USB 3.0 Powered port does not recognize USB 3.0 external HDD

Hi everyone,

I have received my new laptop (E6530) about a week ago and am very satisfied with it so far.

Only thing that started happening today is this:

I bought a brand new portable 3.0 external HDD and can't seem to make it work in a 3.0 port.
The HDD, which is a USB powered only device (No ac adapter needed) works well in my older 2.0 laptop. It gets recognized right away and I'm able to read and write.
It also works in my 2.0 ports on the new laptop, and (this is the weird part) even in the other 3.0 port (I've got two).

The only port that doesnt work is the "powered" one, the one I'm supposed to be able to charge devices with it, even when the laptop is turned off.

The activity light on the external drive just keeps flashing forever (as if there was constant activity), and Windows keeps popping "You must format the drive before using it... bla bla bla" (sorry, not the exact message).

Now, if I had another 3.0 device, or another 3.0 port on another PC, I could probably pinpoint where the issue is coming from, but unfortunately, it's not the case.

I made sure that all updates had been applied (Windows AND Dell, including the A03 BIOS update), no drivers are outdated or anything.

Any suggestions?
One last point, when it does get recognized (it happened once or twice), HD Tune gives an average transfer rate of 2mb/sec. :-s

Thanks!

 

Not sure about your laptop but my USB Powered port (when activated for charging when turned off) does not function as a USB port.

Try turning off the charging option and see what happens

also make sure there are no hardware device errors

 

There are no hardware conflicts or anything, all is good in the device manager. I also tried turning the charge option on and off, and no change. Mine is a charge port or USB 3.0 (SS) port.

I was able to get a hold of another external USB drive (WD My Book - a non portable one which needs an AC adapter).
What I found was very curious: The WD drive did work in the powered USB port, but got detected as a USB 2.0 device in my other 3.0 port, which worked fine with the portable HDD. I am very confused.
I tried plugging them both at the same time and it seemed to work, but the write speed never got higher than 25mb/s. Shouldn't I be able to achieve at least 100mb/sec?

I am clueless as of now, and will try to find more information on the web. Thanks for trying Dave-p.

 

the only other thing I cna think of is seeing of there is an updated USB 3 driver on Dells Site. I would also look at the chipset drivers as well.

 

Use the scientific method OP: That is, now that you've tried everything you can think of (and us too) you now need to "isolate" which component is giving you the error. Use the drive in a different computer with the same port and see what you get. This method should yield the faulty component at which time you can work on correction it. Right now, you have too many variables and things are getting more complicated, not less.

Incidentally, I couldn't help but notice you neglected to mention the type/brand of the HDD drive. If its a generic Brand X, that could be the source of your issues? They're not all created equally and those things you can't see are usually where the costs are cut. Good luck.

 

The drive is a Hitachi Touro Mobile. It is the 1TB portable model.

Unfortunately, as for trying the scientific method, I am kind of stuck as the computers at work (nor home) do not have USB 3.0 ports, so there is no way for me to exclude the possibility of a faulty HDD.

As mentioned before, I did connect another external HDD (WD My Book 3TB) to the same Dell laptop, and what I got was the opposite.

For now, I might bring the Touro back to the store, or try a different one to be able to pinpoint my issue.

As for the driver, I did download the latest from Dell, but I haven't checked with the chipset manufacturer yet (Renesas Electronics seems to be the driver provider) but I will check now.

Thanks again for your help, I will let you know if I'm able to solve it.

 

Sorry...wrong thread for this.