Inspiron 660, Win7 Pro, USB3 with SIIG hard drive enclosure

WalterPG,

Inspiron 660 USB ports =
Front Two Black USB 2.0
Rear Two USB Black 2.0, Four Blue USB 3.0

So initially you installed the 1TB HDD+SIIG model JU-SA0212-S1 enclosure inside the chassis and routed the cabling to the rear of the system and plugged it into one of the blue USB 3.0 ports?

Can you test the 1TB HDD+SIIG model JU-SA0212-S1 enclosure on the same USB 3.0 port that is working for the docking station?

Hi Chris.  Good to hear from Dell on this one.  First to answer your question, initially I installed the SATA drive in the SIIG enclosure and plugged it into one of the USB3 ports on the back.  When it didn't work, I unplugged it from the USB 3 port and plugged it into a USB 2 port (on the front) where it worked, but of course at USB 2 speed.  I have subsequently tested it in 2 other USB 3 ports with the same failure to work.  Since posting here I've opened an incident with Dell support, session ID  56828064 on Monday.  

 Today I bought a PCIe card (Inland) with USB3 and installed it on my test computer (not the new Dell). I also bought a brand new 1 TB Toshiba SATA hard drive and installed it in the SIIG USB 3 enclosure. It had the same symptoms on the new Dell computer, but it ran fantastically on the test system. Since it runs extermely well on my test system but not at all on the Dell's USB3 ports, I'd say that's pretty good evidence it's Dell's problem. I opened an incident with them Monday which is still open, and I'll get back with them tomorrow. I tested with Windows 8 on the test machine, so I've got to test it with Windows 7 there to be sure I'm comparing apples with apples, but isn't this interesting!

OK, the Windows 7 tests are running on the same test computer, and the data is screaming onto that disk in the SIIG enclosure at up to 114 MBps.  I doing Ghost 15 backups which normally don't busy up the CPU that much, but these backups are running so fast my little E5200 2.5 GHz processor is running around 55% busy.  Runs like a champ on the test computer's USB 3 ports and not at all on the Dell.  I think that pretty well isolates the problem, wouldn't you say?

But you verified that the Sabrent USB 3 docking station model DS-U382 worked at USB3.0 on our USB3.0 port. So the culprit is the SIIG USB 3 enclosure.

Oh boy.  I was afraid of this.  I never heard back from SIIG, but will initiate a dialog with them this morning.  I think we can agree that there's a problem between SIIG's enclosure and the Dell USB 3 ports.  The SIIG enclosure works on my test (not Dell) computer, but not the Dell, and the Sabrent enclosure works on both.  Who's not checking or setting the right bits between Intel, Dell, and SIIG remains a mystery.  :-(

According to the CNET gurus, this is a recurring Dell problem, but it seems you disagree.  I'll see what SIIG has to say, but I bet we can both predict what they're going to say.  :-)  At least I have something that works for me now.  I'll spend a couple more hours trying to chase this down, but I may've reached the point of diminishing returns.  Stay tuned.

Dell's tech support says it's a hardware problem and will send a tech to my house to replace the motherboard.  Stay tuned.

The motherboard was replaced with zero changes in the results.  The computer will not boot or shut down when the SIIG enclosure is attached.  I also had problems with an Inland enclosure.  SIIG's response was to get the latest USB 3 drivers which I downloaded from Intel's web site.  However it made no difference in the results.  Dell needs to either use PCIe cards for USB 3 or get with Intel to resolve.  It's amazing to me that USB 3 can be on the market over 2 years and still be so buggy.  Dell's hardware used to be rock solid, but in my opinion (and experience) they've slipped.  If they can't get it to work, they should use hardware that DOES work.  Don't they TEST these things?  Apparently not very well in any case.  I've got a workable circumvention for now (but I had to make 3 trips, waste a lot of time, and spend $115 to do it), so I'll just leave Dell and Intel to their knitting for now, but I'll sure be a lot more cautious about recommending Dell to folks in the future. 

I have the same problems with USB3 on the Inspiron 660 connected to a Seagate Backup Plus USB3 drive. Very often, the drive just disappears from Explorer and any other devices connected to the USB3 ports are also dead at that point. Disconnecting and reconnecting does not solve the problem and typically a reboot is required to get things working again.

Clearly there is a fundamental problem with USB3 functionality on these systems.

I wish I would have looked on this form before I bought my Dell computer. I just bought a 3.0 adapter for my Seagate Replica hard drive. Was excited to be moving up to 3.0 speed. Then bam... nothing. I t goes the same speed as 2.0. One of the main reasons I wanted this computer was because of 3.0.

I updated the chipset drivers, installed the 3.0 card adapter that seagate goies. Still nothing. I thought it ws going to be as easy as, connecting using 3.0 cable in the 3.0 port, installing the driver, and bam. I am still in search to figure out a solution, if I do, I will post.

Dell Inspiron 660

Ram: 12gb

Hard Drive: 1 TB

CPU: i5

USB ports: 2.0 x 8, 3.0 x 2(zero work)

Same computer same problem. I went through x4 2TB Seagate hard drives threw the Seagate warranty program witch is great by the way. I was clamming to them it was their drive because the dell tech could not find anything on the computer that was wrong. What a waist of time. We tried a new docking station for the drive then a refurbished drive and 2 brand new drives. Back and forth each time waiting for them to ship them to me. I do have 1 drive running USB 3.0 off the motherboard then I have a completely Identical drive plugged into another blue usb 3.0 plug and it runs 2.0 and shuts off all the time. This sucks.