Manual
Known Limitations and Advice
USB technology and peripherals have some limitations. Refer to your 
peripheral manufacturers’ Web sites for more information.
• To minimize power usage during sleep, power is removed from 
PCIe cards. Because of this power-saving specification, a USB 
PCIe card is unable to maintain USB port power during sleep. In 
macOS, this power loss causes a storage device to disconnect when 
the computer wakes from sleep; although the storage device will 
automatically remount, the system still displays a Disk Not Ejected 
Properly message. Because macOS flushes all caches before sleeping, 
this disconnect should never result in any loss of data.
• USB 3.2 Gen 1 (formerly USB 3.0) devices require USB 3.2 Gen 1 
cables to support 5 Gb/s transfer speeds. Use of USB 2.0 cables 
between USB 3.2 Gen 1 devices and the Allegro card is supported, 
but data transfers are limited to USB 2.0 speeds (up to 480 Mb/s). 
• Many peripherals require additional drivers and application 
software to operate or have full functionality. Software should 
be included with the device, or available to download from the 
manufacturer’s Web site. Check the peripheral’s user’s manual for 
information about necessary software.
•   While your computer is on, always “eject”, “stop”, “unplug”, or “put 
away” any drive (hard drive, SSD, etc.) before disconnecting it from 
its cable or the Sonnet card. Also, always “eject” any memory card 
from the operating system before removing it from an attached 
card reader, or disconnecting the reader (with the card inserted in 
it) from its cable or the Sonnet card. 
• Disconnecting drives while they are transferring or receiving data, 
may result in damage to the file(s) being transferred or cause your 
system to hang. 
• Although many peripherals may draw power directly from the 
Sonnet card, other devices require an external power source. 
Remember to use external power supplies when necessary.
Contacting Customer Service 
The Sonnet Web site located at https://www.sonnettech.com has 
the most current support information and technical updates. Before 
contacting Customer Service, please check our Web site for the latest 
updates and online support files, and check this Quick Start Guide 
for helpful information. 
Email support requests generally receive the fastest responses, and are 
usually processed within a 24-hour period during normal business 
hours, excluding holidays. When you contact Customer Service, 
have the following information available so the customer service 
staff can better assist you:
• Product name  
• Computer model  
• A System Report (macOS), or a Microsoft System Information 
MSINFO32 (Windows) report (Windows), along with a description 
of the issue(s) you are encountering with your device
If further assistance is needed, please contact Sonnet Customer 
Service at:  
E-mail: support@sonnettech.com 
Tel: 1-949-472-2772  
(Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Pacific Time, excluding holidays)
Japan Customers 
Contact Sonnet Customer Service Japan at: 
E-mail: jp.support@sonnettech.com
   Support  Note: This document was up to date at the time 
of printing. However, changes to the hardware or software 
may have occurred since then. Please check the Sonnet Web site for 
the latest documentation. 
 1. Go to https://www.sonnettech.com/support/kb/kb.php
 2.  Navigate to and click the Allegro USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A PCIe Card link.
 3. Click the Manual link. 
 4. Click the Allegro USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A PCIe Card Quick Start 
Guide [English] link and then check the Document Version 
information. If the version listed is later than this document 
(revision C), click the Download Now button for the latest version. 
©2021 Sonnet Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Sonnet, SONNETTECH, the Sonnettech logotype, and Allegro are trademarks 
of Sonnet Technologies, Inc. Mac, the Mac logo, Mac Pro, and macOS are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the United States 
and other countries. Thunderbolt and the Thunderbolt logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. 
Other product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Product specifications subject to change without notice.   
QS-USB3-4PM-E-E-C-030421


