AKE USB3 Express Card Adaptor Driver Problem

[alan1000]

I cannot get an AKE 3-port USB3 express card adaptor to work in my HP Elitebook 8530w. The adaptor came without drivers when I bought it, which didn't worry me at first because I assumed Windows 7 would support it. Wrong! I have identified the NEC and Renesas drivers as appropriate (although I believe they are in fact the same driver), and installed both. I've installed the Asmedia USB3 Control Hub driver, which also seemed as if it might be useful. I have updated everything else I can using DriverUpdate, and my OS is fully up to date. Windows Action Center does not indicate any problems and there are no driver problems flagged in Device Manager. The express card port recognises other express card devices, so that does not seem to be the problem. Can anybody suggest what I could try next? I'm not actually worried about USB3 as such, because I don't suppose the Elitebook has that capability, but I'd just like to get it working in USB2 mode.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Maybe the card is just dead. Anyway, how did you identify the NEC? Was it written on the card? Can you post it?
I had one in the past and I got it working by using this driver (yes it's hosted on my dropbox).

Others found drivers here.

 

[alan1000]

Thanks for your reply, Bobafetthotmail. Both of the links you supply lead to the Uniblue driver updater, which I've tried previously. In fact I've now tried several different driver scans without luck. I identified the NEC and Renesas drivers from information supplied in other forums. I'm reluctant to admit just yet that the cards are dead because I have two of them and they both don't work. However, other users on other forums have expressed satisfaction with them. I wonder if the problem, in the end, is just that neither my 8530w nor Windows 7 offer native USB3 support (or so I've read online). If you had one of these cards previously and got it to work, can you tell me the name of the driver you used?

 

[bobafetthotmail]

The driver I used is in the first link. I kept it as a backup in my own dropbox cloud backups just because I can.

I got them from this page. Though don't remember what was the link (don't download the firmwares for the moment).

the controller name should be printed on the card like "B8584". If you can see it please post it.

I wonder if the problem, in the end, is just that neither my 8530w nor Windows 7 offer native USB3 support (or so I've read online)

True but irrelevant. Native USB3 support matters only if the USB3 controller is in the chipset, which is not your case (the controller is in the AKA card). So you need additional drivers to make that work. Not a problem. If you find drivers.

 

[alan1000]

BINGO! The driver I really needed was fresco_USB3.0_3.5.97.0 (downloadable from a number of sites - I used Mediafire). The version requirement is very precise. I first tried version ~.93 and although it installed fine, Windows would not allow it to run because of "reported problems". More in desperation than in hope I tried version ~.97 and it works like a dream.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

link is broken. try to post it in the code tags. (the # symbol)

EDIT: Ah ok, mediafire is locked out of this site due to idiotic illegal action detection bots form MS that keep spamming requests of takedown for copyright infringement or whatever to Google if they see such links.

 

[alan1000]

Yes, sorry, that wasn't a real link, just a filename in italics.

Just as a matter of interest, though, if I use the same driver on my Dell Precision M4300 (same OS), it causes a system crash and a memory dump! Oh well...

 

[bobafetthotmail]

You can try posting that BSOD in the bsod section, after you followed this tutorial to get all the dumps in one click.

There a BSOD analyst will give you more clues of what went wrong.

 

[alan1000]

Tried to reproduce the BSOD (after backing everything up first!) but the driver installed perfectly on the next attempt. Evidently there must have been a serious conflict, momentarily, but I've no idea what.