Trouble with USB3.0 hubs and USB3.0 extrernal HDDs detect

[louwin]

This is not a TC problem but having searched all other avenues for Windows 7 problems I thought I'd ask the smart people on THIS forum. If you smart people object to the question I will understand and meekly withdraw it

I have 5 USB3.0 external hard drives (Seagates) so I bought 2 USB3.0 hubs to share the load. My motherboard has 2 USB3.0 ports and I hang a hub off each.

Off one (an mbeat quite expensive) hub I hang H:, J: and L:. Off the other (a cheap hub off eBay) I hang I: K:

This setup worked perfectly for months. And I got very reasonable speeds syncing the drives with TC.

But then I started getting warnings that 2 of the drives would perform "faster on a USB3.0 port". I suspect these were on the second hub.

This would be the case for the next few days but occassionally I wouldn't get the warnings but the next day, they'd be back.

In desperation I swapped the ports the hubs were on and things would worked again for a few days then the warnings would come again.

Without the warnings the drives would work at about 80Mbps with the warnings about 30Mbps.

I switch on one day and all is good.... The next day (and on) I get the warnings.... I am not doing anything to cause this degradation.

Swap ports, switch on, driver reloads, all good. Switch off that night. Next morning, I switch on and get 2 warnings

I bought a (cheap) 4 port PCIe USB3.0 card but it stopped Windows shutting down properly so I unplugged it.

If it matters I run Windows 7 64bit on a GA-P55A-UD7 motherboard.

Any of you bright sparks any idea what is wrong and how I can fix this?

Thanks in anticipation

[ghisler(Author)]

Sounds like a problem with cables or connectors - the error rate is too high, so the system reverts to the slower, but more stable USB 2.0.

[meisl]

I suspect these were on the second hub.

So I understand that you're not really sure about it, right?

I'd propose you try to consistently associate the warnings to one of the hubs, including the cables.
That is, always connect the hub with the cables it came with, and for the first round of analysis, even keep the same hub connected to the same port on your motherboard.

Given these restrictions, the nr of combinations (of drives connected or not, and if so, to which hub) to try is still rather high.
Next (or rather first), you need to determine - and then settle on - a set of test cases, plus an expected result for each of them (here: probably throughput and "got warning" or not).
You mentioned syncing, so a well-defined (!) pair of not-quite-in-sync folders sounds like a good thing to start with.

Now you go and test every case, for each variation, and repeat.
Make sure to re-establish the same conditions before starting another test run (which conditions exactly remains to be found out, unforntunately...).
And: You *must* keep an accurate log of what you did when, and at best of what you did in between.
It *will* be tedious, no doubt.

---
Ok, I'll stop here. Basically, you know, I could have just written "plz systematize your tests and report". But well, that might have been a bit too skinny, I thought
As a rule of thumb: You're not "there" until, when asked to describe the problem, you do not need any of "then I started getting xyz" (*when* exactly?, what xyz *exactly*?), "I suspect", "occasionally", "few days", and the like anymore.
You have "made a yard" once you're able to reliably reproduce a particular problematic situation (describing it precisely will be easy as pie then).

That does NOT mean, of course, that you may not ask again until you're "there". Rather to illustrate where to aim at, and what will be most efficient in spawning ideas in the geniuses' heads

I share ghisler's suspicion that it's something with hardware connections. But it's only a suspicion atm, and even if that (alone?) really is it you still need to find out which hub/cable/port combination.

[louwin]

Thanks for both your replies

After I posted my question, in a warning situation, I swapped the ports and jammed (lightly) a piece of bluetack to the bottom of the plugs and, as you could/would guess, no warnings so far.

It is still early (as I said, it ran perfectly for months) but the suggestion that the cables and connectors seems to bear merit, thanks.

I will monitor the situation and report back should things change. I WILL make notes with the next warnings though it would be difficult as W7 only says a device could perform faster but does not identity the device. The only way I know how is to copy some large files to each device and note the speed of copy, 80Mbps or 30Mbps.

I was hoping the solution was "soft" (failure of some software/driver etc) rather than a hardware bad connections.

I am glad I was right.... You ARE a bunch of bright sparks

Thank you....