Problems with External Hard Drives

Question

I recently got a Dell XPS 8700. It's stock except for two things:

1) I chose their option for an OEM video card over the onboard video
2) I have since added an mSATA SSD drive, and installed Windows on there, converting the previous 1TB C drive to a data drive that now is D:

However, none of that is a problem. The problem I'm having is with my external hard drives. I have four of them in total. They are:

a) 4TB Seagate Backup+
b) 2TB Seagate Backup+ Desk Mac (reformatted for Windows)
c) 3TB Western Digital WD My Book 1130 USB Device
d) 4TB Seagate Backup+

They're all plugged into USB 3 ports in the back of the computer. There's also a mouse and keyboard plugged into 2.0 ports back there, but I didn't think any of this would be a problem, given all the ports back there.

From reading around these forums, it appears to be related to power usage on the computer via the USB ports. If I'm understanding this correctly, basically the hub doesn't provide enough power to run these properly? Which is odd, as all four of them have their own power sources.

Mostly they work, but they're having an annoying habit of disappearing from my machine. This is strange, as my old machine all of these lived on didn't have this problem. Never had them disappear from the machine there.

There is one difference, probably a big one. The older machine (a 5yr old HP Pavillion Elite) didn't have enough ports, so I bought a USB 3 card for that computer. This is the card. I actually thought about putting it into my new machine as well, but I discovered the new machine has different power cables on the inside. This card has one of the older molex connectors (I think that's the right term) on it then the newer kind in use. So I went without the card, and it works - mostly. Except when Windows tells me "this device has malfunctioned and is disconnected" in a pattern I've not been able to ascertain.

I've also gone into Windows config and told it NOT to go to sleep mode or save energy on the USB ports, so I'm pretty sure it is not that.

I'm thinking of ordering an adapter cable that will let me use the card again in the new computer for the external drives. Anyone have any thoughts as to whether this will solve my problem or not?

Given the drives are all externally powered, I never considered that I'd run into a power problem with the new computer, but from what I've read that looks like what I have.

RoHe · Answer

Number of other threads with this same problem on these forums so check them out.

What version of BIOS is running on this system? Version A08 fixes some USB3 issues. Be sure to read/follow the instructions to run the flash update.

And some people claim that disabling hybrid sleep in Windows might help.

Can't say if that card will help, but you can certainly get an inexpensive SATA>Molex adaptor to connect the SATA power supply cable to the molex connector on the card.

Joe Siegler · Answer

>> Number of other threads with this same problem on these forums so check them out. <<

I already did, most of them seem to revolve around BIOS and disabling sleep on the USB hub.

>> What version of BIOS is running on this system? Version A08 fixes some USB3 issues. Be sure to read/follow the instructions to run the flash update. <<

A08 - 04/14/2014, so apparently no luck there.

>> And some people claim that disabling hybrid sleep in Windows might help. <<

I'll look into that.

Joe Siegler · Answer

Hmm. Looking on the website, it lists a

XPS_8700_BIOS_A08.EXE | Windows/DOS (13 MB) BIOS| Release date 24 Jun 2014 | Last Updated 24 Jun 2014 | Recommended

Mine says A08, but the date in there was Apr 14th. Should I try this anyway, even though it says A08, but has a more recent date?

RoHe · Answer

Dell has a (bad) habit of changing release dates even though they didn't actually change the associated file. Some times they just change the documentation that's posted on the support page, other times there's no explanation why the date changed.

And believe, I've repeatedly asked for explanations of why release dates change but the file version number is the same...no responses... :emotion-12:

So I would say not to try updating BIOS with the same version.

But what you might want to do is look for updated Intel Chipset drivers.

Joe Siegler · Answer

Well, I flashed the BIOS anyway last night. It seems to have helped somewhat, as I left the computer on, and it went almost 20 hours before losing a drive, which is longer than it has, but eventually one was dropped. Which brings us to now.

I ran the Dell diagnostic tool on the support site, and it told me there were two sets of drivers I could install. One of them was an Intel Chipset one. However, when I went to install it, it told me this:

"The computer currently contains software version 10.0.13, which is newer than the version you are about to install. Are you sure you want to overwrite the current software with the older version 9.4.0.1022"?

So I said no, and skipped that. I'm running out of ideas other than my own idea of the card (I should get the cable delivered in the mail later today, at which point I'll try it out).

RoHe · Answer

Go to the Intel site and let it scan your system to see if there's a newer chipset. You will need to install the latest version of Java (free) for their scanner to run.

Surprised it let you flash BIOS with a version that has the same version number as the one that's running. Makes me wonder if Dell changed something but didn't change the version number, and that might explain the newer release date, but you never know...

Out of curiosity, if you only connect one external drive, eg the one that last timed out, will it time out again? Then try another one in that same USB port. See if you can ID a drive or port that triggers the drop.

Joe Siegler · Answer

>> Go to the Intel site and let it scan your system to see if there's a newer chipset. You will need to install the latest version of Java (free) for their scanner to run. <<

It doesn't tell me there's anything newer available.

>> Surprised it let you flash BIOS with a version that has the same version number as the one that's running. Makes me wonder if Dell changed something but didn't change the version number, and thatmight explain the newer release date, but you never know... <<

The program did tell me the old version and the new version were the same (A08), but didn't mention the date. Asked me if I wanted to install anyway, so I said yeah.

>> Out of curiosity, if you only connect one external drive, eg the one that last timed out, will it time out again? Then try another one in that same USB port. See if you can ID a drive or port that triggers the drop. <<

If I reboot the machine, they all come back. I've had multiple drives on multiple ports drop at some point. It's not always the same one.

The cable I ordered came today, but I ordered the wrong one. I needed a male molex, not a female (d'oh). Probably go to Frys or something tomorrow and get it now.

RoHe · Answer

Did you try disabling Hybrid Sleep in Windows?

Joe Siegler · Answer

>> Did you try disabling Hybrid Sleep in Windows? <<

I did, didn't make any difference. Nothing I could find insofar as drivers / Bios / Windows settings made any difference, although the severity of the disappearances lessened after I tried a few of these things. But they still happened.

However, on Sunday morning, I hauled myself over to Fry's and bought an adapter and an extension cable, so I could plug the old PCI 3 card into this machine and get it powered by a spare sata cable in there (as the card has a molex connector on there).

Since I've plugged that card in, I haven't had a single disappearance. It's worked perfectly, and I haven't had any problems. That leads me to believe I was overtaxing the USB bus by having four external (even though powered on their own - all 4 of 'em) drives connected there.

An eyebrow raiser that I had to do this in the first place, but at least I appear to have solved my own problem. Plus I ended up with four more ports, but at this point, I don't have anything else to plug in there.

RoHe · Answer

Glad the card solved the problem. I can think of a couple of new hard drives, a scanner, another printer....

Locked Topics – Desktops General

Problems with External Hard Drives

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