GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 USB 3.0 port will not open USB 2.0 storage devices

I have just assembled a Windows 7 PC using a I5-2500K processor,
GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 motherboard, 4GB of RAM and a 250 GB Seagate HD. Drivers were
downloaded from the Gigabyte site and installed after the windows installation.
Everything seems to be working EXCEPT:

When I connect to the USB 3.0 ports a Sandisk Cruzerblade 4GB USB flash drive,
an older .5GB Sandisk USB flash, A Seagate 1.5GB USB, or an older 250 GB Maxtor
USB drive, the device is not properly identified, and cannot be accessed. All
these devices are USB 2.0 drives. If I connect a WD Mybook USB 3.0 drive,
everything works fine. Connecting a USB 2.0 mouse also works fine.

The Cruzerblade shows USB Amss Storage Device, driver 6.1.7601.17514 and
Hardware Ids USB\VID_0781&PID_5567&REV_0200 when connected using one of the USB
2.0 ports.

Using the USB 3.0 port, it shows Unknown Device, the same driver #, but "No
drivers are installed for this device", Hardware Ids show as USB/Unknown.

I've tried unloading, re-downloading and re-installing the Etron USB 3.0 driver,
with no improvement.

Can anyone offer suggestions on what the problem is or how I can track it down?

Bob F wrote:
I have just assembled a Windows 7 PC using a I5-2500K processor,
GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 motherboard, 4GB of RAM and a 250 GB Seagate HD. Drivers were
downloaded from the Gigabyte site and installed after the windows installation.
Everything seems to be working EXCEPT:

When I connect to the USB 3.0 ports a Sandisk Cruzerblade 4GB USB flash drive,
an older .5GB Sandisk USB flash, A Seagate 1.5GB USB, or an older 250 GB Maxtor
USB drive, the device is not properly identified, and cannot be accessed. All
these devices are USB 2.0 drives. If I connect a WD Mybook USB 3.0 drive,
everything works fine. Connecting a USB 2.0 mouse also works fine.

The Cruzerblade shows USB Amss Storage Device, driver 6.1.7601.17514 and
Hardware Ids USB\VID_0781&PID_5567&REV_0200 when connected using one of the USB
2.0 ports.

Using the USB 3.0 port, it shows Unknown Device, the same driver #, but "No
drivers are installed for this device", Hardware Ids show as USB/Unknown.

I've tried unloading, re-downloading and re-installing the Etron USB 3.0 driver,
with no improvement.

Can anyone offer suggestions on what the problem is or how I can track it down?

It's Etron. The early drivers were flaky.

The users tend to search all over the place,
looking for the "right" driver. As eventually
Etron figured it out.

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=8243.0

They didn't make people very happy at first.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1803010

The driver on the Gigabyte page is from 2013, and you'd
think that would be modern enough.

http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList...etron_usb3.exe

If you get no satisfaction, you can always pop in a
PCI Express x1 add-in USB3 card, one with a different
brand of USB3 chip (Renesas or Asmedia perhaps).
Renesas is the company formerly known as NEC Electronics,
and they managed to produce the first USB2 chip, as
well as make the first USB3 chip. But I don't think
they expected to remain the "most popular" solution,
as other companies will be more competitive on price.

The best USB3, is chipset USB3, due to the proper bandwidth
provided on the system bus side. These x1 slot solutions
tend to leave a bit to be desired. The PCI Express interface
on an x1 chip, should really be a bit faster. This isn't
all that important, if using older enclosures that only
go up to around 200MB/sec transfer rates.

Paul

Paul wrote:
Bob F wrote:
I have just assembled a Windows 7 PC using a I5-2500K processor,
GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 motherboard, 4GB of RAM and a 250 GB Seagate HD.
Drivers were downloaded from the Gigabyte site and installed after
the windows installation. Everything seems to be working EXCEPT:

When I connect to the USB 3.0 ports a Sandisk Cruzerblade 4GB USB
flash drive, an older .5GB Sandisk USB flash, A Seagate 1.5GB USB,
or an older 250 GB Maxtor USB drive, the device is not properly
identified, and cannot be accessed. All these devices are USB 2.0
drives. If I connect a WD Mybook USB 3.0 drive, everything works
fine. Connecting a USB 2.0 mouse also works fine. The Cruzerblade shows USB
Amss Storage Device, driver 6.1.7601.17514
and Hardware Ids USB\VID_0781&PID_5567&REV_0200 when connected using
one of the USB 2.0 ports.

Using the USB 3.0 port, it shows Unknown Device, the same driver #,
but "No drivers are installed for this device", Hardware Ids show as
USB/Unknown. I've tried unloading, re-downloading and re-installing the Etron
USB
3.0 driver, with no improvement.

Can anyone offer suggestions on what the problem is or how I can
track it down?

It's Etron. The early drivers were flaky.

The users tend to search all over the place,
looking for the "right" driver. As eventually
Etron figured it out.

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=8243.0

This seems to be replacement firmware for the etron chip. Have you actually
installed this? I get a little nervous about replacing such firmware.

Would it then work with the 2013 driver from gigabyte's site?



They didn't make people very happy at first.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1803010

The driver on the Gigabyte page is from 2013, and you'd
think that would be modern enough.

http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList...etron_usb3.exe

If you get no satisfaction, you can always pop in a
PCI Express x1 add-in USB3 card, one with a different
brand of USB3 chip (Renesas or Asmedia perhaps).
Renesas is the company formerly known as NEC Electronics,
and they managed to produce the first USB2 chip, as
well as make the first USB3 chip. But I don't think
they expected to remain the "most popular" solution,
as other companies will be more competitive on price.

The best USB3, is chipset USB3, due to the proper bandwidth
provided on the system bus side. These x1 slot solutions
tend to leave a bit to be desired. The PCI Express interface
on an x1 chip, should really be a bit faster. This isn't
all that important, if using older enclosures that only
go up to around 200MB/sec transfer rates.

Paul

Bob F wrote:


This seems to be replacement firmware for the etron chip. Have you actually
installed this? I get a little nervous about replacing such firmware.

Would it then work with the 2013 driver from gigabyte's site?

I don't have an EJ168 chip here, and have no first hand experience
with it.

All I can tell you, is there were lots of comments about the
first Etron driver materials and how well they were working.
Leading some to suggest maybe the chip wasn't compliant with
USB3 or something. But later, I saw less comments about
Etron. Either people stopped using it, or, the driver/firmware
or whatever, improved.

I can't say any more than that.

Lots of stuff has firmware, and one intention of such things,
is to allow field repair or behavioral changes to hardware.
I can't imagine an 8 bit processor in there trying to keep
up with the packet rate of a 500MB/sec stream, but they must
have put firmware there for a reason.

There are a couple kinds of processing elements they could
use. Because I've used these in my own designs. You can design
"state-machine-like" things, which are primitive processors
with crude branching capabilities. Those run synchronous to
the hardware, and handle incoming packets and so on. But the
other kind, is the "management processor", which could be
the equivalent of an 8085 processor. I have no idea in this
case, what type it would be, as I don't see how an 8085 style
processor would be of much usage.

On things like wireless chips, it's a bit more predictable.
If you want features such as wake-on-lan on Wifi, there is a
processor to manage the MAC. Or, maybe the Wifi is to be
run in "keep alive" mode, where the wifi chip transmits
occasionally, to keep the router from timing out a connection.
When the computer sleeps, the processor inside the Wifi chip
may be powered and continue to run. And that would be a
reason for the Wifi chip to have "firmware", code to
define the behavior, patch bugs and so on.

I would hope the firmware and driver code would be a consistent
set carried inside the same installer file, but what do I know.
When Promise Technologies would release code for Promise IDE
cards (UltraATA 133), the code and driver were released as a
set, with the idea that they would be compatible. And that's
because the developers simply cannot resist the temptation to
change data structures or otherwise make the driver and firmware
behavior "mismatch". It seems only old-school developers know
how to freeze an interface spec.

Paul

Paul wrote:
Bob F wrote:


This seems to be replacement firmware for the etron chip. Have you
actually installed this? I get a little nervous about replacing such
firmware. Would it then work with the 2013 driver from gigabyte's site?

I don't have an EJ168 chip here, and have no first hand experience
with it.

At second inspection, this firmware seems to be for the Ej188 rather than the
Ej168A which is on my board. I assume that won't work for me. I haven't found
any discussion to suggest otherwise.

I did find a .119 driver on that same site. I currently have .118. I'll give
that a try.






All I can tell you, is there were lots of comments about the
first Etron driver materials and how well they were working.
Leading some to suggest maybe the chip wasn't compliant with
USB3 or something. But later, I saw less comments about
Etron. Either people stopped using it, or, the driver/firmware
or whatever, improved.

I can't say any more than that.

Lots of stuff has firmware, and one intention of such things,
is to allow field repair or behavioral changes to hardware.
I can't imagine an 8 bit processor in there trying to keep
up with the packet rate of a 500MB/sec stream, but they must
have put firmware there for a reason.

There are a couple kinds of processing elements they could
use. Because I've used these in my own designs. You can design
"state-machine-like" things, which are primitive processors
with crude branching capabilities. Those run synchronous to
the hardware, and handle incoming packets and so on. But the
other kind, is the "management processor", which could be
the equivalent of an 8085 processor. I have no idea in this
case, what type it would be, as I don't see how an 8085 style
processor would be of much usage.

On things like wireless chips, it's a bit more predictable.
If you want features such as wake-on-lan on Wifi, there is a
processor to manage the MAC. Or, maybe the Wifi is to be
run in "keep alive" mode, where the wifi chip transmits
occasionally, to keep the router from timing out a connection.
When the computer sleeps, the processor inside the Wifi chip
may be powered and continue to run. And that would be a
reason for the Wifi chip to have "firmware", code to
define the behavior, patch bugs and so on.

I would hope the firmware and driver code would be a consistent
set carried inside the same installer file, but what do I know.
When Promise Technologies would release code for Promise IDE
cards (UltraATA 133), the code and driver were released as a
set, with the idea that they would be compatible. And that's
because the developers simply cannot resist the temptation to
change data structures or otherwise make the driver and firmware
behavior "mismatch". It seems only old-school developers know
how to freeze an interface spec.

Paul

Bob F wrote:
Paul wrote:
Bob F wrote:


This seems to be replacement firmware for the etron chip. Have you
actually installed this? I get a little nervous about replacing such
firmware. Would it then work with the 2013 driver from gigabyte's
site?

I don't have an EJ168 chip here, and have no first hand experience
with it.

At second inspection, this firmware seems to be for the Ej188 rather
than the Ej168A which is on my board. I assume that won't work for
me. I haven't found any discussion to suggest otherwise.

I did find a .119 driver on that same site. I currently have .118.
I'll give that a try.

No change with .119 driver








All I can tell you, is there were lots of comments about the
first Etron driver materials and how well they were working.
Leading some to suggest maybe the chip wasn't compliant with
USB3 or something. But later, I saw less comments about
Etron. Either people stopped using it, or, the driver/firmware
or whatever, improved.

I can't say any more than that.

Lots of stuff has firmware, and one intention of such things,
is to allow field repair or behavioral changes to hardware.
I can't imagine an 8 bit processor in there trying to keep
up with the packet rate of a 500MB/sec stream, but they must
have put firmware there for a reason.

There are a couple kinds of processing elements they could
use. Because I've used these in my own designs. You can design
"state-machine-like" things, which are primitive processors
with crude branching capabilities. Those run synchronous to
the hardware, and handle incoming packets and so on. But the
other kind, is the "management processor", which could be
the equivalent of an 8085 processor. I have no idea in this
case, what type it would be, as I don't see how an 8085 style
processor would be of much usage.

On things like wireless chips, it's a bit more predictable.
If you want features such as wake-on-lan on Wifi, there is a
processor to manage the MAC. Or, maybe the Wifi is to be
run in "keep alive" mode, where the wifi chip transmits
occasionally, to keep the router from timing out a connection.
When the computer sleeps, the processor inside the Wifi chip
may be powered and continue to run. And that would be a
reason for the Wifi chip to have "firmware", code to
define the behavior, patch bugs and so on.

I would hope the firmware and driver code would be a consistent
set carried inside the same installer file, but what do I know.
When Promise Technologies would release code for Promise IDE
cards (UltraATA 133), the code and driver were released as a
set, with the idea that they would be compatible. And that's
because the developers simply cannot resist the temptation to
change data structures or otherwise make the driver and firmware
behavior "mismatch". It seems only old-school developers know
how to freeze an interface spec.

Paul

Bob F wrote:
Bob F wrote:
Paul wrote:
Bob F wrote:

This seems to be replacement firmware for the etron chip. Have you
actually installed this? I get a little nervous about replacing such
firmware. Would it then work with the 2013 driver from gigabyte's
site?
I don't have an EJ168 chip here, and have no first hand experience
with it.
At second inspection, this firmware seems to be for the Ej188 rather
than the Ej168A which is on my board. I assume that won't work for
me. I haven't found any discussion to suggest otherwise.

I did find a .119 driver on that same site. I currently have .118.
I'll give that a try.

No change with .119 driver

They do seem to use the same file for multiple chips.
I can see both chip codes in the same INF file.

[Etron.Section]
%Etron_XHCI.DeviceDesc%=EtronXHCI,PCI\VEN_1B6F&DEV _7023&CC_0C0330 ; Etron xHC EJ168
%Etron_XHCI.DeviceDesc%=EtronXHCI,PCI\VEN_1B6F&DEV _7052&CC_0C0330 ; Etron xHC EJ188, EJ198

So far, I haven't found any "interesting" drivers.

*******

The StationDrivers "firmware" was interesting.

http://www.station-drivers.com/index...d=1848&lang=en

What I found in there, was a "flasher" program. But the
actual binary file was [drum roll]...

ej188_500.bin 288 bytes (likely I2C)

So what that is, is a config space EEPROM. It
changes the "branding" of the card it is on.
Since the user manual is "silverstone" brand,
this implies it changes the chip information
to match silverstone for some reason.

That's not a program for a processor or anything,
but what it would do is replace the config space
info used during PCI Express enumeration. Which doesn't
make the USB3 functions work any better.

*******

If you check the reviews here, it's "more of the same".
I haven't been able to find an overjoyed customer yet
(i.e. a credible report of complete success).

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16815124122

Paul

Paul wrote:
Bob F wrote:
Bob F wrote:
Paul wrote:
Bob F wrote:

This seems to be replacement firmware for the etron chip. Have you
actually installed this? I get a little nervous about replacing
such firmware. Would it then work with the 2013 driver from
gigabyte's site?
I don't have an EJ168 chip here, and have no first hand experience
with it.
At second inspection, this firmware seems to be for the Ej188 rather
than the Ej168A which is on my board. I assume that won't work for
me. I haven't found any discussion to suggest otherwise.

I did find a .119 driver on that same site. I currently have .118.
I'll give that a try.

No change with .119 driver

They do seem to use the same file for multiple chips.
I can see both chip codes in the same INF file.

[Etron.Section]
%Etron_XHCI.DeviceDesc%=EtronXHCI,PCI\VEN_1B6F&DEV _7023&CC_0C0330 ;
Etron xHC EJ168
%Etron_XHCI.DeviceDesc%=EtronXHCI,PCI\VEN_1B6F&DEV _7052&CC_0C0330 ;
Etron xHC EJ188, EJ198
So far, I haven't found any "interesting" drivers.

*******

The StationDrivers "firmware" was interesting.

http://www.station-drivers.com/index...d=1848&lang=en

What I found in there, was a "flasher" program. But the
actual binary file was [drum roll]...

ej188_500.bin 288 bytes (likely I2C)

So what that is, is a config space EEPROM. It
changes the "branding" of the card it is on.
Since the user manual is "silverstone" brand,
this implies it changes the chip information
to match silverstone for some reason.

That's not a program for a processor or anything,
but what it would do is replace the config space
info used during PCI Express enumeration. Which doesn't
make the USB3 functions work any better.

*******

If you check the reviews here, it's "more of the same".
I haven't been able to find an overjoyed customer yet
(i.e. a credible report of complete success).

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16815124122

Unfortunately, My potential use for this motherboard would quickly exhaust the
available card slots. I picked the board up at the thrift shop for $13. I guess
I now know why it was abandoned. I'll probably keep my eyes open for a more
appropriate used board for my HTPC.

I really do appreciate your help on this. It's really handy having you around.