I think kemical might be suggesting that you performed your Win8.1-->Win10 upgrade with this usb device plugged in while you ran the W10 upgrade. This is an
ABSOLUTE NO-NO!. Running a secondary hard drive in a desktop PC or laptop which is plugged into a SATA interface on the Motherboard
DURING AN OS-UPGRADE is also verboten!
For the same reason.
If you would have run the
WINDOWS 10 COMPATIBILITY TEST prior to running your W10 upgrade, you may have received an error telling you that your USB device or USB device driver you had running in 8.1 had a potential problem in W10 before the upgrade was run.
Did you perform this Test?
In any case, you mentioned that this problem occurred with the laptop in 8.1 before your ran the W10 upgrade. So, the problem occurred since day-one that you purchased the laptop, correct?
If so, and this laptop looks pretty new
do you have it under Manufacturer Warranty or Extended Warranty? If so, have you considered returning it to your place of purchase?
You could have a faulty piece of hardware in that laptop. It could be a bad RAM memory stick or Hard Drive. Have you tested those?
Even if you have run the basic hardware tests and they pass, that would not rule out a faulty Motherboard circuit. This would take advanced expert skills to test and detect.
If you haven't run these tests, and don't know how or are not willing to do so, you should look up your receipt, purchase date, and warranty information on that laptop, and take it back to the place of purchase. If the laptop is under warranty, but the place of purchase won't or can't help you, you can contact
ASUS directly and send the laptop back to them. You will incur a shipping cost with insurance to do so; in the US this runs about $50-$75. Once
ASUS repairs your laptop they will ship it back to you on their dime. Be prepared for this to take several weeks. Laptop repairs in the US can run from
3-12 weeks or longer. Shipping internationally obviously can lengthen this time to several months I hear. Hopefully, you have another computer or older laptop sitting around that you could use in the meantime.
Best of luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>