M17x R4, Windows 8.1, and USB 3.0

Is there any fix for the USB 3.0 drives just disconnecting/reconnecting? I have a USB 3.0 flash drive and it just dies on me after a few minutes being connected on Windows 8.1.

 

Have you tried the latest 3.0 drivers listed on DELL.com?
What's the brand of the eHDD?

 

Intel hasn't released any USB 3.0 drivers for Windows 8.1 and the ones there are for Windows 7 which are not designed for Windows 8.1. The drive I'm using is Kingston HyperX 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive.

Basically though Intel says to use the Windows 8 USB stack.

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

 

Yes, there are no usb 3.0 drivers in Dell support for Windows 8 or 8.1 since they come with native support. Same as earlier versions of windows came with USB 2.0 support out of the box. Please see the post below on how to resolve the problems with native usb 3.0 drivers:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...e-m17x-r4-usb-3-0-problem-20.html#post9031578

 

I already tried that and it didn't work for me.
I also tried to disable selective suspend, hard disk timeout, and disabled the ability for the system to turn off the hub to save power.

 

That's odd. I just realised your problem is with the flash drive rather than HDD. I never had problems with the flash, only HDD... Does your flash drive continue to work fine on usb 2.0 port on the right of the machine?
And did you buy your usb flash drive from reputable seller or ebay? There are a lot of fakes on ebay, which might have all sorts of issues... It's easy to test though on usb 2.0 port using H2testw.

Test for Fake USB Flash Drives – H2testw | Portable USB Applications

 

Lol. Amazingly enough it has issues on the USB 2 port as well. It doesn't die but the window freezes and fails. I got the drive via the Dell Accessories store because I got a $15 coupon code + a $100 promo coupon code.

 

Just to be sure try the drive on another computer, which, you know, works fine with other flash drives. Then if this pen drive does not work there, it's the drive issue and not the computer

 

I tried it on a desktop with only USB 2 and it worked fine there.

 

You could try testing it on the desktop with H2testw for errors. Also formatting it to Fat32 or NTFS (for larger than 4GB files) to see if that resolves the issues. I guess you already tried another usb device on your Alienware laptop to see if it works fine, preferably another usb flash drive or external HDD.

 

Well every now and again the ports work fine and right now it is working fine while running H2testw and even getting good speed (163mb/s write, 235mb/s read). Let's just say I suspect kind of hardware issue for this to be intermittent. I just don't know where. I have a couple of other issues that I've been holding off on so I might report them and see where it goes.

Edit:
Warning: Only 60283 of 60284 MByte tested.
Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 163 MByte/s
Reading speed: 234 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4


P.S. - This was on my laptop with the issue.

 

I had the same problem (dying USB ports) since day 1 in windows 7 (the one that came preinstalled when I got the machine from Dell) I updated the BIOS and made a clean install and fixed the problem.

Recently I installed (clean installation) 8.1 and still without issues.


try updating the BIOS and reinstalling windows and see if it fixes your issues

 

R4 usually does not have problems with the flash drives, mostly external usb 3.0 HDD shows the issues. I never had any strange behaviour with using flash drivers on Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 and now 8.1 update 1. When it comes to HDD - you would see HDD randomly disconnecting and re-connecting, which is especially annoying if you are watching a movie from that HDD etc. BIOS updates and clean installation (Windows 7 and 8 were done clean, 8.1 was an upgrade when it came out) did not resolve the issue. Only custom drivers found in another thread on this forum helped.

 

My issue was not the one you talk about with usb 3.0 I had the issue like OP commented with all USB2.0 or 3.0 storage devices (HDD and flash) and even my android phone.

As of today I don't have any issues with any storage unit.