New PCIe Card not Recognized on Cold Boot, Works Perfect on Restarts.

[wbear]

Need some help figuring this out. I have a Startech PEXUSB3S400 PCI Express USB 3.0 Card StarTech.com that will not be recognized on cold boots. It is recognized no problem on any restart and works fine until the next cold start. Using the latest driver for the Renesas/NEC uPD720202 chip. MB has the latest FH bios and the latest chipset drivers v9.4.0.1017.

The Card works perfect in a 32 bit XP machine so I am doubting it is defective. I am getting really tired of having to restart every time I turn the machine on. Anyone have an idea where to start looking for the problem?

This is a new build. Thanks in advance.

Win7 64, I7 960 Bloomfield 3.2GHZ, GA-X58A-UD3R rev2, 12gb (3x4gb) triple channel kit of Corsair Vengeance Ram 1600mhz, Gigabyte GTX 550 TI Graphics card, Intel 520 240gb SSD.

I have included the following info from a discussion on another site for more insight. No solution yet.


Upon a cold boot DM is clear of any warnings or unknown devices. The USB Controller section just doesn't show the new card controllers. Since I have my DM set to be able to show "Hidden Devices" (devices that are no longer installed) when I tick that option the new card controllers do show in the section grayed out as they would if the card was pulled which I think is normal and not a problem in this case.

After a restart the DM controller section shows the new cards controllers as it should and the card works fine until the next cold boot.
Also On cold boot, if I go into bios first, card is recognized as in a restart.

Here are some thoughts that someone may have an answer to:
1. Since the card does work fine on restarts I would think that means the card and the slot it's in are not defective plus the card operates normally in an XP machine.

2. What is different from the cards point of view between a cold boot and a restart? Does the bios or windows recognize/treat a card different depending on whether it is a cold boot or restart?

3. Why would a bios not present a card to the OS during a cold boot but do it on restarts?

4. I flashed to the latest FH bios before installing the card. The only thing I changed from the optimized settings after reflash was turn on AHCI mode, set the memory to XMP profile 1 as recommend by Corsair, set the boot order I wanted and disabled the Marvell 9128 run GSATA controller which operates 2 MB Sata connectors which I am never going to use.

I did not install any raid drivers(Intel RST or the gigabyte sata raid drivers) since I'm not using raid. I have 2 DVD drives hooked to the 2 Gigabyte MB sata connectors operating in IDE mode.

To bad I didn't try the card before flashing to the new bios but it was successfully installed. If the new bios had a problem wouldn't other problems show up besides just a PCIe card recognize problem especially considering the video card is PCIe and works fine?

A suggestion from another forum--- Quick boot is not enabled, tried 5 sec HDD delay but no cigar. Good Idea to try though.

I did clean the driver stack and reinstalled the card driver as well as clear the DM of all old uninstalled devices, in other words did a fresh install of the card but no cigar there either.

 

[Northernsoul55]

Posted in error

 

[TVeblen]

One thing to keep in mind: drivers only effect Windows. With the exception of some UEFI BIOS, drivers have no effect on the BIOS routine. So forget about all the Windows drivers, they work (on restart).

So why is that card not initializing and being enumerated in this machine?

(I assume that Windows XP is a different machine? Or is this a dual boot?)
If these are different machines I might suspect a BIOS settings problem.
One thing you might check is under Power Management (probably "APM Configuration" in BIOS), see what happens if you toggle "Power on by PCI-e Devices" from disabled to enabled.

Otherwise you can check and compare the settings on the 2 computers to see if there is an obvious difference.

One other idea: try doing a Clear CMOS procedure. It could be that the BIOS needs to re-enumerate all the installed devices fresh for some reason. Especially if you had other cards in the slots at some time previously.

 

[bassfisher6522]

Go back in your BIOS and re-enable the Marvell SATA controller you disabled and see what happens.

 

[wbear]

Thanks for the replys TVeblen and bassfisher.

Well did a CMOS clear and only changed to AHCI mode before rebooting. No change, same as before.

Guess I'll go back to my custom bios settings for best performance.

I now agree that drivers are not the fault, thanks for your explanation on that.

The XP is on a completely different machine with an older AMD Gigabyte MB. My new machine has no Power on by PCI-e Devices or APM Configuration in the Power Management section of the bios so I can't try that. I never had any other cards in that slot. I will compare the bios settings asap and let you know.

Some have suggested completely re-flashing the bios but I think that would be a waste of time. I already flashed it to the latest bios and it said successful, everything else works fine. I did use @bios instead of Qflash because Qflash won't work with a larger bios size. Now I could reflash the bios with Q now since the bios's would be the same size but I don't think it would be worth the flash risk. What is your opinion??

I am in the process of doing the dance with the card mfg and gigabyte but that could take a while.

Any other tings to try in the meantime?

I have one of these cards Welcome to Koutech System Inc. That I could try in the slot to see if it is recognized. It is only a X1 instead of a X4 so I don't know if the test would be valid and or worth it. What say you?

 

[TVeblen]

I agree that playing with the BIOS versions is a waste of time. You've got the most recent one. Done.

I think you are on the right track regarding contacting the manufacturers. There is something screwy with the communication between the card and board. If you can't find a reason in the BIOS settings then it may be that those 2 parts just will not play nice together. Maybe there is a firmware update for the card.

If you have time then testing to see if the slot is good is not a bad idea. Just make a System Restore point before you start so that after you uninstall it you can clean up the registry in one step.

 

[wbear]

I agree that playing with the BIOS versions is a waste of time. You've got the most recent one. Done.

I think you are on the right track regarding contacting the manufacturers. There is something screwy with the communication between the card and board. If you can't find a reason in the BIOS settings then it may be that those 2 parts just will not play nice together. Maybe there is a firmware update for the card.

If you have time then testing to see if the slot is good is not a bad idea. Just make a System Restore point before you start so that after you uninstall it you can clean up the registry in one step.

Update: I tried a koutech USB 3 card and it is recognized properly in the slot although it uses a different chip and is a X1 instead of a X4.

 

[TVeblen]

Sounds like a problem with that other card then. Can you RMA or is it out of warranty?

 

[Layback Bear]

Something to try. Have something plugged into your PCI USB card on a cold boot and see if it is picked up.

 

[wbear]

Something to try. Have something plugged into your PCI USB card on a cold boot and see if it is picked up.

Thanks for the reply. Yes tried that but no cigar. See my update below.

 

[wbear]

Sounds like a problem with that other card then. Can you RMA or is it out of warranty?

Ha, this is the replacement card they just sent me last week which was pretty painless except it was cross shipped meaning I had to pay for the new one till they get my old one and credit me. The original card was DOA. The new card is working properly I guess just not on my system.

See my update below and give me your opinion on the options.

 

[wbear]

Update: Contacted Gigabyte, tech said not a driver or bios problem. He thinks X58A chipset(at least on a Gigabyte board) does not give the X4 card the delay it needs on a cold boot in order to be recognized. A restart does give the needed delay and the card works. A X1 card does get the delay on a cold boot as my testing shows.

So it seems everything is working, the board, card and drivers. It's just this particular X4 USB3 card will not play well with my chipset and board.

Here are options we discussed
1. Live with the board and restart every time card is needed and or wait till late summer when the 1150 socket boards are out. The price will drop on the 1155 GA-Z77X-UD5H board/processors. Buy one of those and the card may then work or forget the card since the GA-Z77X-UD5H has loads of USB3 ports. Good plan if a person has the cash since it would be an upgrade over what I have now but sad because current board will only get a couple months use. What a waste.

2. Give this info to Startech and hope they will develop new firmware for the card that will let it work. Guess we will see how receptive they are to improving their products.

The tech did give me a way to decrease the hassle of restarts. Cold boot and as soon as the first screen appears hit the case reset button thereby saving time waiting for a full start and then restart. Pitiful in this day and age but what is one to do!

Thanks to every one who gave help and suggestions. I will report back after I see what Startech can do.

 

[TVeblen]

Good info. Thanks for the update.

I hope that when the Gigabyte guy suggested you buy a new motherboard you responded: "oh yes, I've got my eye on a nice Asus board right now!"

I am afraid you will be met with the same type of response from Startech: "oh we have great new products that should actually work!"

 

[wbear]

I should have told him that! He did take the time to explain and answer all questions I had and was knowledgeable if that's any consolation.

If I bought the new setup he suggested today and upgraded to a full 32gb of memory it would cost $750. Powerball 360M tonight!