Vaio Z1, anyone got ExpressCard /34 working?

I'm trying to get working a Delock Express Card USB 3.0 34 mm working on my Vaio VPCZ13M9E/B. It doesn't work, in fact kind of locks my computer when going into My computer. After removing it the laptop continues to work fine. Any ideas?

 

I had a USB 3.0 express-card card working with it a long time ago (2012). There were a number of threads at the time, with recommendations of brands etc. I recommend you search the forum.

 

I use the GMYLE USB 3.0 ExpressCard off Amazon with no problems.

 

I'm using Buffalo USB 3.0 Express card with no issues.
I installed the driver before I inserted it the first time, as was requested in the manual.

 

I've just bought the Buffalo USB 3.0 Express Card dual usb 34mm. It works perfectly on Linux, however on Windows 7 on my Vaio it doesn't work. Says "No driver found"



I've previously inserted the drivers' cd and install the driver but no luck...

 

Is it an unsigned driver? You might have to run in test mode if that is the case.
Does the driver say which version of Windows it was designed for? Try installing it in compatibility mode.

 

No luck with test mode either. The box says it's compatible with Windows 7, Vista and XP (both 32 and 64 bits) so I guess it should work and come signed already. It tries to retrieve the driver from Windows Update but fails. Selecting the location "C:\Program Files (x86)\NEC Electronics\USB 3.0 Host Controller Driver\Driver\x64" doesn't work, says

Windows could not find driver softtware for your device.

 

hi Paloseco, I have the same card working well on my VGN-Z on Windows 10. Device Manager (by Connection View) looks like this:

USB30_DevMgr by galaxyge posted Jan 20, 2016 at 10:38 PM

It works in Speed as well as in Stamina Mode.

Seems some issue with the driver.. mine is from RENESAS but in a Microsoft 10586 version and worked out-of-the box. Also in BIOS the PCI Express USB root port must be properly enabled, but this must be the case as Linux is working with it.

Are your Chipset drivers for Windows up-date?

 

The problem lies on Windows 7. I've restored the Vaio to factory (Windows 7 too) in case there were some issue with some updated driver, and didn't work either. Finally updated to Windows 10 and worked perfectly. I've installed the drivers provided by Buffalo but I'm wondering they are not needed at all, since it automatically installs some NEC driver. It really makes a difference regarding speed. I use a Toshiba 2TB USB drive, and improved from 22 MB/s sustained speed to 90~107 MB/s which is an insane improvement.





I have an issue currently though. When benchmarking with CrystalDiskMark, the write speed is about 5 MB/s, and after finishing and closing the program it continues to stay like that. The source drive is not the problem because it's a Sandisk SSD. Copying to the external drive stays about 4.7 MB/s. Tried unplugging, rebooting and stuff but doesn't improve. Connecting to the computer USB 2.0 goes as expected to 22 MB/s. What has happened here, maybe crystaldiskmark screwed the driver or something? It doesn't make sense.

 

No issues with CrystalDiskMark here, drive is a LACIE 1 TB, maxing out at 75 MB/s Read/Write (see .txt) already.

One thing, you still have a Windows 10240 driver, that is way out of date by now.. start by updating it to 10586 (November update, TH2...)

 

I know why it didn't work with Windows 7: the ISO downloaded from Buffalo's website provided me with the drivers for the IFC-EC2U3/UC model, while my express card is the IFC-EC2U3/UC2. After using the drivers from the cd (Drivers' Version 1.00) that came with the card it recognized the chipset as "Renesas", however it's even worse. The copying of a big file starts with a high speed then it slows down more and more and goes much more slower than the USB 2.0.
The detected devices (on Windows 7) are:
Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller
Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Root Hub







The drivers provided by Renesas seem way outdated, from 2011.
Trying with linux again it seems an issue with the chipset itself rather than the driver, because I'm experiencing slowing down issues too.

 

More updated: searching Buffalo's website I downloaded an official updated driver, this time version 1.10. It's from year 2012 but the issue happens the same: starts copying very fast and then goes as slow as 1.88 MB/s and stays around 2-5 MB/s continuously.

Interface Navigator for IFC-EC2U3/UC2. Post date 2015-05-08:
http://www.buffalotech.com/products/accessories/interface-card-adapters/expresscard-adapter

These are the driver's updates:
- Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller from 3.0.12.0 (21/11/2011) to 3.0.23.0 (21/08/2012)
- Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Root Hub from 3.0.12.0 (21/11/2011) to 3.0.23.0 (21/08/2012) (both the same version and date)








The information listed by 'lspci' on linux is as follows:

04:00.0 USB controller: Renesas Technology Corp. uPD720202 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 02)

 

Where did you find the driver "Microsoft Renesas 10.0.10586.0 th2_release.151029-1700"? It doesn't appear to me in either Windows 7 or Windows 10.

 

Good question.. It looks it was downloaded automatically from Microsoft when I tried to install the drivers from the CD, right after clean install of Windows 10586.
Uploaded them to my dropbox for you

The ones from my cd:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6nga5atmkpfea4l/rusb3hub.inf_amd64_9e72a833f6eab788.zip?dl=0

The ones from Microsoft:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i0jr7q8d4fczj3h/usbxhci.inf_amd64_be23c02c9e6708da.zip?dl=0
usbxhci.inf : install USB xHCI Compliant Host Controller
usbhub3.inf : I guess this is standard USB3.0 driver, should probly come automatically, added it just in case.

 

Thanks, I've updated the two, however the drivers are unsigned and had to reboot into Troubleshooting menu. Unfortunately, the issue still persists (copies at 3-4 MB/s). I believe it must be a hardware issue, because the firmware version is from 2006 (Windows 7 even didn't exist I think so how could them make it work). Furthermore, it should work just out of the box like any other hardware, why such a hassle with the express card port? My thoughts are that even those companies are using ****ty hardware and are not dedicating enough efforts to manpower to keep drivers and websites up to date.

Apparently, there are two drivers needed, one for the express card's chipset and another for some usb hub.









Another thing, is that you have an AMD processor? Because the word amd is in the drivers' name.

 

What is the disk usage? Try turning off file indexing, AV auto scanning, etc. as they might be keeping your drive and/ or the USB interface busy while you are trying to use it.

amd64 just means 64 bit.

 

The disk usage is none, because the notification light is not blinking and furthermore external disk indexing is disabled. The problem comes from a different place.

 

No, Intel Core2 Duo on GM45 North Bridge.

Intel refuses to put any more work or support into that old hardware. My board is from 2009, the drivers are still available but there is zero support from Intel anymore. I had long discussions with them - no help.

The PCI Express bus is actually controlled by the Southbridge. The RAID/Controller needs to have exactly the right driver version to work properly. I had to find and replace it to get my SSD write speeds up, as they were ridiculously low after the inplace-upgrade to Win10.
The RST drivers installed by Windows are newer versions which do not work properly with older hardware.
The bad news is this driver must be changed during the Windows installation procedure itself... and I can only guess that could be the cause for your issue.

You have done clean install, right?

 

You seem to be using the wrong USB drivers. Uninstall both the Renesas drivers and reboot. Let Windows find the proper drivers.

 

Should it work with Windows 7 64 bit?

 

It should, though you might need to dig around for eXtensible drivers. Note that I have a VPCZ1, so your mileage may vary. It worked fine on my laptop while I was on Windows 7.

The only irritant I found using my expresscard is that inserting a USB connector into the socket unloads the expresscard and I kept having to eject and reinsert the card. Then I found an application called Zentimo, which sits in my system tray and lets me reload the expresscard without physically ejecting and reinserting it.

 

Unfortunately, the installers for the USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controllers for either chipsets C220/C610 or C216 fails when running setup. This error appears:

This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software.




Uninstalling the Renesas drivers and letting Windows 7 find out the drivers automatically fails. Probably they aren't on the database or just Microsoft has disabled driver updates for windows 7 already, since it is not supported any more or I have already activated Windows 10 on my Vaio.

Device driver software was not successfully installed.
Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller: No driver found

 

Couldn't solve the issue myself. I've posted a message in Buffalo forums, and if they don't provide me a solution I'll return the device to Amazon. Apparently there are more people having issues with Vaio and Renesas:

Renesas USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller issues with Vaio SVZ1311C5E

Renesas Electronics USB 3 Host Controller

USB-IF xHCI USB Host Controller and VAIO UPDATE are not working properly

USB-IF xHCI USB host controller driver problem

 

Apparently Buffalo is no longer officially selling any of its express cards. At least they are not listed in the website:

http://store.buffalotech.com/store/...US&Form=&CallingPageID=&keywords=express+card

I find it weird that doesn't work properly with linux either, must be some driver issue.

 

They are legacy devices now, just as our laptops..

Before you return it, have you reviewed your BIOS settings. This is how I configured the express card ports

Presumed you have advanced bios though..

 

Yes I've got the patched BIOS. This is how settings for my PCI Express Configuration look like:





Should I change something?

 

Well if I were you I would give it a try.. Find out which of the three ports is your express card and try it out. I would start with the PME interrupt, this was activated by standard in mine.

All your own risk ofc

 

I guess the Buffalo IFC-EC2U3/UC2 is hot swappable, isn't it? I'll try booting with the card plugged already and see if it helps, and try to find and reinstall the mentioned NEC driver.

 

Just occurred to me - which version of Windows do you have, Home or Pro? I have Pro (Windows 10 now and Windows 7 earlier) so it is a good idea to rule that out as a possible cause. And lest you think I'm nuts for even suggesting this, I found out the hard way that there are crucial diiferences between these two versions, the use of Diskpart on a pen drive being one such.

 

My Vaio came with Windows 7 Professional 64 bits, but I updated it to Ultimate.

 

Talking about ruling things out, which driver version is your sata driver on..
Or are you sure it is not involved?
http://www.win-raid.com/t29f25-Recommended-AHCI-RAID-and-NVMe-Drivers.html

 

Not sure which one is, any or these?

 

The below one.
But, sorry, you said you have the same issue in Linux? That rules out everything driver/software related doesn't it!?
That would definitely point to hardware/bios issue wouldn't it

 

Maybe return the card and ask for replacement?

 

Ok. I did some digging. Windows 8 and above have native USB 3.0 support. Windows 7 needs the eXtensible driver to be installed. Not supported on older versions of Windows, i.e. XP and Vista.

You need to get something like this:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...Driver-for-Intel-7-Series-C216-Chipset-Family

Do the research and figure out whether this is compatible with your hardware. Or make things easy on yourself and install Windows 10.

 

Got it working finally!!

The problem was in the way I externally powered the express card. Instead of connecting the 4 mm input cable to the same computer's USB, I had it connected to a LG wall charger commonly used for smartphones. If the card had a professional design it shouldn't be a problem, however due to the simplicity of the electronic design, it's required that a common ground is shared between all (-) connections.

Explanation:
The ground of the express card USB's are shorted to the ground of the USBs in the computer once the card is inserted. However, the ground of the external powering connector is not shorted internally, so you need to do it connecting it to the same computer's USB port. That way, all grounds have the same absolute voltage and relative voltage of 0 (a multimeter will beep in continuity mode). Of course all of this only applies if you need to power externally, othwerwise it's not needed.
The way I had it powered caused the ground of the external connector and the ground of all the USBs to have a differential of voltage and probably leading to floating pins, which in the end lead to poor transfer rates and finally failure. Buffalo of course could have shorted the grounds internally, but probably they didn't it because if you connect an external power supply with higher voltage you may toast the motherboard. The way it is, there should be some electrical / optical isolation which will prevent the accident unless the voltage is very high.

Here are some drawings of how the connections were before:




And after:




Of course the other times I tried the express card and didn't work was due to driver issues or wrong ones.

Here are the benchmarks of the express card with a toshiba 2TB USB 3.0 external hard drive. The software used is ATTO Disk Benchmark.

On USB 2.0:




On USB 3.0 via Buffalo express card:




The eXtensible driver is not needed. Instead I'm using the official drivers from Buffalo, version FC-EC2U3UC2_110. The BIOS was left untouched. The operating system in Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bits. No need to update to Windows 10 to have USB 3.0. Under Linux (Ubuntu) it works perfectly too.








The download link for the drivers (98.14 MB):
http://www.buffalotech.com/support-and-downloads/download/ifc-ec2u3uc2_110.zip

Mirror (MEGA.NZ):
https://mega.nz/#!sMtTRbYR!T2DJkItGi6_saH0MjTbD0pYT3Rm2nbOrULGIMu1Q7CM

Conclusion:
It's a very big improvement in speed, and highly recommended. I tried using the toshiba external drive without external power and everything went fine, although it seems to go a little bit faster with it. When the power is not enough you may hear a clunk noise or the hard drive dropping spinning speed. Also you may hear the Windows notification when some device is unplugged and hear it again. Another USB 3.0 express card which I've got is the DeLock 62425, but couldn't get it to work yet. It has only one USB 3.0 port and is very slim, goes totally inside the notebook and looks like another regular usb port. Maybe I'll try to get it to work in the future, but for now I'm very happy with the Buffalo.

Finally, thanks everyone for your help and tips!

 

Well done! Glad you got it working. If your drives need more power, connect them to the expresscard through a powered hub. I did that a few hours ago to move files from one external USB 3.0 HDD to another and was pleasantly surprised - after transferring at a modest transfer rate of about 30 MB/s for about 15 minutes, the speed suddenly went up to 88 MB/s and stayed that way until the copy operation was complete (288 GB moved in less than one hour - while I was having lunch).

 

Wow, congrats and glad to hear. I felt you were close to the solution.. Great to hear you didn't give up and finally succeeded.
Well done!

PS: @anytimer also good hint with the powered usb hub.. will give it a try for sure.

 

Ok tried to get the DeLock 62425 working on Windows 7 64 bits with official drivers. It recognizes the device and detects the external hard drive, but when transferring data the computer starts to slow down until it freezes and I've got to force reboot. The message shown in Event Viewer is the following:

Detected unrecognized USB driver (\Driver\EtronXHCI).
Detected unrecognized USB driver (\Driver\ACPI).
Detected unrecognized USB driver (\Driver\pci).
Encrypted volume check: Volume information on cannot be read.
Force reboot by me: The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.



This is the error:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
The system encountered an uncorrectable hardware error. If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.
If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup options, and then select safe Mode.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x00000124 (0x0000000000000000,0xFFFFFA800A1DA028,0x00000000BE000000,0x0000000000800400)

collecting data for crash dump ...
Initializing disk for crash dump ...
Beginning dump of physical memory.
Dumping physical memory to disk: 100
Physical memory dump complete. contact your system admin or technical support group for further assistance.

 

Maybe your external drive requires too much power for this device. Try one with an own power supply?

 

That was a force reboot done by me, the computer didn't respond. More info tomorrow.

 

More information about the express card:

The Buffalo IFC-EC2U3/UC2 works perfectly on Windows 10 too. If uses the Renesas USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller 1.0 provided by Microsoft, version 10.0.10240.16461 date 17/08/2015. Also uses the USB Root Hub xHCI version 10.0.10240.16603 date 24/11/2015. The transfer rate is great.













On the other hand, not so much luck with the DeLock 62425. It goes a little bit better on Windows 10 than on Windows 7, and goes much better without external power than with it. However, it gets hot and makes the windows crash eventually with a blue screen. The mouse slows down really hard (which is Logitech USB) so it looks like it's messing with the entire bus system of the computer. It must be a hardware or driver problem of the express card itself, since the Buffalo works like a charm. The Delock was bough in June 2015 from eBay so should still be under warranty. I'll see what I can do.
This is the test on the Delock and finally the BSOD. Says "WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR".

 

Update: the Buffalo IFC-EC2U3/UC2 keeps working so far so well, however I had an issue: after some time of not accessing the hard drive, when trying to access it again didn't wake up, so I figured out that USB sleep has to be disabled when using the express card.

Dedicated post here:

Sony Vaio VPCZ1 USB hard drives over ExpressCard

So watch out, prevent any kind of sleep of any device when using any kind of ports.

 

I again strongly recommend Zentimo. It has saved me a boat-load of unplugging and reinserting my external drives into my Expresscard USB 3.0 adapter. Instead, I can just do the same thing with a couple of clicks in the tray icon/ menu.

 

Just tested Zentimo today. There shows a popup to browse mounted drives or unmount them by double clicking, however I don't see how it is related to power saving or sleep modes, or how it can benefit the express card port. It looks like I've got no idea about how to use it, can you give me a couple of tips about how you actually use it?

 

I don't keep my external drives plugged in for long periods, so I don't have the sleep and power saving problems that you are facing. In my case, the act of inserting the USB cable into the Expresscard would cause the expresscard to stop working. No drive detection would take place. The only recourse would be to physically pull out the expresscard and plug it back in, after which everything would work just fine. Drove me nuts. My expresscard is the flush type - pulling it out is not easy. Besides, I was worried about wear and tear.

After installing Zentimo I realised that the action of plugging in the USB cable into the expresscard was causing the expresscard to go into a 'ready for removal' state, similar to what happens when you prepare to safely eject a pen drive - the pen drive is still plugged in, but totally unusable until you pull it out and plug it in again.

Hovering the mouse over the Zentimo tray icon, I can see '3 devices hidden'. I click that and see a list which includes 'Renesas USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller....' with a line below it saying 'ready for safe removal'. Clicking that item reloads the expresscard, including any drives that are plugged into it.

 

I understand perfectly what you mean. The thing is that the expresscard gets disconnected with te slightest movement, and usbs require quite a bit of force to connect or remove physically. What I personally do is to connect the USB 3.0 to the express card before connecting it to the actual port. It looks like the flush type is better than mine is some way, I've got to take care not touching the card with my hand or pulling the usb cable or windows will play the disconnect sound.

I'm trying the trial version of Zentimo and I don't like that keeps putting its .ini file inside all drives even when the option is disable from the settings.

By the way, does it happen the same if you use a usb cable extension? That way the express card doesn't move at all, or isn't that you move the card physically but more of a "software" issue?

 

More updates on the Express card slot on my VPCZ13M9E, running Windows 10 Pro version 1511 compilation 10586.494:

• The Buffalo IFC-EC2U3/UC2 works perfect with the driver that windows 10 install automatically. For some external devices the additional dc in through usb is required.
• The Delock Express Card > 1 x USB 3.0 item 62425 freezes the operating system after some seconds of intense writing to some external usb 3.0 pendrive, using CrystalDiskMark. Tried with the default windows 10 driver. It think that's because the card is slim and enters totally inside the housing and get hot a lot. Tried several times and always happens the same. If I disconnect the card quickly when the computer freezes it goes back to normal, if not it reboots after a while.

 

More updates on the Buffalo IFC-EC2U3/UC2. It results that using the windows drivers, after some time of use, does not work properly. Better the Buffalo drivers name "Buffalo IFC EC2U3UC2 110":

Device Manager -> Universal Serial Bus controllers:
- Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller:
- Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Root Hub:
Driver provider: Renesas Electronics; driver version 3.0.23.0; date 8/21/2012

Working perfectly with official drivers, better than Windows generic xHCI Host Controller drivers. Even USB suspend works as expected.