Question Windows stuck at Restarting until I remove all USB devices from the front USB ports of the Dark Base Pro 900 Rev.2 case

[modeonoff]

Hello, I have a Dark Base Pro 900 Rev. 2 case and a Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Xtreme (rev. 1.0) motherboard. Under both Windows 10 and 11, whenever I issue a Restart while having USB device(s) plugged into the USB 3.0 ports at the front of the case, the system remains at Restarting and a spinning circle showing on the screen. It never restarts unless I remove all the USB devices from the two front USB 3.0 ports. Know how to fix this?

 

[beyondlogic]

Hello, I have a Dark Base Pro 900 Rev. 2 case and a Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Xtreme (rev. 1.0) motherboard. Under both Windows 10 and 11, whenever I issue a Restart while having USB device(s) plugged into the USB 3.0 ports at the front of the case, the system remains at Restarting and a spinning circle showing on the screen. It never restarts unless I remove all the USB devices from the two front USB 3.0 ports. Know how to fix this?

sounds like its either the pc case front usb cable to motherboard is damaged or isnt installed correctly. or the circuit board in the case where the usbs are housed is shorted.

had a similar instance years ago.

 

[dwd999]

Did you try enabling Fast Boot in your bios? This generally ignores the usb ports.

 

[modeonoff]

Just tried enabling Fast Boot. Boot seems to be slower and the issue is still there.

Based on experience, if I plug in a keyboard to the front USB port of the case, it is guaranteed to have this problem during restart or shut down. For Kensington wired trackball, no such problem today.

 

[LinuxDevice]

USB is one of the items which exist even in the boot chain. Boot can fail for a number of reasons, such as:

• Power issues. USB does draw power. Power supplies fail over time, e.g., electroytic capacitors can fail.
• Drivers exist for USB within the boot chain. A bad driver can do this, though it is unlikely.
• The BIOS provides an environment for all boot software, and sets up things like power rails and clocks. If the BIOS corrupts in any way, then interactions with that BIOS can be a problem.
• Extending on the BIOS, UEFI typically allows or requires the o/s bootloader software to install their own drivers. So it is possible that a driver which is failing under UEFI might be from an o/s update, and not necessarily part of the BIOS.

Do you have a powered USB HUB? If you plug that in to the front USB port, and nothing else, and it boots, then try plugging in an unpowered USB HUB with nothing plugged into that. A regular HUB will draw power, but not a lot. If the unpowered HUB fails, then it is more likely a software issue. If the powered HUB works, but not unpowered, then likely there is a power issue. An unpowered HUB, if it works, could then have something plugged into that, e.g., a keyboard, to add a bit of power draw. Incidentally, if the items plugged in to the front are removed, and then placed somewhere else, e.g., a back panel USB connector, does it fix the problem?

One reason why a BIOS can corrupt is if the battery is low and power is completely off such that memory for settings depend on that battery. This would be a "brown out" for the BIOS, which is more dangerous than a complete loss of power since it means it only appears to operate normally, but bits are on occasion going to not copy correctly. Replacing the battery (if it is old), and then doing the BIOS reset procedure (usually removing the battery, shorting two pins for 10 seconds or so, and then adding the battery back) can fix this (at least temporarily until the batter is needed again; this is why a new battery is useful even if it isn't old).

Lastly, if all of that is inconclusive, you could check for a BIOS update. Just make sure you perform any BIOS update without extra items plugged in.

Then of course there are all of the other mentioned possibilities, e.g., a cable can be a problem because they do receive some fan vibration, and there is thermal creep (cycles of heating/cooling loosen connectors over many years). So it could be any of those issues. I doubt the power supply is the issue, but if it is old and electrolytic capacitors are failing, then the USB devices on that power rail might be "the straw that broke the camel's back" (I always wonder why one would put a camel's back in a computer).

 

[modeonoff]

I think there may be a misunderstanding. The problem is at the stage where the machine cannot execute rebooting or shutting down completely. It just gets stuck unless I remove usb device(s) connected to the front I/O port of the case. Once this is done, it reboots again or shuts down completely depending what option I choose.

This problem has been going on for years. Usually I avoid it by using wireless keyboard and not plugging anything into the front USB ports of the computer case.