USB 3.0 External Drive on ASRock VisionX 420D Haswell

[swbrains]

I have an external Seagate USB 3.0 drive on my new ASRock VisionX 420D (Haswell) running a clean installation of Windows 8.1. I've noticed that the drive is not always turned on when booting or restarting. I do have it plugged into a USB 3.0 port. Oddly, the only way I can seem to guarantee that the drive will be turned on when starting the PC is to disable the USB 3.0 settings in the BIOS. I tried "Smart", "Auto Smart", and all other settings. I also tried just disabling the Legacy 3.0 USB option. But the only stable resolution that always works seems to be to disable USB 3.0 in the BIOS altogether.

Has anyone else seen anything like this or know why this may be happening? On my old Win 7 PC this didn't happen, but I believe all the USB ports are 2.0 on that PC.

Thanks!

[smili]

Re: USB 3.0 External Drive on ASRock VisionX 420D Haswell

Hej
I have the same problem with my Asrock vision HT

[parsec]

Re: USB 3.0 External Drive on ASRock VisionX 420D Haswell

That is strange from a purely theoretically technical point of view, since USB 3.0 ports can provide more power than USB 2.0 ports.

My question is, you said you disable USB 3.0 in the BIOS, but then the external drive works? The external drive is USB 3.0, correct? What model is that please.

[swbrains]

Re: USB 3.0 External Drive on ASRock VisionX 420D Haswell

It is a Seagate GoFlex Desk USB 3.0 drive. It *will* work if the BIOS USB 3.0 settings are enabled, but it won't always be on when the PC is booted/restarted. Sometimes it will boot on, then turn off during startup (Windows issue?) and stay off after that. At that point, unplugging it and re-plugging it allows it to turn on and be seen properly in Windows. It's just not consistent when it boots and stays off most times. Sometimes it's off from startup and stays off, sometimes it starts up and then turns off during startup and stays off afterwards.

If I change the BIOS to disable USB 3.0 entirely, it *always* boots the drive on and the drive stays on right through Windows startup and is always seen by Windows. It's very consistent, so something about the BIOS USB 3.0 setting (or perhaps in conjunction with Windows 8.1) affects the startup state of this drive.

[parsec]

Re: USB 3.0 External Drive on ASRock VisionX 420D Haswell

It is a Seagate GoFlex Desk USB 3.0 drive. It *will* work if the BIOS USB 3.0 settings are enabled, but it won't always be on when the PC is booted/restarted. Sometimes it will boot on, then turn off during startup (Windows issue?) and stay off after that. At that point, unplugging it and re-plugging it allows it to turn on and be seen properly in Windows. It's just not consistent when it boots and stays off most times. Sometimes it's off from startup and stays off, sometimes it starts up and then turns off during startup and stays off afterwards.

If I change the BIOS to disable USB 3.0 entirely, it *always* boots the drive on and the drive stays on right through Windows startup and is always seen by Windows. It's very consistent, so something about the BIOS USB 3.0 setting (or perhaps in conjunction with Windows 8.1) affects the startup state of this drive.

Ok, you answered a question for me in the last sentence of that post. I think the issue is related to Windows 8, any version. This is a theory, so let me explain.

You know Windows 8 has the "fast startup" feature, enabled by default. It sounds to me like the fast start up is not giving the USB 3.0 controller (in the PC, or the external drive, or both) enough time to wake up during POST. I've noticed that the USB 3.0 controllers are either slower to start, or started later in the POST sequence, or both. The fact that it works when USB 3.0 is disabled is one reason this could be true.

But this theory fails when you said the external drive still does not start right when you restart the PC. A restart does not use the fast startup feature, so given my theory, it should work or work better starting on a system restart. OTOH, I believe that the POST sequence on a restart is not the same as from a cold start.

One more possible thing, are you using the Fast Boot feature? "Fast Boot" actually shortens the POST sequence, so that might not allow the USB 3.0 controller to wake up in time. If you use Fast Boot, disable it for a test.