Question Z590 ASUS Maximus XIII HERO - - - Thunderbolt 4 Plug & Play issue ?

[drwho351]

Hello - I have an ASUS Maximus XIII HERO board - purchased new two years ago. It has onboard TBT 4 ports (2). I purchased an OWC Envoy Express TBT 3 Drive Enclosure and have a Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe drive in it. Same issue with Windows 10 and 11. If I boot the machine with the drive attached - works perfectly 100% of the time. If I safely remove the drive - I get the notification that it's ok to remove. Then if I reconnect the drive, nothing.

The Thunderbolt Control Center sees it 100% of the time, but it NEVER comes up as an available drive in Windows. OWC has been excellent in helping / supporting. ASUS - not so much. Still waiting for next tier technical support and I'm running out of faith with them, even though MOBO is still under warranty. I also have an OWC TBT Pro Dock - same situation behind the dock. The Drive does plug & Play in my Macbook Air M2 machine - as well as an older Z170-Deluxe ASUS MOBO with Windows 10 using a ThunderboltEX 3 add-in card. (Cannot use Add In Card with this board - no TBT header).

I have worked through many combinations of BIOS settings including updating BIOS to 1701 (which now I cannot downgrade from). I am also learning that buying a MOBO with headers and using a separate TBT Card is more desirable because the TBT Controller can be identified directly and can be updated with firmware / drivers, etc. I do have the latest TBT driver and all other updated drivers. Incidentally behind my OWC TBT Pro Dock, other USB drives perform perfectly - able to reconnect with zero issues, 100% of the time.

I'm ready to dump ASUS as my "preferred" MOBO but meanwhile looking to see if I can find a solution. I heard one thing online that was interesting, suggesting that BIOS updates over time should all happen sequentially, because you never know what they are fixing behind the scenes and not documenting. However, I cannot seem to roll back this BIOS even using their EZ Updateder with a USB stick.

I'm a photographer and need to routinely move the drive between machines so having to reboot is frustrating.

Appreciate any and all suggestions. Not sure if this is the best forum category so happy to have it moved (or I'll move it if told "how").

Chris

 

[Lutfij]

suggesting that BIOS updates over time should all happen sequentially, because you never know what they are fixing behind the scenes and not documenting.
Ideally you should be on the latest BIOS version and for the past decade or maybe less, the people behind the database for their BIOS files aren't stating what changes have happened to introduce/warrant the latter BIOS version,. At first MSI used to do this, then it's been adopted by all brands...merely stating performance improvements or none thereof.

Just curious;
Same issue with Windows 10 and 11.
How are you working with two OSes? Did you upgrade to Windows 11 internally after installing Windows 10?

 

[drwho351]

Hello - so two OS's because the curiosity got the best of me. I have a spare NVMe drive that's 1TB and actually my first goal was a fresh install of Windows 10 - to see if there was something in the OS actually causing this issue. No issues. And later to satisfy my curiosity further - on that same drive I upgraded to Windows 11 to see if that made a difference. It did not.

Still zero meaningful response from ASUS technical support other than "We apologize for the delay " and next update in 24-48 business hours... First ticket was opened on May 10. However the current one is a week and three days old. (The first two times apparently I learned that they are "having issues with email addresses from the provider I was using...) Lovely

 

[Anon#1234]

Have you tried contacting ASUS support again to see if they have any further suggestions or if they can provide a solution under warranty?

 

[drwho351]

Have you tried contacting ASUS support again to see if they have any further suggestions or if they can provide a solution under warranty?

Oh I have been trying. I have a case open - but their technical support team needs to take this to the "next level of support". For that, I have been waiting 10 days. They have nothing - and keep asking the same basic questions over and over when I check on status... Thank you - I do appreciate the suggestion though. My warranty goes until next June I believe.

My other option I may take is - I bought the components from MicroCenter near me. I may go back there and pay for tech support and see if they can figure it out. They are also an Authorized ASUS repair center SO they could likely get parts / warranty replacement more quickly than I can, if that's what is needed. OWC thinks there may not be enough power being sent to the Thunderbolt ports from the MOBO - but who knows...

Thanks - Chris

 

[drwho351]

***UPDATE***
ASUS finally, after escalating to the CEO office, this week has stated that they will be releasing a FIRMWARE UPDATE by the end of this month to address my issues. I will provide a reply after installing and thoroughly testing. This has been a real pain.

My advice to anyone (including me) would be to buy a board with TBT headers and a quality Thunderbolt add in card where at least the chip is accessible and addressable by Intel firmware / drivers.

Hoping that this closes my issue - though I am likely to not purchase any more ASUS motherboards. Sad because I have probably had five over the years. Likely moving to Mac or if I build another, will be a GigaByte (after considerable research). Many thanks for the replies - I will provide a follow up hopefully in a few weeks.

 

[Anon#1234]

***UPDATE***
ASUS finally, after escalating to the CEO office, this week has stated that they will be releasing a FIRMWARE UPDATE by the end of this month to address my issues. I will provide a reply after installing and thoroughly testing. This has been a real pain.

My advice to anyone (including me) would be to buy a board with TBT headers and a quality Thunderbolt add in card where at least the chip is accessible and addressable by Intel firmware / drivers.

Hoping that this closes my issue - though I am likely to not purchase any more ASUS motherboards. Sad because I have probably had five over the years. Likely moving to Mac or if I build another, will be a GigaByte (after considerable research). Many thanks for the replies - I will provide a follow up hopefully in a few weeks.

Dang you really tried everything. Hopefully it fixes everything.

 

[drwho351]

It's October. ASUS has been pretty unhelpful. At times they said "there is a fix underway". Another time they said to me I need to wait on a Thunderbolt update (I'm thinking - from YOU or from INTEL?) They did not answer that question. Now they basically say they cannot replicate this (which supposedly I thought they had) - and they asked me to send them my drive enclosure for them to test in their lab. 10-15 days later - still don't have instructions.