Alienware M17x R4 usb 3.0 problem

Finally!! I wonder when these came out? I've copied files big and small and watched an entire movie from the WD 2TB My Passport drive without a single issue. I do not know if I needed both the October eXtensible driver and the Renesas drivers, I think it was probably the Renesas option to disable the power management features that did it. Alienware and WD both still have not answered though, so their support is still suspect.

 

That certainly deserves a rep boost. Where's Robert, can we mark this thread as solved?

 

When I try to install the host controller it tells me that one more items failed to install and it gets cancelled. Can anyone help?

 

I would agree it was the Renesas option to disable the power management features that did it but why not update to the latest if available, I didnt have the eXtensible driver installed on my laptop so i opted for the latest from intel.

same here

 

are you installing it via the setup.exe or via Device Manager?

I installed/updated mine via Device Manager.

My suggestion is to install it in safe mode ( Windows 7: F8 when laptop boots up) or ( Windows 8: Press and hold "Shift" before clicking restart).

 

Thank you very much, kind sir. Windows 7 did not give me any problems with my Iomega HDD, but 8 brought one big issue - I was not able to write files to HDD. Reading was fine at normal USB 3.0 speeds, but no writing at all was allowed. I only followed the procedure to update MS drivers to Intel drivers and did not download renesas as did not believe I would need them. This worked like a charm and now I have my read and write access back, both at >100MB/s. This post deserves a lot more likes.

 

Thank you for this. I've been using my WD 1TB passport SE on the original USB 3.0 cable every day since you posted this without a snag. It's too bad this fix couldn't have come from Alienware/Dell/Intel/WD, but I am glad to finally have full use of my drive.

--

On another note, before this fix came around I was looking for an affordable enclosure to put a hard drive in and stumbled across this: Amazon.com: Anker® Uspeed USB 3.0 & eSATA Hard Drive Disk HDD External Enclosure / Case for 9.5mm & 12.5mm 2.5" SATA-I, SATA-II, SATA-III HDD and SSD, Tool-free HDD Installation

It's a USB 3.0 / eSATA enclosure that can swap drives out at the push of a button. No screws. I've been using it for a couple weeks now with the original 500GB drive that came with my Alienware and it's pretty awesome. Very sturdy, comes with a plastic protector for the hard drive, both cables, and the transfer rates are excellent (and consistent) on both USB 3.0 and eSATA. Right now I'm using it on eSATA for my music and a few games that couldn't fit on the Scorpio Black I replaced it with. Highly recommend for the price and quality.

 

Hi!

I'm here, I open this thread just now, and see solution?!?!!!
I have fixed my problem, because I have purchase Toshiba drive....
I have currently installed win 8 pro, upgrade from 7 HP, and now I'm need to solve different problem.... OSD on screen...
but until I arrive home on March 22nd, I cant uninstall nothing.....

 

Solved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Nice find, excellent work a lot of people will be very happy when they find this has been fixed. Kinda sad that Alienware never fixed it

 

Robert, glad that you got the good news here, too bad you have other issues now. With your double-negative though I wonder what you are uninstalling. If you cannot uninstall nothing, then you must uninstall something. Too many acronyms. HP I thought was Hewlett Packard for several minutes, then thought it could be XP with a typo, until I figured it was "Home Premium." So then, what is OSD? On Screen Display? I don't think I have that on my laptop, I must have missed a software package when I installed my SSD. But I do not want a tablet OS anyway, I am sticking with Win 7 Ult.

Since I have heard nothing from any of the companies involved, I cannot say how this resolution was developed. Perhaps our complaints led one to push another to fix this, perhaps not. I don't suppose we'll ever know. They are being more politically correct than technically supportive. I want to think that Alienware addressed this with Intel to get Intel to update the driver, but Alienware certainly was not telling us anything about it. It's is like complaining makes no difference anymore, they just do not want to fix it. Just wait for the next update, next upgrade, next version, and if you cannot wait, just go away. It just seems that the warranty means less and less these days.

I also want to re-iterate that this is NOT A FIX. It is a work-around. A perfectly usable work-around, but still just a work-around. By disabling power management, the drive runs constantly. Are these drives built to handle 24x7 operation? Do you use them as such or unplug them for transport? Yea I know the answer to that, so durability is not really a concern, but battery life is. Unplug it when you are done using it.

 

he he

sorry for acronyms, I'm from Croatia, currently working in FOB (Afghanistan) - reason for many limitations
I have download win 8, and upgrade to 8 from 7, then OSD problems show up... he he always something.

maybe after clean install everything will work normally... but for that I need to wait R&R.....

I never believe that post will became "big" when I open it, that is only proof how this forum operate, and for now it is defiantly one of the best IT forums online

BTW. alienware (DELL) technical support is a disappointment

 

Hi,

Great to see the good new after not been able to follow this thread in a long time. Thanks to ehau for the fix. Worked for me!

Luis! Appreciate the efforts. Thanks. Wonder what the impact could be. I know its a 3.0 feature. Now they probably need to revise and update the RFC.

 

I dont know if i am being lame.. but where does the inf file replace its similar files...i dont get window prompting me for confirmation to replace the 2 files.

 

Anybody know if there's a fix for the m18x? I have a 1TB USB 3.0 WD Passport and whenever i transfer files or run files on it while plugged on the 2 right side usb ports it disconnects and connects again. Tried out another brand usb 3.0 drive, toshiba and but it works perfectly...

 

Ehau, your fix worked great. I tried something similar a while back but it didn't work then.

Amazing stuff!

 

aaand, this issue rears its ugly head once again

i had this fix working earlier, however due to ongoing issues with win7 (in no small part to the ATI drivers), i proceeded to format,

Now everything is spick and span, however the USB 3.0 ports are all defaulting to USB 2.0

Can i ask if anyone who has currently got USB 3.0 working on their R4 laptops kindly show me the file or driver they are using+ a snap shot of the device manager of the USB section

also if you could point me to any fixes that Porras may have lsited to try and fix this issue when this workaround may have failed ( i tried going through his posts...but the man comments on every AW post...i am on page 53 and still no mention of USB 3.0 fixes)

I have looked online and every R4 USB3.0 fix points to this article...so nothing else to see there

Please help, because i have a day left to fix up my laptop and then i prepare for a grueling 12 day shift from Saturday

 

As I recall, I forced USB 2 operation by removing the USB 3 driver, the eXtensible host controller, but it has been a while now. The best fix is the workaround provided last though, it was a different driver that allowed for disabling power management. The simple workaround that I used for a while was to just use a USB 3.0 hub. So first you got to get USB 3 working again, then you got to prevent the drive from negotiating a lower power mode and dropping the connection due to insufficient power.

 

properties

 

Sorry I don't mean to necro this thread but it is relevant. I'm running Windows 8.1 and I just came across this issue and I'm wondering if anyone figured out a fix. I tried to replace the USB 3 stack with the one from Windows 7 however it didn't change anything. Ideas?

 

The problem was never fully fixed to my knowledge. There is a work-around that resolves the biggest problem, but it has a side effect of disabling USB sleep. It uses software intended for slightly different hardware which makes it less likely to work in Windows 8. My recommendation is never upgrade your OS without upgrading your hardware, this laptop was made for Windows 7. It is not that it isn't powerful enough, it is that drivers were only written with Windows 7 in mind.

 

That doesn't fly when Alienware reps come out saying they will support Windows 8 running on the system, the system itself has a run where it is released with Windows 8, and the firmware was updated to support Windows 8 specific functionality including Secure Boot and Fast Boot (the Windows 8 variation).

 

It could be a connection issue....I noticed that my Toshiba external drive reconnects when I slighty bump the USB 3.0 port that the drive is plugged in to.

 

It's possible considering one suspect is the drive itself (it is under 5 year warranty... barely 3 months old). However it has to be internal to the drive to be the case since it affects all of the ports and the one port is tighter than the others.

Edit: On that note I might call the company and see if they will replace it under warranty when I describe the issue as the drop is too quick to be the typical issue.

 

I agree, it does not fly. They talk a good game, but it is mostly just talk. As I said, they never fixed the USB 3.0 problem this thread was created to address. If you read through it you can find where they have conveniently refused to give any details about their testing. They ignored the problem. This is likely a design flaw, but nobody was taking responsibility and were apparently talking to their lawyers first to keep from saying that they knew of anything that might suggest that they have any responsibility.

New hardware these days is a crapshoot. It was either designed well or not. Nothing is fixed anymore. No "updates," just "upgrades." The fix is engineered into the new model along with a slew of new, and questionable, new features. Reliability requires validation, and that takes time. Sales are always about the rush, "get it now!"

 

Do a search on intel's website for the usb3 extensible drivers. After many months of perfect usb 3 drivers they somehow switched to the usb2 mode, I updated the lot this arv and I back with full speed usb3

 

Intel isn't releasing a USB 3.0 driver for Windows 8 instead saying to use the built-in stack that Microsoft wrote.

Source: Intel® USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver — Where is Intel® USB 3.0 Extensible Host Controller driver for Windows 8*?

Windows 8* has a native in-box USB 3.0 driver. Intel is not releasing a specific Intel® USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver for Windows 8.

 

Sorry I meant it worked for 7, I didn't realise this was only a discussion for the USB 3.0 issue in win8.

 

It isn't and I understand that it fixed the issue in Windows 7 however you had specifically quoted my post in which I mention I'm running Windows 8.1 and so I responded in an appropriate manner. Just saying.

 

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I am stuck half way through the work around. I have a brand new AW 17 operating windows 8. I downloaded the new driver and I replaced the two .ini files as is necessary for Windows 8. I thought everything was going well but after I "updated" the driver with the iusb3xhc.ini, when I went to update the iusb3hub, there was no driver category labeled other drives and thus, no driver labeled unknown driver. If anybody has knowledge of this issue can tell me what steps I am missing/doing wrong, I would be most grateful. I worry that my external drive constantly disconnecting and reconnecting is going eventually corrupt it do to not being ejected properly. cheers.

 

I installed Windows 10 onto a new drive for my M17x R4 and it has this same problem, so I need to stay with Windows 7 for now. So I guess this problem was never really fixed. The windows 8 workaround will not work since I cannot obtain the modified inf files. Back to the hub, or just stick to Windows 7. Why people seem to think that upgrades are always good I'll never know, that is just ignorant.

 

That's interesting. I have no such issues. In fact I have not had issues for a long time.

I don't know if you have your optical drive still installed but I found the following to sometimes be at fault.

1) Bad connection to the device in question. In my case the flash drive was no longer making a solid connection. Getting a replacement resolved it.
2) Insufficent power due to too many internal drives. It seems that the M17x may not have enough power to run a spinning drive on the optical bay. Not sure but most of my USB 3 issues disappeared after reinstalling the optical drive.

 

Problem seems to reoccur in Windows 10:

I was running windows 7 with the USB problem. Fixed with the Renesas usb controller.
Upgrading to Windows 10, usb problem came back and the previous fix does not work.

Any help would be appreciated

(PS I signed up just to make this post)

 

Have you installed an Intel variant of the INF and ME drivers for the R4 in win10 and if that won't work then perhaps you may want to reinstall the renesas controller

 

I have tried reinstalling the renesas controller which did not work, do you have a link to the INF and ME drivers?

 

So I upgraded to windows 10 and also cannot download the driver fixes that were available to windows 7 and 8. I still experienced disconnect issues with my older western digital 3 tb hdd with ac adapter. To my pleasant surprise, after turning off all usb power management features in device manager and windows power settings newer external hard drives work at usb 3.0 speeds with no issues! So far I can confirm that the 2TB WD passport ultra works flawlessly on my alienware m17x r4 on windows 10. Maybe the newer firmwares fixed the problems? I don't know why it works but I'm just glad that it does.