge of the power-carrying wires can be inferred from the cable outside diameter.

3) Your Mac computer, or the USB/other peripherals, may require additional setup for best connection.
Make sure to disable FileVault, and similar encryption programs, and any anti-virus programs you may have.
You can try using the Apple Startup Security Utility to set External Boot to "Allow booting from external media” and “No Security." If this is already set, you must set it to "Disallow booting from external media”, “Full security” then restart, then set to "Allow booting from external media”, “No Security”, and restart again.
You can also try to disable SIP then test again, but we only recommend this if you feel comfortable with recovery console, Terminal commands, and modification to macOS.

Also, does the USB device or Hard Drive have (or require) a firmware/software update for optimized usage? Is there additional USB/HDD software required or recommended for use of these?
We have seen that some connected peripherals may need additional updates to function well, or, macOS security can prevent these from working (see above).

4) Regrettably, some peripherals or their software, may not be compatible with the chipset used on the card (ASMedia ASMx142)
Your USB peripheral OEM may also have other drivers, updates, or information available directly from their website.