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Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Thunderbolt Issue - neither socket powering up WD drives

alexcomputer
Level 7

Hello. I have the titled board. I cannot get the Thunderbolt Ports to work correctly. 

As long as I don't have a device plugged in when I turn on/restart, I have no errors in device manager - it shows the controller up fine and the Thunderbolt Control Centre shows the two ports.

I have two WD My Passport Thunderbolt drives. Both using an adaptor to the built in cable attached to the drive. Both drives detect perfectly and are accessible when I plug into a laptop with a Thunderbolt port. But not in this Z790 motherboard - the power light doesn't even come on the drive. 

If I boot the system with the drive already plugged in, I get a 'PCI Express Upstream Switch Code 31)' error in device Manager. I thought I solved that when I did the registry change as detailed here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/deployment/error-attach-pci-express-ex...
...but then I get 'Thunderbolt Controller 1137 not enough free resources (code 12)'
...so I deleted the registry entry.
Also if I boot with the drive already attached, in the 'Thunderbolt Control Centre' it no longer lists the two Thunderbolt ports - it somehow disables them, they don't show up in Device Manager either. 

Either way, if I plug the drives in,  to either of the Thunderbolt ports, nothing happens. 

I have tried both the Thunderbolt driver from the ASUS site, and the driver from the Intel site. 

BIOS is the latest version.  Thunderbolt Controller 1137 version 1.41.1340.0 installed. 

Trawling around forms, some suggest that changing from XMP to auto fixes it...didn't work.  Others say enable the "ErP Ready" setting under Advanced > APM Configuration from 'Disabled' to 'S5' - no change. I have searched and search and just cannot get the drives to power up or detect using the Thunderbolt ports so thought I would try here!

If I plug a regular USB device (my phone) into the Thunderbolt Port, it charges, detects and can access the device through Windows. So the port isn't totally dead. 

It's almost like it's not giving enough power through the Thunderbolt Ports?

If anyone has a solution or even any ideas I would gladly appreciate it. 

Running Windows 10 Pro, all updates installed. I have 4X M.2 drives (one on a ROG controller board), and a USB expansion card, but I have tried with both expansion cards unplugged and it does the same thing.  

Full specs, if it helps assist:
PSU: Gigabyte UD1000GM PG5 1000W
Board: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z790 HERO DDR5 PCIe 5.0 ATX
CPU: Intel Core i7 13700K 3.4GHz 16 Core LGA 1700, 5.4GHz Boost, Intel UHD 770 Graphics
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 280mm AiO
RAM: Kingston 2X32GB DDR5, 6000 MHz
GPU: Inno3D Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Twin X2 LHR Dual Fan
NVME Drive 1: Samsung 990 PRO 1TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVME M.2 SSD
NVME Drive 2: Samsung 990 PRO 2TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVME M.2 SSD
NVME Drive 3: Samsung 990 PRO 2TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVME M.2 SSD
NVME Drive 4: Samsung 990 PRO 1TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVME M.2 SSD
SATA Drive 1: 6TB Seagate ST6000DM003, BarraCuda 3.5" HDD, SATA III
SATA Drive 2: 6TB Seagate ST6000DM003, BarraCuda 3.5" HDD, SATA III
Card reader: InterConnect EX USB 3.0 card reader and HUB
Optical Drive 1: ASUS 16X Blu Ray Writer BW-16D1HT
Optical Drive 2: ASUS 16X Blu Ray Writer BW-16D1HT
USB 3.2 Gen2 2X2 USB header (Amazon)
USB Expansion card: AK-PCCU3-09 Akasa USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C and Type-A to PCIe Host Card



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1 REPLY 1

Jiaszzz_ROG
Customer Service Agent

Hello, @alexcomputer .

When testing the connection with the WD My Passport Thunderbolt drives, were they directly connected or through a Thunderbolt dock? Please help confirming the following issues:
- the current BIOS version and the images of the setting in BIOS, or whether it is the default
If possible, please try clearing the CMOS and checking the problem again
- if the Thunderbolt ports you tried are no. 7 and no. 9 in the below image?

Jiaszzz_ROG_0-1684920251486.png

- both of the WD My Passport Thunderbolt drives are 2TB or 4TB?
- screenshots of the error message
If possible, please provide a complete video recording of the issue for a better understanding of your situation.

Thank you.