GA-P55-USB3 Locks up on inserting USB flash drive

[MountainX]

If I insert then safely remove a USB flash memory drive, and repeat this a number of times in a row, my system will hard lock.

As far as I can tell it will happen with any USB flash drive. I have a total of 12 different ones I have tested with now. They are different brands, different sizes, different filesystems, etc.

I have replicated the problem with the following operating systems:
Ubuntu 10.10 64bit LiveCD
Linux Mint 10 LiveCD
OpenSuSE 11.3 KDE LiveDVD
Debian Edition Linux Mint (LMDE) LiveCD

It also happens on my installed system, Ubuntu 10.10.

All I have to do is repeatedly insert and remove a USB flash drive and sooner or later the system will hard lock.

When it locks, nothing is response. The mouse cursor freezes, CTRL-ALT-DEL doesn't do anything, no special keys have any effect, and nothing is written to the system log. In addition, there are no errors in the system log preceding the lock up.

No overclocking or any other special settings. The bios settings are all defaults.

Components:
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory  - 16 GB total
SeaSonic 650W Power Supply X650 Gold
ZOTAC ZT-40601-20L GeForce GT 430 Graphics Card

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

First obvious question is does it do the same thing when Windows is loaded and if so which version are you using ?

[MountainX]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

First obvious question is does it do the same thing when Windows is loaded and if so which version are you using ?

Thank you for that reply, but why is that the "First obvious question"? I have never tried Windows and I don't even have a copy to try (nor would I want to). Does Gigabyte not test their products with Linux?

[MountainX]

I can add that I have a paid support contract with Canonical (Ubuntu) and I already spent a couple weeks working with a support engineer on this issue. So there is no obvious issue related to the operating system or we would have found it by now. The Canonical engineer believes it is hardware....

(my hardware list is in the OP.)

[MountainX]

I suspect it would be easy to replicate this problem with the GA-P55-USB3 and Ubuntu 10.10 or Linux Mint 10 or openSuSE 11.3. I tested all those and they all gave the error. Can anyone at Gigabyte try to replicate this?

Steps:
Take any USB flash drive and insert/remove it about a dozen times. If the system hasn't locked up yet, do the same with a 2nd USB flash drive. Sometimes I have had to try a 3rd USB drive (but rarely). Eventually, the system will hard lock. Usually it doesn't take long.

It can happen on the very first USB insertion. Or it can take 20 or more insertions. But sooner or later it locks up. I think any GA-P55-USB3 running recent Linux releases will do this.

[Dark Mantis]

I understand what you are saying but I can't see the point of it as why would anyone want to insert/remove a USB drive 20 to 30 times ?

[MountainX]

I understand what you are saying but I can't see the point of it as why would anyone want to insert/remove a USB drive 20 to 30 times ?

The error can happen the first time you insert a USB drive. Given that the error locks up the system and causes not only a loss of all unsaved data but potential damage to the OS, it is a serious issue. Ideally, it should never happen. The fact is, I cannot ever insert a USB drive without risking the lock up.

At first the error seemed random. But in my testing I discovered how to reproduce it every time. Sometimes it takes 20 times to reproduce the error, sometimes it takes only a few. But the fact is, every time you insert a USB drive, you risk the error. So it is a serious problem. If I can't fix it, I'm going to have to change to a different brand motherboard.

Understand now?

How do we file a bug report?

[Dark Mantis]

Yes I do see what you mean if it can happen even the first time or two you insert the stick. I have tried without success to reproduce the issue but I don't have a P55 board and it doesn't seem to happen on the X58 or the P67 boards.

You can contact GGTS here:

Just enter your email address and click on the language of choice.
GGTS   http://ggts.gigabyte.com/

[MountainX]

Yes I do see what you mean if it can happen even the first time or two you insert the stick. I have tried without success to reproduce the issue but I don't have a P55 board and it doesn't seem to happen on the X58 or the P67 boards.

You can contact GGTS here:

Just enter your email address and click on the language of choice.
GGTS   http://ggts.gigabyte.com/

Thank you for testing. Which OS did you test with?
I filed a report at http://ggts.gigabyte.com. Any idea what will happen next?

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

I used Fedora latest edition and Windows 7 64 bit.

If you contact GGTS you will receive  a response in a few days that probably will not help you very much at all as from past experience the answer will not be aimed at a Linux user. However if you reply to that and ask for a more detailed answer you might get someone who  actually knows a bit more. Often the first responces are not much more than stock answers.

[MountainX]

I installed Linux kernel 2.6.38-4 and an updated linux-firmware package in my installed system (Ubuntu Maverick) and the problem appears to be resolved! 

[Dark Mantis]

I am glad that you seem to have found the answer.