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Mac mini 2018 10GbE overheating in BootCamp

Squuiid

Squuiid

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 31, 2006
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The 10GbE NIC in my mini 2018 keeps dropping the connection and stating that the cable is no longer connected when run in Windows 10 1903.
The only way to restore the connection is to power off and then power on again. A reboot does not restore the connection. I've tried the older iMac Pro driver as well as the newer Aquantia driver. All 3 drivers fail.

It appears as though this is due to overheating when using the NIC in BootCamp. I don't have the issue in either Mojave or Catalina DP3.

Anyone else experiencing this and does anyone have any suggestions as to how to fix?
If it did the same thing in macOS then I'd put it down to hardware, but it seems more like it is to do with fans not kicking in when running BootCamp.

UPDATE:
If you have this issue please log it with Apple. That is the only way we're going to get a fix for this:

https://feedbackassistant.apple.com

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Looks like mine is overheating in boot camp too after looking at my event log - glad you pointed this out. I can’t say for sure but I don’t think this is new to 1903 so I had link losses in windows for a while now, just never realized why

I was hoping to use Mac fan control to bump the fan speed up but looks like that doesn’t work with T2 equipped Mac under windows. Darn

Have you tried opening a case yet with Apple support?
 
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I tried chatting with Apple Support today, and they suggested I call microsoft. {sigh}

I think the adapter may have glitched on me in MacOS yesterday, though didn't require a reboot to fix. I'm going to see if I can reproduce on the mac side since otherwise I think its going to be tough to convince the first-level tech support to take me seriously. And frankly I can't say I'd blame them - until reading your post I was just asusming it was the usual windows/driver cruftiness.
 
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You could get an Apple "Senior Advisor" to gather logs for it and send them through for analysis. They're not going to be able to answer the question directly though, anything dealing with Boot Camp is 99% "Call Microsoft" and 1% log analysis for issues related to Boot Camp drivers.

It would be a good idea to erase the Windows partition completely, then do a clean installation of Windows using Boot Camp with NO third party software installed, and see if the issue still happens. If it does not, chances are - it's not a Boot Camp driver issue, it's something between Windows and possibly a 3rd party software issue. If it DOES happen with totally clean Windows install with no other software, Apple Senior Advisor is your best bet. Be prepared, they may have you re-do the installation again to gather specific logs.
 
omvs said:
Looks like mine is overheating in boot camp too after looking at my event log - glad you pointed this out. I can’t say for sure but I don’t think this is new to 1903 so I had link losses in windows for a while now, just never realized why

I was hoping to use Mac fan control to bump the fan speed up but looks like that doesn’t work with T2 equipped Mac under windows. Darn

Have you tried opening a case yet with Apple support?
Click to expand...

That isn't the only thing that does this. I can't play an old windows game (Rise of Nations) under Bootcamp as the game generates a ton of heat but will not make the fans spool up in Bootcamp. It has to be how apple determines the "need" for the fans. I'm thinking it has to generate heat in multiple areas and the game only uses the GPU it doesn't crank up the speed.

Now the good news! There is a workaround but it's a two step. Get Mac Fan control and use it in MAC. Set the fan speed to whatever percentage you feel is enough to cool the unit without becoming obnoxious. Then boot to bootcamp. The settings in MAC are written to the SMC and will carry over to the windows side. You can't make any changes once in bootcamp but you can get them to spool up. It solved my fan issue and I just set it to about 3200RPM's and it keeps my gaming session cool.
 
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Thats weird - I game quite a bit in bootcamp -- only reason i use windows -- and haven't had it overheat on my mini. I wish I had a way to look at the temperatures while in windows. I could have sworn i've even heard the fans spin up enough to be audible, which is pretty high (i don't hear it on osx unless fans seem to be spinning >3k)

Is that definitely fixing the NIC problem, or too soon to tell? I'm worried about forcing the fans that way in case its actually not enough to keep mac from overheating.
 
Yeah, most of my games will "play nice" but Rise of Nations is one of my favorites and it's an early 2000 game so it's probably using the hardware in a non-standard way causing the bootcamp drivers to "miss" the need for the fans. Either way, I can play it now and the fans will work fine as long as I set them in the Mac side before I boot over to bootcamp.
[doublepost=1562598708][/doublepost]As to your worry, you'd have to be able to see the temps...I just set it until the case ran slightly warm (Luke warm at best) rather than hot enough to fry an egg. I figure that there are times on the Mac side that it gets warmer than that so that's good enough. No issues since then. It's a little trial and error. I tried 2000 RPM's, 2500, and finally settled on 3200. Hope that helps!
 
So this is only occurring in Boot Camp? Those 10Gb chips produce a lot of heat. I was wondering how the mini handles it and the processor.
 
harvester32 said:
Now the good news! There is a workaround but it's a two step. Get Mac Fan control and use it in MAC. Set the fan speed to whatever percentage you feel is enough to cool the unit without becoming obnoxious. Then boot to bootcamp. The settings in MAC are written to the SMC and will carry over to the windows side. You can't make any changes once in bootcamp but you can get them to spool up. It solved my fan issue and I just set it to about 3200RPM's and it keeps my gaming session cool.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that worked! Settled on 2800rpm.
https://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control

Clearly a workaround and not a fix though. Lets hope Apple address this. BootCamp is unusable without this and temps get ridiculously high.
 
Squuiid said:
Thanks, that worked! Settled on 2800rpm.
https://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control

Clearly a workaround and not a fix though. Lets hope Apple address this. BootCamp is unusable without this and temps get ridiculously high.
Click to expand...

Has cranking the fans definitely solved the nic overheat?

Mine was overheating maybe once a day, but now I’m wondering if the rest of you are seeing more frequent overheats I tend to use mine with Egpu only so maybe my nic is actually cooler? Though the mini case itself stays warm/hot.
 
FreakinEurekan said:
You could get an Apple "Senior Advisor" to gather logs for it and send them through for analysis. ...
Click to expand...

How do I get through to a Senior Advisor? Last time I tried the online chat I didn't have a lot of success, and I'm not exactly confident that calling them will result in anything different. I'm guessing the genius bar would also be challenging since getting it to fail there would be non-trivial.

I've noticed that sometimes the adapter won't work even when I boot into MacOS - its happened in the past, but I hadn't connected it until it happened again just now. My guess is the nic shutdown in windows due to overheating, and even the MacOS driver can't start it up correctly in that state.
 
omvs said:
How do I get through to a Senior Advisor? Last time I tried the online chat I didn't have a lot of success, and I'm not exactly confident that calling them will result in anything different. I'm guessing the genius bar would also be challenging since getting it to fail there would be non-trivial.

I've noticed that sometimes the adapter won't work even when I boot into MacOS - its happened in the past, but I hadn't connected it until it happened again just now. My guess is the nic shutdown in windows due to overheating, and even the MacOS driver can't start it up correctly in that state.
Click to expand...
Once the nic stops working due to overheating it requires a power down of the Mac to then re-enable. Rebooting into either OS will not restore it to a working state. Full power down is required.
 
Does anyone know where the NIC is physically located? I've been curious if its possible to put a thermal pad or something to maybe help with the overheat, but haven't found any images online that help - the teardowns i've found seem to be on the base model.
 
I also use the Mac Fans workaround and this keeps the temperature under control.

Has anyone found a way to get the fans to kick in at the speed you left them after a shutdown.

For example, at present I need to set the speed in MacOS, restart in Bootcamp and it works.

If I then shutdown windows, when I next power on and go straight into bootcamp, the setting isn't what I left it as.

This means I'm always having to restart in MacOS after each Bootcamp session. I don't mind being unable to change the speed in Bootcamp but being able to maintain it between shutdowns would be good.
 
Squuiid said:
The 10GbE NIC in my mini 2018 keeps dropping the connection and stating that the cable is no longer connected when run in Windows 10 1903.
The only way to restore the connection is to power off and then power on again. A reboot does not restore the connection. I've tried the older iMac Pro driver as well as the newer Aquantia driver. All 3 drivers fail.

It appears as though this is due to overheating when using the NIC in BootCamp. I don't have the issue in either Mojave or Catalina DP3.

Anyone else experiencing this and does anyone have any suggestions as to how to fix?
If it did the same thing in macOS then I'd put it down to hardware, but it seems more like it is to do with fans not kicking in when running BootCamp.

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Click to expand...
Don't think this is actually due to an overheat condition. Rather the driver it's using for bootcamp.
 
iApplereviews said:
Don't think this is actually due to an overheat condition. Rather the driver it's using for bootcamp.
Click to expand...
That's incorrect.
If you use Macsfancontrol to raise the fan speed the issue goes away. But you will already know that of course having already read the thread before commenting.
 
Squuiid said:
How many of you have reported this to Apple? The best solution is to log it. It takes no more than a minute.
https://feedbackassistant.apple.com
Click to expand...

That hadn’t occurred to me. What category did you use? MacOS doesn’t seem quite correct, but i didn’t see anything closer.

I did engage with Apple Support again yesterday when I had booted into OSX and the adapter was dead - they asked me to try another ethernet adapter which I did and convinced them it was unique to the 10g interface, then they asked me to run the hardware diagnostics. Unfortunately booting into diagnostics fixed the adapter — maybe it had cooled off enough. I’m trying to go from windows disabling adapter straight to diagnostics while its still hot, but haven’t been able to overheat the adapter yet today.
 
omvs said:
That hadn’t occurred to me. What category did you use? MacOS doesn’t seem quite correct, but i didn’t see anything closer.

I did engage with Apple Support again yesterday when I had booted into OSX and the adapter was dead - they asked me to try another ethernet adapter which I did and convinced them it was unique to the 10g interface, then they asked me to run the hardware diagnostics. Unfortunately booting into diagnostics fixed the adapter — maybe it had cooled off enough. I’m trying to go from windows disabling adapter straight to diagnostics while its still hot, but haven’t been able to overheat the adapter yet today.
Click to expand...
Have it fail in Windows then just restart into macOS. Don't power off, just restart. The adapter will remain dead in macOS.
Also, show them the event viewer screenshots from Windows. It's conclusive what is happening.
 
Yeah, the automatic fan control doesn't seem to work right in Windows. When left on auto and trying to actively use my previous i7 mini, then it would heat up the chassis a lot and the 10GbE would have connection problems.

I had to use the Macs Fan Control work around, set the fan speed in macOS and restart into Windows to keep the mini from overheating.

It's a real shame that the T2 chip keeps the fan control apps from working in Windows.
 
Out of curiosity have you tried using a different (very high quality) Cat 7 cable?
 
Submitted a bug report to Apple and they don’t seem to care about this. Is it just me or are others seeing this issue in Windows?
 
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