Mac Pro 2013 only detect 100BaseT

Question

Level 1

4 points

Mac Pro 2013 only detect 100BaseT

Hello everyone, I have a 2013 Mac Pro with Big Sur currently installed. The main problem is that one of the Ethernet ports only works at 100BaseT, if you try to manually set it to 1000BaseT it loses the connection and shows the network interface as disconnected.
In fact, it works "without" problems at 100BaseT. I have an Ethernet cable connected and the connection does not cause any problems.
In the second port I have a network hard drive mounted which keeps giving me transfer problems.
If I exchange these two elements between the Mac's own Ethernet ports, the opposite happens, the internet works poorly and the hard drive works perfectly.


The different tests I have done are:

- Install another operating system from scratch (mojave).
- Test different Ethernet cables from different categories.
- Exchange Ethernet cables between the Mac Pro's own interfaces.

Is there a way to physically test the ports to completely rule out a software problem?
Thanks for the help.

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Dec 18, 2023 4:35 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

jggomz Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 21, 2023 2:58 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Indeed, by thoroughly checking it, I have been able to verify that the second pin starting from the left is misaligned from the rest. I'm going to look if there is any way to repair it or replace it, although I imagine the only solution is to replace the back plate that contains the ports completely.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 20, 2023 6:59 AM in response to jggomz

If I understand correctly, no matter how you swap things around, the 'will not connect at faster than 100 speeds" issue follows one Ethernet port on your MAC.

This could be a physical problem with the Ethernet port.

DO THIS>

Inspect both ports on your Mac with a Bright light. Look for bent pins or pins touching their neighbors, and ALL EIGHT pins clean and free to move when a plug is inserted.

Reply

Answer 3

Dec 21, 2023 6:18 AM in response to jggomz

if you can't get that pin bent back to where it belongs, Your Mac Pro 2013 has six ThunderBolt-2 ports. Consider this Apple ThunderBolt-2 adapter for up to Gigabit speeds:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1180743-REG/apple_md463ll_a_thunderbolt_to_gigabit_ethernet.html?msclkid=2dad95c2d08319c8bc0ef04698a70837

Reply

Answer 4

Dec 18, 2023 9:27 AM in response to jggomz

Your cable is not adequate to run at higher speeds You need all eight wires to go faster.

Up to 100 Base-T uses a baseband (unmodulated) signal -- one bit per signaling interval.

Higher speed REQUIRES a modulated signal, encoding multiple bits per signalling interval in a more complex modulated signal. Multiple bits per signaling interval are encoded as a combination of phases and amplitudes, very similar to high speed telephone modems. That signal requires all four pairs of wire present in the cable and terminated correctly.

Reply

Answer 5

Dec 19, 2023 12:24 PM in response to jggomz

If you have eliminated cables as the problem. perhaps its a settings issue.

Can you post the settings for each port?

...

Reply

Answer 6

jggomz Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 19, 2023 9:05 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I understand what you want to tell me, but I am convinced that the cable is not the problem, since with the same cable I get good speeds on one of the Ethernet ports while on the other port the connection does not even work in a stable way.

I would to know if there is a way to test the physical port of my Mac Pro even with an external device.

Thanks for your response anyway!

Reply

Answer 7

jggomz Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 20, 2023 3:55 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Of course, without any problem,

To put ourselves a little in context:

The “LAN DRIVE” ethernet mouth is the one where I have my hard drive connected to the network, in the middle of the hard drive and my Mac there is a switch to which I have my Mac connected through a 1GB port and I have the hard drive connected to the switch for the 10GB port.

The automatic configuration on this port works for me without any problems with the desired speeds.

The “INTERNET” ethernet port is the one I have connected directly to my router to have internet on my Mac. With the automatic configuration it works correctly for me although it already detects the speed at 100BaseT

If I force the speed of this port to 1000BaseT it loses the connection and shows me as if the interface is disconnected, it doesn't matter if I change the speed/duplex or MTU configuration, it continues to show me the interface as disconnected.

Now let's put it in the case that I exchange the ethernet ports,

In the one called “INTERNET” I am going to connect my hard drive to the network and in the interface called “LAN DRIVE” I am going to connect my internet cable (making the respective IP configuration change on each interface).

Now the port called “INTERNET” to which my hard drive is connected to the network is set to 100BaseT, making it impossible to force it to 1000BaseT because it disconnects it again when applying the configuration.

On the other hand, in the “LAN DRIVE” interface, which now has a direct connection to the Internet, it links me directly to 1000BaseT with automatic configuration.

Sorry for the poor explanation and for the translation, my English is not very good.

Thanks for the help!

Reply

Mac Pro 2013 only detect 100BaseT

Similar questions