[SOLVED] Scratching my head with ID 11 in Event Viewer

[marmalade24]

Hello there,
I've been getting this error for a while and I can't really tell what's going on:

The driver detected a controller error in \Device\Harddisk1\DRX.

With X being a random number.

Harddisk1 is tied to whatever external device I plug in - in my particular case I've got two:

• KINGSTON DataTraveler 3.0 64GB flash drive.
• TOSHIBA DTB310 External HDD 5.4K RPM 1TB.

I've got a third flash drive - a Kingston DataTraveler 100 G2. However this one causes these logs in both my custom PC (see specs in my profile) and another Windows 10 laptop w/ 1909 version installed, so it might be a problem with the device itself.

Even though my front ports have been working poorly (and getting worse), this also happened with two of my rear ports, one that supports USB 3.0 and a 2.0 one. As a novelty, it happened today with my external hard drive - an ocurrence I've never seen before.

Some symptoms include:

• Slow and/or erratic transfer rates (On my flash drive)
• File Explorer hangs (Terrible in my front ports, not so bad in the rear ones - happens with both devices)
• Ejection sometimes is painfully slow and/or fails entirely (Specially with my flash drive)
• Front USB ports are unable to start the HDD (I can hear it attempting to spin to no avail)

It should be noted both devices work fine. The flash drive has no bad sectors (tested with HDTune Pro and CheckFlash) and the HDD works fine (S.M.A.R.T. attributes look fine, HDTune Pro and WD LifeGuard showed no problems).

Two things I tried with no results:

• Installing USB 3.0 drivers.
• Disabling selective USB suspend.

Also, this error appears randomly, as I can't reproduce it all the time. Sometimes happens, sometimes doesn't. Sometimes I get one error, while in other cases I get two or three in a matter of seconds.

My initial thoughts are this is just simply wear and tear since this computer is ~ 6.5 years old, but I'd like to hear your opinions and make sure it's not a bigger problem waiting to blow up.

=== SPECS ===

OS: Windows 10 20H2 19042.685
MBD: Gigabyte H81M-H
CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 @ 3.0Ghz
Storage: KINGSTON SA400S37240G 240GB SSD
iGPU: Intel HD Graphics 4600
dGPU: AMD Radeon HD 6570 2GB

 

[Colif]

often event viewer errors happen once and work every other time, its why for the most part you can ignore event viewer. it seems it is associated with a noticeable problem in your case

You can't update USB 3 drivers as they are built into win 10 (unless motherboard has asmedia USB ports) - you only have Intel so that doesn't apply.

I have had USB devices that stopped working on one install only to work on another, on the same PC. It might be windows though i don't know what cause might be. If it were only the front slots, I could say case might be cause. But I am not sure if its all slots.

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

 

[marmalade24]

Hello, thanks for that fast reply!

The front ports are on case and I agree they're definitely going bad - I used to plug my external hard drive there, but nowadays I can't do that anymore. I saw a connector going from the front case directly to the motherboard, but visually it appears to be fine - however I never opened the front case itself and maybe there's some physical damage I'm not seeing.

Sometimes I have these issues with the rear ports, specially with my flash drive, and as soon I open event viewer the same errors are there. However, it's a bit harder to reproduce.

 

[Colif]

maybe clean the ports, they might have dirt in them after the years of use - https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-clean-usb-ports

 

[marmalade24]

Forgot to say something - there are also a headphone and microphone jack. Both aren't work properly. Probably the whole front case is going bad.

Edit: should I be worried about the rear ports? They are functional and as I said those errors don't appear very often.

 

[Colif]

So just use rear of case. You could replace case with a new one, it doesn't have to be expensive. Its up to you. Or buy a new PC and forget the problems.

I had a I5 4690k and Z97 motherboard up until 4 months ago. It mostly still works, the GPU I was using literally started to die 3 days before we built my new PC. I had hoped to use it as a spare, i still could. I had been expecting something internal to die, as up until that point only hardware failures that PC had were peripherals (mouse and speakers) so it was just a matter of time. I want to reuse case in the future.

main difference i notice between last PC and this one is boot times are almost instant on this PC.

7 years is about right time for parts to fail but I wouldn't expect it to be USB on the case. PSU and GPU are higher on my list in that regard.

 

[marmalade24]

Yeah, I'll do that, since I don't trust the front ports anymore.

Unfortunately my country's economy is not doing well. Unless the PC dies completely, I prefer to avoid an entire new build.

For now, thank you for your time!