3.0 USB Port Won't Work

Hello again ... I am having problems with the USB 3.0 port not working on the new mobo I got to replace the defective board I had with my XP rig. When I first install the board and did a fresh install of Win XP it worked fine. Then I had problems not being about to boot into windows. Found out that I had the wrong drivers ... I had the ver. 4.1 drivers and the board is ver. 6. So I went to the gigabyte website and downloaded the drivers. I was able to boot into windows after that, but I lost the function in the 3.0 USB port. Now I contact gigabyte and this is what they told me to do ....
Dear customer,

Make sure Winxp 32bit has Service Pack 4 included or updated before install drivers belong to mother board. Via USB 3.0 driver and other drivers download able from website below.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=5195#dl

Best regards,

Gigabyte technical support team.

As you know windows doesn't have a SP4 for XP ... this is a third party software, so I am not sure if I should install it. I ask about it and this is the response I got ...
Dear customer,

Due to Winxp has been obsolete by Microsoft there only third party unofficial version available. Did you try SP3 ? If with SP3 included USB 3.0 still not able to work please do attempt test with Win7 OS to rule out if issue to be USB 3.0 controller on mother board has problem.

Best regards,

Gigabyte technical support team.

Should I install the third party software? It's not practical for me to install windows7.:confused

 

Your Gigabyte link got cut off... but only one of the two boards in your sig has USB 3.0, so presumably this is about the GA-H81M-HD3 model?

If it is you have six USB 3.0 ports total, four on the back panel, and presumably (again) two more on the front panel of your case. If the problem with all six of them, or only the ones on the case front panel?

To answer your initial question, since Gigabyte seems to have completely dropped XP support, your choice is unfortunately between installing unsupported third-party software, or continuing as you are now. the fact you're here asking tells me you are aware of the possible risks of third-party drivers, which is god. If you decide to give it a try anyway, creating a restore point and backing up you data before you start the install, is strongly recommended.

To test if the USB controller on the motherboard is the problem and not the driver, any other OS might do the trick. If you are familiar with how to boot various Linux versions from a CD, that's an easy way to test that. (And if that sentence made no sense to you, I would skip that part for now. No sense in over-complicating something if you don't have to.)

 

No that's not the board ... I didn't update my sig. The board in question is a Gigabyte GA 78LMT USB3.0 Ver 6. I only have two USB3.0 ports on that mobo on the back panel. The USB 2.0 ports work fine. I think the problem may be a driver conflict ... I installed the drivers for the 4.1 version of the mobo and I have the ver 6 board. I didn't uninstall the 4.1 drivers when I installed the 6.0 drivers ... I've ask Gigabyte what is the procedure for uninstalling the 4.1 drivers ... I am still waiting for an answer.:confused

 

Can you uninstall it by going through the Control Panel and right-clicking on the USB controller? You may have to be in Safe Mode.

If that works, it's worth it to reinstall the Ver 6 driver again, after all left-overs of the old driver are gone.

 

Surely you got a motherboard support disc with the new motherboard. Uninstall the drivers from Device Manager and then install the correct drivers from the motherboard support disc.

 

The way I read it is that the GB statement suggests that a fully updated XP SP3 or XP + the SP4 unofficial should be fine.

The Etron (4.1 USB 3 chipset drivers) contain an MSI installer in the wrapper so it's not going to be a straightforward uninstall from Safe Mode. A driver rollback (+ probable reboot) and then an uninstall from normal mode should work - but it might be auto-reinstalled on reboot = back to square one!

Using DriverView, can you report back on any Etron drivers listed? Should be 3 if they're loading, EtronXHCI.SYS, EtronHub3.SYS and EtronSTOR.SYS. http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/driverview.html

Do you have an entry for Etron in Add/Remove Programs? I don't see an entry for it in the driver .INF file (basically the 'what to install' instructions, x86 version attached).

 

I'm terribly sorry I forgot to mention something important. I am unable to install the USB 3.0 driver ... when I try to install it I get an error ... Sorry, the install wizard can't find the proper component for the current platform. Please press OK to terminate the install wizard. ... It's been a while since I work on it I forgot about that. So I'm wondering if there is some kind of driver conflict preventing me from installing that driver.:confused

 

Does DriverView show any Etron drivers loaded?

 

1. Have you tried uninstalling the drivers from Device Manager and then restarting the PC?
2. Have you then tried installing the drivers from the motherboard support disc?
If you don't have the disc, here's the correct USB 3.0 drivers for Windows XP 32-bit.

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5195#dl

 

What would those drivers be listed under in the device manager? I would I simply delete them and restart the computer?:confused Under öther devices" the universal serial bus controller has a ! but I guess it due to the driver that won't install.

 

Just now seeing this I have to check it out and get back to you. So I just install the software and follow the prompts? I'll check it out, if I can't figure it out I'll post again.:wave

 

Ignore what I said (at least for now) and follow Satrow's advice. He's better with software than I am.

 

Hmm, maybe... software is one thing, remote users + software + translating thoughts/actions/experience into comprehensible English is an entirely different matter

 

Please don't bring my day job into this... :-D

(Day job = Trainer of tech support agents)

I know what you mean though. It can be frustrating at times.

 

Okay ... finally have a chance to work with this. I downloaded and installed DriverView ... and I didn't see any of the files you mentioned. There is no entry for Etron in my Add/Remove programs. Is that good or bad? Gigabyte is recommending I format the C drive and reinstall windows. I'd really hate to have to do that.:cry

 

Instead of re-installing Windows XP, you can do a repair. You might have to re-install a few programs - I had to re-install Lexmark and Nero.

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/138-how-to-repair-windows-xp/

 

I will give it a shot and see what happens.rolleyes