ASUS G74SX USB 3.0 Issues

[Retired]

I've been having problems with my Rocketfish USB 3.0 2.5' enclosure. When plugged into the USB 3 port of the G74SX after very little usage (especially during a HDTune test) it disconnects and reconnects rendering any transfer impossible (beyond a few hundred megabytes). Anyone experience this issue? It works fine in a USB 2.0 port and the USB 3 port works fine with a 3.0 flash drive. I tested the drive on my desktop which also has USB 3.0 and it worked just fine. I'm guessing the port isn't supplying sufficient power for the drive which is strange. I also tried plugging the 2nd USB connector into the USB 2.0 port to give it some extra juice but it changed nothing. The drive I am using is one of the 750GB 7200RPM drives from the G74 (I replaced one of the internals with an M4 SSD). Thanks so much for your help.

[Muzz]

I noticed that if I leave my external drive connected to the USB hub when I bootup, the startup process doesn't complete and the screen stays black. When I disconnect the drive, the laptop boots up okay. Connecting the drive again opens the Seagate program with a message that the backup is up to date. This happened more than once so there still seems to be an issue with interfacing, albeit a minor one. Has anyone else whose external 3.0 drives work correctly experienced this?

By the way, can someone explain how you setup the boot so it bypasses the account icon you have to click before Windows completely opens? I used to have it set up that way but must have changed something. I don't see anything in user accounts to remedy it. I presently have the one admin account with no password.

[BrodyBoy]

Muzz wrote:
I noticed that if I leave my external drive connected to the USB hub when I bootup, the startup process doesn't complete and the screen stays black. When I disconnect the drive, the laptop boots up okay. Connecting the drive again opens the Seagate program with a message that the backup is up to date. This happened more than once so there still seems to be an issue with interfacing, albeit a minor one. Has anyone else whose external 3.0 drives work correctly experienced this?

I didn't realize that you're using Seagate automatic back-up software. That could be confounding whatever problem behavior you think you're seeing with that drive. To truly test and diagnose the USB 3.0 port behavior, I think you should uninstall....or at least completely disable....any third-party software that's trying to run automatically and use the port & drive.

[greeblesnort]

Muzz wrote:
I noticed that if I leave my external drive connected to the USB hub when I bootup, the startup process doesn't complete and the screen stays black. When I disconnect the drive, the laptop boots up okay. Connecting the drive again opens the Seagate program with a message that the backup is up to date. This happened more than once so there still seems to be an issue with interfacing, albeit a minor one. Has anyone else whose external 3.0 drives work correctly experienced this?

This is likely more related to your BIOS boot settings than any issue with the drive. Back when I did workstation support, the first thing I would have suggested to anyone that called in with this problem was to check for USB drives still plugged in.

[Muzz]

greeblesnort wrote:
This is likely more related to your BIOS boot settings than any issue with the drive. Back when I did workstation support, the first thing I would have suggested to anyone that called in with this problem was to check for USB drives still plugged in.

Yes, you could be right about that. A PC tech guy told me to check the bios settings as well. I wouldn't have thought plugging in an external HD would alter the way the computer boots but I guess its possible. Anyway, I never bothered to check. I just unplug the drive before booting up. Thanks.

[Muzz]

Do you mean disabling the software (Memeo) from start up? I don't want to completely uninstall as I would lose the auto update feature.

[BrodyBoy]

Yes, I was referring to whatever utilities came with the drive. (WD includes something like that, too. I think they all do.) Just to be clear, none of that software is necessary for using your external hard drive. It's just "added-value" freeware the manufacturers throw in. Windows Backup can be scheduled for automtic back-ups too.

If you want to use it on a problem-free machine, that's anybody's prerogative, of course. I was just making the point that anything like that should be removed from the equation when trying to troubleshoot a USB or external drive issue.

[Muzz]

I disabled the two startup programs in msconfig but still encountered a black screen while the machine was booting up. If I wait about 5 minutes, Windows eventually opens but it's an agonizing delay. So I'm just going to leave the external drive detached from the computer until it completely boots up. No problems after that. Cheers.

[gflash]

I just stumbled across this thread . . . .. I am having exactly the same issue with a WD My Passport 1TB USB 3.0 drive. If I copy small files, it works. If I copy large files, it disconnects/reconnects, but the copy fails. Works fine in the USB 2.0 ports. I RMA'd the drive with WD, the replacement drive does the same thing. Also, it mostly failed writing to the drive, reading from the drive works.

I'm guessing there are some gaps in the USB 3.0 standards and I have fallen into one.

I do not own any other USB 3.0 gear to test. Mu main use for the drive is transferring video files between PC's. I am using the G74SX to render videos, it kicks my quad core Phenom based home pc's butt.

If I get any solid answers I'll post them here.

[BrodyBoy]

That's great, Lars! I'm really glad you got it working! 🙂

[diegotrigo]

Actually, I just update the driver using the link from @BrodyBoy (above) and worked like a charm.
I didn't do the steps 1-6. Just the update and the Asus-patch that is inside the zip.

🙂

Thanks @BrodyBoy