HighPoint Rocket 640L

[0488568]

Hello,

Any one bought one of these recently? I just got one this weekend. I flashed it using the latest firmware from highpoint site using a windows machine through the webui. Once I got home and installed it on my 2009 mac pro it does not seem to work. I see the device under pci cards but it does not have a driver for it. Also I do not see my connected drives.

If I try to boot with FreeDos, Ultimate Boot Disc. All I get is the HighPoint boot screen.

Any help welcomed. Thanks!

 

[h9826790]

Which OS?

 

[0488568]

10.9.5

 

[0488568]

Downgraded card bios to 1.0 from 1.1 and still not detected. Will try to install capitan GM and see if its detected...

 

[0488568]

No go from El Capitan. Im going to try to return the card. Any other card I should look into?

 

[0488568]

Chipset on the card has:
M
88SE9230-NAA2
NFT3386.4.JW
1327 AQP
TW

 

[Emen Mali]

Were you able to get this card working in your Mac?

 

[zedex]

Mine works fine. It does not seem all that relevant to the OP but I have 2 of these 'Highpoint 600 Series' cards and they look the same but they are quite different.
The thread title suggests that you are using a Highpoint Rocket 640L. This card is an "AHCI driverless" HBA and can be used to boot any SATA III HDD/SSD. This card does not have any physical feature (hardware RAID controller chipset) that would permit you to create a hardware RAID (I still use it with SoftRAID).
The second type is very similarly named: the Highpoint RocketRAID 640 (abbreviated as RR640). This card has an onboard RAID controller and may* only work with a KEXT download from the Highpoint Technologies website.


*I'm sure I've used it in several versions of macOS (confirmed working on 10.10, 10.11, 10.12) without installing the latest KEXT from HIGHPOINT.

 

[Emen Mali]

Mine works fine. It does not seem all that relevant to the OP but I have 2 of these 'Highpoint 600 Series' cards and they look the same but they are quite different.
The thread title suggests that you are using a Highpoint Rocket 640L. This card is an "AHCI driverless" HBA and can be used to boot any SATA III HDD/SSD. This card does not have any physical feature (hardware RAID controller chipset) that would permit you to create a hardware RAID (I still use it with SoftRAID).
The second type is very similarly named: the Highpoint RocketRAID 640 (abbreviated as RR640). This card has an onboard RAID controller and may* only work with a KEXT download from the Highpoint Technologies website.


*I'm sure I've used it in several versions of macOS (confirmed working on 10.10, 10.11, 10.12) without installing the latest KEXT from HIGHPOINT.

I use SoftRAID for the internal SATA II bays, but want to see if I can get these drives connected to the 640L. The only slot open is SLOT 4. (RADEON RX580 in slot 1, usb c - gen 2 in slot 2 and NVME card in slot 3) It sees the card but the not the drives! System Profiler says the driver is installed. Dont know why it won't see any of the drives.

 

[zedex]

I use SoftRAID for the internal SATA II bays, but want to see if I can get these drives connected to the 640L. The only slot open is SLOT 4. (RADEON RX580 in slot 1, usb c - gen 2 in slot 2 and NVME card in slot 3) It sees the card but the not the drives! System Profiler says the driver is installed. Dont know why it won't see any of the drives.

You have a power source for the drives connected to the 640L.? Thats the most common mistake - disks won't show just because they're connected to 640L by the 7pin Sata data connectors. Tell me about the disks and ill help you solve

 

[Emen Mali]

The drives are WD RED 6tb, mounted to sleds from Maxupgrades that bypass the SATA port but do connect to the power. They worked before using a Newertech RAID mini card, but that card was connected in SLOT 2. Which is covered now by the graphic cards (RADEON RX580)

 

[zedex]

OK - I've got a bit of time. We might be able to solve this tonight (my time anyway).

STAGE 1 TROUBLESHOOTING (if this fails then we'll consider a second possibility..)

(1) Is it definitely a Rocket 640L (AHCI Driverless HBA) and NOT a RocketRAID RR640 (PCI-e card with onboard RAID controller chip)..

I ask this because somewhere in these (Mac Pro tower) forums - members have discussed a special method of getting HDDs larger than 2.2TB to be recognised by AHCI SATA interface technology.

Before you say - why would that matter if I know that my WD RED 6TB worked under the Newertech RAID mini card? it's because the [Newertech RAID mini card] has an onboard controller/chipset doing the "heavy lifting" UNLIKE the 640L which has not got a 3rd party controller (such as Marvell or Fresco Logic or ASM) and THEREFORE it is "driverless" and pure as the driven snow (or "native") allowing/requiring the cMP logic board to do all the signal negotiation in EXACTLY the same way it would if you plugged your WD RED 6TB in to HD Carrier Bay 1 (or 2,3,4).


So........ I guess I'm saying first clarify whether a plain old WD RED 6TB on a sled is recognised/spins up when you stick it in to HD Carrier Bay (either 1,2,3 or 4). I just have a suspicion based on a vague recollection of a topic I once read that we might be trying to solve the wrong problem if we focus on the Rocket 640L without first understanding the nature of this "formatting/recognising HDDs larger than 2.2TB"

Of course - you could also see if the Highpoint Rocket 640L works just by testing the connection with a smaller drive if that's easier..?

 

[Emen Mali]

I really appreciate the help. In searching the forums, I never came across the drive size being a factor with the Highpoint 640L. I do have some 2tb drives I can try.

So I should mount a 6TB to the original APPLE sled or the Maxupgrades sleds that bypass the data sata port? with all the fans I'm unable to tell if the drives are spinning! But will give it a try this evening.

Again, I Appreciate the help!

 

[zedex]

No worries - this link may help as well.. [ http://www.hptmac.com/productfiles/bios_driver/Datasheet_RR600_Mac-14_12_20.pdf ]

see page 2

 

[Emen Mali]

Looks like if it's not in the RocketRAID line then anything larger than 2tb is not supported. Now look for the work around you said was mentioned in the forums.

What should I look for in a PCIe card that would allow drives larger than 2tb that isn't a hardware RAID card?