Asus Maximus X Hero - USB Problems all over!

[MonkY]

Hello everyone!

I have just upgraded from my good old trusty Asus Maximus VIII Hero (with a 6700K CPU) to a brand new Asus Maximux X Hero (with a 8700K CPU). It was probably the best motherboard i ever had. Although i used to have a ton (over 20) of USB devices connected to my old Hero VIII, everything worked flawlessly for years!

After the upgrade, almost nothing works when it comes to USB ports. Even my old beloved Dell Multimedia USB Keyboard... i can't even use it to enter BIOS!!! I can only use it after it boots up in Windows (it's like it doesn't get power untill a driver loads). I have tried a few keyboards, none of them were recognized at boot time, so i couldn't use DEL or F2...

I have managed to flash the latest 1003 BIOS for Maximus X Hero, hoping there is a fix for USB issues. But nope! I have also did a CMOS reset, unplugged all other USB devices. Still wasn't able to use my keyboard or my mouse (Logitech G502) in BIOS.

Also, even i only have one mouse and one keyboard connected, at boot time i can see something like this: "USB Controllers: 3 XHCIs / USB Devices: 2 Drives, 4 Keyboards, 3 Mice, 5 Hubs". 4 Keyboards and 3 Mice?!? What in the world? Where does that coming from? I don't even have so many keyboards and mices in my whole house...

Also, strange things happen to my two USB external HUB's (Anker AH241 USB 3.0 Aluminum 13-Port Hub and Icybox IB-AC6702 USB 3.0 Hub). After booting up and enter Windows, i have to reset both hub's, as some of my devices do not fully work. That never happened with my old Maximus VIII Hero.

I have tried all drivers (Intel Chipset drivers + USB 3.x drivers) from the official Asus page, and then tried the latest Intel official and un-official drivers. Also i have been using the latest ASMedia ASM2142 USB 3.1 xHCI Controller drivers.

I do not know what to do next. Initially i wanted to get a replacement for my Maximus X Hero motherboard, but as i have read in the forum, a lot of other people are experiencing USB problems.

Could this be fixed with a new BIOS? New drivers? Some firmware patch for the USB chipsets? Or is it a design flaw and i would better give up and return the motherboard?

Any advice would be apreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Deepcuts]

The 4-5 keyboards problem happened on my old VI HERO also all the time. Nevertheless, I did not have the problems I am having with X HERO and its USB ports.
Just yesterday I bought a USB 3.0 hub. Of course it is not working on X HERO.
Plugged it in my old VI HERO: works. Go figure.
Too much money on marketing. Too few on development and testing.

[MonkY]

I have tried now using an addon PCIe USB card, hoping it will somehow bypass all the onboard Asus Maximus Hero USB chipsets and i will able to use my keyboard and mouse inside the BIOS. It's an Inateck 7 ports USB card. Unfortunately, it doesn't help.

So, if using addon PCIe cards doesn't work, using internal ones also doesn't work... should i give up on Maximus X Hero? I never had a motherboard i couldn't get into BIOS with my keyboard. I miss the old PS/2 ones, they never failed...

As far as i understand, the USB ports are not handled corectly by the BIOS. On the Maximus VIII Hero, the USB 2.0 chipset was enabled and used directly in BIOS, while on this Maximus X Hero, the USB 2.0 is actually used via the USB 3.0 chipset. Maybe a better USB support in BIOS could fix this...

Anyway, i have opened a support ticket... i hope somebody will have some answers. I will post in here as soon as i get a response.

[Raja]

Monky, please list all usb devices you have plugged into the board, which ports they are plugged into, and the firmware version of each device. I may be able to ask for a replication.

As for the number of keyboards reported by uefi, that's how the keyboard represents itself due to rollover limitations.

Edit: As you've already contacted support, I'll let you work with them. Good luck!

[MonkY]

Hello Raja@ASUS!
I take any help i can get... it doesn't matter if it's oficial support, user support or anyone else. So if you can help us, let us know!

Regarding the list of all usb devices, let's ignore all of them for the moment and just focus on mouse and keyboard support, to actually be able to enter BIOS. Without that, any feature a motherboard like Maximus X Hero has is actually USELESS. How can i overclock, how can i setup my boot, how can i check settings, voltages and temps if i can't get into BIOS?

So, the only 2 devices i can list are: Dell Multimedia USB Keyboard + Logitech G502 Proteus Core. None of them are receiving power at boot time (i can see there is no Num Lock LED on, also no lights on the mouse). They only get power after Windows is started. And that's bad...

As i have said, i removed every USB device, except these two. I have tried all the USB ports... with no luck.

What to do next?

[Raja]

MonkY wrote:


Regarding the list of all usb devices, let's ignore all of them for the moment and just focus on mouse and keyboard support, to actually be able to enter BIOS. Without that, any feature a motherboard like Maximus X Hero has is actually USELESS. How can i overclock, how can i setup my boot, how can i check settings, voltages and temps if i can't get into BIOS?

Let's not ignore them.


List everything plugged into the board before this issue occured. Replication on a fresh system requires retracing steps that caused the issue to manifest. Until we know more, its difficult to pinpoint why it happened. Need all info, even if you think it's irrelevant. There are a lot of things that may be involved.

Which bios version were you using when the ports first stopped working? Was the system overclocked? Any other changes made to uefi?

Need that info to pass to replication teams. If that cones back negative, I'll ask someone to ship a board back to hq. I'm here at hq until April 3rd, so can deal with this directly.

[MonkY]

Raja@ASUS wrote:
Let's not ignore them.

List everything plugged into the board before this issue occured. Replication on a fresh system requires retracing steps that caused the issue to manifest. Until we know more, its difficult to pinpoint why it happened. Need all info, even if you think it's irrelevant. There are a lot of things that may be involved.

Why do they matter if i just said i did a CLEAR CMOS and only connected the mouse and the keyboard via USB ports (tried all of them)? Anyway, i will try today to find a software to list all the USB devices (or maybe you want a list generated from on app - in that case, let me know what app).

Raja@ASUS wrote:
Which bios version were you using when the ports first stopped working?

I never said the ports stopped working. I said they were NEVER recognised to be able to use them in BIOS. How can i press F1 or DEL if my keyboard only shows it's ON (status LED) after booting into Windows?
Anyway, it was the original BIOS (0802) and the update one (1003) i have used.

Raja@ASUS wrote:
Was the system overclocked? Any other changes made to uefi?

I never got to overclock or make any changes, as i repeat, i cannot enter BIOS!

I will try some different keyboards tommorrow...

[stainlineho]

Try this hotfix from MS: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4090913/march5-2018kb4090913osbuild16299-251

[MonkY]

stainlineho wrote:
Try this hotfix from MS: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4090913/march5-2018kb4090913osbuild16299-251

Thank you for your input, but i really don't understand how a Windows patch could help me enter BIOS using my USB keyboard...
Plus, i am now on a Windows 7 Ultimate x64 boot drive, and that's a patch for Windows 10. I could try to boot from the drive i have Windows 10, IF i could get into the BIOS...

[Raja]

MonkY wrote:
Why do they matter if i just said i did a CLEAR CMOS and only connected the mouse and the keyboard via USB ports (tried all of them)? Anyway, i will try today to find a software to list all the USB devices (or maybe you want a list generated from on app - in that case, let me know what app).


I never said the ports stopped working. I said they were NEVER recognised to be able to use them in BIOS. How can i press F1 or DEL if my keyboard only shows it's ON (status LED) after booting into Windows?
Anyway, it was the original BIOS (0802) and the update one (1003) i have used.


I never got to overclock or make any changes, as i repeat, i cannot enter BIOS!

I will try some different keyboards tommorrow...

Dang it, I got thrown off by the user who spammed two threads with a 'me too' post. Sorry about that.

Okay...

If your main concern is entering BIOS, try using the ASUS BOOT Setting tool from the OS; it will take you into BIOS. Then you can check if any of your keyboards work in there. If not, if you have a mouse or keyboard that does work, try disabling xHCI (save and exit), and then see what works. It's possible the devices are not fully xHCI compliant. If not that, it's simple incompatibility and you'll need to wait for a patch - and that will only happen if HQ has the same keyboards available in Taiwan.

For the hubs, I will need the info I asked for previously. List the USB devices plugged into the board and the hubs.