Question Help me understand USB controllers (Asus Z97 Gryphon)

[Gilimanjaro]

Hi all!

Windows regularly tells me my USB controller has run out of resources, so I've been trying to understand if switching ports around would help.

I've installed the USB view tools, and can see 4 root controllers, one of which seems to be my 2070's USB-C one. Two of the other ones are listed as 'standard enhanced pci to usb controller' and as far as I can tell only has USB 2 ports (but I don't think they have physical ports). The one that lists all my devices is a 'USB xHCI compliant host controller' and has USB 3 ports, which all seem to have a companion port listed which are USB 2 ports.

Can it be that all my physical ports are on the same root controller and therefore port switching won't make a difference? Does anyone know of a good resource to understand the USB controller realm better?

Thanks, G

 

[Lutfij]

With all that you've stated in your thread's body, you forgot to include the specs of your system.

Please list them like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

Also, are you on the latest BIOS update for your motherboard? If you're running out of resources for your USB ports, this might be an OS issue or worse that the drivers installed aren't the right ones. Can you also state what all your USB devices are?

 

[Gilimanjaro]

Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K
Motherboard: Asus TUF Gryphon Z97 Armor Edition
Ram: Crucial Ballistix Sport BLS2CP8G3D1609D1609DS1S00CEU
SSD/HDD: Samsung 840 EVO 1Tb & Samsung 850 EVO 1Tb
GPU: Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2070 OC Edition
PSU: Silverstone Nightjar 520W
Chassis: Fractal Design R5 Blackoout Edition
OS: Windows 10 Home EN 64 bit

I guess my question boils down to whether it 'makes sense' that I have 2 'Standard PCI to USB Host Controllers' listed in USB View that don't actually have physical ports. If so, I know that a possible solution would be to add a PCIe USB controller in an available expansion slot.

Regarding the devices; I'll post a screenshot below. I have a lot, I know that. And quite a lot via the USB hub in my display. Also, sometimes I plug in my Vive via a total of 3 link-boxes to chain all the way to the main room. The additional link boxes all seem to contain quite a few usb devices. So if a single controller is limited to X devices, then that definitely won't help.

Would there be a way to 'disable' some of these 'virtual' devices so they don't use up resources? So tell the controller to ignore a device? The bluetooth controller on the middle link box for instance is one I never need.

Screenshot of USB view:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v7zzcr9hp6z17az/USB tree.png?dl=0