USB 3.0 Ports Suddenly Stop Working?

Hardware and technical stuff
1

So, my PC locked up while I was streaming some sweet, sweet Apex action earlier today. Totally unresponsive for 15+ minutes, so I went ahead and did a hard shutdown–restart button on the case was also being ignored.

Bringing it back up entailed the usual terrified battle with my increasingly flaky SSD which only shows up to the BIOS on about 1 in 3 boots, seemingly randomly.

Getting into Windows, I found my New Hotness 5TB HD I got on sale on Black Friday wasn’t visible. Tried unplugging/re-plugging, switching USB 3.0 ports (all 2.0 are currently full/in-use). Tried rebooting, renaming HDs (I think there may have been a name conflict from where it replaced an old 3TB I keep hooked up as a backup device), rebooting again, even turning off another USB HD (the oldest, a 1.5TB). No luck.

On a whim brought about by panicked Googling, I tried moving to a USB 2.0 port (the one vacated by the now de-powered 1.5TB drive). Worked perfectly and instantaneously.

So, I guess both of my USB 3.0 ports are just. . . dead?

The BIOS utility on my mobo (some MSi z87 GAMERZCREDCODBLOPS I got for Xmas in 2013) says all is well, and Device Manager shows an “Intel USB 3.0 Root Hub” and “Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller,” with no yellow-flagged listings under any Device Manager category.

Moreover, plugging a USB 2.0 device into the 3.0 ports (an RF dongle for a wireless keyboard/mouse I keep around for watching computer-TV off the couch) works just fine.

So, I [revise my guess to] my USB 3.0 ports just don’t function for USB 3.0 devices?

Uh, any thoughts at all, gentlepeople of Qt3? How would I even test (in software, I guess) that a USB 3.0 port is actually a USB 3.0 port still, if the BIOS manager says it is but it doesn’t seem to recognize USB 3.0 devices plugged into it, but still takes USB 2.0 devices?

Unfortunately, I lack any OTHER 3.0 devices to test whether or not the “I am a USB 3.0 device, man” abilities of my 5TB HD are ACTUALLY what’s fried (except that when plugged into the 2.0 port, Windows tells me it COULD be faster if plugged into a 3.0 port).

2

I’m not convinced my USB 3.0 ports work as 3.0, more like 2.0. That does not help you, but yeah maybe USB 3.0 aint all that etc?

But it also sounds like you got some general computer problems going on, so this might be the tip of an iceberg kind of thing?

3

I kinda figure it is, yeah, but like I said, the mobo (and CPU + RAM) is pretty new, while the graphics card and SSD are ancient.

What’s weird is that it worked fine until that lockup. Just decided it didn’t want to be a USB 3.0 port anymore. Will downclock to USB 2.0 for 2.0-only devices, but the 3.0 drive is just invisible on those ports. So weird!

4

I’ve had my Dell Venue 8 Pro’s USB port go dead twice now after running windows updates. Last time I sent it back, they just did a factory restore and returned it to me. Problem happened again and a box is on the way, who knows if this will get fixed this time around.

I read something a while back about a USB chipset maker releasing a new driver that disabled knockoff chipsets. No idea if this or something else is the source of the issue. I’d hope that Dell was using the proper chips.

5

Oh neat. Woke up this morning to both screens covered in jagged, staticy lines of color and the whole PC locked up.

At least it still saw all of my hard drives on boot!

I really don’t want my motherboard to be dying right now :-/

6

Sounds like it may indeed be a dying motherboard but a good rule of thumb for wacky usb issues is to physically unplug the power from the computer and wait 60 seconds then plug it back in. Sometimes the microcode on the USB interface gets corrupted and it will stick around as long as the MB is getting power.

7

You can also try disabling xHCI (handoff) in the BIOS, rebooting, going right back into the BIOS and turning it on again.

But…that’s sounding to me like some thing’s dying in your PC. And/or you have some loose connectors, time to check them all.

8

Armando this is a really bad problem with new motherboards and was a bad problem with Asus boards a short 2 generations ago. On current boards it can be caused by an Intel BIOS setting. Disabling that will fix your problem. It’s the Intel USB eXtensible Host Controller. It’s a piece of crap since many built-in firmwares for USB devices from joysticks, to keyboards, mice, and hard drives will crash, stop functioning, and literally not let your computer boot. I could not use my modern keyboard, my Logitech Mouse, nor my Saitek X52 Pro with that thing running. I have to thank the Star Citizen forums for bringing this to my attention when I had to redo my computer (see halfway down): https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/37455/saitek-x52-pro-hotas-and-win7-problem-solved

9

Thanks for the heads up, jpinard. I’ll give that a shot either tomorrow night or the next when I get some time to sit down and tinker.

Unfortunately, I’m growing more and more afraid for the health of the motherboard itself. Tonight the PC bluescreened with a .sys file error related to my network card’s drivers. So, USB, video, modem. . . what do all three have in common? Mobo :-/

Really really can’t afford to replace this right now. Currently playing the part of an ostrich and getting my head nice and deep in the sand.

10

I like simple mobo’s these days, most of the enthusiast level boards are so full of stuff i’ll never need, that can cause many issues, that really i just stay away from them for piece of mind (and wallet!). Gigabyte have been my goto for many years, and apart from a few hiccups (on a few top tier ones iirc) they are mostly very sound. But each person will have a specific ‘best’ manufacturer etc, so ymmv. That issue jpinard mentions sounds like a good find, fingers crossed it is that simple for you.

11

I agree Zak. I’m entirely happy with my lower-end (V-LX) ASUS motherboard. The build quality on it is still fine.