GIGABYTE Z87 UD5H: USB 3 3.5 inch External Hard Drives disconnect/reconnect/disconnect on Windows 8

jb7 · 8 Oct 2013 at 15:01

This only happens with USB3 3.5 inch external hard drives. Not USB3 2.5 inch drives, or USB3 flash sticks

They will keep disconnecting/reconnecting. I have tried the 3.5 inch hard drives on my macbook, and they work fine. I also tried an (ivy bridge) windows 8 laptop, works fine.

Any ideas? I have updated to all the drivers on the gigabyte website

Sounds very similar to this issue, but none of the fixes worked for me http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/53641-ga-z87-ud5h-usb3-0-onboard-header-issues.html

It's highly frustrating have 10 USB 3 ports and none of them work (with 3.5 inch hard drives..)

I have also disabled usb 3 power management in power options

Please help!

Thanks!

stulid · 8 Oct 2013 at 15:23

Have you tried a BIOS update?

jb7 · 8 Oct 2013 at 15:56

stulid said:
Have you tried a BIOS update?

I updated to F6 bios a few weeks ago

There is now an F7 bios. Changelog:

Support PCB ver 1.0/1.1
Improve PCIE-E compatibility
(Note) The USB driver must be updated in advanced.

stulid · 8 Oct 2013 at 16:01

F8a is the latest Beta - http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html

jb7 · 8 Oct 2013 at 18:58

stulid said:
F8a is the latest Beta - http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html

Bit weary to install a beta bios unless it's my last option. Do you think it could be some sort of haswell power saving feature? (not usb 3 power management, as I've disabled that)

I have even tried multiple enclosures and multiple different hard drives within those enclosures. Works fine on ivy bridge laptop and ivy bridge macbook, disconnects on haswell rig..

rocketman · 9 Oct 2013 at 18:44

Hi, jb7, it sounds like you're having the same problem as I did with my UD5H:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=24988132

I asked the same question on three different forums with no success. Gigabyte Tech Support wanted me to send them my external enclosure so they could do some testing, but what I did was to exchange my original UD5H for a replacement. Did so, and had the exact same problem, and to make it worse, the replacement board wouldn't play nice with my RAM either! Have since returned for a refund, and am now pondering what board to get.....

jb7 · 10 Oct 2013 at 18:11

rocketman said:
Hi, jb7, it sounds like you're having the same problem as I did with my UD5H:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=24988132

I asked the same question on three different forums with no success. Gigabyte Tech Support wanted me to send them my external enclosure so they could do some testing, but what I did was to exchange my original UD5H for a replacement. Did so, and had the exact same problem, and to make it worse, the replacement board wouldn't play nice with my RAM either! Have since returned for a refund, and am now pondering what board to get.....

Thanks for your reply. That is bizarre! There is definitely an issue with these Z87 UD5H motherboards then. I raised a ticket with Gigabyte and they suggested to update the bios, but I see you already tried that new bios and still had the issue

It sounds like it could be some sort of haswell power saving feature. I'm surprised more people haven't raised this as a problem!

rocketman · 10 Oct 2013 at 18:47

jb7 said:
Thanks for your reply. That is bizarre! There is definitely an issue with these Z87 UD5H motherboards then. I raised a ticket with Gigabyte and they suggested to update the bios, but I see you already tried that new bios and still had the issue

It sounds like it could be some sort of haswell power saving feature. I'm surprised more people haven't raised this as a problem!

What USB 3.0 hard drives do you use? Mine is a RAID enclosure, so I didn't know whether my problem was specific to those enclosures.

jb7 · 12 Oct 2013 at 14:37

rocketman said:
What USB 3.0 hard drives do you use? Mine is a RAID enclosure, so I didn't know whether my problem was specific to those enclosures.

I've tried a silverstone DS322B and a Hornettek Enterprise 4X... get disconnections on both

A few days ago I got a disconnection my Samsung M3 1TB 2.5 inch usb3 hard drive... which is worrying

rocketman · 12 Oct 2013 at 15:03

jb7 said:
I've tried a silverstone DS322B and a Hornettek Enterprise 4X... get disconnections on both

A few days ago I got a disconnection my Samsung M3 1TB 2.5 inch usb3 hard drive... which is worrying

It's interesting that this problem affects so many USB 3 peripherals. Good luck getting your problem sorted jb7, I've ordered an ASUS Z87 Deluxe, and once I've rebuilt my PC for the third time, I'll report back how the USB acts on that

jb7 · 16 Dec 2013 at 12:12

rocketman said:
It's interesting that this problem affects so many USB 3 peripherals. Good luck getting your problem sorted jb7, I've ordered an ASUS Z87 Deluxe, and once I've rebuilt my PC for the third time, I'll report back how the USB acts on that

I also bought an Asus Z87 Deluxe, and I'm having the exact same issue! Did you?

Is is something to do with the fact that I'm using 9 out of 10 of my sata ports?

rocketman · 16 Dec 2013 at 22:04

jb7 said:
I also bought an Asus Z87 Deluxe, and I'm having the exact same issue! Did you?

Is is something to do with the fact that I'm using 9 out of 10 of my sata ports?

Yep, same problem. I purchased a Renesas-based USB 3.0 PCIe card, installed the latest Renesas driver, and that solved the problem. All my hard drives behave normally when connected to this. As far as I can tell, the problem lies with the Intel eXtensible Host Controller.

jb7 · 16 Dec 2013 at 22:10

rocketman said:
Yep, same problem. I purchased a Renesas-based USB 3.0 PCIe card, installed the latest Renesas driver, and that solved the problem. All my hard drives behave normally when connected to this. As far as I can tell, the problem lies with the Intel eXtensible Host Controller.

Cheers for the quick reply as always

Out of curiosity, how many of your sata ports are you using? I'm using 9, could that be linked to the issue? I'm surprised this isn't more common

rocketman · 16 Dec 2013 at 22:17

9 as well

jb7 · 16 Dec 2013 at 22:27

Turns out it's actually a really common problem when you google it as the Intel eXtensible Host Controller usb 3 issue.... turns out I was just googling it wrong before

Might give this a go http://plugable.com/2012/12/01/windows-8-and-intel-usb-3-0-host-controllers

rocketman · 16 Dec 2013 at 22:50

Saw that trick a little while ago, but just seemed to be too much faffing around. £10 PCIe card off fleebay has solved the problem for me, to an extent anyway. Been very busy at work recently, so haven't been keeping an eye on this issue or trying to resolve it. Let's just say, it's on my "to do" list.......