Solved FlashDrives not Recognized in certain ports ???

[BuckSkin]

I have already followed this article with no success:

Cruzer flash drive NOT detected by Windows PC

The Problem:
We have two identical 16GB USB-3.0 SanDisk Cruzer Glide flash-drives.

The wife's machine, DELL Optiplex 780m tower, Windows 7 Pro, with a 5-port 3.0-USB card AND a 4-port 3.0-USB panel in the floppy-disk opening.

Until now, everything we have plugged into the 4-port front panel has always worked; flash-drives, ext. HDDs, card-readers, all have always worked in this front panel.

However, the front panel does not acknowledge the presence of either of the new 3.0 SanDisk flash-drives; no device-inserted/removed noise, nothing.
The LED lights do light up though.

I can plug these into any of the front or rear 2.0 ports and they instantly show up; likewise the five 3.0 ports on the rear (on the card).

When I try them in the front 4-port 3.0 panel, they do not appear in disk management, nor do they show up anywhere in device management; other than the lights working, it is if they did not exist.

I have some 2.0 USB SanDisk flash-drives and they work without fail in the front 3.0 ports.

I have the exact same 3.0-USB set-up on my identical machine and these drives work fine in my front panel.

How can I fix this ?

Thanks for reading.

 

[aakkam22]

• Double-check the BIOS to make sure the front ports set to accept USB 3.0, and make sure you disable selective suspend.

• What happens if you try other USB 3.0 devices in the front ports? Are they not detected either?

• It's an OEM Dell so chances of any overclocking are slim to none, but it doesn't hurt to mention removing the OC.

• Can you post a screenshot of Device Manager with your USB hubs expanded?

 

[BuckSkin]

This is the front USB 3.0 panel:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008FJXGDQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Other 3.0 drives work fine in these ports.

I will get a picture of Device Manager shortly.

 

[BuckSkin]

I don't know just what I did, or even if I did anything; but, the problem has went away as mysteriously as it appeared.

I have had these drives in and out of those front panel ports dozens of times during my trouble-shooting efforts without any acknowledgement whatsoever from the computer.

Then, I plugged them both in so that I could get the screen-capture of Device Management; as always before, the first one I plugged in did nothing; then, when I plugged in the second one, I heard the "device plugged in" noise and the autoplay box appeared.

I un-plugged and re-plugged the other drive a couple times and it then connected.

I have since tried several cycles of plug-in/unplug and nine of ten times they are now working.

Anything else I plug in these ports works first-time every-time.

In my research regarding this situation, it seems like I am not alone in this experience, as I found several similar scenarios with the same drives and 3.0 front panels.

Thanks and I appreciate the help.

 

[aakkam22]

Thanks for the update.

I was researching the issue and it seemed like the flash drive itself was the issue, many users online were suggesting that sometimes the flash drive itself was faulty and the connector tips weren't long enough. But with your specific set of circumstances I was baffled as to what the problem was.

Thanks for the update

 

[BuckSkin]

many users online were suggesting that sometimes the flash drive itself was faulty and the connector tips weren't long enough.

Thanks for the info.

It makes sense that possibly the contacts are either not hardly as long, or maybe not hardly as thick, as they should be; thus, they have to be inserted just so or contact is not made.
What also puzzles me is that the LEDs will light even when they aren't being recognized, which leads me to think that maybe the power contacts are sufficient to the task, whereas the data contacts are not.

Now that I have managed to get these to recognize, they do not 100% of the time.

Although I haven't yet actually written anything to them other than a few short test writes, I am now wondering that, if it is a contact issue that is fault of the drives, they might possibly "drop out" in the middle of reading/writing.