X670E Crosshair Hero PD firmware updated back to buggy version somehow - 10% CPU performance loss

[N3utro]

Hello,

I noticed when benchmarking my system that my CPU performance was below average, so i started investigating and noticed the "system interrupts" process was using 5% of CPU time for no reason.

After narrowing it down after a few hours and reinstalling windows 7 times, I finally found out that the culprit was "ITE USB Connector Client Device" in the windows device manager under "Universal Serial Bus controllers". The driver for this device is included in the package named "UCM_Client_Peripheral_Driver_V1.3.7.110_WIN10_WIN11_64-bit" given on the X670E crosshair hero driver download page on asus website.

As soon as this driver is installed, the "ITE USB Connector Client Device" is enabled in the windows device manager, and the issue starts happening. Manually disabling the "ITE USB Connector Client Device" from the windows device manager stops the issue from happening.

But this device must have a use. A google search points to USB4 or RGB controller. 

I've tried updating this driver to a more recent version (v1.3.8) found through a google search but the issue persists. 

This is the exact same problem as reported here:

https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/amd-600-series/x670-x870-resource-thread/m-p/1073950/highlight/true#M8...

Should i contact asus customer support directly about this issue or is posting in this forum enough so the people at asus working on the support of this board could look into it?

Thanks in advance for the help.

My system specs:

Asus ROG X670E crosshair hero bios 2904 - all firmwares updated to latest versions
CPU 7800X3D
RAM 2x16GB Gskill DDR5 6000 CL30 expo
Asus prime 16 GB 5060 ti oc edition
1200W EVGA Supernova PSU
Windows 11 24H2, latest version downloaded today from windows media creation tool.

Best regards.

[benni1990]

I have the same Problem and i was wondering why all guys have so much more point with the same Clock speed

[gupsterg]

Have you updated FW, PD firmware Update Tool V004, link.

I'm using MoKiChU drivers and no issues, link.

[N3utro]

Yes i already used the PD firmware update tool v004 available here: https://rog.asus.com/us/motherboards/rog-crosshair/rog-crosshair-x670e-hero-model/helpdesk_bios/

What exact driver did you use to solve this issue?

I already tried the "ITE UCM Driver : 1.3.8.18 WHQL" from that link but it didn't solve the issue for me.

[N3utro]

PS: this is the infos i have in my bios page:

[Azur-Mrodfr]

Hello

You have well added a power supply cable for the USB C + USB 3.0 connector on the MB ?

Thanks for the new ITE USB connector client device 1.3.8.18 (hard to found) but unfortunately, even on this driver release, The Cypress UCM client is allways 1.2.1.88 from 2022.

I'n not the best but the ITE USB is the front 3.0 et Cypress is the front USB C ???

The only problem I have with front USB C is the key is recognized 2 times when inserted.

As I don't have all the knowledge, could you describe how you check the interrupt ? Thanks.

[N3utro]

No i'm not using the front usb connectors on my case so they are not plugged to my motherboard, and i still had the issue, so the cypress and ITE USB are not directly linked to this problem.

Before i installed the PD firmware downgrader V004 as i described earlier the "system interrupts" process in the windows task manager shown below had almost constantly "05" in the "CPU" column here. This translated to almost 10% performance loss on 3Dmark CPU time spy benchmark.

Since i ran the PD firmware V004 downgrader again, it's back to 0% CPU usage.

[N3utro · Accepted solution]

Found a solution thanks to "DvL Ax3l" on another forum: i downloaded the PD firmware downgrader here:

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/Socket%20AM5/ROG_CROSSHAIR_X670E_EXTREME/PD_FW_Update_Tool_V00...

ran it, rebooted and the issue was gone.

It's weird because i'm pretty sure i already ran this not too long ago already. Also after using this tool the PD FW version shown in the bios is still the same (2012) as before i used it.

So my guess is that maybe when i updated to a newer bios version the PD FW was also updated to a newer, buggy version without any change beeing displayed, so running the PD FW downgrader was needed again to downgrade back to the working v004 PD firmware.

Apart from that, i have no idea... But hey at least it works 🙂

PS: I noticed that the AsusFCNotification app installed with the UCM driver also causes an unexplained higher CPU usage for no reason. If you have this installed in your app list, be sure to remove it, and if you install the UCM driver modify the install.bat script to not install it.

[UTVOL06]

Awesome you were able to find the solution. Was the firmware that had to be rolled back one that was listed on the asus support driver page to install? 

[N3utro]

No it was not. I dont know how this firmware was updated to the buggy one again since i previously ran the pd v004 firmware downgrader some months ago. I regularly check asus driver and bios page for the x670e crosshair hero (like every week) and update what needs to be updated, so i'm like 95% sure i already used the v004 pd firmware tool before i had this issue.

My guess is that perhaps the buggy PD firmware is included in one or more recent bios updates. But since the PD firmware version shown in the bios settings is not accurate enough (it shows "2012" with the buggy or the v004 working PD firmware in both cases) it's hard to be sure unless you know exactly what to look for on windows. 

I'm not going to reflash the latest bios to confirm, i already almost spent my whole sunday debugging this 😞

When there is a new bios release i'll check it and if that's indeed the source of the issue i'll report back here.