Windows 8 Serious USB Problem with a High End Windows PC

soamz

New Member
Hi, I assembled a new PC for our Movie and Video Editing Team. The configuration is :

Motherboard
ASUS P9X79 Pro Model

Processor
Intel Core i7 3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz

RAM
Corsair Vengeance 8x4 GB kit , 32GB total RAM

Boot Drive
Crucial m4 256GB SSD

Video Storage
WD Caviar Green 3 TB Desktop Internal Hard Drive (WD30EZRX)

Case
Cooler Master USP100

Power Supply
Cooler Master 750W

CPU Cooler
COOLER MASTER Hyper

Blu-ray Burner
Asus CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Burner

OS
Windows 8 Pro 64Bit

GPU
Nvidia 4GB GeForce GTX 670

Monitor
24 inch Samsung Monitor LED






Everything works perfect, but there is a serious problem.
If I connect any pen drive or external hard drive to any of the front or back USB ports, the computer hangs. It doesn't hang at the first instance. As soon as I start to copy or paste something , it starts with a good speed and them goes all the way down to 0 bytes/second and the PC freezes. Then if I take the USB drive, the PC gets back to normal immediately.
All those USBs which I tried have been used in a Apple iMac before . But I tried 2 brand new pen drives and external hard drive and it works perfect and copies nicely as well.
But the USB devices which hangs, I even tried formatting it on windows, mac, and everything , but whatever we do, it just doesn't work and hangs. What can be the possible reason ? Is there a way to debug this ? Do I need to ask for Motherboard replacement ?

For example, I just took of the pen drive Sandisk 16GB Cruzer , formatted it on another windows computer , then connected it to this PC. Like always, the windows 8 growl said, there is problem with a drive, click to fix. I clicked it and ran for 1 min and then said, it cannot fix it. I clicked on event details when that error came and I attached the screenshot here. And just then , the PC hangs when I tried opening it from My Computer. And when this happens, the drive on My Computer always changes its disk space view to a blank FAT 32 sort of view. You can see that on my attach screenshot.
And yes, this only happens with any USB storage device and not keyboard or mouse or speaker USB. Just the old pen drives or external drives. And even if I format, they dont work. Of course, there is no kind of virus thing, since Windows 8 is loaded with Windows Defender. So, let me know, how to deal with this now ?

I have put on a lot of money on this and this problem is driving me crazy already.
 
Run one of the PSU calculators and see if you have enough power. I have a sneaky suspicion you don't have enough power for all that hardware you've got. Especially when adding external devices that require even more power. Also, check for any outdated drivers

Thermaltake Power Supply Calculator
 
It sounds like you are basically saying the older USB devices do not work correctly but the new ones do.

I can't remember for sure, but your owner's manual may say, if you were to be running a USB 1.1 device, you would have to plug it into a USB 2.0 port? Are the 3.0 ports backward compatible all the way to 1.1?

Are you using the ASUS SSD caching?

You have checked the bios for USB settings related to legacy devices?

I would probably put one of the devices in the 2.0 ports then use Diskpart to clean it. Be very careful about which drive you clean, since the process will wipe a drive.

You could then the put a partition on the flashdrive and format it in Fat32 or NTFS, possibly depending on the size of the files you are using on it.

Have you loaded any Windows 8 drivers for the board from the ASUS site?

The latest bios for that board appears to be 3305.. Are you running a fairly recent bios update?
 
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Run one of the PSU calculators and see if you have enough power. I have a sneaky suspicion you don't have enough power for all that hardware you've got. Especially when adding external devices that require even more power. Also, check for any outdated drivers

Thermaltake Power Supply Calculator


I dont think, there is any problem with USB Port power. This is a high end motherboard and this thing cant go wrong.

And it works with many pen drives and disk drives , but doesnt work for some.
 
It sounds like you are basically saying the older USB devices do not work correctly but the new ones do.

I can't remember for sure, but your owner's manual may say, if you were to be running a USB 1.1 device, you would have to plug it into a USB 2.0 port? Are the 3.0 ports backward compatible all the way to 1.1?

Are you using the ASUS SSD caching?

You have checked the bios for USB settings related to legacy devices?

I would probably put one of the devices in the 2.0 ports then use Diskpart to clean it. Be very careful about which drive you clean, since the process will wipe a drive.

You could then the put a partition on the flashdrive and format it in Fat32 or NTFS, possibly depending on the size of the files you are using on it.

Have you loaded any Windows 8 drivers for the board from the ASUS site?

The latest bios for that board appears to be 3305.. Are you running a fairly recent bios update?


1. Its not older. For example, I have right now 3 external drives , and 3 pen drives. One works fine for the external drive. But other two freezes. And pen drives, one works and other 2 freezes . So, its not about older or newer. And even if I format the pen drive and use again, it freezes.

2. Not sure about SSD caching. Whats the benefit and how to enable ?

3. I have tried all the ports. None works.

4. Not sure about how to use diskpart.

5. My BIOS version is 3009, 10.5.2012 . Do I need to install the latest and then try ?
 
OK I just updated the BIOS with the EZ Flash 2 tool .

Now its on latest 3305 .

Still those culprit pen drives and external drives freeze.

Whats to do now ?
 
Could you please upload this report for starters?
- open Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc)
- expand the Custom Views category (left click on the > next to the words "Custom Views")
- right click on Administrative Events
- select "Save all Events in Custom View as..."
- save the file as Admin.evtx
- zip up the file (right click on it, select "Send to", select "Compressed (zipped) folder")
- upload it with your next post (if it's too big, then upload it to a free file-hosting service and post a link here).
 
You did not mention if you had loaded any drivers, like chipset, for the board. Your board is a little different from mine in that it does not have any Intel USB 3.0 ports.... I will assume you connected the front ports correctly since they usually have special connectors.

Since some devices work and some do not, is there anything in common with those. Have the devices that do not work been used on another system? Are they the type that have their own software?

Formatting a drive does not really clean it. Diskpart is a utility you can use from the Administrative command prompt window. You can try it without doing anything, just open the window and type Diskpart. Then type List disk to see all the drives on your system. Does the errant device show up?

Once you find the device, you can type select disk 2, with the disk number being the one you want to work on, and then detail disk to see info about it. If you wanted to clean it, after the correct device has been selected, type clean then exit to leave Diskpart. Use Disk Management to partition and format the drive and try it again.

But remember, using the clean command on the wrong drive will wipe it.
 
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