USB3 Drive Base Disconnecting During Write Cycle

Update : upgraded my desktop to Windows 10 and the drive works fine on my desktop.

Even tried a factory reset of the Surface to no avail...

Hi,

Looks like my Surface Book is having issues with writing to my UASP(USB Attached SCSI) External disk enclosure.  I run a ICYRaid MB662U3-2S R1 enclosure with 2 disks in Raid 1.   When I try to write on the disk, it will sort of start but then will hang forever.

The Task manager show the drive has having 100% wait time

In the event log, I get the following :

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort4, was issued.

The IO operation at logical block address 0x5a9448 for Disk 1 (PDO name: \Device\0000011f) was retried.

The IO operation at logical block address 0x698c00 for Disk 1 (PDO name: \Device\0000011f) was retried.

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort4, was issued.

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort4, was issued.

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort4, was issued.

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort4, was issued.

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort4, was issued.

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort4, was issued.

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort4, was issued.

The IO operation at logical block address 0x5a9448 for Disk 1 (PDO name: \Device\0000011f) was retried.

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort4, was issued.

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort4, was issued.

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort4, was issued.

The external drive enclosure works A1 on my other laptop, running in UASP mode under Windows 8.1.  Also works A1 on my Desktop, also running Windows 8.1.  I'm now upgrading my desktop to Windows 10 to see if I could replicate the issue.

I'm pretty sure UASP is the cause because it will hang on all the ports (including those on the dock) but adding a USB 2 hub to my surface and connecting the drive though it (disabling UASP) fixes the problem (but I get terrible performance)

It took me a while to get a new Surface Book after returning the original one.

The new one is a new LOT #, 1547, and sadly, the same issue with my StarTech SSD enclosure.

I did pick up a Samsung T1 500GB External SSD, and that works fine... So, my only conclusions is there must be something not quite right in the USB ports. I tried 2 different brands of external USB3 enclosures and 2 different SSD's. Both dismount during heavy write cycles. These same enclosures and drives work fine on my desktop, Surface Pro 3, Macbook Pro, and Asus Gaming laptop. It's just the Surface Book, can't seem to handle an enclosure that uses a normal laptop SSD. 

So, here's a summary of my issue if anyone at MS wants to look into this:

1. External USB3 Enclosure with either a Samsung EVO 850 500gb SSD or Crucial M4 500GB SSD will unmount during heavy write cycles.
2. I've tried having only the enclosure attached.
3. I'm testing running Crystal Disk Manager to test the read/write speeds of the drives in the enclosures.
4. I tried 2 StarTech enclosures and an Orico enclosure. All 3 dropped during the first write cycle, Read is always ok.
5. I tried a Samsung T1 500gb External SSD, and had NO issues.
6. All 3 enclosures worked fine on my Surface Pro 3, Mid 2014 Retina Macbook Pro, Asus ROG Gaming laptop, and a custom built desktop with an Asus motherboard.
7. The drives worked fine when I used my Inateck external drive Dock, which has it's own power source.

Lastly, I installed every update Windows Update found today.

Everything seems to point to the inability of the Surface Book to handle the power draw of a laptop SSD in an enclosure.

If anyone else has any suggestions, I'm open to them...

Dower

I have the same problems as you guys. I expect we will be hearing more from others as they start trying to use external storage.

I have tried all kinds of combinations:

2TB My Passport connected to external, powered USB3 (Targus DisplayLink)

512 GB MyDigitalSSD connected direct with/without Targus

My Passport connected direct with/without Targus

Took a SD Card with 32 GB of images and used File Explorer to copy the folder to each of the external devices. After a few GB, File Explorer would stop, complaining about the destination drive not being available. When looking at Device Manager, it showed the device was not working. (I don't remember exactly what it said). I also have seen The Paging Request Error.

What started my exploration of this problem was that I was ending up with corrupted Word files and problems transferring new images into Adobe LightRoom.

This is a very serious problem. And, I am too busy to do beta testing, so the Book is going back, unfortunately!

By the way, just for reference, I have been using the combination of the My Passport, MyDigitalSSd and Targus DisplayLink dock with a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro (with I7 and 250GB internal storage) for a year now, with no problems.

Kim

So, after a few hours of tinkering, it seems to be some odd issue with the USB3 port near the back of the keyboard base. It seems if there is an SD card plugged in, and the external drive is attempting to do large writes, both the SD card and the External drive disconnect. It happens almost all the time, in a few instances it remains connected, but it's more often the drive and SD card drop. This does not happen on the USB3 port right next to the SD card slot... I can only guess it might be a power issue or defect on my Surface Book. I'll need to spend some time talking to the support folks to see what they think.

If anyone has any ideas, please chime in.