The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Iffy USB port

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by zergslayer69, May 14, 2011.

  1. zergslayer69

    zergslayer69 Liquid Hz

    Reputations:
    62
    Messages:
    1,551
    Likes Received:
    91
    Trophy Points:
    66
    So I formatted my AW for the 2nd time. First time I had a clean start there were no problems. I just flashed my vertex 3 to firmware 2.06. After a clean install everything is fine. However my USB port seems to want to detect devices whenever they feel like it. My wacom has no problems and my keyboard also. The thing is, my WD external harddrive is refusing to detect. Before I formatted it would detect the drive natively without use of drivers.

    Anybody ever had usb issues? And yes I did install the intel management interface driver along with the usb 3.0 drivers.

    Edit: This is actually the first external hd I've owned that uses a 3.5" hd, maybe I'm not using it right.
     
  2. Kotori

    Kotori Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    2
    Messages:
    74
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    My right side usb ports are weird too, they like to detect and undetect something a few times within a few seconds before finnaly working or finnaly not working.
     
  3. ECKS

    ECKS Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    950
    Messages:
    4,635
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    106
    This used to happen to me on my desktop with an external drive. After reinstalling the usb drivers over and over again, I decided to try reformatting the external, and voila it stopped messing up. Maybe you have the same problem? Have you tried a usb mouse or flash drive or something different in the usb port?
     
  4. LVNeptune

    LVNeptune Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    648
    Messages:
    2,195
    Likes Received:
    140
    Trophy Points:
    81
    IIRC the right side USB ports are all USB3.0 ports.
     
  5. zergslayer69

    zergslayer69 Liquid Hz

    Reputations:
    62
    Messages:
    1,551
    Likes Received:
    91
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Based on what I've experienced, seems like the left side are usb3. Oh I don't know.
     
  6. ECKS

    ECKS Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    950
    Messages:
    4,635
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    106
    The left side ports have the SS and the usb logo over the ports, whilst the right side has the regular usb logo.
     
  7. zergslayer69

    zergslayer69 Liquid Hz

    Reputations:
    62
    Messages:
    1,551
    Likes Received:
    91
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Only reason I suspect the left side ports to be USB 3 is because they don't work until I install the USB 3 drivers.
     
  8. ECKS

    ECKS Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    950
    Messages:
    4,635
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    106
    Well, unless they installed the hardware incorrectly on yours, I'm certain that the leftside ones are the USB 3. Like I said, it's denoted by the SS logo above the port. Also, when I transferred files from my usb2.0 hdd to my lappy via that port, it was hella fast compared to the right side port.