Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock causes Mac Studio to reboot

[dreikelvin]

So I find myself having to do a PRAM reset every morning when I start my mac studio.

Connected to it is a Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Mini Dock with Ethernet, HDMI and USB ports. The reboot happens when I enter my password. I tested with only Ethernet plugged in. It only happens if I use this Ethernet adapter as part of a ethernet bond/aggregate link.

After I do the PRAM reset, the whole Thunderbolt dock is sometimes completely gone. Doesn't even show up under system report. Only when I do the PRAM reset a second time, it is back again.

But the Ethernet port shows as "invalid link" in my aggregate list. What helps is deleting the bond configuration and setting up a new one. Which sometimes only works after doing this a 4th or 5th time.

I have to do this every morning and it is getting annoying.

Ideas?

 

[BanditoB]

Contact Belkin and/or Apple?

 

[dreikelvin]

Yeah I might do that if the Monterey 12.5 update doesn't improve things...

 

[lcubed]

contact belkin for a replacement

 

[dreikelvin]

contact belkin for a replacement

I don't think it's the dock. I tested it on my macbook air and also tested it with an anker 5-in-1 ethernet hub (USB-C) and the result is almost the same (without the reboot issues for the Anker). The issues only occur when using the Ethernet Aggregate functionality in Mac OS Monterey.

 

[lcubed]

are you saying that MacBook air also crashes with the Belkin dock and
the anker ethernet doesn't work with either the studio or the MBA?

 

[dreikelvin]

are you saying that MacBook air also crashes with the Belkin dock and
the anker ethernet doesn't work with either the studio or the MBA?

No, the crash/spontaneous reboot only happens on my mac studio.

I just did another test with the Macbook Air M1:

1. I plugged in the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Mini dock and the Anker as the Macbook itself doesn't have its own ethernet port

2. Devices get recognized without issue, I create an aggregate bond configuration with both ethernet adapters as part of the ethernet bond - connection works fine

3. Restart: I get the message "Accessory Needs More Power" - one of the Ethernet devices is gone and in the Aggregate Bond configuration it uses itself as an interface - which of course does not work and the other device lists as "invalid link"

This is essentially what also happens on my other mac with the exception of the spontaneous rebooting after logging in and the message "Accessory Needs More Power" which I only get on the MBA

What's curious about this is that in the device info it shows the available power is 900mA and the Thunderbolt dock displays as 900mA required. Only the Thunderbolt device stops working. Re-plugging the device revives it and I am able to set up a fresh Ethernet Aggregate connection without problems.

 

[lcubed]

is the external power supply for your belkin thunderbolt express 3 dock plugged in properly?

it shouldn't be drawing any power from the host machine

Package Includes:​

• Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD
• 3.28-feet / 1-meter Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Cable
• Power Adapter

 

[dreikelvin]

is the external power supply for your belkin thunderbolt express 3 dock plugged in properly?

it shouldn't be drawing any power from the host machine

Package Includes:​

• Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD
• 3.28-feet / 1-meter Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Cable
• Power Adapter

Apologies, but I am actually using this model which doesn't need a power supply:

Thunderbolt 3 Dock Mini for Mac and PC - 4K HDMI, USB-A | Belkin US

Turn your Mac or PC laptop into a powerful work station with a single Thunderbolt 3 connection. Portable. Speeds up to 40 Gb/s, dual 4K HDMI, USB-A, 1GigE port.

www.belkin.com

Belkin Thunderbolt™ 3 Dock Mini HD​

 

[dreikelvin]

I just tried plugging the Belkin into the front thunderbolt ports of the mac studio ultra and it doesn't even recognize the thunderbolt dock. my sabrent ssd works fine and at full speed via these ports.

 

[AlteMac]

It only happens if I use this Ethernet adapter as part of a ethernet bond/aggregate link.

This may be the key. Having 2 ethernet ports may not work with this combo of adapters/docks because too much power is required. Or your Belkin is defective. Sound like contacting Belkin makes sense, though their support (for other products) can be spotty.

 

[dreikelvin]

If the Belkin is not recogni

This may be the key. Having 2 ethernet ports may not work with this combo of adapters/docks because too much power is required. Or your Belkin is defective. Sound like contacting Belkin makes sense, though their support (for other products) can be spotty.

but then why does it work without any issues the first time I set it up and only stops working when I restart the mac? it is puzzling... I am pretty sure it has something to do with how monterey handles thunderbolt power supply. Belkin is known to work quite well with Apple devices and if I wasn't using it in a bonded configuration I may have never had any issues with it. ah well. I guess I'll invest in a bigger thunderbolt dock at some point if I get fed up with this

 

[dreikelvin]

OK so I found a little workaround to avoid the spontaneous restarts. Before shutdown, I remove the bond and re-enable one of the "regular" ethernet connections in the networking panel. Doesn't matter which, the thunderbolt ethernet or the onboard one.

This definately means the Belkin mini dock is working just fine, there is nothing wrong with it.

After rebooting, everything just starts up fine but I have to go back into networking and set up a brand new bond. Kind of cumbersome but it works...if I don't forget doing it

Since everything is working just fine and only acts strangely as long as the aggregate bond is active under networking, I am wondering if this is some power or permissions thing going on under the hood and if it is fixable via a script or change in a preference file somewhere...

 

[BanditoB]

It sounds like you need to report this issue to Apple.

 

[dreikelvin]

I tried...but their customer service is a little incapable. I gave them my dutch phone number and scheduled a call. The assistant added an extra country code in front of the phone number with country code already added in. The call didn't go through, understandably. Honestly, I have no time to schedule another call with them just to go through all of their standard steps. I am kind of not motivated. Maybe next month

 

[dreikelvin]

I called them again, they took all my info and said "we'll get back to you" - nothing left to do at this point. Has anyone ever tried one of apples own branded thunderbolt to ethernet adapters and created an aggregated bond? I am curious if this one would work better.

 

[BanditoB]

Hmm…my experiences with Apple support have always been excellent. They will start with a few obvious checks, but if that doesn’t resolve the issue, they have always been quick to escalate the call to an actual engineer. I have always received follow up calls from the engineers as discussed on the calls and have been very impressed with the service that I receive. I rarely call Apple unless I have thoroughly gone through all the troubleshooting that I can and I can usually get to a point where the problem is reproducible. I only use Apple support as a last option, but as I mentioned, I have not yet been disappointed in them in any way.

Hang in there and see how it goes. Hopefully, they will surprise and delight you, too.

 

[dreikelvin]

Things just got a little easier now that I switched to a single-screen setup, using only the studio's own HDMI port. I still have one of the Ethernet ports failing after restart, but after doing these steps, the bond starts working again:

1. remove aggregate bond from the network devices list, click "apply"
2. add all ethernet ports one by one, click "apply"
3. create a new aggregate bond, click apply

Now the bond is operative again without giving me an "invalid link" status. The reboots are also gone. Seems this had to do with the second display I was using - with the HDMI being on the same thunderbolt adapter.

 

[dreikelvin]

Problem still persists with Monterey 12.5

 

[JPack]

You'll probably want to bug Belkin about it and see if they can reproduce the issue internally. If yes, hopefully they'll develop a firmware update.

 

[Sumo999]

I called them again, they took all my info and said "we'll get back to you" - nothing left to do at this point. Has anyone ever tried one of apples own branded thunderbolt to ethernet adapters and created an aggregated bond? I am curious if this one would work better.

Could very well be the cable/adapter, might want to check that first - I've had adapter issues on an M1 iMac

 

[dreikelvin]

Found a neat workaround: In order to quickly deactivate the Thunderbolt port before shutdown to avoid it being deactivated with next bootup, I created 2 shortcut actions which I put in the menu bar. They trigger two terminal commands:

networksetup -addDeviceToBond en15 "Finally Bond" /* activates the thunderbolt port and adds it into the bond

networksetup -removeDeviceFromBond en15 "Finally Bond" /* removes the thunderbolt ethernet port

Now I can simply trigger these shortcuts before shutdown or even attach them to a specific keyboard shortcut. Saves me at least some time

 

[dreikelvin]

Could very well be the cable/adapter, might want to check that first - I've had adapter issues on an M1 iMac

Tested that not only with the Belkin adapter but also with an ANKER 5 in 1 Ethernet/USB/HDMI hub with similar results.

It's not the adapters.