Not enough USB controller resources

Question

New Alienware Area-51 R2, which replaced a croaked 2008-vintage Dell XPS 730X.

I get the following message when I try to connect two USB memory sticks at the same time to the front panel ports:

While I confess to having a lot of USB devices (two scanners, 3x label printers, floppy drive, two monitors, each with a bunch of camera card slots), I never got this message with my XPS 730X.

Is this just a matter of redistributing my devices among the ports, and does anyone know which USB connectors are grouped on the same controller?

I'm wondering if the camera card readers on the dell monitors slots are causing the problem. I used DISKMGMT to remove drive letters, but I wonder if I should disable these card readers. These days, all I need is the SDXC reader on the front panel, while each monitor has four (!) different slots.

Is this error a problem for anyone else?

Tesla1856 · Answer

Interesting. Maybe this is related to the USB-Latency issue that users are having with professional external USB-Sound_Card devices?

Anyway ... yes. Various USB ports run from various USB hubs. You can see this in Device Manager if you change the View. You might try re-distributing them ... so that high-utilization devices are spread between hubs.

I've also had good luck keeping USB 2.0 only devices on USB 2.0 Only ports ... freeing USB 3.0 ports for newer devices with that capability.

beamermt79 · Answer

It could also be that you have too many USB powered devices connected and there is not enough juice to power it all.

Tesla1856 · Answer

There is a new Area51-R2 BIOS that appears to fix some other USB latency issues. Might help with this also.

I suggest you call phone support and let them walk-you-thru-it due to motherboard bricking risk. It will also log your USB Resource Issue for warranty purposes, investigations, and further trouble-shooting.

mjmd2003 · Answer

Were you able to determine a solution? I too have an Alienware Area 51 R2, which is exhibiting this issue when I hit about 10 USB devices and I can't seem to resolve regardless of which powered USB hub I try or 2.0 or 3.0 ports on the computer. Granted 10 USB devices may seem like a lot but the last alienware I had which was 5 years old was running many more with no issue. That was on Windows 7 and this is win 8.1. I have also tried various combinations of external drives, monitor usb inputs, hubs, etc. It still seems to hit about 10 and then fail to add another.

Any input would be appreciated or confirmation this is an alienware issue that one must learn to work around.

Thanks

mjmd2003 · Answer

If you are referring to the A02 bios update, unfortunately that did not resolve the issue.  Or is there something else that has yet to be listed on the Dell support page? Thank you. mjmd2003

Scurro · Answer

I am having this problem too, Area 51 R2

I have 5 hubs, all powered. No matter how I connect them -- Independently to a port on the computer, or daisy chained, this error occurs.

From what I have gathered you should be able to connect 127 USB devices to windows.

I should also mention, nearly none of my devices are powered. In fact, there are only about 10 devices across the hubs. And, I have most unplugged for troubleshooting. So it's just hubs.

4 of the hubs are from Dell's monitors (4 monitors). Another is a powered Amazon 3.0 Hub.

I can only have 3 hubs plugged up. Whether that is 2.0 or 3.0 hubs or a combination, doesn't matter. The system starts pitching a fit if I get more than 3 hubs plugged up.

Since they're powered hubs and most don't actually have devices yet, then I lean toward thinking this is a BIOS / motherboard issue. This along with OC issues and slow BIOS updates has me seriously on the verge of yanking this motherboard out and putting in an ASUS.

spectorg58 · Answer

Has anyone found a solution for this problem?

jartherton · Answer

I have the same problem, I have a number of external USB drives that hook through 3 powered hubs. They all worked fine on my old Area 51 but I get this error when trying to hook them to my new R2. This is a major problem that needs solving. I use some of these drives for backup and can't access them now.

spectorg58 · Answer

Has anyone having this problem installed the A03 BIOS update--does it fix the problem?

cafara · Answer

Bumping this..

I'm having this issue now with the a03 bios when using an HTC vice. Any ideas on a fix? My friend with an Aurora r4 doesn't have this issue with the Vive and a similar number of usb devices.

Frakatchoo · Answer

I have the same problem too, I have a number of external USB devices (webcam, printer, usb audio card, midi keyboard, dell monitors powered hubs, ...) . They all worked fine on my old XPS but I get this error when trying to hook them to my new R2 (sometimes the message does not popup, but issue still present). For exemple when I power on my printer, nothing appear, I have to remove one of my other usb device for the printer to work.

Going to try the new BIOS A04, but I don't think it fix this USB resources problem. Waiting for a DELL solution.

Also, I read a PCI Express USB card can be a solution, I'm on a 3 way Sli GTX 980, there is a problem accessing the x4 or x1 PCI slot with this configuration?

Locked Topics – Alienware General

Not enough USB controller resources

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