Odd USB 3.0 port behaviour

P

patmcg205

Bronze Level Poster
Evening All,

Hope everyone is well? I was hoping that someone would be able to help me out please. I've detailed my full specification below as figured that would help. ;-)

I'm currently having issues with the 2 USB 3.0 ports on the front of my case. The work when connecting my ipod and camera (though micro or lightening usb cables) but if I plug in a USB stick (tried 4 different ones) then it initially recognises the drive but as soon as I click on in my computer it says 'Please inset drive xyz' and removes it from view. If i take the same usb and plug it into the ports and the rear (usb 2 I think???) then it works fine. I'd really like to resolve this as quite frustrating having to go digging at the back of the machine everyone I need to use a USB stick!

Any help or suggestions would be gratefully received, i don't know that much so have tried very little so far. Just opened devise manager to see if any errors and there is nothing.

Thanks in advance

Patrick

Case
FRACTAL DESIGN ARC MIDI R2 MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4670 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z87-A: ATX, USB2.0, USB3.0, SATA6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 770 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ MODULAR TXM-750 V2-80 PLUS®
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 8 (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2013 - 1 Year Licence for 1 PC *SPECIAL*
Monitor
AOC I2369VM 23" Widescreen IPS Monitor - 1920 x 1080, DP, HDMI
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K120 USB KEYBOARD
Surge Protection
6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Miscellaneous
FREE SPLINTER CELL BLACKLIST GAME with GTX 660 & 7 Series GPUs!
Quantity
1
 
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
Are they USB 3 drives, or USB 2?

Sometimes legacy devices are a bit flaky on USB 3 but you can normal enable the legacy mode in the BIOS. You could also try updating your motherboard drivers.
 
P

patmcg205

Bronze Level Poster
Ok thank you very much.

Can't tell if they are usb 2 or 3, some are oldish (like a year) others are new including the one from PCS.

Stupid question but how do I go about updating the motherboard drivers? I can't see them in the device manager.

Thanks
 
Boozad

Boozad

Prolific Poster
USB 3.0 sticks have blue connections, same as the ports on your PC. USB 2.0 sticks will generally have black or white plug connections.

2.0-vs.-3.jpg


If your stick is USB 3.o, just try it once in one of the rear ports (you should have USB 3.0 on the rear too) just to make sure it works in there.

As for your drivers, the front USB 3.0 ports will be supplied from your midboard header. It will probably show up as USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller.

attachment.php
 
Last edited:
P

patmcg205

Bronze Level Poster
Hi Thanks for that,

You're correct the ports on the back are also USB 3.0 and the drive work fine in these ports....not really sure where to go from there! :_( Arrrggg

Patrick
 
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
Well try this. I suggested it as a long shot to someone with a similar situation to yourself a while back and it turned out to be right. he was getting USB 2 to work fine but USB 3 wasn't. Turned out all he had to do was re seat the cable that comes from the front ports to the USB3 header on the motherboard.

Just pop off the side panel, trace the wire that goes to the front USB ports, find where it connects to the motherboard, remove it and firmly re insert it. I bet some of the pins aren't meeting correctly.
 
Boozad

Boozad

Prolific Poster
I've included a photo below highlighting the midboard header where the front USB ports should be connected. You'll find the drivers here, you could try uninstalling the header then resintalling with a fresh driver installation.

attachment.php
 
Last edited:
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
Just to be clear the arrows above is pointing at the 24pin power connector, I'm sure you can see the label for the USB3 (USB3_12) header, but just to avoid any doubt its the one a fraction up and a fraction left of the big 24 pin connector on the above picture.

Just making sure, not trying to point out the obvious...
 
P

patmcg205

Bronze Level Poster
Hey guys,

Thanks for all your help so far. Tried reseating the connector (the usb not the power! ;-) ) and made no difference. The link you provided has tonnes of files on it, any help on what to uninstall the reinstall would be hugely helpful.

Thanks

Patrick
 
P

patmcg205

Bronze Level Poster
Hey Guys,

Just a quick update. It turns out that the fron usb ports are/were faulty. I connected some new ones to the usb header and it works fine. Plus rep to both of you for the help.

Patrick
 
L

louisb

Member
I also have odd USB 3.0 port behaviour. My drive (a Samsung M3 500GB) is recognised by the front USB 3 port but halfway through a transfer of files it will stop with an error writing to the drive and then I get a windows message telling me to format the drive.

I've tried it in both front and rear ports with the same problem.

Any ideas? Very weird behaviour. I have read that perhaps I need to install a new driver but not sure what or from where.

LouisB
 
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
Have you got the motherboard model name to hand? You will need the drivers form the vendors site
 
L

louisb

Member
My motherboard is:

ASUS® Z87M-PLUS: m-ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6.0, XFIRE

It specifically states USB 3.0 but is that not to be trusted?

LouisB
 
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
No, im not saying that motherboard isn't supporting USB3, they pretty much all do these days so that's not the issue.

the only reason I asked for the model was to help you finding the correct drivers.

Go here... http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87MPLUS/#support_Download Select you OS and download the latest chipset drivers. Hopefully after installing those your problems will be fixed.
 
L

louisb

Member
mantadog said:
No, im not saying that motherboard isn't supporting USB3, they pretty much all do these days so that's not the issue.

the only reason I asked for the model was to help you finding the correct drivers.

Go here... http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87MPLUS/#support_Download Select you OS and download the latest chipset drivers. Hopefully after installing those your problems will be fixed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice and the link. I downloaded and installed the latest USB 3 drivers for the board... but... not much change.

The behaviour is very odd. The drive can be connected via the supplied USB 3 cable to the front or back port. It will initially be recognised. I can transfer the odd file to it. As soon as I try to transfer (say) a large folder containing (say) 30GB of photographs (my hobby) the drive crashes and windows tells me it is no longer attached and then that it needs to be chkdsked and then that it is un accessible. After that it will not boot. Definitely corrupted in some way.

Now, the great thing about standards is that there always so many to choose from. I can't tell if this is a motherboard issue, driver issue or device issue, or all 3.

I'm not that bothered about getting this drive going on USB 3.0 as I'm only using it store files for my media server but I have had my eyes on a rather tasty rugged 1TB USB 3 external drive on which to backup my photographs and I want to be sure the system is robust before investing in such a device. At present, I do not have any assurance.

Thanks again for your help

LouisB
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top