XPS 8940, no boot with Elgato Stream Deck USB 2.0 PCI card

Really?  Nobody has a clue?  It's got to have something to do with the Preboot Dell Diagnosis thinking that the Stream Decks are consuming too much power, I'm assuming.

That's crazy.  It's there any way to bypass this????  Anyone?  

@RayR10 

This is not a dell product and not supported here.

Elgato-Stream-Deck-Using-USB-Cables

Elgato Stream Deck will get power from your Mac or PC, via the USB cable that is attached to it.

A 1 meter long USB extension cable (3.28 feet) or shorter is an ideal length, to make sure that Elgato Stream Deck gets enough power from the USB connection. Since its USB2 that likely means you need older workstation like the precision T1700 that has USB2 and USB3 ports

ADAPTEC USB2Connect AUA-2000B 2-Port USB 2.0 PCI Controller Card
Elgato Stream Deck — Version 4.2 requires OBS 23.1 or higher

Please Note: On Windows, Elgato Stream Deck 4.2 will display that the plugin is not installed when using OBS 21.x or earlier.
download OBS here:
https://obsproject.com/download

@RayR10  What am I missing here?

USB3 ports on a PC should be fully backward compatible with USB2 devices. And Elgato Stream Decks seem to work with USB3. They just won't need or use all the extra power and data speed that USB3 ports offer vs USB2.

Are you saying PC boots properly with USB2 PCI-e card installed, as long as Elgato decks are unplugged? Or do you have to remove the PCI-e card too?

If USB boot support is enabled in BIOS setup, have you tried disabling it and seeing if PC will boot with card and decks installed?

You could always run a (powered) USB2 hub from back of PC to your desk area so you can easily plug/unplug Elgato decks when necessary, if you insist on using the USB2 card.

Hi RoHe,

Firstly, yes my computer will boot up with the PCIe card installed.  But it will not boot up if the Elgato Streamdecks are plugged in.  So... I'm assuming that the Pre-boot check up from DELL is getting hanged up with the power draw from the Elgatos.

Speedstep - I don't use OBS, I use XSplit.  But that isn't the issue.  I have no software issues.  If I keep the Sreamdecks unplugged when I boot up, I can then plug them back in and everything is fine.  It's the DELL boot-up sequence that is the issue.  I honestly don't think it has anything to do with OBS or Streamdeck cables as far as I can tell.

At any rate, the reason why I am not using the USB3.0 ports is because Elgato themselves specifically said in their Discord that many people are experiencing problems with Elgato Streamdecks plugged into 3.0.  They said specifically that they do not support 3.0 and their hardware only support 2.0.  I know that sounds bizarre... but that is what they, themselves said.  You may be right and I will never encounter an issue with 3.0... but I don't want to chance it.  Many have reported issues.  They have said to go into your Device manager (I believe) and change your 3.0 to 2.0.  That sounds insane to me, so I would never do that.

They also recommend to NEVER use a HUB and to always plug directly into the computer.  Hence the reason why I purchased the PCIe card.  Seemed to me to be the best solution, since I had the open PCIe slot to use.

So... being proactive... I ordered a proper 3 port USB 2.0 card and installed it into my DELL.  All was working perfectly fine for many, many months... then, few weeks ago when I updated the DELL Bios (as recommended in DELL's update) all went to pot.  After that, I can no longer boot up proper as long as the Elgatos are plugged in.  

While I realize this is not a DELL product and not supported here... I strongly feel that this is not an Elgato streamdeck issue.  I should be able to install a USB 2.0 card in my computer if I want.  Geez... the extra slot is there. Why not?!  IMO... It's possibly a DELL booting issue.  Or a DELL power issue.  Or a DELL pre-boot diagnostic issue.  Or perhaps a driver conflict issue??? Not sure.  As I said, everything worked fine for many many months prior to the BIOS upgrade from DELL.

So.. I  might try your solution, RoHe about disabling USB bootup... but, I don't know... that really doesn't sound like my issue.  Maybe I'm wrong.  I don't think it's searching for a USB to boot up from, but perhaps you are correct.

Thank you all for the response.  I appreciate the help.

FYI... From Stream Deck Labs... 

Why? Isn’t USB 3.x backward compatible?

In theory, USB 3.x is backward compatible and should work just fine with USB 2.0 Devices. But the reality is, a lot depends on your device, the drivers provided for the device, your BIOS, etc. If you try to connect a device that uses USB 2.0 to a USB 3.x port, chances are it won’t work out as you expect. This is even more common if you’re using Windows 10+.

USB 3.x Problems:

• Your Stream Deck MUST BE plugged into a USB 2.0 port (They are white or black).
• Your Stream Deck should NOT be plugged into a USB hub.
• Your Stream Deck should NOT be plugged into a USB 3.x port (They are blue or red).
• If you use a USB Hub or a USB 3.x port for your Stream Deck, you will more than likely experience intermittent/constant issues.
• You must reboot after switching from the USB 3.x port to a 2.0 port.

Whether any of that above is true or not... I don't know.  But as I said... I had the extra slot and a 2.0 USB card, so... hey, why not?

Let's back up...

1. Does PC boot with anything plugged into any one of the ports on your PCI-e USB card, other than Stream decks?

There are several threads saying updating BIOS on XPS 8940 to v2.2.0 or later prevents PC from booting when an NVME SSD is plugged into an x4 adapter card installed in the slot. The SSD+x4 adapter worked perfectly before BIOS v2.20. So you may have a variation on that same issue.

To be complete, go into BIOS setup and disable USB boot support. Aside from a possible issue with BIOS v2.2.0 and later, some PCs just won't boot if USB boot support is enabled in BIOS setup and there's a non-bootable USB drive plugged in. Let us know what happens after you disable USB boot support.

Unfortunately, you can't downgrade BIOS to v2.1.3 to get your decks to work again because the support page says:

"Once the BIOS is upgraded to version 2.2.0, you cannot downgrade the BIOS to earlier versions. BIOS downgrades are restricted when there are security updates and important fixes with earlier versions that impact the functionality of the system."

Your only work-around may be to connect/disconnect your decks every time, at least until they figure this problem out and issue a new BIOS update to fix it. Note: BIOS 2.4.0 is now the latest version but it doesn't solve the x4 slot issue, at least for those trying to use an SSD+x4 adapter.

2. As for USB3, that sounds -to me- like Elgato is trying to pass the blame onto somebody / anybody else. I see threads on internet saying Stream decks work perfectly with USB3 ports.

Your PC has two USB2 ports but they're supposed to be for your mouse and keyboard. You could get a USB2 hub for those two, and use the other USB2 for a deck.

FWIW, I can plug in several different portable Seagate USB2 HDDs into any USB3 port on my XPS 8930 and there are no problems booting or using these drives.

Okay... so now every single time I boot up my computer it displays that message above...

>>Checking Media Presence...

>>Media Present...

Even after I put it back EXACTLY how I had it.  This is very frustrating.  How do I get it to stop saying that and just boot directly to the DELL logo without me having to press the ESC key!?!?!?

HOW DID THAT HAPPEN!?!?!

This has proven to be WAY more frustrating than I thought.  Not happy.

Okay... so that was VERY SCARY.  I don't feel comfortable about what I did...

So... first off... (without disabling USB bootup), I plugged in a USB Midi controller keyboard, an XBox controller, and a portable Easystore HDD drive.

The computer took a very long time to boot up, but then it did finally boot up successfully.  

So... just for the heck of it, I decided to restart it and see if it would boot up faster the second time.  This time, however, it failed to boot up.

So... I went into BIOS, F12 and disabled the USB boot up.

So, then, I restarted the computer... and I got quite the scare.  It would not boot up at all.  It only had a black screen, no DELL logo, and it said... 

>>Checking Media Presence.....

>> Media Present....

>>Start PXE over IPv6 on MAC: (mac address).

So, I unplugged everything from the USB 2.0 card. and I just started pressing keys, not knowing what to do and hitting the hard reboot button on the front.  So anyway... I found that hitting ESC got me past that and into the DELL screen.

And now it's booted up and I'm here posting this.

So... now I'm VERY LEARY about keeping that USB boot thing disabled given what my computer just did.  WHY DID IT DO THAT?!?!?!

I think I will just go back into BIOS and put it back exactly the way it was and just deal with plugging and unplugging my Streamdecks.  This just isn't worth all this trouble to work around this. (sigh).

Okay... so I just set my BIOS settings back to "last known good setting" or however they word it on the screen.  Since I never messed around with the settings at an earlier date, they should be good now.

I am able to boot up totally normal now.  And it boots up fast again.  I'm not even going to try my Stream decks plugged in, at this point.  I'll just crawl under my desk and plug them in myself every day. (double sigh).

Anyway, thanks for the help troubleshooting this, even if it didn't come to the conclusion I had hoped.  I do appreciate it.

You said "I went into BIOS, F12 and disabled the USB boot up" Did you mean F2?

Is Windows Boot Manager the first boot option in BIOS setup? . It was trying to boot from the network when it said: "Start PXE over IPv6 on MAC:" You don't want it to try booting  from the network. So if IPv4 and/or IPv6 are listed as boot options in BIOS, you can disable them.

Were all 3 USB devices plugged in at the same time? Try only the Easystore HDD. If it takes a long time or doesn't boot at all, then either the x4 slot isn't working properly after the latest BIOS update or the PC is trying to boot from USB.

Your PC, your decision how to handle the problem...

And just run USB cables from USB card on rear of PC onto your desk so you don't have to crawl around on the floor...

Well... I think it was F12, but F12 game me a menu to choose from and one of the items was the BIOS.

I don't think Windows Boot Manager was first.  I think it was third.  However... I don't understand how it got to third... when all I did was just simply disable the USB boot option.  ???  That should have never have happened.

Now that I restored the BIOS settings back to whatever config they were prior, I haven't checked to see what the boot order is now.  Whatever the order is now, however, doesn't produce that weird black screen.

Yes, all three USB devices were in at the same time.  Maybe I'll try all this again later.  I don't have the energy or will to continue troubleshooting this right now.  If I do try it later, I'll post the results so others can possibly benefit from the information.

I might take your advice below about running cables from the USB up to my desk to make my life easier.  Or I'll just count crawling under my desk as my exercise for the day.  LOL.  Thanks!