USB hard drive connects and disconnects every few seconds (1 Viewer)

RobNorthcott

MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 9, 2007
    540
    102
    Dartmoor, England
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    Nothing to do with MediaPortal, but I've had no luck with googling so thought there's no harm in asking the folk here...

    My new HTPC absolutely refuses to get on with my USB 3 external backup drive. The drive works on other PCs but on this new machine it repeatedly appears an disappears every couple of seconds. If you look in Device Manager the drive appears in the list, but the list keeps refreshing as if the drive is being unplugged and replugged. It never appears at all in "This PC" or even in Disk Management.

    Most people seem to think it's USB port power management that's the problem, but I THINK I've turned all that off. Another idea was that it's caused by devices that try to pull too much power from the USB port, but this is a powered caddy with its own PSU so it shouldn't be taking any power from the port.

    A USB 3 flash stick works fine in this machine (in the same front ports), as do all the other USB devices I'm using. As I said, the external drive caddy works on other machines (I've tried four other machines, both USB 2 and USB 3 ports, all work properly).

    It's an ASUS H81I-plus motheboard with the latest BIOS.

    Could it just be that the controller board in this caddy doesn't get on with the motherboard?
    Any other ideas?
     

    CyberSimian

    Test Group
  • Team MediaPortal
  • June 10, 2013
    2,849
    1,771
    Southampton
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    on this new machine it repeatedly appears an disappears every couple of seconds.
    I had a Belkin external USB hub that developed a problem like this after several years use. :( I guess that the electronics developed a fault. But since your USB socket works OK with other devices, and your caddy works OK on other PCs, the electronics are probably still OK. :)

    Could it just be that the controller board in this caddy doesn't get on with the motherboard?
    From random reading on tinternet, I have got the impression that certain makes of USB3 chip are more troublesome than others, so this might be the source of your problem. If so, there is nothing that you can do about it, other than not using the incompatible devices together. :(

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    RobNorthcott

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 9, 2007
    540
    102
    Dartmoor, England
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    Thanks, I was starting to come to the same conclusion. It's not a big deal to find another drive caddy that works on this machine, but it would be nice if it was just down to a Windows/driver/BIOS setting. One thing I haven't tried yet (purely because it's a pain to get at) is plugging the drive into one of the rear USB3 ports instead. In device manager there are two USB hub devices listed (one Intel and one ASTek or something) so I wonder if the header I'm using for the front ports is on a different controller rather than the Intel chipset, and may behave differently. I'll poke around a bit more before I give up and try another caddy.

    EDIT: I've put the latest Intel and ASMedia USB3 drivers on instead of the Microsoft ones - some people reckon they're more stable. Will report back later when I've had a chance to try the drive again.
     
    Last edited:

    RobNorthcott

    MP Donator
  • Premium Supporter
  • October 9, 2007
    540
    102
    Dartmoor, England
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    Still doing the same thing with the new drivers. Turns out it works in the rear USB3 ports, so presumably it's just the Intel controller that doesn't get on with that drive caddy, whereas the rear ASMedia-driven ports are OK. Another USB3 caddy I borrowed works on those ports, so it seems like it's just bad luck with that particular combination of kit.

    As I said before though, not a big deal, just a bit annoying :)

    EDIT: Edited because I got the ports the wrong way round (rear is ASMedia, front is Intel)
     
    Last edited:

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Top Bottom