USB 3.0 controller missing

Merry Christmas!

I have been having a problem with the USB 3.0 ports on my computer. I will try to provide as much pertinent information as I can, and hope that someone here can help.

This computer is a Windows 10 64-bit machine that I built in November. It has an Asus P9X79 LE motherboard, and an Intel i-7 4820 CPU.

A few days ago, I noticed that two external drives attached to the two rear USB 3.0 connections were not showing up among the listed drives. This MB also has a USB 3.0 header, to which I have connected four USB 3.0 ports on the front of the case. I found that my drives, and other USB devices, were recognized and worked fine when plugged into the front ports, but not when plugged into the back.

The first thing I did was check the USB section of the Device Manager. The USB 3.0 controller was listed, and there were no warnings (yellow “!” icons) to indicate any problems. Since then, I have tried the following:

First, I searched for hardware changes in the Device Manager. It found nothing.

Second, I deleted the USB 3.0 controller and rebooted to get the system to reinstall the device. It did reinstall the device, but this accomplished nothing.

Third, I updated the BIOS to the latest version on the Asus website. I verified with ASUS that this was indeed the most current version. No change.

Fourth, I updated all chipset drivers for the MB, with the current files on the Asus website. No change.

Then, a couple of days later, the front USB ports stopped working. Checking the Device Manager, the USB 3.0 controller is now missing. Checking online, I found a suggestion that USB 3.0 might be disabled in the BIOS, so..

Fifth, I checked the BIOS settings, and found no way to enable or disable USB 3.0.

One thing that is very odd about this, which the Asus tech commented on, was that the front ports were working while the back ones were not, since they rely on the same controller.

So, I have two questions. First, any suggestions? I am willing to try whatever someone thinks might help.

Second, if I were to purchase a PCI-e USB 3.0 board, would it have its own controller, so I won’t have to rely on the Asus MB for this functionality? At $20 or so, that might be the easiest route, if it will work.

Thanks.

pknight said:

One thing that is very odd about this, which the Asus tech commented on, was that the front ports were working while the back ones were not, since they rely on the same controller.

Second, if I were to purchase a PCI-e USB 3.0 board, would it have its own controller, so I won’t have to rely on the Asus MB for this functionality? At $20 or so, that might be the easiest route, if it will work.

The first sentence, that is quite odd. My experience is rear ports work when the front ports don't which could be a problem with the case in Custom computers and the wiring from the motherboard to the front ports. Might be the rear ports are not getting sufficient power from the motherboard.

The second sentence is a very viable action. I added a PCIe X1 card to a motherboard in a computer I built that has no USB 3.0, the card works quite nice. I also have added a USB 3.0 Hub in one of the drive bays, uses one USB 3.0 port on the new card and gives 4 ports on the front while retaining the USB 2.0 ports. The Hub uses one power leg from the power supply.

Berton said:

Might be the rear ports are not getting sufficient power from the motherboard.\.

If the front ports hadn't crapped out, and if the controller hadn't disappeared from the Task Manager, I might suspect this too. It might be the case, but until I can get the controller back, I'll not know. :)

Berton said:

The second sentence is a very viable action. I added a PCIe X1 card to a motherboard in a computer I built that has no USB 3.0, the card works quite nice. I also have added a USB 3.0 Hub in one of the drive bays, uses one USB 3.0 port on the new card and gives 4 ports on the front while retaining the USB 2.0 ports. The Hub uses one power leg from the power supply.

Glad to hear that. I would like to have my new gear work, but it I can do this for little expense, why bother spending the time to troubleshoot the controller? Thanks.

Seem odd. The manual lists the P9X79 LE as using two Asmedia controllers for the USB3 ports.

Asus doesn't offer Asmedia drivers for Windows 10. I suppose that means that they are included with Windows.

Looking at the manual for a P9X79 LE, there's a switch for the USB 3 controller in the "Onboard Devices" screen of the UEFI settings.

To the person(s) posting r.e. USB thumbdrives not recognized or similar issue... I am running Windows 10 and have 6 thumbdrives; some worked, some did not...I did Windows Troubleshooting, nothing. Uninstalled USB ports in Device Manager several times with no effective result... The ones that worked , still worked but others did not..Tried updating drivers for ports...(best driver is already installed lah blah) After uninstalling device ports in Device Manager more than a dozen (12) times the drives that Windows said are either malfunctioning, corrupted or otherwise not useable, began to work like before... Yea!......To clarify any question or grey area you might be thinking; these drives had previously been recognized and used and are not cheap or old (since USB drives have a limited life) So my emperical experience is; Keep uninstalling, one at a time, ALL instances of USB designated serial bus controllers in Device Manager until you see the thumbdrive(s) in "This Computer" along with your (C root Drive, DVD Drive etc.... This finally worked for me today and I had also tried every suggestion on the web from techies and Microsoft; None worked... Persistance on this might work for you also, assuming the thumbdrive isn't cheap or damaged or beyond its life cycle...... Happy Holidays USB Serial Bus Controller people..... I think Windows 10 is the genesis of many annoying issues beyond its' possible value as an upgraded OS....

bobkn said:

Seem odd. The manual lists the P9X79 LE as using two Asmedia controllers for the USB3 ports.

Asus doesn't offer Asmedia drivers for Windows 10. I suppose that means that they are included with Windows.

Looking at the manual for a P9X79 LE, there's a switch for the USB 3 controller in the "Onboard Devices" screen of the UEFI settings.

Hmmm. Then when I saw only one controller when the front ports were working, the one for the back ports was already gone. I did not look for this, as Asus tech told me they used the same controller.

I will check the BIOS again. Thanks.

bobkn said:

Seem odd. The manual lists the P9X79 LE as using two Asmedia controllers for the USB3 ports.

Asus doesn't offer Asmedia drivers for Windows 10. I suppose that means that they are included with Windows.

Looking at the manual for a P9X79 LE, there's a switch for the USB 3 controller in the "Onboard Devices" screen of the UEFI settings.

I checked. Both Asmedia USB 3.0 controllers are listed right where you said, in "Onboard Devices" in the UEFI settings, and both are enabled. Neither is listed under USB controllers in Device Manager. If they were listed with a warning about the driver or something, I could figure out what to do, but they simply are not there (although once they were, and they disappeared one at a time).

If you haven' tried uninstalling each serial bus entry in Device Manager (Hubs etc all except USB Printer if you have it in there) and done it repeatedly as I did, might be surprised, it finally worked for me EXCEPT my USB3 and USB2 worked at first and then only worked for some of my thumbdrives... They were NOT recognized and therefore did not appear in Device Manager or My Computer applet.......Now they have returned to working and it doesn't matter which because all devices plugged into usb2 and usb 3 work fine... All devices usb usually will work in USB3 even if they aren't rated as 3......ya know, backward compatible legacy....?...Sounds like you got involved with one of those Tech Guys who has all these convoluted methods for diagnosing yet none of them work...It may be simple..... Do as I did and you might discover something...I will say it again; I must have uninstalled all the entries in Serial Bus, Device Manager etc at least 14 times B4 it did the trick and before that I tried every "problem solved' I could find on the web, none of those people knew anything that helped..Do what I did, and reboot each time (sure it's tedious, but chatting with all these Techies is tedious and time consuming too).........

"Disable" the SATA Power Management on BIOS settings.

p.s. just posted on this discussion , hope it helps