Final verdict on the USB disconnect/dropout issues.

[setzer]

Hello, I recently acquired a 9950X3D after being an intel guy all my life basically. When choosing my motherboard I am getting extremely nervous about the rampant usb disconnect issues reported.....everywhere. I understand some people don't experience these, but many many many do, and it seems like its across multiple AMD chipsets over many years and seemingly all AIB board vendors can exhibit the problem.

There is always a million different responses and accusations of the problem, and just as many "solutions" with some working sometimes and most not working most of the time. And ultimately It doesn't seem like there is any firm concrete answer on what the problem is or what the solution is, if any. some think its icue software, some think its ram voltage. Some have success with tweaks from either, others can't fix their dropouts no matter what.

So many people assume this was "patched" up and fixed, but the board I am looking at (MSI X870e Carbon) has tons and tons of reports of this exact issue showing its face. Reports from jan, feb, and march of this year. Among many other observations, I would say its clear this problem isn't truly "fixed" yet at all.

I make music and some gaming with computers, so I use usb devices extensively. I use a high end RME audio interface connected by USB and some storage drives. If I start getting intermittent usb drops on these I will lose my mind. This is NOT something I want to entertain. I am considering returning this and getting an intel chip even though I really don't want to.

I guess my ultimate questions:
- is their an OFFICIAL cause for these drop outs and any true solutions that are PROVEN to tackle the source of the problem?

- is their any board that anyone knows is certified to not experience these issues ? something "fail safe" ? it seems like nothing is exempt. I truly see these issues across every brand it seems.

If I can't find any official confirmation of the source and fix of these problems, or any platform that is guaranteed to be exempt from them, I'm simply going to go back to intel. Note that its already such a thin selection of motherboards for me to pick from since I want 3 pci-e slots and have an asus RTX 4080 strix that eats up 4 slots. (I know I can vertically mount it but I still prefer traditional mounting.)

Any information appreciated on this, thank you.

PS. I tried to post this question on reddit and it just got screened and auto-deleted by the mods, which I assume is AMD themselves lol. This forum is for more knowledgeable people anyways, so I figured its probably better to post here.

 

[Rroff]

It is something you either encounter or don't and there is no one given fix as the actual factors which expose the issue vary - AFAIK the underlying problem hasn't been fixed they've just put mitigations in place to stop things exposing the problem which mostly work but occasionally a specific combination of factors will cause the problem to rear its head. If it bothers you get an Intel chip, otherwise chances are you won't encounter it.

I haven't actually experienced this issue myself, that I recall anyhow, but I have encountered a related issue with USB4 where devices either take a long time to be detected on startup or won't be detected on startup unless you unplug them and plug them back in again.

 

[setzer]

It is something you either encounter or don't and there is no one given fix as the actual factors which expose the issue vary - AFAIK the underlying problem hasn't been fixed they've just put mitigations in place to stop things exposing the problem which mostly work but occasionally a specific combination of factors will cause the problem to rear its head. If it bothers you get an Intel chip, otherwise chances are you won't encounter it.

I haven't actually experienced this issue myself, that I recall anyhow, but I have encountered a related issue with USB4 where devices either take a long time to be detected on startup or won't be detected on startup unless you unplug them and plug them back in again.

Thanks for the reply, your assessment sounds accurate and aligns with the evidence and testimonials I've seen.

Whats funny about your last line, as I am currently on a gigabyte Z390 Designare board and one of the problems I have is with the thunderbolt ports doing exactly what you just stated. One is a DAS with 4 hard drives and I have to re-plug it in every single time I reboot. One of the reasons I want to upgrade my motherboard is to have thunderbolt or USB4 jacks that can just work and don't have to constantly be reconnected them to have the devices detected (I also need more usb-c ports), and ironically it sounds like this problem still exists even on the newer chipsets

Slightly off topic question, between the JHL8540 chipset in the x670e motherboards, or the ASM4242 chipset in the x870e motherboards, which controller do you think would be better for working more fluidly and not have issues where devices aren't connected until they are re-plugged in ? I did a lot of searching on both of them but can't come to any clear conclusion about which one is less buggy...