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Two Thunderbolt Displays with Promise Pegasus R6

I have two thunderbolt displays. First display is connected to MBP. Second display is connected to the first. Using Apple's Thunderbolt Cable, I connected Promise Pegasus R6 to the second display. Installed all the latest and greatest updates from Apple and Pegasus. Right from the begining, I noticed that sound dies when playing any audio on the R6. When I start playing the file (iTunes or any audio file or any audio/video file), it plays for a few seconds and sound dies. Using "Sound" in "System Preferences", I change the audio output to another display. It plays fine for a few seconds and dies. I change the audio output to MBP's internal speakers and it plays ok.

I removed the second monitor and connected Promise Pegasus R6 to the first montior. No issues playing audio from the monitor speakers. I reconnected the second display swapping the second as first and first as second, changed thrunderbolt cable with another thunderbolt cable and connected R6. Issue appears again. I also changed the ports on Promise Pegasus R6. This makes be believe that when Promise Pegasus R6 is connected to two monitors audio dies. But I am not sure if it is the Hardware in Promise Pegasus R6 or thunderbolt technology itself. Now I have a $1000 monitor and a $1800 disk sitting idle.

Anybody experiencing this issue ? I have a open ticket with Promise on this issue.

MacBook Pro 17-inch 2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Mac OS X (10.7.2), IPad 2 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G, R6 6TB RAID

Posted on Dec 29, 2011 5:45 AM

Reply
27 replies

Jan 6, 2012 12:54 PM in response to Chakravarthy Cuddapah

I have a MBP with two pegasus r6 drives and a 27" display. I don't have audio issues but am having a flickering issue with the display when time machine backs up to the big r6. Also when I'm doing extensive video editing in FCP X. I keep project and video files on the smaller r6 and back up to the bigger r6. This is when the flickering begins as well.


I know this is the wrong thread to post this on because it's not an audio issue but this is the only thread I've found that references a display and the pegasus TB drives.

Jan 10, 2012 11:18 AM in response to Chakravarthy Cuddapah

For what it's worth I'm experiencing both issues described above (audio problems and flickering).


I submitted a support request to Promise regarding the audio, they say it's a known issue and they're working on it. FWIW AnandTech also covers the issue here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4832/the-apple-thunderbolt-display-review/10


I contacted AppleCare about the flickering, they escalated my issue to engineering but the AppleCare rep expressed doubt that it would be taken seriously because I have a "non-standard" setup (having replaced the optical drive in my MBP with an SSD). I think having more folks report the flickering issue might result in more attention being paid to it.

Jan 11, 2012 3:57 AM in response to Brandt Kurowski

Y'day I noticed a new issue. Promise Pegasus Utility (version 3.16.0.63) started showing temparature increase in 'Backplane'. I opened a ticket and after sending them some command line outputs I was told to downgrade to 3.16.0.53. I noticed that 3.16.0.63 is not available anymore in their downloads.

I got a response on the audio issue - they are researching on the issue.

I am interested to know if Lacie users are experiencing the same issues.

Feb 14, 2012 12:39 PM in response to Chakravarthy Cuddapah

I am having the same issue. Just did a post about it here and on fcp.co


http://www.fcp.co/hardware-and-software/pro/715-does-thunderbolt-slow-down-when- daisy-chained-with-an-extra-display


I dont believe it is a R6 problem. I did a test. Everything works fine until you plug in the second monitor. Apparently the monitors take up around 6.9 ish gb/sec of the bandwidth each. I think this is an Apple problem. Specifically with the 17" MBP.


The oddest thing is that I also tried a 13" MBP instead of the 17" (13" has half the processing and half the ram)

The 13" works better.


Typically I get around 515mb/sec write speed on the raid. With one monitor, R6, and a Blackmagic Ultra Studio Pro I get around 460mb/sec write speed. Once the second display is added I get around 166mb/sec


On the 13" with all 4 devices plugged in I get around 225mb/sec which is enough to make the audio play correctly.


Thoughts.

Two Thunderbolt Displays with Promise Pegasus R6

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