USB Drives not seen by Windows 10

banja · 20 Apr 2018 at 21:26

Just got myself a little Win 10 netbook. Neither of my USB hard drives show up. Lights come on on the drives so something is happening but they aren't in the drive list, or diskmgmt, or in device manager. Nowt.

They both work as I use them on my desktop.

Did a search and one thread here suggested disabling hibernating. Did that but no joy. Any one got any ideas?

nightmare99 · 21 Apr 2018 at 12:18

Do you have any internet security installed?

banja · 21 Apr 2018 at 13:31

Nothing other than the default Windows Defender etc.

Destination · 21 Apr 2018 at 20:52

enough power to your ports to run the drives?
does a usb stick work?

banja · 21 Apr 2018 at 21:55

Destination said:
enough power to your ports to run the drives?
does a usb stick work?

This is what I was thinking. I have the netbook plugged in though.

Yes USB sticks work.

Destination · 22 Apr 2018 at 08:50

Might be a case of the ports simply don't have sufficient power regs.
Wonder is there a setting somewhere that can be adjusted.

banja · 22 Apr 2018 at 12:11

Destination said:
Might be a case of the ports simply don't have sufficient power regs.
Wonder is there a setting somewhere that can be adjusted.

Maybe. There used to be some USB suspend setting in power options in previous versions of Windows - but it doesn't seem to be in the same place in Win 10.

demonix · 22 Apr 2018 at 14:16

banja said:
Maybe. There used to be some USB suspend setting in power options in previous versions of Windows - but it doesn't seem to be in the same place in Win 10.

Did you click the additional power settings option as that brings up the old power options where you can then get to the more advanced options where the USB suspend settings are.

banja · 22 Apr 2018 at 14:19

demonix said:
Did you click the additional power settings option as that brings up the old power options where you can then get to the more advanced options where the USB suspend settings are.

I did and the USB suspend setting simply isn't there.

demonix · 22 Apr 2018 at 14:24

banja said:
I did and the USB suspend setting simply isn't there.

It's in change advanced power settings when you select change plan settings for a specific power plan (it's listed as USB selective suspend setting)

banja · 22 Apr 2018 at 14:39

demonix said:
It's in change advanced power settings when you select change plan settings for a specific power plan (it's listed as USB selective suspend setting)

As I stated, it isn't there. I know it's supposed to be there - that setting is available on my Win 7 desktop, between the 'Sleep' drop down menu and the 'Power Buttons' drop down. But on the Win 10 netbook, it isn't there. Instead between Sleep and Power Buttons is 'Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Settings' No USB options at all.

banja · 22 Apr 2018 at 14:50

Update. Forgot I have an old powered external HDD. Tested that and it works! So looks like a USB power issue. Considering the netbook can obviously be plugged in this suprises me that there isn't enough juice. Is there a way to hack the power situation to the USB sockets?

demonix · 22 Apr 2018 at 14:57

I'd suggest getting a mains powered hub as a temporary measure, but you should look into if this is a known issue or just a defect in the one you purchased.

banja · 22 Apr 2018 at 15:08

That's a good idea thanks. Annoying to have to carry around an extra gizmo and pwr supply, but oh well.

jpaul · 22 Apr 2018 at 20:37

banja said:
So looks like a USB power issue

will the desktop (where they work) tell you what power consumption is, for the drives that fail on netbook ?
shouldn't there be a usb event on the netbook logging excess power take, too.

did you test whether plug&play is failing ? - might they work if they are plugged in pre-boot or whilst in standby

banja · 23 Apr 2018 at 01:33

A search of the make / model / issue suggests the USB ports do not provide enough power. Nowt that can be done. Cheers anyway folks.

AHarvey · 23 Apr 2018 at 17:51

banja said:
A search of the make / model / issue suggests the USB ports do not provide enough power. Nowt that can be done. Cheers anyway folks.

They will with a powered USB hub, I have to use one on one of my older netbooks