Thursday, January 26, 2017

USB 3.0 flash drive doesn't work on USB 3.0 hub?



I purchased a Transcend 128GB USB 3.0 flash drive last month. It does not work on the two USB 3.0 ports on my computer, which has an ASUS Rampage III Extreme motherboard. The device doesn't even light up at all. Yet other flash drives (non-3.0) work fine on those ports. An Anker USB 3.0 hub that I just purchased works fine, too.




Plugging that Transcend flash drive into another USB port (2.0, presumably), it lights up and is recognized immediately.



What gives?


Answer



I did some more research and looked in my Device Manager. I did see one "USB Hub" or some such with an exclamation point on it. And some of my research suggested updating drivers. So I went to ASUS' site and downloaded USB 3.0 drivers, figuring it couldn't hurt, even if they were already installed.



It turns out they were not already installed. So my problem really just boils down to the fact that I didn't have USB 3.0 drivers. I just assumed that Windows 7 automatically downloaded and installed them when I changed out motherboards years ago. I guess that's what I get for trusting Windows 7.



So, let this be a notice for anyone else who might be having similar issues: Don't trust Windows 7's automatic driver installation. Download and install the drivers yourself for the USB 3.0 ports on your computer.




Sorry for wasting everyone's time for such a trivial issue.


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