Level 1

5 points

Mac Pro 2023 will not boot with PCIe SSD installed.

I just spent all night setting my new M2 Mac Pro. Everything seemed OK. This morning I was ready to do the final steps and get back to work. The final steps included adding some additional storage for my audio projects. Something I've been doing for over two decades now and didn't expect that to be a showstopper.

As soon as I installed my previously working OWC SSD OWC Accelsior 4M2 the Mac Pro would NOT boot. This drive works and I put it back in my 2019 Mac Pro and there are no issues. Even if I put the OWC SSD in a Sonnet PCIe to Thunderbolt chassis, the same thing happens. No boot. If I connect the chassis when the Mac is booted, it freezes.

I had also purchased a new OWC Accelsior 8M2 and planned for it to be my main working audio drive but the issue also happens with that SSD, so it's safe to say it's not a faulty SSD.

OWC is a VERY reliable brand and widely used in the pro audio and video community. I've been using them over 20 years now without issue.

I am not using these drives to boot the MacOS from. These are just storage for my actual audio projects, which is common in audio studios to have a dedicated drive for all the audio work. No software runs from these drives. I am using the internal Mac SSD to boot from as you normally would and without the PCIe SSDs, the computer seems to run just fine. I was so excited to get to work but I can't use this machine and get by on just the internal storage. Additional PCIe storage is essential in a pro studio.

I chatted with Apple Support today and they are looking into it, but I don't feel too confident about it. The "senior advisor" was not even aware there was a new 2023 Mac Pro (LOL) and hadn't watched the WWDC yet. I thought he was joking. He was not.

I called OWC as well and they are not aware of any issues yet but the Mac Pro just started arriving yesterday so it's still new territory. I'm trying to find out if it's an OWC issue, or Apple.

I do have an OWC Thunderbay 8 with 8 HDD (my project archives) and that did work OK.

Something about the new Mac Pro is NOT happy with PCIe SSDs connected either internally, or in a Thunderbolt chassis.

After staying up all night and wasting about 10 hours of setting up the new 2023 Mac Pro, I am sadly back to working on my 2019 Mac Pro. All my OWC SSDs work just fine again when inserted in the 2019 Mac Pro.

This could be bad news for Apple if it's on their end.

Mac Pro

Posted on Jun 15, 2023 10:22 AM

Top-ranking reply

SoftRAIDSupport

Level 1

27 points

Posted on Jun 20, 2023 11:51 AM

We have seen about 10 instances. All have the following in the top of the panic trace:

dart-apciec3 (0xfffffe1b39d40800): DART(DART) error:

This is the same error as MacOS/M1 had up until 13.4 was released, which fixed this problem.

In case this is a MacOS issue, can you post the MacOS build number of your System? I am especially interested in build numbers for MacOS versions that are NOT crashing.

So far, I have seen this with RAID 0, RAID 4, RAID 5. All with 4 drives. This panic does not happen with RAID 0 2-drive volumes.

Apple RAID does not seem to be affected.

HFS and APFS will both panic a system, so it is not file system related.

One trick that MIGHT work, I would like any affected users to try this, is with the drives disconnected, launch SoftRAID and "uninstall SoftRAID" from utiliities menu. restart, and connect the drives. (or put them back in the Mac Pro)

Does this prevent the panic?

Your volume will still mount and be usable.

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119 replies

Jun 19, 2023 2:46 PM in response to Jperkins27

<< Maybe somebody from Apple and/or OWC is monitoring this thread and the info will be helpful. >>

I assure you that in the 20plus years I have been participating here, nothing like that has been seen.

Once you get in touch with them, they CAN reference the information already posted here, and that can be helpful, but they do not take our word for any diagnoses.

if you have a new computer, you need to proactively contact Apple Support to get anything. And do not let them tell you the problem is solved if it is not -- be polite and professional, and ask for a specialist to contact you.

Support

Jun 19, 2023 2:47 PM in response to Jperkins27

FWIW...I have let my contact at OWC know about this thread since there seems to be some pretty smart people here trying to figure it out, and not just complaining. :). I'll be reaching out to them tomorrow as well.

Jperkins27 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 19, 2023 2:54 PM in response to David K. Gross

Thanks! I have been in touch with OWC a bit and also with a few senior level Apple support and engineers late last week.

I'm hoping that after the holiday weekend tomorrow Apple will be back in touch about this.

I'm hoping this can be solved with a software/firmware update as I don't really want to set up another new Mac Pro as this one is working really well aside from these SSD issues which are not good, or a good sign.

Jperkins27 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 20, 2023 10:18 AM in response to David K. Gross

Well, bad news. I added the new 2TB OWC 4M2 PCIe SSD to the 2023 Mac Pro and that caused the same issue. It won’t boot when it’s in the computer. I didn’t remove the other working drive, I just added the new once since that is my ideal configuration to have both drives in the Mac.

It does seem let me go SLIGHTLY farther and attempt to log in, but after entering the password, the progress meter barely starts and then it shuts down.

Jperkins27 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 20, 2023 11:57 AM in response to SoftRAIDSupport

My M2 Mac Pro is using MacOS 13.4 build (22F2073) but it is one that will not boot when any of the 2TB PCIe SSDs are inserted. This includes my older HFS drives, and whatever they are formatted to at the factory and out of the box.

I am not needing to use my drives as a RAID. I like to just use them as one big drive and do my own backups.

Can you see from my previous screen shot which RAID number mine is set to? Or is it correctly set to be just one big disk?

Jperkins27 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 20, 2023 12:01 PM in response to SoftRAIDSupport

Thanks for confirming. Later today I am willing to take the drive out, uninstall SoftRAID and see what happens.

I guess my bigger question would be, is this a software/firmware thing and the Mac Pro is OK? Or do I need to consider returning the Mac Pro because it's a hardware issue with the Mac Pro?

Now that I've got the M2 Mac Pro up and running (aside from this issue), returning it and setting up a new machine at some point would be a bummer.

Jun 20, 2023 12:04 PM in response to Jperkins27

Mine also was a brand new ootb 2TB 4M2. That's what I sent back to OWC on friday.. They should have that today for testing and/or replacement for me. I'll call them today to see if they are sending a new one out.. maybe they could try all this reformatting stuff before sending my way? And, like JPerkens, this tends to be my main 'Record" drive I keep non-raid as one big JBOD, and just do my own archiving. But, if it needs to just be Raid 0, that's fine too.

Jun 20, 2023 1:04 PM in response to Jperkins27

RAID 0 is striped RAID, every other superblock on every-other drive, NO redundancy, but possible faster read times.

Just Bunch Of Drives (JBOD) or drive-concatenation is its own thing, not included in RAID numbering scheme

Jun 20, 2023 4:38 PM in response to David K. Gross

David;

The optimization are for rebuilding priority and help in isetting up your volume (stripe unit size recommendation)

there is no driver changes with optimizations.

Grant;

SoftRAID publishes its volumes as whole numbers, rather than slices. So a SoftRAID volume disk10, is just the equivalent of disk10s2 with an APFS Apple volume. Not a problem.

Jun 20, 2023 4:54 PM in response to Jperkins27

Interesting it is not causing a panic. thanks. In my testing, I had mixed results, so this is a good data point.

Yes, it is safe to run this without the SoftRAID components installed.

Keep people here (and us) in the loop. Future panics, if any, would most likely happen at restart.

What is your MacOS build number?

Jun 25, 2023 10:07 AM in response to ctwinger

Thanks for the update, CT. I'm still waiting for my replacement of the 2TB 4M2 (I want to get a 4TB one now since it seems like those DO work..but I'm stuck in an RMA delay snafu that's not making me happy :/. I'll report back as soon as a new one arrives as well.

ctwinger

Level 1

4 points

Jun 25, 2023 6:58 PM in response to Jperkins27

All of them will work, just use Apple Raid Assistance rather than SoftRaid software.

I tested positive everything I own this week and that was the final thing that worked in all my configurations.

Apple just isn’t liking SoftRaid on the M2.

Jperkins27 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 25, 2023 7:05 PM in response to ctwinger

Does this mean that you had to format the drives using another Mac somehow? It's just kind of hard to format a PCIe SSD unless you have a spare PCIe enclosure and another Mac.

Technically I can do this but the easier option for me was to just get a couple 4TB drives instead which are working with SoftRAID installed, right out of the box.

Jperkins27 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 26, 2023 6:38 AM in response to ctwinger

I tried that but even in recovery mode, it wasn't letting me in far enough to reformat the OWC drive(s).

I'm just glad I randomly had a new 4TB 4M2 that I tried before giving up and potentially returning the M2 Mac Pro.

I'm going to call that good for now and keep working.

Jun 26, 2023 4:54 PM in response to SoftRAIDSupport

thank you SO much for the detailed dive in. So the next obvious question, will OWC be updating their Website regarding the fix with perhaps a 'call us if you want to buy one of these PCIe/Blade drives", and/or offering a 'we'll format this with Disk Utility for you before we ship it out" service?

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Mac Pro 2023 will not boot with PCIe SSD installed.