Question Asus X99 Deluxe II - USB Issues until CMOS Reset

[talkingorange]

Hey all! I guess the question I'm trying to answer below is: is my Mobo messed up and I have to get a new one or is there something I'm missing here?

I have a Drobo hooked up to a USB 3 port (Drobo specs say it's 3.0, not a 3.1 device), and about a month ago after I'd upgraded one of my drives in the Drobo, it suddenly started dropping the USB connection any time I would copy to it with a Windows error message saying the device was no longer available. At first I thought this was unique to the Drobo and I went round and round with Drobo customer support trying to get it fixed, including factory resetting and wiping all my data on the Drobo (three cheers for cloud backups). It seemed to get a little better, but then the issues returned. Moreover, it seems to be affecting all my USB ports. Finally, I just reinstalled Windows. No dice. Then I nuked my Mobo back to factory settings and that seems to do the ticket, but only temporarily and at crappy, reduced speeds and that reduced speed effects all my USB devices. I never transfer at faster than 40 MB/s which makes me think stuff is working at USB-2 across the board. If I quit the Drobo software, I sometimes get an error that "The instruction at 0x0000000077003BD3 referenced memory at 0x0000000000000014. The memory could not be written" or something similar.

To elaborate a little on the USB issues. After a CMOS reset I can start a copy to my Drobo or across USB hard drive devices from one to another and get those USB-2 speeds, but then about 5-10 minutes in, it starts doing a thing where the speed drops and comes back in a regular wave pattern. To the Drobo it will drop down to 0, sit there for a bit, and then come back up to 40. If I copy from one USB 3 external hard drive to another, it will drop into the teens and then come back up to 40-ish. Eventually on a copy the Drobo will fail and disconnect with a Windows "Unspecified error" and the device will unmount from Windows for maybe 20-30 seconds and then come right back, but from that point a copy will cause it to drop almost instantly. After this I can still copy between the USB external drives, but at reduced speeds of around 28 MB/s and with that wave fluctuation in speeds as I mentioned.

I've tried all of the following singularly and in various combinations:

• Updating & Factory resetting BIOS
• BIOS versions (1601, 1701, 1802, 1902)
• Various combinations of xHCI settings in BIOS
• Updating Drobo Firmware / Factory Resetting Drobo
• Installing Asmedia USB drivers directly from ASUS
• Using default Windows 10 USB drivers and removing/reinstalling them from Windows device manager
• Installing chipset drivers from ASUS
• Running with whatever Windows does for default chipset drivers

I should note that the above might make me seem more learned than I am. I am more of PC-building hobbyist with just enough knowledge to get myself in trouble and to try what other people have done before after looking it up ;p

I should also note that I bought this particular setup with an eye to overclocking it after a couple years and I can't overclock it even a little without it failing after about 2 hours with a hard lock (not a BSOD). This also makes me think I've got a bad MoBo and just never knew it because I was running "safely" for so long and maybe things have just come to head, but I don't want to go through the expense and hassle of having to rebuild my PC unless there's something here I've overlooked. Is there anything left to try? Is my PSU too weak after upgrading to a 2080?

Hardware:
Motherbaord: ASUS Deluxe II
Processor: Intel Core i7 5960X
RAM: Corsair - Dominator Platinum 32 GB
GPU: NVidia GeForce RTX 2080
PSU: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 850 W 80+
Cooler: Corsair H100i V2
C Drive Storage: Samsung - 960 PRO 512 GB M.2

Software:
Windows 10 Version 10.0.18362 Build 18362

 

[Lutfij]

Have you tried removing the CMOS battery from the board for at least 30 mins before replacing it? After you pop the cell back in, flash the BIOS with the latest revision(1902). Did you reinstall the OS using a bootable installer made with Windows Media Creation Tools? It's always advised you use the drivers found off your board's support site and not rely on the OSes automatic update/driver finder.

 

[talkingorange]

Ah, no, I didn't try that. I'll give it a shot. I figured the ASUS drivers would be better than default Windows stuff, but the problem seemed independent of which where installed. But no, I didn't try removing the battery yet so crossing my fingers that's the magic bullet. I did install from a separate installer made with WMCT, but thank you for pointing that out at well as it's always a good reminder!

 

[talkingorange]

Thanks Lutfij for the CMOS suggestion, at first it seemed to be what was needed, but it was basically a countdown to when the problems would start up again. After about 24-28 hours of copies, performance began to degrade and then degrade rapidly until becoming unusable. I've now confirmed my original post's behavior with other Drobo + Intel motherboard users on Drobo's user-to-user forums (link). Also confirmed with additional testing on my end: using two separate Drobo chassis (a Drobo 5D3 and the original Drobo 5D) on two different Windows 10 PCs--one with older hardware and the second being my current PC outlined above. Both computers and Drobos echo these results either through USB 3.0 ports on their motherboards or/and in a USB 3.0 PCI-E expansion slot in the older PC. The short of it is: USB 3.0 ports in Windows 10 in use by the Drobo eventually collapse or corrupt into a state where the Drobo is no longer usable for either read or write operations.

These same Drobos can be hooked up to a Mac/MacBook and read operations function at full 3.0 speeds (for a Drobo). My Drobos are formatted NTFS so I can't test writing to them from a Mac.

So, after I found that form post, I posted my findings (link). Only a little bit after posting my issues, another user posted with confirmation as well. This time with three different Drobo chassis all experiencing the same thing. The conclusion the OP poster made is that the Drobo 5D and Drobo 5D3 devices are "legacy" USB and therefore only run as expected when connecting through older hardware and "generic" drivers. I haven't tested this out myself, yet, but I suspect they are correct and that Drobo isn't providing proper support and driver/firmware updates.

I'm hoping I don't have to keep buying USB expansion cards until I find one that works, but I may end up have to just doing that.

Was there a point in Windows 10 past where an update would have updated Intel/ASMedia based motherboards that I could roll back to? Wondering if I could get my Drobo to work using legacy software in Windows while I try to get Drobo CS to look more deeply into this.