XPS 15 9570 doesn't recognizes external HDD through TB

Well, I have up to date everything as I stated in my first post.

@gabriel_nemeth  actually what you said in your first post was "the Dell drivers are up to date".  My suggestions were firmware updates, not drivers.  But I would have suggested that anyway because over the course of helping many people here, I've seen several cases where people said, "I've got everything up to date", and it turned out they didn't -- and the update they were missing turned out to fix their issue.  In any case, based on your latest post, if the firmware updates I suggested are already applied and/or don't resolve your issue, then I'm not sure what to suggest.  It doesn't make sense that Windows would only be able to load drivers for a USB external storage device when it's present at boot.

@gabriel_nemeth  that's very strange, particularly the difference based on whether it was connected at boot.  There are some Thunderbolt BIOS settings that come into play there, but they only apply to actual Thunderbolt peripherals, and the Samsung T5 is just USB/USB-C, not Thunderbolt like the Samsung X5.  My only immediate suggestions would be to update the BIOS and then the TB3 controller firmware, even though again the latter shouldn't really come into play when using a non-Thunderbolt device on that port.

Also, I noticed, that when I plug in the SSD after my laptop boots, I got a triangle warning in the device manager:

This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)

Object Name already exists.

Ok, I get it. I thought when Dell Support Assist says everything is up to date then everything is up to date. Honestly, I have no idea how to update bios firmware, because if I search dell  XPS 15 9570 bios firmware update, I find only the bios driver page, version 1.15.0, which is my installed one.

Omg, when I uninstalled that first one from the device manager, it started working. Now it recognizes the t5 finally. But what that first USB was?

@gabriel_nemeth  the latest TB3 firmware update for the XPS 15 9570 as of this writing is here.  And as a possibly useful reference going forward, here is a direct link to the entire Downloads page for that system on support.dell.com.

However, your screenshots finally came through -- initially they're only visible to the person who uploaded them and to Dell moderators until they get "approved" for public viewing -- and it appears that the device having a problem is the actual USB host controller itself, not the hard drive as I figured based on you not specifying anything otherwise.  That's a different story.  I also see that you have a VirtualHere USB 3 controller.  I'm not sure what that is -- possibly something related to USB device redirection/virtual attachment for a virtualization solution or remote application streaming service like Citrix? -- but that reminded me of another similar issue I read about a while ago.  An older Dell dock called the TB16 had a USB controller that required a third-party driver from ASMedia, and eventually it was discovered that if the user also had Citrix Receiver installed -- which installed a virtual USB controller driver to allow local USB devices to be redirected to the remote application -- then it could actually prevent the dock's USB devices from working at all.  Its ASMedia controller would throw an error like that in Device Manager and sometimes even cause system lockups.  The fix in that case was to install a newer version of Citrix Receiver.  So I'm wondering if there might be a similar conflict with your VirtualHere USB driver.  Can you try updating whatever application created that to the latest release?  If that doesn't resolve it, can you try uninstalling it entirely just as a test?

Ok so here is what I did:

• Uninstalled the fist Intel USB 3.1 eXtensible Host Controller
• The XPS finally recognized after that the T5, but after that, I figured out, that the uninstalled device was actually the USB port on the right side. So I installed it back.
• As you mentioned that VirtualHere USB 3 controller can be the issue, so I uninstalled it and it works. I have no idea what that thing was, or which device used it, but I uninstalled it.
• I googled a little bit and find this forum, same case, sadly no solution: https://www.virtualhere.com/content/connecting-storage-devices-allows-detection-not-interaction

So currently I'm fine with that.

Thank you @jphughan for help and support.

@gabriel_nemeth  One other thing to check in addition to the update and tests I suggested above.  If you start your system without the T5 attached, check Device Manager and see if you even have two of those "Intel USB 3.1 eXtensible Host Controller" devices present at all.  If you only have one, then I'm thinking that the XPS 15 might not even start the USB controller that runs its USB-C/TB3 port unless a device is actually attached to it.  And if the underlying cause of this issue is a conflict between the VirtualHere controller and that one, then that might account for the difference in behavior based on whether the T5 was attached at boot or not.  For example, if the T5 is connected, then that second Intel controller might start before the VirtualHere driver loads and therefore allow devices connected to that USB-C/TB3 port to run properly, but if there's nothing connected to that port at boot, then that second Intel controller DOESN'T start before the VirtualHere driver loads, and when it tries to start LATER when you actually connect something, you have this problem.  I suspect you'd also find that this issue isn't limited to the T5, but would instead affect any device you plugged into the USB-C/TB3 port that relied on being able to run USB 3.x data.

Well, I have nothing attached to that first Intel USB 3.1 eXtensible Host Controller. I doesn't even know what that first one is.

@gabriel_nemeth  Glad it works, but to be clear, I never actually suggested that you uninstall one of the Intel USB controllers the way you apparently did.  I just asked you to check whether it was present if you booted your system without the T5 connected and didn't have it connected.

The first USB controller might be the one that runs the USB-A ports on your system and/or internal devices within the laptop that communicate over USB.  Again, a USB controller is different from a USB port or even a USB hub.  USB hubs typically don't have actual controller chips, but a single system might have multiple USB controller chips.  And some Thunderbolt docks have their own internal USB controller chips that would appear in Device Manager when the dock is connected, even if there's nothing plugged into the dock's own USB ports.  In most cases the USB controller chip would ALWAYS be present in Device Manager even if no USB devices are connected to any ports that it controls.  The only reason I thought that that particular controller might not start unless a device was connected to the system's USB-C/TB3 port is because I know that the Thunderbolt 3 controller chip isn't active unless an actual Thunderbolt device is connected -- which is why you won't see a Thunderbolt controller device in Device Manager most of the time.  The reason for this design is that the Thunderbolt 3 controller actually consumes quite a bit of power, so the system keeps it completely disabled unless it's actually being used.  And since the TB3 controller is wired to the same USB-C/TB3 port that you're using with the T5, I thought a similar design might be implemented even for the USB controller supporting that port.  And the other reason I thought of it was simply because you reported different behavior based on whether the T5 was connected at startup or not, so I figured something had to be different in order to account for that.

I also wasn't suggesting just uninstalling the VirtualHere USB controller device itself in Device Manager.  I was suggesting uninstalling the entire application put it there in the first place.  If you just uninstalled that USB controller, then you may have broken whatever application you use that relies on it.

But whatever, if you're happy with the way things are now working, then good deal.

@gabriel_nemeth  by the way, if you don't even know what that VirtualHere USB controller is or how that got there, I personally would be concerned about that.  From looking into what the VirtualHere application does, it sounds like an interesting tool, but it could also definitely be used for malicious purposes.  For example, if your system was running the VirtualHere server, a malicious user could use that to redirect any USB devices attached to your system out to some other random PC on the Internet, granting them access to your devices.  Or even if your system only has the VirtualHere client, it could be configured to virtually attach some random malicious USB device on the Internet to your own system.  So unless you installed VirtualHere yourself for some specific reason, or some other application that you use and trust installed it because it needs to do something that VirtualHere is designed to allow, I personally would uninstall the entire VirtualHere application immediately and then be very concerned about how it got there in the first place.

Hi community,

i am having the exact same issues as @gabriel_nemeth, although mine just started after a recent windows 11 update.  Same problem - ie, when i plug-in an HDD (doesn't matter if it is a USB flash drive or an external 2.5" HDD) to the USB-C thunderbolt port of my Dell XPS 15 9570, it is not recognized by the PC.  If I turn off the laptop and, while off, plug-in the USB drive, then startup the PC, then windows will recognize the drive.  But, removing it while powered and plugging it back into the same USB port and windows will not recognize the drive.  I have tried removing the Intel USB 3.1 eXtensible Host Controller from Device Manager and rebooting and that doesn't work.  I have checked firmware and BIOS using SupportAssistant and I am all up to date on everything.  I have run hardware scans and checked for updated drivers and everything is up to date.  

I am a bit stumped and not sure how to get this port to be able to detect an external storage device as it has since I purchased the laptop until recently.  hopefully someone has gone through this and found a fix.  Please let me know what you did to make your drive work again.  Thanks.