External Hard drive connection problem

[gojko]

Hello,

I have ASUS Transformer Book Trio, TX201L laptop and I'm having trouble connecting my external drive 500GB Seagate. HD has USB 3.0 and laptop has 2 USB 3.0 ports.

When I connected the drive first time directly, I'm sure it got recognised. Later plugging it in that port did nothing - the drive was not recognised. I used the other port, and right now the drive is not recognised there either. It's not in the Disk management, tried running hardware repair, in power options USB selective suspension is disabled, and somewhere I disabled the option to allow putting USB to sleep to save power.

Then I connect it over USB extension cable - which is 2.0. Windows recognises it, but disconnects it randomly, on one port it happens in about 30 seconds, on the other every few minutes. It really worries me if it will damage the important HDD, just testing like this.

Seems I have USB 3.0 eXtensible host controller.

I tested with a simple USB 2.0 USB drive, and it functions normally. Could not get another USB 3.0 drive. I also used a WiFi modem, with the cable, and it also disconnects randomly.

 

[corkyg]

Sounds like intermittant power to the external drive. To isolated the fault, if possible, connect a powered hub to the Asus' USB port and then connect the drive to the hub. I sense that the ultra portable laptop/tablet does not have sufficient battery power to run the external drive unless it is docked or plugged in to A/C.

 

[C1]

All these drives typically have indicator lights. Does the indicator light energize when the drive is plugged in? Hold the drive to your ear - can you hear it spinning?

Some things to try:

- Plug the drive into another computer that has USB 3
- Replace the USB 3 connector cable.