After updating Asmedia drivers, my external HDD isn't working

ICIT2LOL · 10 Oct 2013

Actually Gil part my fault I should have remembered the first post but anyway I have the straight -V as yours and personally I downloaded all the USB drivers and the chipset. I found doing the BIOS flash to be handy too.

Gil · 10 Oct 2013

I'm running the latest BIOS version. I even flashed new MEI firmware.
All drivers are on latest.
PC wakes up right after sleep and command line POWERCFG -lastwake doesn't provide any results as all of my H/W are set to not allow to wake up PC.

And the issue with the external HDD.

Here is a summary of the chain of event:
1. Updated Asmedia drivers.

2. After reboot external HDD wasn't recognized and displayed as an unknown device in Device Manager.

3. Uninstalled/Reinstalled different Asmedia driver version when USB devices were connected or disconnected for about 4 hours to no avail.

4. Tried the Intel USB 3 port and that failed as well.

5. The only time the HDD worked was right after freshly installing Asmedia drivers. At the 2nd reboot, it became unknown device again.

6. Deleted INFCACHE.1 file located in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore and uninstalled unknown device and Asmedia XHCI/controller through Device Manager and restarted.

7. Add a new value in the Environment Variables (to display disconnected devices) and show hidden devices in device manager and deleted all of the unknown / old USB and others.

A Turning Point:

1. The device got recognized as expected but after the 2nd restart when it got unknown device again, it was now called EXTERNAL under OTHERS in the device manager instead of Unknown Device. In the past it was just called Seagate External SCSi Device.
2. I decided to right-click on the external unknown device in the device manager and update the driver manually. I pointed it to Generic USB Mass Storage Device - IT WORKED! But I wasn't satisfied because this is not how it used to be.

3. Went into BIOS and disabled Legasy Support for USB 3.0 which is enabled by default.This seems to stick the settings after reboots in windows - the external device is now recognized after each reboot.

4. Repeat step 2 but now I pointed it to a most unreasonable path... Asus AI Suite 2 utility installation folder which holds the ASUS BOT Controller / Driver (Asus own USB 3.0 boost driver).

Side Effects:
1.The device manager and devices and printer shows “External” device as the USB port it’s connected to and External Mas Storage Device instead of Seagate SCSi…

2. Went into regedit and found the key to rename it to a friendly name.

3. I still have External in the Devices and Printer which I never had before and I try to understand how to get rid of it.

4. I try to understand why it all happened all of a sudden

5. Why did I loose sleep mode?

6. I try to understand why is that it’s dependent on Asus AI Suite files to display correctly, get identified correctly and not getting an independent device recognition through windows –It’s a PLUG & PLAY not PLUG & PARY device! I know that Asmedia is a subsidiary of Asus and that’s why they use them in the motherboard but damn, does it have to be dependent on AI Suite app???
To me, it’s not the end of it as I’d like to get it working “out of the box” as it should… but the internet is full of this USB 3.0 missing external HDD issues.

Boozad · 10 Oct 2013

Gil said:

4. Repeat step 2 but now I pointed it to a most unreasonable path... Asus AI Suite 2 utility installation folder which holds the ASUS BOT Controller / Driver (Asus own USB 3.0 boost driver).

I think this is where the major part of the problem lies. I had two Kingston Data Travelers that were only transferring at 10MB/s (they were supposed to be USB 3.0) so I applied USB 3.0 Boost to them via the AI Suite GUI and now the PC doesn't recognise them (no Autoplay and no appearance in Explorer) yet I can Safely Remove them, they're recognised there as ASUS BOT Device.
I'd perform a System Restore to a point before you applied the USB 3.0 Boost step and get the device recognised again, and I wouldn't worry at the moment about the method you have to use to get there.

I've found USB 3.0 to be flaky at best, especially when it comes to ASMedia controllers. I'm having a strange problem myself with my mid board USB 3.0 controller at the moment that I just can't figure out.
Hopefully the System Restore will resolve the sleep issue you've now encountered too.

Gil · 10 Oct 2013

I can't do a restore as it's the last update of windows overwritten that and since I use SSD, I allocate small area for restore.

As for the sleep mode, I discovered that if I disconnected the seagate external HDD connected to Asmedia USB 3, then I have no issues with sleep mode.

Since I didn't have this issue in the past, it's safe to assume that it's because of the Asmedia controller drivers / XHCI / Asus BOT driver....

Boozad · 10 Oct 2013

Gil said:

Since I didn't have this issue in the past, it's safe to assume that it's because of the Asmedia controller drivers / XHCI / Asus BOT driver....

Definitely. But it's a problem I haven't managed to fully sort out myself yet.

ICIT2LOL · 10 Oct 2013

Boozad said:

Gil said:

4. Repeat step 2 but now I pointed it to a most unreasonable path... Asus AI Suite 2 utility installation folder which holds the ASUS BOT Controller / Driver (Asus own USB 3.0 boost driver).

I think this is where the major part of the problem lies. I had two Kingston Data Travelers that were only transferring at 10MB/s (they were supposed to be USB 3.0) so I applied USB 3.0 Boost to them via the AI Suite GUI and now the PC doesn't recognise them (no Autoplay and no appearance in Explorer) yet I can Safely Remove them, they're recognised there as ASUS BOT Device.
I'd perform a System Restore to a point before you applied the USB 3.0 Boost step and get the device recognised again, and I wouldn't worry at the moment about the method you have to use to get there.

I've found USB 3.0 to be flaky at best, especially when it comes to ASMedia controllers. I'm having a strange problem myself with my mid board USB 3.0 controller at the moment that I just can't figure out.
Hopefully the System Restore will resolve the sleep issue you've now encountered too.

Well itis funny you should mention the 3.0 USB stuff because I have found mine to be unreliable shall we say. That includes the run through stuff to my front card reader. Just yesterday the cloning of a drive through one got lost through what it called a broken pipe??
I shall have to have a trawl around in the EUFI a bit to see what more is there though a lot of it mystifies me a bit.

Gil · 10 Oct 2013

@ICit2lol Try to disable USB 3.0 Legacy support in the BIOS (since we have the same bios). See how it works for you.

In any case, I'm not giving up on this. Since day one I had issues with USB 3.0 but time I just can't help it but dig in and find once and for all how to solve this OR it is by Asus's design to use their AI Suite to enable anything that's connected to Asmedia.
No wonder you get 4 USB 3.0 Asmedia (rear) and only 2 USB 3.0 Intel (rear as well).

ICIT2LOL · 10 Oct 2013

Ok mate I will trythat and yes the number at the back is a real PITA foptr me when buying boards.

I went to Asus after the Sandy (used a Gigabyte mobo in it) and well it never had any USB problems as such except the lack of.

I even tried a card adaptor but for some reason known only to itself would not work, same went for a 6Gbs SATA internal card too..

Boozad · 10 Oct 2013

I gave up on my backup rig (a BitFenix USB 3.0 front panel running from the mid board ASMedia header on an ASUS F2A85-V Pro) as I moved it to the kids room, but that front panel never got working properly even after updating drivers and firmware. One day I'll give it a crack again.

As for the really weird issue I have on my Haswell rig concerning the ghost drive, well that's completely fried my brain.

ICIT2LOL · 10 Oct 2013

Yep Gav my headers were linked into the Icy Box card reader the 2.0 USB (x4) work perfectly but the 3.0 - zip.

As for the Haswell I sortof have given up up on that idea for the time being at least but Z77 boards from my supplier are like hens teeth I was going to do another Ivy with an i7 but back OT.