Latitude E6540

Maureen -

Have you tested the USB ports with other non-WD devices to verify they are functioning properly other wise?  I have used a USB mouse in all 4 ports and yes it works just fine.

I will read the link you provided thank you.  I am puzzled as to why it has taken a week to get to this point.  I have been in contact with Dell and up to your response, not much progress.  Service Request#: ********* for your reference.  Please feel free to research and contact me directly. 

Thank you.

Hello CTGuy240,

I have seen this occur before. The Western Digital chipset has a conflict with the USB port technology. Sometimes, the right USB 3.0 work and the left USB ports only allows 2.0 connectivity, or one port of the four will work (such as in your case), or none will work at all.
Have you tested the USB ports with other non-WD devices to verify they are functioning properly other wise? If the ports work fine with other devices, we know that the WD chipset is likely the cause.
We have had some success in resolving the problem by uninstalling the Intel chipset and allowing Microsoft to install automatically. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725782.aspx

Please let me know if this resolves the problem for you. I will forward on your issue to see if there will be a firmware update in the future to address this problem.

Maureen  [tag:IWork4Dell]

It is a 2.5" WD My Passport 1 TB self powered external drive.

Is the drive a 2.5" self-powered unit or a 3.5" that uses an external power supply?

Maureen - 

Besides the USB mouse I have used USB drives, 98% of the time no issues.  Once I did get a message about the port being 2.0 and the USB drive can operate faster in a USB 3.0 port.

You are suggesting that I uninstall the Intel WiUSB devices?

Thank you

I am having this issue with a new E6540

i have a seagate that drops out all the time on usb 3.0 cable, however if i use a usb / mini usb  to provide usb 2.0 it works, i have WD drives that do the same, yet I have one WD that does not..

Now are you ready for this...  I was handing a DELL 1TB USB 3.0 external drive today and guess what.. IT DROPS OUT!!!!!!!!!  and its a DELL DRIVE!!!!!!!! Part Number 1F5AP3-570
 you are saying the chipset issue with WD devices but your own DELL drive dont work..

this is annoying and needs to be corrected..  i have seen my files get corrupted because of a copying and it drops out..

I have the same laptop (Dell E6540 except i7-4810MQ).
I can confirm that this exact behavior occurs with both the following external USB 3.0 hard drives

(1) MydigitalSSD OTG 256GB External mSata SSD.  - USB 3.0

(2) 1TB Toshiba Canvio External HD - USB 3.0

Both drives work fine in USB 2.0, they both work fine in another desktop machine.They exhibit this behavior (only works on the Left Hand USB 3.0 port) in both Win7 and Ubuntu 14.04.1

Ugh!

Same issue for me, WD 2TB drive dropping out and not working at USB3.0 speed on Latitude E6540. Did not have this issue on my previous Dell, so the money spent on upgrading the Dell has been a complete waste because of the USB issues.

Same issue here.  Dell E6540.  Per Dell's website today, "Starting Price $1498.61."  

CTGuy240 started this thread one year ago yesterday.  The numbers make it appear as if Dell is being uncooperative on assisting with this issue: 

 - 360 days ago: last response from Dell.

 - 172 days ago: kcpcguy reported the problem on a new E6540.

 - 70 days ago: glenboy reported the problem.

 - 58 days ago: ho lee cow reported the problem on an E6540.

 - 28 days ago: thomaha reported the problem on a new E6540.

 - today: I am reporting the problem on a new E6540.  

If Dell does not diagnose and provide countermeasures for this problem, it is up to the community to do so, much like what is necessary after a company "goes out of business." 

In my case: SanDisk Ultra USB3 64 GB flash drive works fine on the left-hand side port but disconnects and reconnects repeatedly on the other USB ports.  The same drive has not exhibited similar behavior on my two desktops or tablet.  

Dell: Please let me know if you need my USB stick for testing purposes as I will be happy to provide it to you.  I will not play games with sending my laptop in until it is clear that you have identified and resolved this problem internally.  Seeing that a year has gone by I think it is appropriate to say that you do not currently have a handle on it. 

Community:  I suggest that we begin creating a list of "user-certified" USB3 devices which are known to work on the E6540.  Overall I like the laptop but I can't be spending my time figuring out what works and what doesn't work.  

Morning all,

To date this issue has still NOT been resolved.  The WD 2 TB drive continues to work only in the left USB port.  It will connect to the three USB ports on the right and rear, but immediately disconnects.

WD did provide a pigtale USB 2.0 cable for the other ports, but if I remember correctly while that did work for a short period of time, it has since stopped being a viable solution for the right side ports.  The error message I receive is "Power surge on Hub Port.  A USB device has exceeded the power limits of its hub port.  For assistance in solving this problem click this message."  Basically I have to go in and reset all of the ports that appear in bold.  So that WD fix does not work and I no longer carry the USB 2.0 cable.

Again, so far all Dell has done is blame WD and their chip set, WD blames Dell and I even had to spend countless hours on the phone with my internet provider - they also provide my virus software - both thought that this software was causing the issue.  Bottom line is DELL has been VERY non responsive, nothing different from each of your experiences.  When this machine was a week old they replaced the motherboard thinking that would solve the issue.  Nope.  As this is my only modern machine, it is impossible for me to backup my external 2 TB WD drive to the second external 2 TB WD drive I purchased.  Basically, I'm running a business w/o the ability to back up. 

As an engineer (non-electrical), I find it hard to believe no one at Dell, at any time during design and testing of this machine ever tried to plug in a drive of this size / mfg.  If they did they would have discovered what we did. 

If there's a solution I would be interested in hearing it.  

I have been and will continue to be extremely unhappy with Dell and their customer service.

FYI

For the record my PNY 32 GB USB drive connects to and stays connected to at least the right side ports.  I have not tried to connect it to the USB port on the right rear (back) side of the computer.  

Is the PNY 32GB drive USB 3?

We can cross the Segate Backup Plus (model SRD00F1) off the list of drives compatible with the E6540...

Yesterday I picked up a 1TB Segate Backup Plus Portable Drive (model SRD00F1).  This drive is powered from the USB cable.  After unboxing I connected the drive to the right/rear E6540 port and started a ~60GB copy.

I woke the computer from sleep several hours later and the drive was no longer recognized or powered.  I checked, unplugged and re-plugged the USB connections but noticed no changes.  I disconnected the drive, rebooted the E6540 and reconnected it as I had previously but still no power or recognition by the operating system.

I moved the USB connection to the left side of the E6540 and the drive and the drive was both powered and illuminated in a brief moment.  Windows 7 prompted that the device can perform faster if connected to Super Speed USB 3.0.  I did not run extensive transfer speed tests but there appeared to be little difference from the first copy (~45 MB/s). 

Has anyone tried a USB3 between the E6540 and the non-E6540 compatible devices?  I wonder if it would act like a buffer and allow us to use them.

Hi,

Now seems like I have same issue with my E6430, usb 2 works fine, but usb3 throws surge.

Not I am almost sure that its hardware related as I have linux as second os and nothing happens there either. Seems like Dell once again got some *** suppliers and hardware designers.... Will check further next week, as this one too busy to play with this....

USB2 is 500mA and most device work fine. USB3 depending on chip used should give 900mA min.

I doubt any usb flash drives would consume a lot power, so really it looks like there is fault with those USB3 circuits.