Thunderbolt 3 with threadripper on a Asrock x399 fatality motherboard. Help needed.  

@i0ntempest, I have no use for USB 2.0 through the TB3 AIC at all so I never tested it. Motherboards have plenty of USB-A ports so I did not want to complicate this Thunderbolt 3 workaround with more connections.

I have a AMD Epyc 7302 (16-core) and a ASRock RomeD8-2T. I installed the Gigabyte Titan Ridge AIC TB3 card, shorted out the pins on the header cable, and connected the USB2 header to a "real" USB port using an adapter cable. The card APPEARS to be working, with no driver errors in windows and it even recognizes my TB3-only nvme SSD enclosure. While the thunderbolt control center recognizes the enclosure and I can approve the device, the drive does not show up in Windows anywhere. I confirmed the drive and enclosure work just fine on a laptop. Same for my Razer Core X. Thunderbolt control center recognizes and approves it, but no new display adapters appear. No errors, either. 

This is the adapter cable I used, since there isn't a USB2 header on this motherboard:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Q4QZW57/

Any ideas? 

@dregpu, Have you tried cold-boot with the TB3 device connected following Thunderbolt detection?

@itsage, Yes, no change with cold boot. The only other thing I can think of, is that this motherboard wants the TB3 AIC in slot 1, but that is not where I installed it. I figured since I wasn't using the TB3 header on the motherboard it wouldn't matter. Perhaps it does?

@dregpu, Each motherboard behave differently with the AIC in my experience. In my X399M Taichi, the bottom PCIe slot works best. I've tried other slots which worked but the AIC would randomly become undetected.

Posted by: @itsage

@i0ntempest, I have no use for USB 2.0 through the TB3 AIC at all so I never tested it. Motherboards have plenty of USB-A ports so I did not want to complicate this Thunderbolt 3 workaround with more connections.

 

I know the thread is old but it's one of the most helpful ones available...

Do you know by any chance why TB3 AICs need USB 2.0 header for USB 2.0 passthru at all? I can confirm that when connecting USB 2.0 device, AIC forwards it to USB 2.0 header on the motherboard, which is obviously not the case with USB 3.0 and up. 

Is it a chipset limitation? Or USB 2.0 wasn't "virtualized"? Or AIC card manufactures would need to add USB 2.0 hub on the card itself because it has to be physical (that's why the decided to use a header or something)?

This thing is confusing 

@dregpu, had this exact same issue as well

@steek I also find it confusing and strange Intel decided not to somehow build in USB2.0/1.0 backwards compatibility in the TB3 chips or specs/standards. As you you determined for yourself, the USB2.0 isn't required for anything other than USB2 functionality. I'm not sure there are many, if any, devices that are being made with USB 2.0. No matter how slow the DIMMs are, the interface on the USB sticks seem to be USB 3.0. 

@TripleYoThreat I never ended up getting this working. I'm waiting on the Gigabyte WRX80 motherboard which claims to have a TB3 header on it. The online manual describes the pin out for the mobo header so it seems like it's supported, but the manual doesn't really mention TB3 again (except in passing to say there are "some setting" in the BIOS). No mention of slot requirement or such. All the PCIe slots are direct to the CPU (as opposed to being routed through the chipset), so maybe any slot should work?

Posted by: @dregpu

@steek I also find it confusing and strange Intel decided not to somehow build in USB2.0/1.0 backwards compatibility in the TB3 chips or specs/standards. As you you determined for yourself, the USB2.0 isn't required for anything other than USB2 functionality. I'm not sure there are many, if any, devices that are being made with USB 2.0. No matter how slow the DIMMs are, the interface on the USB sticks seem to be USB 3.0. 

@TripleYoThreat I never ended up getting this working. I'm waiting on the Gigabyte WRX80 motherboard which claims to have a TB3 header on it. The online manual describes the pin out for the mobo header so it seems like it's supported, but the manual doesn't really mention TB3 again (except in passing to say there are "some setting" in the BIOS). No mention of slot requirement or such. All the PCIe slots are direct to the CPU (as opposed to being routed through the chipset), so maybe any slot should work?

@dregpu  - I also have the same Romed8-2T board and as you know it has the Thunderbolt 5 pin heather soldered on some and not in others.  I am trying to get the custom BIOS from AsRock tru some non official channels to see if I can get it.  Anyways did you try the 5 pin hack with other slots on the board and what BIOS versions did you try ?  I have Milan CPU and would like to get the card to test it or maybe its best to get AsRock TB4 card and try it

@edin_gacic I sold it and traded up to the Gigabyte WRX80 motherboard, which actually does have TB3 support, unlike Asrock. I'm still salty about that.