Q: Mavericks does not recognize ExpressCard

Did anyone try if this has been fixed in 10.9.1 already?

There's nothing in the release notes indicating that they've fixed this... so I'm just wondering. I'm still on 10.9 with IOPCIFamily.kext from 10.8.5, works perfectly for me. :-)

No change - and my fallback with an old IOPCIFamily.kext was removed by the update.

Isn't that super customer support from Apple.

You buy their highest end laptop product, and as soon as it's out of apple care they could care less if it works or not.

Too busy dumbing down the Mac interface to parity with iOS to fix any bugs.

On another thread, THEIMAGEHOUSE got this solved with a Mountain Lion KEXT and posted the files! Confirmed working after several reboots!

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5468599?start=45&tstart=0

This may work but its exactly why I switched away from windows - the need of hacking the system.

I also have a mid-2010 17" macbook pro with a silicon 3132 esata expresscard 34 card.  I tried to fix using my old kext file using multibeast and kext wizard with no avail.  Is there anyone who has a solution this mess?  Seriously Apple, $3000 laptop 3.5 years old losing update support is bull. 

I have a rather expensive UAD 2 Solo expresscard with some rather expensive plug-ins used for audio work which no longer works in this rather expensive laptop computer after "upgrading" to 10.9.

I should have known this was a mistake, is there a way to go back to 10.8 without having to re-install everything?

Yeah, stupid me, I didn't think I'd need to do that. Apple says reset SMS but that doesn't help. The card that most concerns me is a Universal Audio Devices 2 Solo/Laptop which powers high end plug-ins for audio processing in digital audio workstation programs, not something you can just grab another one of.

my previous comment appeared to have been censored. i guess i mentioned something negative about aapl.

so i'll try and help those who have posted on this thread, without venting my frustration;

If you have ONLY THE 2010 MODEL 17in MacBook Pro, no amount of reinstalling drivers or resetting pram or reinstalling 10.9 is going to help you.

Fixes the OP needed to get his 2011 MBP working, will not help you. And vice-versa.

ONLY on the 2010, Apple has broken the expresscard SLOT with 10.9. 10.9.1 doesnt fix. Apple has not acknowledged their error.

ON the 2010, you can replace the kexts (with the ones from 10.8) mentioned above, and should restore functionality. Untill Software Update overwrites your fix, that is. Then you will have to replace kexts again.

On the 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 etc...you dont have this problem, and probably only have to update the drivers for your particular card.

so to sum up;

DONT replace kexts if you have a 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 MBP.

That is only for 2010 MBP's

Well I spent another hour or more on a tech support call with apple who won't even admit that this is a known problem. They claim that it's up to manufacturers to supply drivers for the expresscard slot, who would have thought that mavericks is the reincarnation of windows XP??! Of course it's just a coincidence, I guess, that suddenly three totally different cards suddenly don't work in the expresscard slot after installing 10.9. These cards never required any driver installion before, they were simply OSX compatable. So at that point they switch tactics and tell me that if I think it's a hardware failure I need to take it to an apple store. There are none in my area.

So they can't help me because I can't prove that any of these cards are supported in mavericks. When I try to point out that this problem shows up for a number of people on these forums they tell me that they are approaching this on a case by case basis because people on forums are basically wackos and they can't be bothered to look at forums.

Well apple just lost me as a customer after this fiasco, not because of the problem but more so from the fact that they can't admit to it. This is most likely a sales tactic for thunderbolt. I finally got my slot to work after contacting Sonnet support which has a fix for their cards which also worked for my silicon image card. Yes apple, Sonnet knew it was your fault and helped me even though I do not own any Sonnet products.

Do not mess with your kext files it caused my computer to become unbootable. If you have already tried to fix from previous posts of replacing kexts you will have to fresh install. Check out their support page and I would back up your machine before attempting the install. I will attach a copy of the email when I get back to my laptop.

My experience is the same as everyone elses. That is, ever since the Mavericks upgrade, my 2010 Macintosh 6,1's Express Card slot does not seem to be functional.....however, that was until I plugged in a different brand of external eSATA HDD enclosure.

My original (Digitor branded) was D.O.A. under Mavericks, whereas the second enclosure I tried lit up and worked like it should have.

Preliminary conclusion (for my situation at least) is that the incompatibility could be based in the external hardware (as Apple seems to be suggesting for the previous poster)

Just my 2c's worth........

BTW: absolutely agree with "nasachusetts" when they say not to mess with kexts as I did and my computer became unbootable. Also I do not believe that issues with kexts are causing ExpressCards to "appear" not to work.

Here is the email from Sonnet tech support:

"this specific model of MacBook Pro (17” mid-2010, revision 6,1) has a known problem with Mavericks breaking the built-in Apple PCI drivers that operate the E/34 slot.

This issue is not specific to Sonnet or your card - all ExpressCards are affected in 10.9 on this specific model.

Hopefully Apple is working on releasing a patch soon to address this issue, as many professional users own this same computer and need to continue utilizing E/34 interfaces as key workflow components.

In the meantime, our engineering team has managed to create an alternate PCI driver that overrides the built in Apple driver to resume connectivity on this particular MacBook Pro.

If you download the QIO driver v. 1.2.7b (Download Now) and run the installation, you’ll be able to select the “Customize” option and choose to download only the IOPCIFamily_10.9 driver which will replace the existing file on the computer."