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WD My Book external hard drive not recognised on USB 3.0 ports

Anonymous
2018-04-25T09:01:16+00:00

I've seen people post similar issues in the past, but haven't yet seen a response which has worked for me.

First, my devices. I have a Lenovo Z50 laptop running Windows 10 which has two USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 ports. I have a Surface Pro 4 also running Windows 10 and with the usual single USB 3.0 port. I also have a relatively newly purchased WD My Book 2TB external hard drive.

The Lenovo is my main laptop. I have Bitlocker activated and have used it to encrypt the WD drive with Bitlocker too. The WD drive is set up for File History backups with the Lenovo.

My issue is that, recently, the WD has started only working with the USB 2.0 ports on the Lenovo. It doesn't work on the 3.0 ports on either the Lenovo or Pro 4. If you plug it in to either 3.0 port, the light comes on the hard drive and it spins up, but nothing happens on either computer. You don't get the "ping" sound you normally get when you plug in a USB device, and the drive does not appear in my computer. Nothing appears in Device Manager either.

If you plug it in to either 2.0 port on the Lenovo it works fine.

As I say, this is recent. Originally it did work on the 3.0 ports.

This issue came up a few weeks ago and, following advice I found online, I tried accessing Device Manager on the Pro 4. I clicked "View > Show hidden devices" and then uninstalled all the greyed out devices which appeared under both "Disk Drives" and "Universal Serial Bus controllers".  This worked, and the drive started working with the Pro 4 3.0 port again. However, it's stopped working again now (same issue: light comes on, spins up, nothing on the Pro 4). I've tried the same fix again - uninstalling all greyed out devices in Device Manager - but nothing's happened. Obviously I've also tried restarting the Pro 4 after uninstalling all the greyed out devices, but it still didn't work after restart. I've also tried plugging the WD power cable directly into a wall socket, not an extension cable, to make sure it's getting enough power but that didn't do anything either.

Any suggestions? On the face of it, it can't be the hard drive or power cable as they work with the Lenovo 2.0 ports. But for this to happen on both 3.0 ports on the Lenovo and Pro 4 suggests it's an issue with the individual ports either, but something about compatibility between the WD drive and 3.0 ports in general. But then why did it work with the 3.0 ports initially?

Confused face.

Any help much appreciated.

Moved from: Surface  / Surface Pro 4  / Install, update, and repair

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-05-05T07:25:00+00:00

    Ok, problem solved. I bought a new USB cable for the HDD and now it works on both USB 3.0 ports. I feel rather sheepish :(

    I'd ruled out the USB cable as a potential issue as it worked with the USB 2.0 ports so didn't think there could be anything wrong with it. Shows what I know!

    Thanks for your help

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-04-26T08:09:41+00:00

    Hello Michaelg1357,

    For this type of issue, try out these methods I have listed below and see if it helps:

    Method 1: Change Power Management Settings

    1. Type Device Manager on the Cortana search box and hit the Enter key.
    2. Expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers.
    3. Double click the USB Root Hub 3.0.
    4. On the Power Management tab, uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power."
    5. Do the same to other USB Root Hub device.
    6. Restart your PC.

    Method 2: Disable USB Selective Suspend Settings

    1. While on the Desktop, press Windows key + X and select Power Options.
    2. Click Change plan settings on the current power settings selected.
    3. Click Change advanced power settings.
    4. Scroll down and expand the USB settings.
    5. Expand the USB selective suspend setting.
    6. Select Disable from the drop-down menu for On battery/Plugged in. Click OK.

    Let us know the outcome.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-05-01T20:33:59+00:00

    Tried both methods, hasn't made a difference. Since my last message, I've also tried going to device manager and fully uninstalling the USB Root Hub and USB 3.0 Host Controller, restarting the computer to allow Windows to reinstall them, then connecting my WD hard-drive but it still won't work with the USB 3.0 ports.

    I should've said in the original message that other devices (i.e. USB sticks) are working in the USB 3.0 ports on both my Pro 4 and Lenovo.

    Any other ideas?

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-04-25T09:04:17+00:00

    Couple of errors in that last paragraph. Try again:

    Any suggestions? On the face of it, it can't be the hard drive or USBcable as they work with the Lenovo 2.0 ports. But for this to happen on both 3.0 ports on the Lenovo and Pro 4 suggests it's not an issue with the individual ports either, but something about compatibility between the WD drive and 3.0 ports in general. But then why did it work with the 3.0 ports initially?

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