X58A-UD3R (Rev 2.0) - USB3 crash & unusable

[markja]

Every so often (a couple of times a week) I find my USB 3.0 ports unusable. I receive no errors apart from the fact that the external HD I have connected becomes unusable and inaccessible to windows 7 SP1 64 bit. I can still see the dir structure. But I can't open any files or write to the drive.  I plug in a separate USB3 memory stick and it is not recognised either. No audible registration sound when I plug/re-plug the USB stick. If I plug the stick into a USB 2 port it works just fine.
Device Manager shows no problems at all with any devices.
If I replug the HD into a USB 2 port I get the audible indication each time I plug re-plug. But as far as the OS is concerned the drive (E:) is still there but just not writeable or usable. I guess this is because the OS still thinks the drive is attached in some way to the USB3 port when it really isn't.

Could this be some sort of driver issue?

22 May
I have investigated further. This is definitely an issue specific to the USB3 port. I have used two USB memory stick (USB2 & USB3) and a new 1TB Western Digital Passport External USB3 HD. I have swapped all these items between the USB2 and USB3 ports. All tests work on the USB2 ports and eventually fail on the USB3 ports. So it is unlikely to be a peripheral issue. I have initially used the latest BIOS / drivers from the GB website. In addition I have found an newer USB3 driver for the NEC USB3 chipset (ver 2.1.16.0 dated 13 Aprl 2011 ) . I also updated the NEC firmware to ver 3.0.2.7.0.8. Both of these from this website http://www.station-drivers.com/page/nec.htm. (Is this to be trusted. How come it has later stuff than GB?)
I have also experimented with a MB BIOS "FH1" I found at the same website.

The specific test I have used is to do a disk error check ticking both boxes to check file system errors and also bad sectors. The test proceeds for some time before the USB3 fails with windows no longer recognising any device on the USB3 bus. When I then shutdown windows, a BSOD results durng shutdown. A crash dump analysis concludes with this message "Probably caused by : nusb3xhc.sys ( nusb3xhc+14a80 )"
I guess the BSOD has been provoked by my using 'unapproved' drivers/firmware. But it does not change the fact there still appears to be an underlying problem before these were used.
In fact one question I have is how to reflash the firmware to the previous version. Drivers I can do but the firmware. Hmmm

I have closely monitored Device manager during all of the above. At no time were any errors or warnings shown in Device Manager.

I have had this board for some time now but have only just purchased USB3 peripherals to discover the above. Have had no other problems with the board.

Comments very welcome.

Tks,
Mark

[Dark Mantis]

Hi Mark,

Do you use the sleep functions and power saving on your computer ? If not try disabling the power saving modes in the BIOS.

What stop code do you get when you get the BSODs ?

[markja]

SLEEP
I only have the monitor sleep from Win7. The computer does not sleep from the OS (Always ON).
In the BIOS I have ACPI suspend to S3 and ErP support Disabled.
So don't think there is a sleep problem.

STOP CODE.
Hmmm. Didn't note this down as was relying on the MEMORY.DMP analysis to tell me. But using Windows Debugger all I can see is the message I originally quoted. I am a newbie with crash dump analysis. My CDA is saying my Symbol path is Invalid. So it can't do a full analysis. I need to do some more research on this.

But I do have some more news. As often happens when one goes public things improve. 
I did the following

• Reloded the USB3 firmware. It said it was already up to date. See attached
• Removed/reinstalled NEC driver . See attached
• After reading around these forums I also noted my MB BIOS updates may have been not done entirely correctly, though I have never had problems until now. I always used @BIOS. I will use Qflash from now on!! I also never used "Load optimised defaults" before. Although I did not reflash the BIOS I did load optimised and rebooted. I now did an error check on the external HD which always gave problems. And this time it worked. So I will do a bit more testing to be sure of stability.

Mark

[markja]

and I have now managed to get a more sensible O/P from the windows debugger. But alas it still just points to the NEC driver. Much of this is above my head.
===========================================================================
Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.12.0002.633 AMD64
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Loading Dump File [C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP]
Kernel Summary Dump File: Only kernel address space is available

Symbol search path is: srv*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is:
Windows 7 Kernel Version 7601 (Service Pack 1) MP (8 procs) Free x64
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS
Built by: 7601.17592.amd64fre.win7sp1_gdr.110408-1631
Machine Name:
Kernel base = 0xfffff800`0380a000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0xfffff800`03a4f650
Debug session time: Sun May 22 22:31:20.074 2011 (UTC + 1:00)
System Uptime: 0 days 5:17:36.027
Loading Kernel Symbols
...............................................................
................................................................
................................................
Loading User Symbols

Loading unloaded module list
..............
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for nusb3xhc.sys
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck E0010002, {fffffa80079e4000, c, 11d, 90d}

Probably caused by : nusb3xhc.sys ( nusb3xhc+14a80 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

4: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Unknown bugcheck code (e0010002)
Unknown bugcheck description
Arguments:
Arg1: fffffa80079e4000
Arg2: 000000000000000c
Arg3: 000000000000011d
Arg4: 000000000000090d

Debugging Details:
------------------


DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR:  0xE0010002

PROCESS_NAME:  System

CURRENT_IRQL:  0

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER:  from fffff88004d71a80 to fffff80003889d00

STACK_TEXT: 
fffff880`03b77b38 fffff880`04d71a80 : 00000000`e0010002 fffffa80`079e4000 00000000`0000000c 00000000`0000011d : nt!KeBugCheckEx
fffff880`03b77b40 fffff880`04d5eb9a : 00000000`0000011d 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`08fba900 00000000`00000000 : nusb3xhc+0x14a80
fffff880`03b77b80 fffff880`04d5eb4a : 00000000`00000004 fffff800`03a272b8 fffffa80`04f17680 00000000`00000000 : nusb3xhc+0x1b9a
fffff880`03b77bc0 fffff880`04d5e9b0 : fffffa80`09c98c20 fffffa80`08eb9d10 fffff880`00000000 fffffa80`09c98c20 : nusb3xhc+0x1b4a
fffff880`03b77bf0 fffff880`04d8e553 : fffffa80`09f40dd0 fffffa80`00000000 fffffa80`04f17680 fffffa80`09c98c20 : nusb3xhc+0x19b0
fffff880`03b77c20 fffff880`04d7d4cc : fffffa80`09f40dd0 fffff800`03a272b8 fffffa80`04f17680 00000000`00000000 : nusb3xhc+0x31553
fffff880`03b77c50 fffff800`03b800c3 : 00000000`00000001 00000000`00000001 fffffa80`09c98c20 fffffa80`04f17680 : nusb3xhc+0x204cc
fffff880`03b77c80 fffff800`03894021 : fffff800`03a27200 fffff800`03b80001 fffffa80`04f17600 fffff800`03a36680 : nt!IopProcessWorkItem+0x23
fffff880`03b77cb0 fffff800`03b2632e : 86528652`3b4a3b4a fffffa80`04f17680 00000000`00000080 fffffa80`04efd040 : nt!ExpWorkerThread+0x111
fffff880`03b77d40 fffff800`0387b666 : fffff880`03983180 fffffa80`04f17680 fffff880`0398e0c0 089e089e`74127412 : nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x5a
fffff880`03b77d80 00000000`00000000 : fffff880`03b78000 fffff880`03b72000 fffff880`03b77890 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiStartSystemThread+0x16


STACK_COMMAND:  kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:
nusb3xhc+14a80
fffff880`04d71a80 cc              int     3

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX:  1

SYMBOL_NAME:  nusb3xhc+14a80

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: nusb3xhc

IMAGE_NAME:  nusb3xhc.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  4da56d4d

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0xE0010002_nusb3xhc+14a80

BUCKET_ID:  X64_0xE0010002_nusb3xhc+14a80

Followup: MachineOwner

[Dark Mantis]

I think it might be worth you checking out this thread on another forum as the OP seemed to be having a similar problem to you.

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=23637

[markja]

From my quick read of the BartPE thread it just appears a BartPE config issue. He just had the relevant files in the wrong locations stopping the boot process from loading the required drivers.
That is quite different to my situation where the ports just seem to disappear and become inaccessible to Windows at seemingly random times.

Albeit I may have fixed it with my lasy BIOS update. We shall see.

But appreciate very much you taking the time to read and reply to my message.

Mark

[markja]

OK. I am going to declare this closed. I have performed a large backup over night to the HD on this USB3 port and have done a number of HD error checks which always provoked the problem. No problems at all with any of this.
I can't say what definitively fixed this but it must have been one of the actions I took in my posting on Tue @ 11:05.

Thanks,
Mark J

[Dark Mantis]

That is good news anyway Mark and hopefully it won't bother you again in the future but if it does please just post back here.

[markja]

Sadly the USB 3 ports have reverted to their previous unreliable status.  I have raised a query with support to see if they have anything to say. I will take a poke around here to see if I can find any more threads on this here. Are people having problems generally or am I in the minority I wonder?

Mark J

[Dark Mantis]

Well I am sorry to hear that the problems reappeared. We do have a few issues with USB3 but nothing more than would be expected as normal. The trouble is not a lot of people are running USB3 devices yet and so it is hard to know if it is just due to lack of hardware in use out there or not.

Please let us know what GGTS answers.

[markja]

I think you are quite right about the lack of devices being used may reflect the level of reporting. It has taken me until now to buy a USB3 HD... Will let you know what I find.

Mark

[Dark Mantis]

Yes, I don't even have a USB3 device myself to test with so I am only going on what I see reported here on the forum for the most part.

[Aussie Allan]

 Mark

 Odds on it is the NEC driver install,....... as has been reported, unless you uninstall COMPLETELY (Everything,files,folder ect) before reinstalling, intermittent problems have been reported...... Revo un-installer is one of the better ones to get in deep and rip ALL of the target software before reboot and re-install of the drivers............what do you have to loose.

 Logitek mice and keyboards are the other one reported having conflict issues with NEC drivers..... that no hardware update has fixed thus far !

 Lastly, ... if you have no USB3 hardware, why the focus on making it USB3 capable?...... My understanding is if no nec drivers are installed the OS puts generic USB2 drivers there to keep them at least active.........or am I misinformed.........Better a good USB2 then a flaky USB3

   Hope you find this helpful

 Aussie Allan

[Dark Mantis]

Yes Allan you can still use the USB3 ports for USB2 and 1.1 devices as they are backwards compatible so just because you may not have any USB3 devices doesn't mean that you can't still make use of the ports.