P8Z68-v Pro INtel and Asmedia USB 3.0 controllers and problems

[BonzaiDuck]

I've been posting a lot on these forums lately, and I've been spending a lot of time tweaking and improving my Z68 Sandy Bridge system. Those who may have seen some of my posts may know I was troubleshooting a seemingly infrequent instability problem that occurred on average about once every ten days.

Some kept telling me the problem was my overclock settings, but I'm pretty sure that's not it. I set the system back to default for a while, tweaked the OC settings, ran more stress tests.

Instead, I've been uncovering "other" hardware and driver problems; the instability seems to have disappeared. I cleaned up my Event Viewer logs. One "Distributed COM" error in particular may have caused periodic malfunction of my network interface, which had been inputting Media Center Live TV from my SiliconDust triple-tuner and then outputting it to my AVR and TV. I suspect that this may have been the problem -- or possibly one of the problems. But like I said, that behavior seems to have disappeared.

When I first built the system, I might have purchased the "Deluxe" motherboard which came with USB front-panel port device to use with the Asmedia USB 3.0 motherboard controller. But I bought the "Pro" version, and picked up a front-panel USB 3.0 Hub running off the Asmedia mobo port. This had been working fine when I first built the machine.

However, I never enabled the BIOS feature for using the Asmedia controller to "charge batteries" and devices. And I now remember one time when I plugged in my "Nicotene Vaping" device for a recharge -- to the USB 3.0 front-panel device.

The Asmedia controller worked with my USB 2.0 devices up to that point -- at least. But now, I find that a Windows Device Manager "!" with one of the two Asmedia XHCI USB controller nodes. I discovered this today when trying to upload pics from my camera for posting on another forum here. It wouldn't recognize the camera; it wouldn't recognize a USB hard disk; it wouldn't recognize a perfectly good 16GB USB thumb drive.

At first, I thought it was the front-panel hub device. And I was checking at the Egg and found reviews of that device posted after I bought it: people had experienced voltage surges with it. And certainly -- trying to charge a battery-driven item from it when the charging feature was disabled in BIOS didn't help! I removed the (SYBA or SIIG) f-panel hub, and found that direct-connect to the Asmedia mobo port still didn't recognize any of my USB devices.

So I disabled the Asmedia USB 3.0 controller on the mobo.

Well -- that wasn't the end of it. There are two USB 3.0 ports on my mobo I/O panel. I tried plugging in my USB hard disk and my flash drive. Nothing!

The mobo had a BIOS feature labeled "overvoltage or surge protection," which had been enabled.

So I'm reviewing all the Z68 schematics to see how it would be possible that my rear USB 3.0 ports aren't working. I THOUGHT those were Intel controller ports. Maybe they were Asmedia. The mobo manual doesn't specify anything other than a single USB 3.0 controller for IRQ sharing. I'm beginning to suspect that ALL the USB 3.0 ports -- the 20-pin motherboard port as well as the two rear I/O external ports -- work off the Asmedia controller.

Can anyone confirm this one way or the other? All the other USB 2.0 ports work "tip-top." I cannot find any other type of damage to the motherboard and its onboard devices. And I suppose I can simply buy a $20 PCI-E USB 3.0 controller, put it in my third PCIE x-16/x-4 slot, and I'm back in business.

I'm pretty sure the USB 3.0 controllers are backwards compatible with USB 2.0 devices, and I know I'd tested and used those front-panel hub ports several times.

Over-clocking as an addiction doesn't seem to be the major problem. When I trace it all back -- it is NICOTENE ADDICTION which may have been my downfall here!!

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Never mind . . . I confirmed it from the mobo spec sheet:

ASMedia USB 3.0 controller :
4 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, blue, 2 at mid-board)

Intel Z68 chipset :
12 x USB 2.0 port(s) (6 at back panel, black+red, 6 at mid-board)

I see other forum posts (elsewhere) by people having similar problems. I DID reinstall the drivers after uninstalling the older version. But the Asmedia controller shares resources with a PCI-E slot, possibly one other thing. Either my Asmedia controller is damaged, or there's some misconfiguration that prevents it from working.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Very strange.

Don't know what other P8Z68-v Pro and similar ASUS z68 board owners have experienced regarding this Asmedia USB 3.0 controller.

Now, I'm more suspicious that the front-panel USB 3.0 Hub I'd installed (for the 19-pin mobo connector) has failed. It was a SYBA or SIIG mode: can't tell precisely for looking at the circuit card. But I had discovered the same Hub at the EGG the other day, with some not-so-great reviews by people, noting "Windows reported power surges" with the device.

I was going to replace it, and ordered a Hoo-Too unit (recently advertised on the Anandtech Home page) for about $22. Advantage of that device: it is powered solely through the 19-pin internal mobo connector.

In the interim, I disabled the Asmedia controller in my BIOS. I had thought that the Asmedia onboard USB controller had been somehow damaged, based on Device Manager "!" info.

I was going to try upgrading the firmware for this Asmedia controller, and wanted to find the model number for it. So I went back into BIOS and re-enabled it, together with the "Enable USB 3.0 charging" feature.

Now I come back to Device Manager -- the Properties tab gives it a "working properly" clean bill of health. And I plugged in a USB 2 flash drive to the rear USB 3 port (also under the Asmedia controller), and it recognizes the drive.

This is most strange. The original error message in Device Manager had shown some code 10 or 12 with the message "insufficient resources" for the device to work.

How on earth does this stuff happen?! I wonder if it had anything to do with my recent installation of "USB 3.0 Boost" with the latest edition of AI Suite.

Amazing how we panic over these problems -- blow them out of proportion and blame everything on trying to charge a Nicotine Vaping device . . .

Very strange. . . . very strange . . . in-deed . . . .

 

[SeanFL]

I've had plenty of issues with an Asrock Z68 Pro3-m motherboard from late 2011 and USB 3.0. It's very unstable and have spent hours trying to get it to function properly. Other machines with usb 3.0 seem to work fine. So I chalked it up to some weird inconsistency with that motherboard and usb 3.0

Did a recent build with an Asrock Z77E-itx motherboard that is better, but also is finicky with certain usb 3.0 devices. Some flash drives will be recognized, others wont. Some work on the back motherboard connectors and won't on the ones connected to the case, and others work in both places. I built two identical Z77E-itx machines using a fractal design case and both of them cause intermittent glitching on a high end external sound card (sound devices usb pre 2) that don't seem to happen with other machines.

Causing me to consider building with gigabyte or asus and see if my usb issues go away or if it's something else.

Ideas welcome and hope this helped someone. Sean

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I've had plenty of issues with an Asrock Z68 Pro3-m motherboard from late 2011 and USB 3.0. It's very unstable and have spent hours trying to get it to function properly. Other machines with usb 3.0 seem to work fine. So I chalked it up to some weird inconsistency with that motherboard and usb 3.0

Did a recent build with an Asrock Z77E-itx motherboard that is better, but also is finicky with certain usb 3.0 devices. Some flash drives will be recognized, others wont. Some work on the back motherboard connectors and won't on the ones connected to the case, and others work in both places. I built two identical Z77E-itx machines using a fractal design case and both of them cause intermittent glitching on a high end external sound card (sound devices usb pre 2) that don't seem to happen with other machines.

Causing me to consider building with gigabyte or asus and see if my usb issues go away or if it's something else.

Ideas welcome and hope this helped someone. Sean

Well . . . Asrock and Asus have a subsidiary or consolidated history. But I'm so far inclined to think that my cheap hub burned out.

I should probably test it to make sure.

There's the other possibility that reinstalling all my drivers while overlooking the same attention to my Asmedia USB3 motherboard driver raised this glitch. At least I can be sure my motherboard isn't damaged.

The cabling solution for the new SIIG unit is neater, simpler. For the last unit, I had taken the rear-PCI-slot cable and bracket that came with the motherboard, plugged it to the 19-pin USB 3 port, and run the USB3 "A-B" cable from one of the two ports on the first cable to the hub.

But it turns out the SIIG unit I ordered from Egg isn't self-powered through the motherboard connection: it has an SATA power port as well. SIIG's promotion for this model: it has built-in "surge protection."

 

[Z15CAM]

Huh I just posted this answer in another thread with a similar problem.

The vcc1 is the 3.3V rail controls things like the ASIC IO and USB chip. If the rail is too low it can cause issues you describe. You can read the 3.3v rail voltages in apps like HardWareMonitor Pro or SpeedFan. Entering BIOS will also show the voltages.

Before you test or think about changing out the PSU I would disconnect the MB ATX POWER connectors, blow them out and ensure they are thoroughly clean and make sure they are well seated to see if the 3.3v rail maintains between a 3.14v to a 3.47voltage.

I noticed my GA-P8Z68-V Pro GEN3 3.3v rail had dropped to around 2.96v. Cleaning and re-seating the ATX connectors corrected the issue.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Huh I just posted this answer in another thread with a similar problem.

The vcc1 is the 3.3V rail controls things like the ASIC IO and USB chip. If the rail is too low it can cause issues you describe. You can read the 3.3v rail voltages in apps like HardWareMonitor Pro or SpeedFan. Entering BIOS will also show the voltages.

Before you test or think about changing out the PSU I would disconnect the MB ATX POWER connectors, blow them out and ensure they are thoroughly clean and make sure they are well seated to see if the 3.3v rail maintains between a 3.14v to a 3.47voltage.

I noticed my GA-P8Z68-V Pro GEN3 3.3v rail had dropped to around 2.96v. Cleaning and re-seating the ATX connectors corrected the issue.

Thanks, and I saw that post and then threw in some casual remarks of my own.

I stopped buying cheap power supplies in '04. My first "good one" was an OCZ Powerstream with external adjustment screws and little green lights for each one. Always kept it on spec, but it started going south. And the only way I could actually tell so? The computer wouldn't come out of sleep.

So we replaced every PSU in the house -- even an Antec -- with Seasonics. This particular system uses their 750 "X" series Gold 80+. That rail is rock-solid at 3.36V.

As soon as I removed the front panel hub (SIIG, SYBA, Koutech -- can't remember), the Asmedia controller came back. All the rear I/O ports working again. I ordered another hub -- it arrives tomorrow. SIIG. They promote it with the assertion that it has "protection against voltage surges." I might even test the old one again on a different controller, but I think it is dead . . . dead . . . . dayy-uddd!

I think a lot of people -- not necessarily you or our colleagues here -- believe there always must be a single cause for anything. I know better. I've discovered driver problems, mis-installed network drivers, and now -- this.

I could "give advice" now to overclocker-enthusiasts about how to move from "tweaking" a "prototype" or "experimental" unit to adding it to your coterie on the household network. Double-test all the hardware and drivers first! Clean up sources of red-bang errors in the event logs.

And -- most of all -- NEVER install old Windows XP software or hardware with no current-OS driver support on your system!! I had a driver for the Hauppauge PVR-250/350 tuners in my system for the infrared remote! For the longest time, I thought it was part of the installation for my HVR-2250 card!! And now I remember how thoughtlessly I tried those old tuners, attempting to install drivers. So grateful they have this HWClear.exe utility, which also cleans out their old . . . stuff . . .

 

[Z15CAM]

Read my comment regarding NEW PSU's in the "Burned Asus P8Z68 Pro Gen 3 Power Connector" thread - I think you'll get kick outta that one.

I agree with your driver issue input - been there ;o)

NEVER install old Windows XP software or hardware with no current-OS driver support

Believe it or not but I used WinXP WDM ATi BT Driver installing an ATi Tv-Wonder PCI (Win95 Card) on a Win7 32-Bit platform with ATV2000, WinDVR and VirtualDub ... etc and it worked like a charm, including the Stereo Audio, but definitely could find no driver support for the card in Win7 64-Bit so I now run a $22 WinTV Hauppauge 2250 card which tickles me for Blue Ray but DVD 720 FLV or MKV H264/AAC MP4 Encoding is satisfactory for now watching 1440P IPS displays.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Read my comment regarding NEW PSU's in the "Burned Asus P8Z68 Pro Gen 3 Power Connector" thread - I think you'll get kick outta that one.

I agree with your driver issue input - been there ;o)

Believe it or not but I used WinXP WDM ATi BT Driver installing an ATi Tv-Wonder PCI (Win95 Card) on a Win7 32-Bit platform with ATV2000, WinDVR and VirtualDub ... etc and it worked like a charm, including the Stereo Audio, but definitely could find no driver support for the card in Win7 64-Bit so I now run a $22 WinTV Hauppauge 2250 card which tickles me for Blue Ray but DVD 720 FLV or MKV H264/AAC MP4 Encoding is satisfactory for now watching 1440P IPS displays.

How-ju-get-dat-2250-for-22-dollah?!! Huh?!

So . . . . the plot thickens . . . . I always try to choose the path to simplicity and away from complex solutions.

First, I thought the problem was the $25 front-panel hub that was source of the problem. Not quite, and that hub is probably still good. As I said, as soon as I removed it and reinstalled the Asmedia drivers, everything was fine -- for the Asmedia USB 3 plugs on the rear mobo I/O plate. But there is IRQ sharing for the Asmedia controller with the two PCI-E X16-1, -2, X1-1 etc. A table in the mobo manual (supposedly) explains what's available and what's not with a configuration of the PCI-E X16-3 slot:

Supposedly, with a setting of "Auto" (options: X1 or X4 otherwise) on the PCI-E X16-3 slot, the "USB3-34" MOTHERBOARD PLUG has resources enough to work. What has happened? The front-panel USB3 hub I'd installed in 2011 had been working. Then -- it's not working, and removing it allows the Asmedia USB3 ports at the I/O plate to function normally. Swapping in a new USB3 front-panel hub results in the same problem -- with the motherboard's internal USB3-34 19-pin plug!! What has happened?

Before this little glitch came to my attention, I had replaced my PCI-E 2.0 GTX 570 graphics card with a PCI-E 3.0-ready GTX-780 card. That's the only hardware change I made! So I must assume that there is a "new regime" of resource-use and sharing inside my box.

How does it work out, even elegantly? With a slightly more complex solution that nevertheless gives me two extra rear USB3 ports together with the front-panel 3.5" USB3 4-port hub:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...17Z-0002-00002

Sticking this into the PCI-E X16-3 slot, leaving my only the PCI-E X16-2 slot for any eventual SLI 2-card configuration, only needs this X16-3 slot to work as an X1.

So I now have two, device-charging USB3 controllers -- Asmedia and VIA -- with a total of six working USB 3 ports.

Did I need 'em?! No! But I had this working from the get-go in 2011 for a measly $25 -- the difference between my V-Pro board and the V-Deluxe. If you're an enthusiast, you might also become obsessively perfectionist. So I shelled out some extra ducats, and this -- works!!

 

[Z15CAM]

How-ju-get-dat-2250-for-22-dollah?!! Huh?!

VIA China to Canada Free Trade and Free postage delivery in 2 weeks.

Unlike the horrendous USA to CDA Free Trade Deal.

Let me read the rest of your post so I can comment.

What gets me pissed off is that my ISP dropped out right in the middle of this conversation,

 

[BonzaiDuck]

VIA China to Canada Free Trade and Free postage delivery in 2 weeks.

Unlike the horrendous USA to CDA Free Trade Deal.

Let me read the rest of your post so I can comment.

What gets me pissed off is that my ISP dropped out right in the middle of this conversation,

I'm looking forward to your comment.

Various instructions and guides -- particularly for the hubs I'm using -- noted that only certain controllers are equipped to handle such hubs with charging capability. I am absolutely certain that the original front-panel hub worked for a long time in this system, since I tested and used it several times.

Since the motherboard has two settings for the Asmedia -- "enable/disable" the controller itself, and "enable/disable" device-battery-charging capability, I can only guess that the system itself determines whether it has the resources for the hub device. If this is the case, the next thing to do would seem logically to test a single USB3 device connected to the Asmedia 19-pin plug by way of the two-port PCI cable with the 19-pin plug on the opposite end which came with the motherboard. This would not require the resources of a hub, but would add another two USB3 ports to the case rear, at least. With the two controllers, that would mean a total of ten functioning USB3 ports. Alternatively, if the test succeeds, I might figure a way to replace the HAF 922's built-in USB2 ports at the case top-front and just below the power and reset switches with some modification or "creative destruction" of the two-port-to-19-pin cable. Probably not a good idea to find a way to disable the USB2 controller and ports. I read somewhere that various (now-) traditional devices like keyboard, mouse, perhaps joystick or game controller don't behave well with USB3.

If the test fails, then I can simply put the cable back in the parts locker and call it a day.

Meanwhile, there is the matter of the 3-year-old USB3 hub which is now determined not likely damaged. For that, I could just order another $22 Hoo-Too USB3 PCI-E x1 controller and stick it in another computer -- adding six USB3 ports to the latter.

And perhaps I should review what I've written here, and write some "decent" Egg customer-reviews for the new parts.

 

[Z15CAM]

Are you using a manual slid Case Fan Speed Controller?

The one on my Fractal Design Midi ARC 2 was defective such that when I changed the voltage from 3v to 7v to 12v the rheostat switch shorted the PSU between positions thus knocking out all my USB Ports.

Fractal Design sent me a replacement Case Fan Controller Rheostat at no cost.

OOP's! Sorry I'm running a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 PCIe for $22 - Still a great Card.

Review my Platform:

i7 2700k/ASUS P8Z68-V Pro Gen3/Corsair H110 AIO running @ 1.032v/1600Mhz to 1.384v at 4800Mhz 24/7 between 32 to 67C, 16GB of Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US DDR3 at 1.34v/1866Mhz 9-9-9-24 1T with 4GB's assigned to a RAMDisk drive to handle Win7 64 slough to negate writes to the SSD, Samsung 840 Pro 256, 2 x's WD5001AALS HDD's in Raid-0, 1 x's WD1002FAEX 1TB, ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVDRW, Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 PCIe, 2nd Intel NIC for Dual Networking, XFX 850W Pro Black Black Edition, XSPC RAZOR GA-R9 290X at 1250/1500, Koolance 401x2 RP with 280x60x140 Rad, Nactua 140 Fans, Fractal Design ARC Midi R2, QX2510 Samsung PLS 2560x1440 display at 120Hz.

TOTAL Investment on this Platform including 13% HST Tax Plus Shipping is approx $3,200 spent over a period of a year

In the process of running 2 X's Sapphire R9 290X's (Hynix) in Crossfire under water.

---------------------------------------

PS:

Do you want a Fantastic Reference Gigabyte GA-R9 290X (Elpida) that will run 24/7 at 1250/1500Mhz 1.43v between 36C and 68C under water and can supply an Arctic Accelero Extreme III with it that will run a QUIET 1150/1500Mhz at 1.36v

You got it for $500 USD and you pay shipping. Kit includes Copper EnzoTek vRam Heat Sinks. Not a bad deal for a slightly used R9 290X Kit that cost me upward of $850 with TAX & Shipping.

This card presently holds the Unigine Bench Record Scores for AMD Cards posted in AnandTech Forums: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2317696&page=28

Gotta say Gigabyte build the BEST PCB's in the Market. It's very heat absorbent.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Are you using a manual slid Case Fan Speed Controller?

The one on my Fractal Design Midi ARC 2 was defective such that when I changed the voltage from 3v to 7v to 12v the rheostat switch shorted the PSU between positions thus knocking out all my USB Ports.

Fractal Design sent me a replacement Case Fan Controller Rheostat at no cost.

OOP's! Sorry I'm running a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 PCIe for $22 - Still a great Card.

Review my Platform:

i7 2700k/ASUS P8Z68-V Pro Gen3/Corsair H110 AIO running @ 1.032v/1600Mhz to 1.384v at 4800Mhz 24/7 between 32 to 67C, 16GB of Samsung MV-3V4G3D-US DDR3 at 1.34v/1866Mhz 9-9-9-24 1T with 4GB's assigned to a RAMDisk drive to handle Win7 64 slough to negate writes to the SSD, Samsung 840 Pro 256, 2 x's WD5001AALS HDD's in Raid-0, 1 x's WD1002FAEX 1TB, ASUS DRW-24B1ST DVDRW, Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 PCIe, 2nd Intel NIC for Dual Networking, XFX 850W Pro Black Black Edition, XSPC RAZOR GA-R9 290X at 1250/1500, Koolance 401x2 RP with 280x60x140 Rad, Nactua 140 Fans, Fractal Design ARC Midi R2, QX2510 Samsung PLS 2560x1440 display at 120Hz.

TOTAL Investment on this Platform including 13% HST Tax Plus Shipping is approx $3,200 spent over a period of a year

In the process of running 2 X's Sapphire R9 290X's (Hynix) in Crossfire under water.

---------------------------------------

PS:

Do you want a Fantastic Reference Gigabyte GA-R9 290X (Elpida) that will run 24/7 at 1250/1500Mhz 1.43v between 36C and 68C under water and can supply an Arctic Accelero Extreme III with it that will run a QUIET 1150/1500Mhz at 1.36v

You got it for $500 USD and you pay shipping. Kit includes Copper EnzoTek vRam Heat Sinks. Not a bad deal for a slightly used R9 290X Kit that cost me upward of $850 with TAX & Shipping.

This card presently holds the Unigine Bench Record Scores for AMD Cards posted in AnandTech Forums: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2317696&page=28

Gotta say Gigabyte build the BEST PCB's in the Market. It's very heat absorbent.

Thanks for the hardware offer, but I need to change my "sig" to show that I replaced my 570 GTX with a 780 GTX.

On fan controllers, I can tell you of a litany of small but not-so-good purchases I'd made. An Asian company named Sunbeam Tech had produced a fan controller boasting thermal control with a pile of analog sensors, a USB connection and possibly the ability to read the CPU temperatures for fan control. The units (2) which I received were defective and were missing capacitors clearly shown in the review article I'd read, so the bundled software didn't "do anything" with the controller. Cust support was at some location over in City of Industry. For weeks I called them, but they wouldn't answer the phone or call back.

The best of earlier automatic fan controllers I had was the Silverstone Commander built to the NVidia "ESA" standard. It required NVidia hardware with downloaded utilities that integrated fan-control with Windows-based over-clocking. You could manually change the fans' duty-cycle, but the software was never complete and I could never create effective "fan-curves" with it.

But as I was investigating automatic thermal fan-control, the motherboards were getting better as was the bundled software. My whole approach now has been to reduce the number of fans in the system while maximizing cooling effectiveness with noise-suppression, enable thermal fan-control, and eliminate any need for third-party controllers -- manual, "smart," "automatic." I believe I have done this now -- between my thread about a Gentle Typhoon AP-30 fan and use of the bundled software for my motherboard.

I want to send you a PM with a draft thread I was going to post on "CPUs and Overclocking" which discusses the complication of other, less-apparent sources of instability with those due to insufficient or incorrect voltage settings for overclock. The essential idea was based on a remark you made about the "abuse" of monitoring software.

 

[Z15CAM]

In my opinion the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro [GEN3 or not] is a great board and I'm content on keeping it for the time being.

About to explore 2 X's (Hynix) Sapphire XSPC RAZOR R9 290x's in Crossfire with an i7 SB K pushing 4.8G's and 16Gb of Samsung DDR3 running 1866Mhz 9-9-9-24-1T.

ALL UNDER 1.4v's, voltage control is unreal and Temps never go beyond 50C.

It's Super QUIET and Love the BIOS save Profiles.

I should refrain about commenting about personal platforms ;o)

 

[BonzaiDuck]

In my opinion the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro [GEN3 or not] is a great board and I'm content on keeping it for the time being.

About to explore 2 X's (Hynix) Sapphire XSPC RAZOR R9 290x's in Crossfire with an i7 SB K pushing 4.8G's and 16Gb of Samsung DDR3 running 1866Mhz 9-9-9-24-1T.

ALL UNDER 1.4v's, voltage control is unreal and Temps never go beyond 50C.

It's Super QUIET and Love the BIOS save Profiles.

I should refrain about commenting about personal platforms ;o)

Well, ya got about 15C advantage on me there. But I'm in between. I'd like to see another SB-K overclocker with air-cooling get my thermal results at this speed and average-maximum temperature. I'd be devastated if they did -- for all my troubles this last month or more. I can't say the system is "silent" under those load conditions, but I can turn down the CNN broadcast and the system is barely noticeable in this small room.

I think I finally cleaned up my event-viewer logs to the degree they're all "blue." So . . . that's my basis for migrating to an 840-Pro drive.

Somewhere here recently there was an exchange about the use of LLC overclock settings. Makes me wonder about momentary unloaded voltage spikes at end of extreme stress. But it shouldn't matter that much. A few more years might tell. Who knows? I just won't go over the 50% or "high" setting. It means about 20 or 30 mV of vDroop.

 

[ZzBloopzZ]

Sorry to bring up a old thread, but the information here lead me to the solution.

I also had numerous issues with the ASMedia USB 3.0 ports. For me, when I plugged in random devices they would sometimes freeze/crash my system. I tried various ASMedia drivers, latest BIOS etc.

Updating the firmware fixed it for me. Instructions to update it are posted here - http://www.win-raid.com/t375f13-Asmedia-x-USB-firmware-3.html#msg13974