Question RENESAS 4-port PCI-E to USB 3.0 add-on card stopped working after latest Windows 10 update ?

[lvt]

OK so I decided to post this in the Windows 10 forum because I believe that it's a Windows issue.

I have this card to use with external HDD as my motherboard doesn't have USB 3.0

The card worked wonderfully on my old Windows XP machine then on my current Windows 10 machine, but a couple of weeks ago it stopped working after a major Windows update to 21H2 version. Since then the card refused to work, be it with the original drivers (come with CD) or on Windows 10 drivers.

I also tried many Renesas drivers that can be found online , none of them really worked.

Sometimes I can see the HDD connected to the card, but just the name, I can't access the HDD.

Most of the time the card got ignored by Windows.

In fact I have another card with VIA VL805 chipset with the exact same problem, but I will just keep this one.

To make the long story short, I tried all PCI-E slots, all available drivers that Internet could bring me....

Hopefully someone with the same card could tell how to get it to work on Windows 10 21H2 ?

Thanks for reading.

 

[lvt]

You might trust them but I only go to source for drivers. I don't like the driver download sites as I don't believe them all the time. They would be my final choice**

its possible Microsoft have drivers for it already. I would buy card and see if windows identifies it without needing drivers
hard to say what these are: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=asmedia

**wait, no, my final last ditch try would be a 3rd party driver updating software but they are just as bad as the websites and might use them as a source.

I hope that the new card will work with Windows 10's inbox drivers.

Time will tell ☺️

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Having not read the whole thread, came across something the other day. A system at work in windows 11 wanted some memory integrity setting enabled for security. When I did so, a pretty common Logitech camera wouldn’t work. Disabled the setting and it was happy again.

 

[lvt]

Having not read the whole thread, came across something the other day. A system at work in windows 11 wanted some memory integrity setting enabled for security. When I did so, a pretty common Logitech camera wouldn’t work. Disabled the setting and it was happy again.

I can't speak for users with the same problem on Win11, but on Win10 I believe that it's a driver issue.

I have three PCI-E to USB 3.0 cards (two with Renesas chip, one with Via chip), they all worked fine from WinXP to Win10 20H. The problem only appears with the latest 21H2 update.

After tinkering with the cards for a couple of weeks, I tracked the issues down to :

1. Power issue : the cards are disconnected automatically after a certain mount of time (usually 10 to 15min, sometimes shorter), there is no setting in Win10 that can fix it because the driver is corrupted. The only way I can temporarily fix it is to connect an USB fan to one of the USB 3.0 port to keep the card powered, so far I managed to keep the cards "live" for a couple of hours.

2. I/O issue : while I can keep the cards somewhat "working", I can copy files from a HDD to another HDD back and forth. But if the transfer reached a certain speed the cards are disconnected again.

Playing a movie file from one of the HDD will also disconnect the cards, no matter what player is used (Windows Player, VLC...)

All the issues mentioned above apply for both SATA HDD and USB Flash.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

This may be a silly question but have you tried an older driver version? For example a driver for windows 8 should theoretically work in windows 10 many times. Just thinking out loud.

 

[lvt]

This may be a silly question but have you tried an older driver version? For example a driver for windows 8 should theoretically work in windows 10 many times. Just thinking out loud.

Yes I did try all drivers that I can find for WinXP, Win7 and Win8, some drivers even make the computer completely freeze as soon as they are loaded.

 

[lvt]

If I removed all the drivers that have been installed manually, Windows would detect and install its own drivers for the card, but the problem remains, the card will disappear shortly and the USB 3.0 Root Hub driver crashes, leaving the Host controller with the yellow mark.

 

[lvt]

Ok so I got the card with ASM chip delivered today, but unfortunately it didn't work. Same errors, same behaviors like my other cards with Via and Renesas chips.

Just letting you know so that you won't waste your time and money on a problem that is not yours.

 

[lvt]

So this is the list of my

pcie to USB 3.0 cards that stopped working on Windows 10 after the 21H2 update. They use chips from Via, Renesas and Asmedia.

If you are using one of those cards and it's actually working fine, think twice before updating your Windows 10 unless you know for sure that the card will work with it.

 

[BFG-9000]

If it doesn't work on Renesas, VIA and ASMedia cards, then it's probably not their USB chip drivers at all. It's more likely something 21H2 did to the drivers for ICH7 Southbridge or its PCIe 1.0a. This may be why nobody else has chimed in to report the same problem. BTW the ASMedia datasheet says it's intended for PCIe 2.0, so Nehalem's PCH not any ICH.

My working cards show up as Renesas xHCI 0.96 (Microsoft) and I have them plugged into PCIe 1.1 slots. FWIW, the cards are Vantec UGT-PC312 and Startech PEXUSB3S2, but given the above you may actually have to drop down to 32-bit PCI to get a working card.

At 133MB/s you are not going to see 6gbit SATA 3.0 600MB/s speeds, but ICH7 generally was not used with chipsets that support multiple Northbridge-attached slots at x8, and I'm not sure the single 1.1 x16 slot would work for anything but a GPU even if you were willing to use the IGP or go headless.

 

[lvt]

I bought the fifth card from a local shop to give it a last attempt. The card also has the uDP720201 Renesas chip but with newer firmware.

The card is also certified Win10 compatible.

To no avail.

 

[BFG-9000]

There is another option in a PCIe to SATA-600 adapter card. Now at x1 PCIe 1.0a it's going to be limited to 250MB/s in each direction, but then so were your USB 3.0 cards so it's not like you had real SATA-600 with those anyway. Even when using only one USB port at a time, the card's interface limits things to half the theoretical bandwidth of USB 3.0.

Even x1 PCIe 2.0 cannot feed one SATA-600 and would only allow one USB 3.0 port to operate at full speed at a time. Such cards really need a x4 connection

 

[lvt]

There is another option in a PCIe to SATA-600 adapter card. Now at x1 PCIe 1.0a it's going to be limited to 250MB/s in each direction, but then so were your USB 3.0 cards so it's not like you had real SATA-600 with those anyway. Even when using only one USB port at a time, the card's interface limits things to half the theoretical bandwidth of USB 3.0.

Even x1 PCIe 2.0 cannot feed one SATA-600 and would only allow one USB 3.0 port to operate at full speed at a time. Such cards really need a x4 connection

I have taken it into account.

That's why I have multiple USB 3.0 cards, for example I could use a HDD on the Renesas card and other HDD on the Via card so they always operate at max speed (as far as the hardware allows).

But now none of the cards works

 

[lvt]

When I need to use more than one USB 3.0 on the same card, I always use the card that is installed in the x16 slot.

 

[BFG-9000]

Wait, so the x16 slot worked with the same USB cards before and doesn't anymore? There goes my theory as that's PCIe 1.1 and not on the ICH at all.

It'd probably be a waste to try a PD720200 USB card in there when you could see if a single many-SATA-port x4 or x8 card would better solve your port shortage without going through USB.

 

[lvt]

Wait, so the x16 slot worked with the same USB cards before and doesn't anymore? There goes my theory as that's PCIe 1.1 and not on the ICH at all.

It'd probably be a waste to try a PD720200 USB card in there when you could see if a single many-SATA-port x4 or x8 card would better solve your port shortage without going through USB.

Yes the cards used to work on any pci-e slot (my motherboard has three, 2 x1 and 1 x16).

I'm already out of idea, I think I will stick with USB 2.0 while waiting for a possible drivers update from MS.

That being said, the last windows update does more harm than good. I've seen a lot of issues with those chips online, some having problem with USB, others have problem with WiFi/Bluetooth cards...

 

[lvt]

A couple of days ago my computer received an update from MS called :

2022-09 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 10 Version 21H2

After the update I tried all the cards one by one, but none of them works.

 

[lvt]

A little update on the issue.

I got a bit of free time this week so I pulled out my old Asus motherboard (the P5G41T M LX3 PLUS) to build a test machine. I installed Windows 10 Pro on a blank SSD and have it updated with latest updates available.

After the test machine is running, I plugged one of the USB 3.0 card to the PCI-E slot and surprisingly, it woks. I plugged another USB 3.0 card in the next PCI-E slot, and it works too.

So the problem is not only with Windows 10 but with the Gigabyte motherboard as well.

 

[lvt]

Both add-on cards run fine, providing 8 USB 3.0 ports.

 

[Colif]

is it the mb in your sig?

Gigabyte G41MT-S2 - its not exactly new. I don't know what would have changed on a board from that vintage - https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-G41MT-S2-rev-13#ov - you wouldn't expect any changes really.

curious if you tried linux or something on PC to see if it is any different.

 

[lvt]

is it the mb in your sig?

Gigabyte G41MT-S2 - its not exactly new. I don't know what would have changed on a board from that vintage - https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-G41MT-S2-rev-13#ov - you wouldn't expect any changes really.

curious if you tried linux or something on PC to see if it is any different.

Yes it's the motherboard in question, I tested from time to time with it (usually after an update from MS) but it doesn't work.

Linux has no use for me because I have some production software that only run in Windows.

However I have a laptop that currently runs Ubuntu, I use it primarily for reading some old CD/DVD because its CD reader still works.

 

[Colif]

i only suggested linux to see if the card works with it in the board. That would tell us if it really is windows or just the board

 

[lvt]

i only suggested linux to see if the card works with it in the board. That would tell us if it really is windows or just the board

I see your point.

I ddin't think about it before because I need the cards to work under Windows, even if they work for Linux it won't fix my problem.

So I guess that a motherboard swap will be unavoidable.