What's broken, my 2012 MBA or Apple's USB 3.0 driver?

[AndyDiamond]

I read something that said you need to make sure the first USB device you plug in to your USB3 hub is a USB3 device. If you plug a USB2 device in first it will set the whole hub at that speed!

[joeblough]

while building a hackintosh, i came across this:

http://via-labs.com/en/support/downloads.jsp

the changelog for firmware 0.9.6 says that they have improved OSX compatibility. i'm not entirely sure if this VIA chip is used in standalone USB 3.0 hubs, or just on motherboards.

also they say that end users should not try to use the firmware update, and besides, you need windows to do the update. but i think it could mean that some older hubs could be buggy. assuming this chip shows up in external USB3.0 hubs, perhaps apple has worked around whatever problems there are with the older firmware by now.

[Mr. Retrofire]

Originally Posted by joeblough

while building a hackintosh, i came across this:

http://via-labs.com/en/support/downloads.jsp

the changelog for firmware 0.9.6 says that they have improved OSX compatibility. i'm not entirely sure if this VIA chip is used in standalone USB 3.0 hubs, or just on motherboards.

The STARTECH HUB (ST4300USB3EU) uses the VLI VL810 chipset:
http://www.cclonline.com/content/pdf...LQeA-3d-3d.pdf
(and is compatible with Mac OS X 10.8, after the firmware update)

Originally Posted by joeblough

...also they say that end users should not try to use the firmware update, and besides, you need windows to do the update

You can do this probably via Bootcamp or newer versions of VMware Fusion.

Originally Posted by joeblough

but i think it could mean that some older hubs could be buggy. assuming this chip shows up in external USB3.0 hubs, perhaps apple has worked around whatever problems there are with the older firmware by now.

No, firmware updates for such chips are normal. They can improve the performance on certain systems, which have buggy drivers. Hardware needs a official certification, Apples xHCI driver does not have a official certification, so i think the problem is Apples xHCI driver. Not the only driver which has problems.

[joeblough]

Originally Posted by Mr. Retrofire

The STARTECH HUB (ST4300USB3EU) uses the VLI VL810 chipset:
http://www.cclonline.com/content/pdf...LQeA-3d-3d.pdf
(and is compatible with Mac OS X 10.8, after the firmware update)


You can do this probably via Bootcamp or newer versions of VMware Fusion.


No, firmware updates for such chips are normal. They can improve the performance on certain systems, which have buggy drivers. Hardware needs a official certification, Apples xHCI driver does not have a official certification, so i think the problem is Apples xHCI driver. Not the only driver which has problems.

i haven't looked at that firmware updater, but in the past i've had reasonable luck using one of those "ultimate boot CD" things with SATA hard drive firmware updaters. those almost always run in DOS mode.

i guess i'm just so used to USB2.0 "just working" that i was surprised by the need for a firmware update for a USB hub. but yeah, it's early enough days that i should not be surprised to see FW updates for USB3.0 hubs.