MacMini Late 2011 and LaCie 5Big Thunderbolt 2 problem

[Almond777]

Setup:

MacMini Late 2011;

LaCie 5Big Thunderbolt 2;

macOS Sierra 10.12.2;

LaCie RIAD Manager 2.3.38.7181

RAID Firmware 2.03.1058;

Thunderbolt cable from RAID box.


Problem:

System crashes when RAID switching on.


Experiment 1.

Boot system then RAID switch on. System crashes after blue light stop blinking.


Experiment 2.

RAID switched on, then system boot. System crashes after minute of boot.


Experiment 3.

Installed absolutely fresh system on eternal SSD, LaCie RAID manager installed immediately after OS installation. Booting from SSD. System crash.


Experiment 4.

Changing cables, ports etc. No result.


Experiment 5.

Uninstalled LaCie RAID manager. System boot is normal but RAID is not defined even with Disk Utility.


Experiment 5.

RAID connected to MacBook Air 6,1 Mid 2013. System is normal working, RAID is perfectly working.


Experiment 6.

RAID connect to iMac Retina 5K Late 2015. System is normal working, RAID is perfectly working.


So system does not work with MacMini connected to LaCie RAID.


I used Promise Pegasus R4 (Not Pegasus2) in configuration with this MacMini before. It works perfect with Thunderbolt connection so Thunderbolt port is fully workable.


System crash report is in attachment.

Any ideas appreciated....

 

[treekram]

From the crash report, it looks like the LaCie driver is what's causing the crash. While you have the latest LaCie driver, the crash report says you have the initial Sierra version (16.0.0) or 10.12.0. The latest version is 16.3.0 (10.12.2) which is what you say you have. What does the "About" (Apple icon in top left corner) say?

EDIT: Looking at the build number in the crash report (16A323), that is an early Sierra build.

 

[philipma1957]

Setup:

MacMini Late 2011;

LaCie 5Big Thunderbolt 2;

macOS Sierra 10.12.2;

LaCie RIAD Manager 2.3.38.7181

RAID Firmware 2.03.1058;

Thunderbolt cable from RAID box.


Problem:

System crashes when RAID switching on.


Experiment 1.

Boot system then RAID switch on. System crashes after blue light stop blinking.


Experiment 2.

RAID switched on, then system boot. System crashes after minute of boot.


Experiment 3.

Installed absolutely fresh system on eternal SSD, LaCie RAID manager installed immediately after OS installation. Booting from SSD. System crash.


Experiment 4.

Changing cables, ports etc. No result.


Experiment 5.

Uninstalled LaCie RAID manager. System boot is normal but RAID is not defined even with Disk Utility.


Experiment 5.

RAID connected to MacBook Air 6,1 Mid 2013. System is normal working, RAID is perfectly working.


Experiment 6.

RAID connect to iMac Retina 5K Late 2015. System is normal working, RAID is perfectly working.


So system does not work with MacMini connected to LaCie RAID.


I used Promise Pegasus R4 (Not Pegasus2) in configuration with this MacMini before. It works perfect with Thunderbolt connection so Thunderbolt port is fully workable.


System crash report is in attachment.

Any ideas appreciated....

I have a lacie but don't use raid it has two 3 tb hdds. I am using 1 of the drives as a booter and one of the drives for back up I have a 2011 i5 with a gpu the amd 6630m.

So the lacie works in a none raid setup.

 

[Almond777]

From the crash report, it looks like the LaCie driver is what's causing the crash. While you have the latest LaCie driver, the crash report says you have the initial Sierra version (16.0.0) or 10.12.0. The latest version is 16.3.0 (10.12.2) which is what you say you have. What does the "About" (Apple icon in top left corner) say?

EDIT: Looking at the build number in the crash report (16A323), that is an early Sierra build.

No, it is 10.12.2

 

[Almond777]

and one more thing
Here http://forum.promise.com/thread/pegasus-j4-crashes-macos-sierra/ I see that Promise Pegasus J4 users had absolutely the same problem until Promise developers have made special patch for their driver.
So I guess it is LaCie programmers fault but I do not understand why their software is working on another Macs like my iMac and Macbook Air...

 

[treekram]

So out of the machines you tested - Mini 2011, Air 2013, iMac late 2015 - and I'll throw in a couple of computers I have - the 2012 Mini and the 2014 Mini. Between these 5 computers, they use 4 different Thunderbolt controller chips (only the 2015 iMac and the 2014 Mini have the same chip). Compounding this is that the 2011 and 2012 have Thunderbolt 1, the later machines have Thunderbolt 2. A good guess is that there's some difference in the chip that's causing the issue. It's difficult for LaCie or other developers is trying to test all the Thunderbolt chips (particularly the older Thunderbolt 1 chips), if that is indeed the cause of the problem.

You should contact LaCie to make them aware of the problem. If they ask for your crash report, you should try to get one with your current OS version on it, if possible.

 

[Almond777]

LaCie tech support is absolutely terrible. No contacts, no any replies... It is a big secret how to get them

 

[Kcetech1]

contact Seagate directly for support, I have had to do that on occasion. LaCie=Seagate

 

[treekram]

Another factor you may want to consider is the OS. Maybe it will work with pre-Sierra OS's. In recent years, it seems Apple hasn't done good testing with older computers even though they list it as being compatible with a specific OS. With Sierra, they added support for the Thunderbolt 3 chip in the 2016 MacBook Pro. It wouldn't surprise me if somehow something went amiss with drivers for the oldest (Thunderbolt 1) chips.

 

[Almond777]

Yes, maybe but I have connected Promise Pegasus R4 to this MacMini. Pegasus has Thunderbolt 1 on board and works fine with my MacMini. It seems that it's LaCie driver problem... of course I'll try to install older OS on external SSD and take a look on system behaviour, thank you for good idea.

 

[Almond777]

Finally problem solved.
Today I've got a patch for 5big driver from LaCie support and device works fine.
Briefly they found that the driver that is used with that version of the Raid manager is not compatible with the first generation Thunderbolt 1 Macs.
I guess LaCie would update their Raid Manager soon.
Thank you all for your ideas!