BIOS 4301 ROG MAX Z690 HERO USB C issues

[phatmonkey]

Hi there, just reporting a weird bug I am having, I connect my Apollo Twin x to USB C to use as a Thunderbolt device as well as an external drive that uses the other USB C port. Ever since I updated to 4301 sometimes nothing works in these two ports, I have to go into device manager uninstall the controller driver for the USB ports and restart the PC then it all works again. It has happened 3 times now so I thought I would make a forum post in case ASUS are not aware...

Cheers...

Ryan

[JohnAb]

I also have the 690 Hero and am on 4301. I've had no issues with the Thunderbolt USB ports - I use one for an external USB4 enclosure and the other for a card reader plus extra charging facility. 

So I don't know anything about the Apollo Twin, but I suspect it's not a BIOS issue. Have you updated the Windows MEI drivers and installed the latest Thunderbolt drivers? You can get both from MoKiChU's drivers section (Downloads for Motherboards in this forum) ...

[phatmonkey]

Thanks for the reply, its not just the Apollo but anything connected to the two USB C ports, sometimes in the device manager the controller does not even show up, its very weird. Maybe its a Windows problem, I have reinstalled it today but not a clean install, upgrade install as I have too much crap on the drives to re-install, would take days lol

[JohnAb]

It's a good idea to update the MEI drivers when you update the BIOS and ME firmware (included with the BIOS) so I suggest you do that at least to see if it helps...

[phatmonkey]

Hi there, all that was updated mate, so far and it could be a coincidence, I have upgraded my Windows 11 or reinstalled it, kept all the apps so its not clean install and everything seems fine, time will tell. Having done some googling it appears the latest Windows updates have caused many driver and ssd issues for some people, I also asked ChatGPT the question about latest Windows 11 update problems and got this reply, coincidence? 

CHATGPT: Yes — there have been multiple reports and discussions online that a recent Windows 11 update (notably things like KB5063878, and some other security/feature updates) may be causing SSDs to disappear, behave oddly, or fail during heavy workloads. Also, there are users reporting USB problems after Windows 11 updates: ports not working, devices not being recognised, issues with docking stations, etc.

[phatmonkey · Accepted solution]

With the help of ChatGPT and Copilot the problem has been identified and solved, love AI. I will post my finding in case others have this problem. It seems on this motherboard the 2 USB-C ports are not equal, the top one uses Intel PCH (Z690 chipset), the bottom one uses ASMedia ASM3242. 
What causes the top port to vanish sometimes is a connected external drive that uses external power but is not turned on or plugged in, this causes a partial recognition of the drive during boot even though it is not plugged in causing the port to vanish randomly. Ai suggested to plug the drive into the bottom port and the Apollo audio device into the top port. I then ran the problem solving through Copilot which came up with the same conclusion, the problem has now been fixed lol.... thank the Ai deities... 😄

[Jorge261171]

Hola buenas para todos grupo, ayer actualice la BIOS de mi z690 hero y la BIOS dejo de reconocer los discos duros, solamente reconoce los SSD y las memorias, despues de tanta lucha pude entrar a Windows y todos mis discos aparecen sin embargo en la BIOS no