Can't use USB 3.0 connection with Ubuntu 12.04

[typhoon_tip]

We usually all fall in the same problem.

Does your USB cable have dual power supply on the PC side ? If not, get one. I have always the same problem (we are an IT company), and 99% of the time the port is not damaged, just the power suddenly is not enough and need to use a "3 way" cable (or external power into the drive).

To be clear, the cable I am mentioning:


Not sure if there are USB 3.0 cables like this, tough. The fact that you changed HD, means the power may not be enough anymore. The fact that it comes on then off, is very likely to be a power issue, pal.

Cheers.

[Nattydread69]

@typhoon_tip

Hey man you are a lifesaver! I have been scratching my head for a week why ubuntu couldn't see my external hard drive and the answer was that I had to plug in both the wires into my desktop USB ports.
I just thought it was a software bug as it was fine with my laptop with only one port used.
By the way they were USB 2 not 3.

Thanks so much!

[typhoon_tip]

@typhoon_tip

Hey man you are a lifesaver! I have been scratching my head for a week why ubuntu couldn't see my external hard drive and the answer was that I had to plug in both the wires into my desktop USB ports.
I just thought it was a software bug as it was fine with my laptop with only one port used.
By the way they were USB 2 not 3.

Thanks so much!

Loll happy to help ! Fell into this c**p more times than I dare to remember, first: no panic. Is very unlikely a USB get damaged.

[ewb]

Did the dual cable also solve the OPs problem?

I have a similar issue, and perhaps a similar machine to the OP: It is a circa 2008 box with the intel ICH9 chipset, to which I have added a PCIe 1X card with the "NEC" USB 3.0 chip on it. In fact, I have tried 2 of these now from different mfgrs. Both have a 4-pin molex power connector which I am using (presumably solving the power issue as well as the dual cable?). I am unable to get a SuperSpeed connection to a Kingston DT Ultimate USB 3.0 flash stick. I always get a "high-speed" connection and the driver is always xhci_hcd: From syslog:

Jun 14 14:37:45 kennebec kernel: [  167.568015] usb 9-2: new high-speed USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd

Running Ubuntu 12.04 amd64, kernel 3.2.0-25-generic. Mobo is ASUS P5E WS with 2 PCIe 2.0 slots (x16) and 1 x1 slot that *may* only be PCIe 1.1. I have tried to use both an x16 slot and the x1 slot with the identical outcome.

I have tried the latest 3.4 mainline kernel also (3.4.0-030400-generic_3.4.0-030400.201205210521_amd64) - same result.

I also have a newer laptop that boots Win7 & Ubuntu 12.04 (Toshiba Portege). This has a "built-in" USB 3.0 port and lspci says it also has the NEC controller chip (uPD720200 in lspci -v). On this machine, under ubuntu I *do* get a SuperSpeed connection (every time). I also apparently get a SuperSpeed connection under Win7 (The only way I know to tell this is a speed test - Seq. Read at 100+ Mbytes/sec).

I am beginning to think that the ICH9 PCI implementation is the culprit and perhaps the NEC chip and the ICH9 don't get along - or perhaps it is this mobo, or (hopefully) it is some subtle issue in the driver?

Any ideas?

[Cybertib]

Can't see nothing yet. One more attempt. Restart the computer without the drive attached. Once the computer finishes booting, go into /var/log and look for a file named kern.log. This file will contain all events that the kernel has seen. Open it in gedit. Plug the drive back in while the file is open in gedit. Gedit should then notify you if there were any changes in the file signifying that it most likely detected the device. If it did detected it, something about a usb should be written in the file.

-Red

Hello from France,

I have the same problem. However, the /var/log/kernel.log is not modified while pluging my hard drive into the USB 3 port. However, power supply works.

Cheers,
Thibault

[d.atanasov]

We usually all fall in the same problem.

Does your USB cable have dual power supply on the PC side ? If not, get one. I have always the same problem (we are an IT company), and 99% of the time the port is not damaged, just the power suddenly is not enough and need to use a "3 way" cable (or external power into the drive).
....
Cheers.

Hi typhoon_tip,

Do you think this could happen to eSATA external drives too? I have an external drive with USB 2.0 and eSATA ports. When I`m using the eSATA the drive from time to time goes down... Do you think that the power supply is also a good chose to check why this is happens ?

Thanks in advance.

cheers

[typhoon_tip]

Hi typhoon_tip,

Do you think this could happen to eSATA external drives too? I have an external drive with USB 2.0 and eSATA ports. When I`m using the eSATA the drive from time to time goes down... Do you think that the power supply is also a good chose to check why this is happens ?

Thanks in advance.

cheers

I think it can... Does your eSata box have an external, separate power supply jack that you can plug in ? Or just the data ports ?

[d.atanasov]

Yes, It has external power cable and it cannot be run without it plugged into the net. This I guess should be enough power. I will try tomorrow to plug the both cables.