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External Hard Disk/USB drives not recognised (Asus G703GX)

Killua
Level 7
[SOLVED]

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Hey guys,

I've been trying to solve a very frustrating problem for the last couple of days concerning a recently purchased Asus G703GX laptop. Maybe you can help?

Like most of you, I have several external HDDs and USB drives to store data. The problem is only a few of them are recognized by this particular laptop. I plug the HDD/USB drive into the appropriate slot on the laptop. Windows plays the 'successful connection' sound, but the device doesn't show up in Windows Explorer or the Disk Management tool.

Before I go into more details, keep in mind that my drivers seem to be up to date and that ALL of the devices work on another laptop (Lenovo ThinkPad) that is running Windows 10 64bit.

The devices do show up in the Device Manager, with a warning/error symbol next to them.
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83681

When I try updating the drivers via Device Manager (searching online for drivers), I get an error message:
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The same error message pops up when I instruct the Device Manager to look for the driver in the C:\Windows\WinSxS folder.
Uninstalling the device and reconnecting it after reboot doesn't help either.

More info via Device Manager:
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The build-in Windows Hardware Troubleshooter identifies the problem at first:
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But when I try to resolve the issue, here's the message that I get:
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I've also temporarily disabled Driver Signature enforcement, as I had suspicions it could be preventing the installation of third-party drivers, but that didn't help either.

The weird thing is - the devices definitely work on a hardware level. When disabling the Secure Boot policy via BIOS on that same laptop, I successfully exported the security keys to one of the USB drives that was not recognized via Windows 10.

Also, one of the three external hard disks that I own is recognized with no issues whatsoever. That would be the Seagate Backup Plus 3TB Desktop External Hard Drive: https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Backup-Desktop-External-STDT3000100/dp/B00HFRWWAM

The other two drives are a Western Digital Elements 2TB Drive and a Transcend's StoreJet 25M3

Running out of options here. Was choosing between this laptop and a Lenovo Legion model. Decided to go for Asus, since I never had any major issues with my old laptop (ROG G750JS), but I'm already starting to regret my decision a little bit 😞

Laptop specs and info
Operating System: Windows 10 Home Single Language 64-bit (10.0, Build 18363) (18362.19h1_release.190318-1202)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
System Model: ROG G703GX_G703GX
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz (12 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Page File: 8060MB used, 13529MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
DirectX Database Version: 1.1.2

Other info
USB Root Hub (USB 3.0)
Vendor/Product ID: 0x8086, 0xA36D
Matching Device ID: USB\ROOT_HUB30
Service: USBHUB3
Driver: USBHUB3.SYS, 3/19/2019 06:43:43, 618296 bytes

Name: Intel(R) USB 3.1 eXtensible Host Controller - 1.10 (Microsoft)
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A36D&SUBSYS_201F1043&REV_10\3&11583659&0&A0
Driver: C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\USBXHCI.SYS, 10.00.18362.0207 (English), 10/7/2019 04:55:16, 531976 bytes
Driver: C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\UMDF\UsbXhciCompanion.dll, 10.00.18362.0207 (English), 10/7/2019 04:55:16, 131960 bytes

Name: NVIDIA USB 3.10 eXtensible Host Controller - 1.10 (Microsoft)
Device ID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1AD8&SUBSYS_17011043&REV_A1\4&7AC7D3A&0&0208
Driver: C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\UMDF\UsbXhciCompanion.dll, 10.00.18362.0207 (English), 10/7/2019 04:55:16, 131960 bytes
10,592 Views
3 REPLIES 3

davemon50
Level 11
Sounds like you've already done what I would've done. Some other thoughts you may have already tried:


  • Make sure you are administrator when you connect any of the drives or do driver updates to get the installation to work properly


  • Make sure USB selective suspend in advanced power settings is disabled; if you don't get that option you would have to enable it in the registry


  • Instead of updating the driver with the flag on it in Device Manager, completely uninstall it and then reboot with Admin privilege and let Windows reinstall the driver, or reinstall it yourself. (Delete all driver files when you uninstall if you have that checkbox option presented to you). Also, if it doesn't work the first time, maybe try the same thing but booting up in Windows safe mode.


  • Make sure you have all the latest drivers installed from Asus on your support page (chipset, etc)


  • Try the non-working drives in another USB port if you haven't


  • Check if there is a driver from WD or SanDisk that you can use. Download and install that one and re-check
Davemon50

Hey Davemon50,

Thanks for the prompt reply and being the first to the rescue! I've tried pretty much all of the steps you've mentioned, to no avail.

However, I was prompted/inspired by your list of suggestions and after more fiddling around, I did manage to get the laptop to recognize the HDDs and USB drives. Still not sure what the hell is going on or what lead to the problem, but here's what I did (in case anyone runs into a similar issue):

1. Make sure your account has admin privileges, as mentioned earlier. You can do it via several means: Control Panel, Windows 10 Settings charm or Command Prompt (type net localgroup Administrators Your_User_Name /add).

2. Reboot into Safe Mode with admin privileges. Click on the Power button (via the Windows 10 Menu), click on Restart while holding the Shift key on your keyboard. On the “Choose an option” screen, select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup Settings > Restart. After Windows 10 restarts and the Startup Settings screen appears, pick the option to launch into Safe Mode (with Command Prompt enabled, just in case).

3. Connect the previously unrecognised device. Windows should (hopefully) detect it now. Restart Windows as you usually would. The device should still be recognizable by your system.

davemon50
Level 11
Awesome results, thanks for posting your solution. 😉
Davemon50