Z690 Strix-E, ThunderboltEx4, and Win11

[SuddenSaturn]

Anyone manage to get the ThunderboltEX4 working under windows 11?

ROG Strix 690-E Motherboard, 12900K, 64G DDR5 (matched pair G.Skill)
ThunderboltEx4 plugged into the bottom PCI slot, attached with USB, TB-header, and Power.

I've walked through uninstalling/installing all of the intel drivers multiple times. Up to Date BIOS. Up to date in Windows Update. Up to date in Armoury Crate

With "Discrete Thunderbolt" [Disabled] -> Thunderbolt shows up in Control Center Loads, and I can see the attached devices with status "Not Connected". Clicking over to "Approve Devices" stalls on a blank page. About shows App version 1.0.34.0. Controller 1.41.1193.0. And PCIE tunneling is "Disabled". The Controller shows as Thunderbolt 4 (1137), 2 ports, and NVM Firmware Version 31.0

Toggling "Discrete Thunderbolt" [Enabled] breaks the driver (I still get DisplayPort Passthrough). So I get a broken driver in Device Manager. Thunderbolt Control Center is not installed. etc. If I manually install/run the Control Center app I can navigate to Approve (not in the semi-working case this page is blank), but there are no devices recognized.

I'm stuck in a trap that I can see the devices, but I can't Approve them to connect.

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi SuddenSaturn,
Did you get the ThunderboltEX4 working under windows 10?
Do you plug power into the 6-pin port on the ThunderboltEX4?
Do you find thunderbolt driver in the hidden device category in device manager?
Have you updated PD IC Firmware Update Version 1.1 from our support site?
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/Accessories/ThunderboltEX-4/HelpDesk_BIOS/
Have you tried connecting other thunderbolt device?
May I have screenshots or videos of the "Discrete Thunderbolt" [Disabled] and "Discrete Thunderbolt" conditions?
Thank you.

[SuddenSaturn]

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
Hi SuddenSaturn,
Did you get the ThunderboltEX4 working under windows 10?
Do you plug power into the 6-pin port on the ThunderboltEX4?
Do you find thunderbolt driver in the hidden device category in device manager?
Have you updated PD IC Firmware Update Version 1.1 from our support site?
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/Accessories/ThunderboltEX-4/HelpDesk_BIOS/
Have you tried connecting other thunderbolt device?
May I have screenshots or videos of the "Discrete Thunderbolt" [Disabled] and "Discrete Thunderbolt" conditions?
Thank you.

Sorry for the slow reply I've been trying everything I can think of to try and find a solution. I've wiped the OS multiple times, tried installing drivers in different orders. Have tried installing the exact drivers suggested on this forum. Have tried manually installing all of the drivers for the mobo. Have gone the route of installing only the Intel NUC driver packages , etc. Nothing seems to be working.

This is a new Win11 build, so I never attempted Windows10.
Yes the card has power, USB (to motherboard header) and TBHeader->Motherboard connected. I uninstalled/reinstalled the card many hours ago to make sure all of the plugs were well seated.

I tried updating the Power Delivery Firmware but I get an error that a newer version is already present on the card.

Attached are some screenshots of Device Manager now showing all of the Thunderbolt components loading w/o error and none are "hidden" anymore.

I still get the issue that nothing will switch over to being "connected", and I can't get the "approve devices" tab to load.

At the moment I have Discrete Thunderbolt [Enabled], Windows 10 support [Disabled], and all discrete settings at their defaults.

[Pedro_Sanchez]

SuddenSaturn wrote:
Sorry for the slow reply I've been trying everything I can think of to try and find a solution. I've wiped the OS multiple times, tried installing drivers in different orders. Have tried installing the exact drivers suggested on this forum. Have tried manually installing all of the drivers for the mobo. Have gone the route of installing only the Intel NUC driver packages , etc. Nothing seems to be working.

This is a new Win11 build, so I never attempted Windows10.
Yes the card has power, USB (to motherboard header) and TBHeader->Motherboard connected. I uninstalled/reinstalled the card many hours ago to make sure all of the plugs were well seated.

I tried updating the Power Delivery Firmware but I get an error that a newer version is already present on the card.

Attached are some screenshots of Device Manager now showing all of the Thunderbolt components loading w/o error and none are "hidden" anymore.

I still get the issue that nothing will switch over to being "connected", and I can't get the "approve devices" tab to load.

At the moment I have Discrete Thunderbolt [Enabled], Windows 10 support [Disabled], and all discrete settings at their defaults.

Hello, exactly same issue, please share if fix/solution is found. Thank you

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi SuddenSaturn,
Have you also tried connecting other thunderbolt device?
Do you use a USB hub or from c to c directly?
Thank you.

[SuddenSaturn]

I've tried an eGPU as well. It shows the same behavior - I can see the device fine in the "attached" list, but the status is "Not Connected" and PCIE Tunnel is False.

I found some other posts where people claimed that setting the PCIE tunneling to [Enabled], Reboot, [Disabled], Reboot, [Enabled] would sometimes convince the OS to enable PCIE Tunneling (and in which case this person saw the monitor work correctly including audio, webcam, etc.).

This is directly connected from computer -> device. I just ordered two brand new Apple Thunderbolt 4 Pro cables. To help rule out a cable issue.

Is there a guide somewhere that outlines a set of BIOS settings that are known/expected to work? At this point I honestly think I have enabled/disabled every BIOS setting across the entire system between reboots. If there's a known-working set of configs I'd love to try them out line-for-line.

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi SuddenSaturn,
Please update to bios 1720 and load bios default settings(no OC), and then only enable Discrete Thunderbolt and PCIE tunneling.
Please also reinstall Intel Thunderbolt Driver V1.41.1193.0.
If the result is the same, would you mind to try other PCIE slot?
Thank you.

[SuddenSaturn]

I have tried BIOS 1702 and the related updates to the ME driver/firmware packages.
Did a Reset of Win11 just to see if I could uncover anything new, no change.
Reinstalled the V1.41.1193.0.
Did the BIOS setting -> Load Defaults -> Turn OFF OC -> Enable Tunneling/Thunderbolt.

I'm still seeing "PCIE Tunneling: Disabled" in the Thunderbolt Control Center.
P.S. I also tried updating to the latest Thunderbolt Drivers (in the Z690 forum) as well.

I have not attempted swapping PCIe Slots, that will be my next step but may be a couple days.

I've been searching other forums/etc and have only found one instance of anyone reporting success with the ThunderboltEX4 and it seemed like random luck that they got it to work.

Will keep you updated when I move PCIe slots.

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi SuddenSaturn,
Thank you for your reply.
Not sure if it is typo for bios version, since the latest bios of ROG STRIX Z690-E GAMING WIFI is 1720.
Please let me know if there is any difference in other PCIE slots.
Thank you.

[SuddenSaturn]

Finally got it to work by switching slots.

For anyone who looks for this thread. I moved the card to the 2nd from bottom (vs bottom).
I've updated to the latest bios (now 2004?), and Thunderbolt drivers 1.41.1325.0

All of a sudden it just works perfectly. PCIE Tunnelling now shows as "enabled", Security Level: "Kernel DMA Protection". NVM Firmware version 31.0
Attached Device (LG UltraFine 5k). Sound & Webcam started working.

When I go to "Approve Thunderbolt Devices" in Thunderbolt Control Center I now see "No approval needed devices will be automatically connected"

Nick