Infotech 24 7
Level 2 (165 points)

Q: Thunderbolt Pegasus R4 Experience?

Has anyone else got any first hand experience of the Promise Pegasus R4 (or R6) with their iMac? I bought mine this week and managed to load it up with around 1.4Tb (it holds around 3Tb) no problem. Now, today I can't get the drive to stay connected before it ejects for more than 5 minutes. It's driving me mad and I'm very concerned as I moved all my family video onto it from another drive and it won't stay connected long enough to get it back onto another drive again.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2011 i7 3.4, 256Gb SSD and 16Gb RAM

Posted on Jul 16, 2011 8:38 AM

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Infotech 24 7

Q: Thunderbolt Pegasus R4 Experience?

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  • by Ulf Soderlund,

    Ulf Soderlund Ulf Soderlund Oct 22, 2011 9:31 AM in response to Infotech 24 7
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 22, 2011 9:31 AM in response to Infotech 24 7

    We can now confirm that the mobile phone interference and the subsequent disconnects are related to (at least but not excluding other sources) the GSM 900 MHz band. We tried an old GSM 900 only phone and the error is still present.

     

    We have also tried DECT-phones (1.88-1.90GHz) as well as WiFi b/g/n transmitters (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz) - none of those seem to affect the Thunderbolt data link.

     

    /U

  • by mrvoeg,

    mrvoeg mrvoeg Oct 23, 2011 7:43 AM in response to Ulf Soderlund
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2011 7:43 AM in response to Ulf Soderlund

    Today I made the "iPhone test" too. The incomming call didn't affect the connection when the iPhone was positioned close to my MacBook Pro's Thunderbolt port. When I positioned the iPhone close to the Thunderbolt port of my Pegasus R4, the incomming call ejected the raid immedeatly. At the moment I stopped the call, the Pegasus R4 reconnected automatically to my MacBook Pro. So it seams to be more a problem of the R4 than of the Tunderbolt ports in general or the cable.

  • by Keyvid,

    Keyvid Keyvid Oct 23, 2011 9:15 AM in response to mrvoeg
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2011 9:15 AM in response to mrvoeg

    What I don't understand is why it sometimes doesn't trigger an eject, do phones switch between different frequencies?

  • by easy68,

    easy68 easy68 Oct 24, 2011 10:39 PM in response to Infotech 24 7
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2011 10:39 PM in response to Infotech 24 7

    Hello everybody

     

    I think we got the solution after all: TINFOIL! No joke, and lots of it.

     

    Here is the story:

     

    Two weeks ago we bought 6 iMacs 27" SSD, 3 Macbook Air, 3 Promise R6 and 2 Promise R4.

     

    On the Macbook Air the R6 and R4 worked perfectly, once we connected them to the iMacs all the problems appeared as described above. So we opened a case (in Switzerland) with our reseller. They invested a lot of time (and money) to find a solution. After all it seems to be a problem with the cables and one of the two - either Promise or Apple will come up with new cables. But until then there is a solution: tinfoil. Just wrap a decent layer of tinfoil around the thunderbolt cable and everything works as it should.

     

    Really, this is no joke - just try it.

  • by ByronCox,

    ByronCox ByronCox Oct 24, 2011 11:02 PM in response to levindenboer1975
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2011 11:02 PM in response to levindenboer1975

    levindenboer1975,

     

    I was wondering if you have you been able to replicate the disconnects using mobile phone interference related to the GSM 900 MHz band (though possibly not exclusively) that Ulf Sodelund is experiencing.  I would be interested to know, as you have been talking a lot to Promise Technology.

     

    Cheers, Byron.

  • by easy68,

    easy68 easy68 Oct 24, 2011 11:49 PM in response to ByronCox
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2011 11:49 PM in response to ByronCox

    Just to be clear, I didn't talk to them directly. Our reseller did.  And no, we didn't try the 900 MHz interference problem. The same cables are working on a Macbook Air, no matter what you do. So it's probably a problem of voltage or so. Maybe the iMac (or some models) does not provide enough voltage and due to some electromagnetic loss (maybe because of the cable screen quality) you loose just the 0.1 volts the R6 needs to work.

  • by Ulf Soderlund,

    Ulf Soderlund Ulf Soderlund Oct 31, 2011 5:43 AM in response to Infotech 24 7
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 31, 2011 5:43 AM in response to Infotech 24 7

    Just off the phone with Apple EU. The replacement Thunderbolt cable that were to be sent to us a week ago as a DIY service for testing purposes were canceled due to a 'unknown systems failure' at their end. So far not a word from Apple or Promise engineers regarding the interference problem.

     

    We have now had the RAID for more than a month and it is still not serving its intended purpose...

     

    /U

  • by Keyvid,

    Keyvid Keyvid Oct 31, 2011 10:02 AM in response to Ulf Soderlund
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 31, 2011 10:02 AM in response to Ulf Soderlund

    I've heard nothing from Apple or Jigsaw since reporting the problem, a progress report would be helpful!

  • by Smphoto74,

    Smphoto74 Smphoto74 Oct 31, 2011 12:25 PM in response to Keyvid
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 31, 2011 12:25 PM in response to Keyvid

    I have a iPhone from verizon and while it's not sitting right next to the TB cable I haven't had any issues...my phone when I'm not actually on it is always in front of my iMac screen.  Less than 2' from the cable.

  • by Ulf Soderlund,

    Ulf Soderlund Ulf Soderlund Nov 3, 2011 11:31 AM in response to Infotech 24 7
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 3, 2011 11:31 AM in response to Infotech 24 7

    Finally got the the replacement Thunderbolt cable - same disconnects.

     

    As we have done all the testing and re-testing of our systems as requested by Apple and Promise, as well as informed them as to what is actually causing the disconnects, we have now requested them to officially acknowledge the reported issue as a general hardware fault.

     

    Still, not a word from Apple or Promise engineers regarding this...

     

    /U

  • by Smphoto74,

    Smphoto74 Smphoto74 Nov 4, 2011 10:55 PM in response to rmichael777
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 4, 2011 10:55 PM in response to rmichael777

    Anyone running Lion from a Pegasus R4 or R6?   I'm just debating if I should put Lion on a separate partition on the R4 or just have 1 whole Partition?  I will be using Raid 0 with a TM backup and another backup using Carbon Copy Cloner.

     

    Thanks

  • by Infotech 24 7,

    Infotech 24 7 Infotech 24 7 Nov 8, 2011 5:58 AM in response to Ulf Soderlund
    Level 2 (165 points)
    Nov 8, 2011 5:58 AM in response to Ulf Soderlund

    I've been using mine for well over a month now with no issues at all and I've been importing hundreds of hours of HD video into Final Cut Pro X as well as large data copies with no issues at all. I've also been using Aperture heavily and iTunes has been running all the time too with my library on the R4. I can't recreate the phone issue to disconnect and mine appears to be fine since the firmware updates.

     

    The only thing I can suggest to people who have problems is to maybe re-install Lion from fresh and make sure all the updates and firmware updates are installed to see it helps.

     

    I must say now however, I'm not stupid enough to think mine won't eject again anytime soon but touch wood, it's ok so far.

  • by Smphoto74,

    Smphoto74 Smphoto74 Nov 8, 2011 6:13 AM in response to Infotech 24 7
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 8, 2011 6:13 AM in response to Infotech 24 7

    Sweet!.  I just ordered a LaCie 2TB Thunderbolt Drive just for FCPX.  I have a Pegasus R4 but that's plugged into another iMac.  I did just put the R4 in Raid 0 yesterday and it screams.  A solid 450Mbps write/read and has gone over 500Mbps.  I'm in Heaven. lol  Now only if they could have network speeds of 450Mbps. lol

     

    I did install lion on the R4 via Carbon Copy Cloner but the iMac would lock up on boot.  I had to unplug the R4 to get the iMac to boot(internal) and unplug the power from the R4 to reset it...I must have missed something so I'm gonna try a fresh install of Lioin and try that.

  • by Infotech 24 7,

    Infotech 24 7 Infotech 24 7 Nov 9, 2011 1:32 AM in response to Infotech 24 7
    Level 2 (165 points)
    Nov 9, 2011 1:32 AM in response to Infotech 24 7

    Can't believe it, less than 24 hours after boasting mine hasn't ejected, eject it goes. I wasn't even in anything at all. The only thing was, I was talking to someone on my iPhone (2-3ft from the cable at least) and then as soon as I hang up, eject goes the disk. This is just crazy.

     

    BIG WARNING, ANYONE THINKING ABOUT BUYING ONE OF THESE DRIVES, "DON'T" UNTIL YOU GET AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FROM PROMISE THAT THERE IS AN ISSUE AND THEY HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION.

  • by Ulf Soderlund,

    Ulf Soderlund Ulf Soderlund Nov 10, 2011 3:17 AM in response to Infotech 24 7
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 10, 2011 3:17 AM in response to Infotech 24 7

    Dear all…

     

    Yet another week has passed, not a single word from Apple or Promise.

     

    Gave Promise EU a call, spoke with the manager. They are "working on a solution" on this on their behalf now known problem - however they can not say if it is the computer, Thunderbolt cable, Pegasus RAID or some or all of the above that is the culprit. Great…

     

    Promise EU will not officially state that there is a known problem until they have a working solution, which will take yet another "month or two". In the mean time more people will buy the products thinking all is well. Great…

     

    Apple has done nothing to inform us as to what is actually being done at their end to solve this matter, although WE have given THEM specific information about what causes the disconnects. The only reaction so far has been the temporary removal of some of my posts on this forum. Great…

     

    Needless to say, we are very disappointed…

     

    /U

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