topic Re: Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10 in Mobile and Desktop Processors

Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10

Empathy — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 05:54:22 GMT

I have a Western Digital 6TB external hard drive that just decides to take leave every few days/weeks/months and reconnect again whenever it feels like it, usually 2-3 days later. Nothing I do once it decides to stop showing up in Windows Explorer gets it back, not disabling/uninstalling and re-enabling/re-installing it in Device Manager, not rebooting, not changing the port, nothing. When it works it works great, no weird noises, no problems, but sometimes it just stops responding and disappears out of Windows Explorer like I said for days.

I've done a lot of searches for the issue online and found a lot of reports for similar problems, especially with Windows 10 and older Western Digital devices. Some claim there is a known bug in Intel's chipset system software that is causing the issue, but I don't know. I do know that there are a lot of apps out there claiming to fix the issue but don’t and are riddled with viruses/adware.

Anyway, today it happened again (drive decided to leave from Windows Explorer), and I again did some troubleshooting… I came across advice to “update chipset drivers for USB for windows 10 from the manufacturer’s website.” I have Intel Driver & Support Assistant 19.10.42.4 installed and it claims there are no new drivers needed. Here is the report I get when I scan my system on the Intel site: https://gyazo.com/0dcee2b7406ef3571b4640356c6b0716

The thing is even though it says there are no new drivers, Device Manager says the drivers for my processors are listed as being ten years old

Are there really no new drivers? Also, I installed a bunch of diagnostic/assistive apps from https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/75023/4th-Generation-Intel-Core-i7-Processors and I swear they acted like viruses or something. They would keep multiplying in Task Manager, not shutting down, it was a pain to remove them all.

I don’t even know if updating these drivers are what will get this drive to connect and stay connected, but given that the drivers are 10 years old I’m thinking maybe doing so will help, if there are newer ones I haven’t located. Windows 10 update feature seems useless as it’s always saying I have the latest drivers and never finding anything new even in situations in which I later do track down new drivers elsewhere. But it seems like many manufacturers have also given up on posting drivers on their website and I’m not even sure how trustworthy/useful any of the software/drivers I’ve downloaded form the Intel site are.

The drive is showing up under Device Manager as WD SES Device It does NOT show up whatsoever in Disk Management. In Devices and Printers it shows up as just “My Book,” and right-clicking and troubleshooting it doesn’t come up with anything

Can anyone help me figure out if I have the right Intel drivers for my Processors? If not, where do I get them? How about the WD external connection issues, do you think it’s related to the processors or something else entirely? Any advice on getting it and keeping it connected? Thank you!

Empathy

Re: Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10

AlHill — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 08:50:44 GMT

Go to your device manufacturer's website, and use the drivers provided by them.

Also, I do not open attachments from third party sites. If you want to attach an image, use the paperclip when doing a post to attach an image.

Doc

Re: Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10

AlHill — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 09:24:15 GMT

"How about the WD external connection issues, do you think it’s related to the processors or something else entirely? "

Something else entirely.

Doc

Re: Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10

Empathy — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 09:27:11 GMT

There, used paperclip and uploaded the actual images. I had used links because the images were online and not downloaded to my PC but I saved them and edited the original post. And yes, going to the manufacturer's website to get drivers was one of the very first things I attempted. Unfortunately there are no drivers to be found... not clearly that say "this device" and "Windows 10." This is, I believe, the manual for the drive https://www.manualslib.com/manual/190115/Western-Digital-My-Book-Mirror-Edition.html and for software/setting up it mentions a WD Drive Manager and a WD RAID Manager.

The closest return a search for WD Drive Manager leads to is https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=157 for WD Drive Utilities for Windows and downloads a WDDriveUtilitiesSetup. It installs an app that tells me to plug in a compatible device... the drive is plugged in but it doesn't recognize it and there isn't anything else I can do with that app

I can't find WD Drive Utilities for Windows but I think after a lot of searching I found something like it last time this happened and it installed an app that would flicker constantly in the task bar and not help in any way. I removed it.

I also have installed a WD smartware app that's not smart enough to detect the drive either, it only picks up on my internal hard drive.

I see reports/questions like this https://community.wd.com/t/windows-10-and-wd-elements/12841 everywhere but no resolution. Nothing seems to work but after a few days of doing nothing but waiting it sometimes re-connects out of the blue. I could spend hours doing this (troubleshooting, trying options, installing and uninstalling Intel and WD and other apps to try and fix it) and nothing works. It seems really random, and it's very frustrating.

Most of the advice that claims to work is to "assign a drive letter" but the drive doesn't show up in Disk Management. Also instructions to do this vary as they are posted for different versions/updates of Windows, and none seem to match the settings I have when I try to follow them. Or they recommend installing stuff like https://www.aomeitech.com/ but I've tried some of those options and none work either and I'm afraid of messing up more stuff than fixing.

Re: Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10

Empathy — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 09:33:04 GMT

Sorry ultimately I meant to ask "chipset" not processors but it seems like the software to update the chipset is the same and installed as for the processors... which is the Intel Driver and Support Assistant. Which says the latest are installed. The thing is the drive can work for days/weeks just fine and then it just randomly stops being recognized. So I know it "can work," and it's not likely damaged, I just don't know how to maintain that connection. It seems like a port issue but when I uninstall ports and restart it just installs My Book again but doesn't show up in Windows Explorer.

Re: Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10

AlHill — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 09:36:15 GMT

This is not a processor or chipset problem.

Doc

Re: Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10

Empathy — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 09:41:56 GMT

I didn't suspect it was at first it's just that after a lot of other troubleshooting I'm looking at other potential causes. Two influences were https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/usb-mass-storage-driver-not-working/3aa91eb8-58a7-4771-825f-04d3d02de4f7 and

but I really don't know... I know the posts aren't referring exactly to my type of system but the issues sound similar and I'm just trying to make some sense of a very confusing situation without access to answers that address my specific setup.

Re: Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10

AlHill — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 09:48:19 GMT

What is the model number of your motherboard?

Are you using Windows 10, version 1903?

Doc

Re: Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10

Empathy — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 09:54:23 GMT

Is this the correct info?

Re: Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10

AlHill — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 10:02:46 GMT

The proper chipset INF for your board can be found here, as well as other drivers:

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-H97M-D3H-rev-10/support#support-dl-driver-chipset

And, you should make certain you are at the latest bios.

Also, I urge you stop using 3rd party sites like manualslib.

Doc

Re: Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10

Empathy — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 11:20:00 GMT

I had been to that site, and downloaded/installed what seemed to be pertinent, but I just went to it again and checked it out. I downloaded and installed the two chipset options under windows 10 64-bit

namely the Intel(R) Chipset Device Software

and the Intel Management and Security Status

I rebooted but it didn't solve my non-recognized WD external drive issue.

As for the bios, I'm not sure how to tell if I have the latest installed and how to install the latest. I did look at the site to download options:

and if this is the correct page, I didn't find anything that seems to predict it will fix my issue. I don't seem to have a "memory issue," nor 5th generation core processors, I don't know what NVMe devices are... maybe it's the "improve Intel K-sku CPU performance" but the CPU performance seems adequate - it's the recognizing the WD external drive performance that the computer is failing at.., same for improve SSD performance, and I doubt I need to download the "first release." So, that's all the options on the BIOS list. Also I tried before to get some of those files and install them but it doesn't seem like it's cut and dry and without some risk so I stopped before I did more harm than good. I know there is quite a bit of documentation there I could read to try and figure out if/what to install but I doubt I would comprehend enough of it in a reasonable time frame and the low likelihood that it will fix this issue dissuades me from investing the time in that particular endeavor. This never happens at a good time but I'm under a lot of pressure to work on other things but I'm torn between giving up and switching tasks because some of the data I need is on that drive... I'm not sure if I should give up and try to re-do the work and do my best without it or try to keep getting the darn thing to connect. I'm writing a dissertation and some work may take longer to re-do/re-acquire than it may take to fix the connection problem, but since nothing I've done so far seems to fix the connection problem I don't know how far I am from accomplishing it. I know it tends to reconnect randomly on its own in a few days anyway but that's still a long time compared to what I want to get done by then.

And thanks for letting me know about the manual site, I didn't even know there were third party sites for manuals and that they might not be correct/safe. I appreciate you making me aware of that.

Re: Issues with USB Mass Storage Device and Windows 10

AlHill — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 12:15:10 GMT

In one of your attachments, it says bios version/date, which is F7.

You are neglecting to consider that there may be a fault in your WD drive.

None the less, you have the latest chipset INF, as provided by your motherboard manufacturer, for window 10. I caution you to stop this effort before you render your OS un-bootable, and your WD drive unusable.

As I said, this is not an issue of your processor or chipset.

Try your WD drive on another system, and see if the problem continues.

Doc