Suspect Power Supply - USB issue USB flash drives disconnect randomly

[DaveLembke]

Was wondering if anyone knew of a system voltage monitor program that will log voltages or show a minimum/maximum for the 5 volt? I know there are a bunch of programs that will show a realtime display of voltages, but I want to be able to catch the condition and then look at the log for voltages and see if there is a dip detected that is causing USB devices to disconnect.

It started at first at the front ports of the computer and I figured well I will connect direct to the USB port at rear of the computer in case there is a current dip across the cable to front panel USB. I use a 64GB USB stick as a extended storage to my SSD, and have some symbolic linking to this 64GB USB stick. When the USB drops this stick it breaks stuff. I tried with a different USB stick thinking maybe the USB stick was the cause so I grabbed a 32GB stick and populated it with the data that is at the symbolic link targets. Then the problem happened again.

So its not the USB stick, its either Power Supply, Driver, or Motherboard is finally getting tired after 7 years of use. I suspect a dip in the 5 volt power but looking at voltages everything looks ok with realtime, and I dont want to watch paint dry to wait for the USB stick to drop out and try to catch it with my eye for voltages. I figured there must be a logger or min/max voltage log available maybe?

I could just shotgun the problem and swap out the power supply, but the power supply otherwise is fine. System boots fine, system doesnt crash, the condition with USB dropping out is not when gaming or anything in which a heavy current draw would point to power supply.

The motherboard is a Biostar MCP6PB M2+ with nvidia chipset. http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=387
Power Supply is a Thermaltake 460 watt... This one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153022

*Also to mention, no other devices connected to USB so I am not loading down the USB BUS power in any way. As well as computer is connected through a battery backup (UPS 750VA) so it shouldnt be a dip in line power as the cause.

5 Volt shows 4.99VDC which is within spec. +/-.02 volts ( 5.01-4.97 observed )

[patio]

Control Panel/Device Manager/ right clik all USB Hubs / Power Management...is allow Win to turn this off to save power checked ? ?

[DaveLembke]

Control Panel/Device Manager/ right clik all USB Hubs / Power Management...is allow Win to turn this off to save power checked ? ?

Thanks Patio, I Will check on this when I get home from work. I forgot about that feature and with USB flash device idle not in use, maybe thats the cause. When it reconnects to the USB flash drive I get a message asking me if I want to scan for issues as its almost as if the system wasnt expecting the drop out of the flash drive though. Will verify when I get home though. Maybe with symbolic link active and system dropping out the idle USB to save power its more of a symbolic link associated error with wanting to scan the drive for errors.

[patio]

Still can't believe that's the default Win setting...silly.

[DaveLembke]

hehe if its default then its active to be that way. I never made any changes to that after clean build. Also I never used USB as a important Internal SATA II 120GB SSD/ External USB 2.0 64GB Volume Span with symbolic linking.... like recent so the problem likely I have had for years and didnt detect it until using USB in a way that brought this to light. Hopefully its just this fix. Fingers crossed and eager to get home from work and check on this. 

[patio]

Bring us good news...as to the PSU issue i normally only see dropouts on front header USB ports...But we'll see...

[Geek-9pm]

DaveLembke,
In your tool box and spare parts you ought to have a PCIe USB card interface.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=PCIe+USB+interface&N=-1&isNodeId=1_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

SYBA USB 3.0 4 External Ports PCI-e Controller Card with Molex Power Feed, Etron Chipset Model SY-PEX20136

The above is from NewEgg. Similar things are on Amazon and the others.  It is about $20 and provides you a quick hardware solution to USB port fallout. Cheaper and quicker taht a PSU replacement.
(The problem is not the PSU. USB drop out is a common issue. You solve the problem with a new USB interface.)

This issue can be either drivers or hardware or both. Using another adapterwith its own driver is a way to by pass the issue.
Reference:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-networking/windows-10-usb-ports-resetdroprestart-causing-wifi/0545fdac-c543-42d5-a470-af080d9a5295
The article is about Windows 10,but  idea the same thing. 
(I recommend reading the whole article. A lot of people are having USB dropout. The working solutions imply a hardware issue.)

[DaveLembke]

Well just made the correction that Patio suggested to shut off the OS ability to power off USB devices to save power when they are idle. Unchecked this feature for two USB HUBS listed, then went back and verified that its now disabled.

Now time will tell if this is the fix or not for this. Hoping this is the fix. Fingers Crossed. 

Pic attached shows the scan message that pops up which might be because the symbolic link is disrupted through this power off of USB devices that are idle. Ive been fortunate not to crash a thumb drive yet. And its done this on more than one thumb drive so i know its something with system, hopefully fixed.



[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]

[DaveLembke]

It looks like this might be fixed. No Scan and Fix Windows popping up yet and I let it idle while sleeping. Woke up to everything A-OK so far. 

Found a tool called HWMonitor that shows min/max for all voltages to log and left that running too, and most voltages held steady as well. No recorded drastic dips in voltage. http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

[DaveLembke]

Thanks Patio for help with this... it appears that the problem is gone now. So cool to fix it this easily. I so thought it was a hardware issue vs a Windows 7 64-bit enabled by default USB power save feature that drops out that USB stick and breaks my symbolic link volume spanning to 64GB USB stick. 

[patio]

Glad to hear yer fixed up...