Windows 7: Front USB ports causing crashes/BSODs

I just built a new PC using a Gigabyte 970A-UD3 motherboard, it's been up and running for about a week now. I've since been having an issue when inserting a USB flash drive into the front panel ports. Sometimes it causes my D:\ HDD to crash (it resets as though it was just connected, Windows is on my C:\ SSD drive) and other times I get a BSOD and the machine restarts.

This has happened using both front USB ports and with 2 different USB drives - one USB 3.0 the other USB 2.0. It doens't happen all the time either, only sometimes which is making it difficult to troubleshoot. It has yet to happen when using my external USB 2.0 hub, but as I said it doesn't happen 100% of the time on the front ports either.

I've used disk management to ensure there is no drive letter conflict, which was my original thought before I got any BSODs.

Here are the full system specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte 970A-UD3 v1.1
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 980
RAM: 16 GB Patriot DDR3 1333
GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 580
Primary Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128 GB SSD
Secondary Hard Drive: 2x WD Black SATA III 1 TB disks using onboard RAID 0
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Dump files and perfmon results are attached.

What case are you using? I have a Corsair 400R with front panel USB 3 ports. Corsair has had problems with these USB 3 ports on a few different cases and it was a bad USB case panel.

Jim

Ahh forgot to mention that.

Case is an Antec DF-30. With USB 2.0 front ports.

I should also mention these USB drives had been used in another machine with zero problems.

Is this a new case also? I assume these front ports have a connector that plugs into the MB. You could try moving the plug to a different set of USB ports on the MB and see what you get. Does this happen if you plug a flash drive in any of the back ports on the MB?

Jim

I haven't had any problems with the rear connectors or with my powered USB hub (which is plugged into the rear connectors also).

I just tested it by barely touching the USB device to the connector, not enough for the device to connect or be detected; but it caused my D:\ drive to reset and reconnect again...

My guess is bad USB port panel on Case. Use a flash light and look into the ports for bent pins. Probably getting a short and grounding out the power. Did you try moving the panel cable to different ports on MB?

Jim

Ports look ok physically on inspection. I won't be able to get around to moving the mobo connector tonight given what a pain it is to get the case out in the open.

That is just a last check to see if the problems goes with the panel and not some weird problem with those ports on the MB. If the case is under warranty I would get a new panel. Like I said Corsair has had a lot of these problems with bad panels so yours may have the same Chinese panels as these case companies get these parts from the same suppliers.

Jim

The problem here only occurs sometimes I've gotten it 7 or 8 times today but I've also been messing with it alot. Most of the time they work. I'm thinking if it was any kind of driver or system issue it would happen a little more reliably.