Asus Maximux X Hero - USB Problems all over!

[MonkY]

Hello everyone!

I have just upgraded from my good old trusty Asus Maximus VIII Hero (with a 6700K CPU) to a brand new Asus Maximux X Hero (with a 8700K CPU). It was probably the best motherboard i ever had. Although i used to have a ton (over 20) of USB devices connected to my old Hero VIII, everything worked flawlessly for years!

After the upgrade, almost nothing works when it comes to USB ports. Even my old beloved Dell Multimedia USB Keyboard... i can't even use it to enter BIOS!!! I can only use it after it boots up in Windows (it's like it doesn't get power untill a driver loads). I have tried a few keyboards, none of them were recognized at boot time, so i couldn't use DEL or F2...

I have managed to flash the latest 1003 BIOS for Maximus X Hero, hoping there is a fix for USB issues. But nope! I have also did a CMOS reset, unplugged all other USB devices. Still wasn't able to use my keyboard or my mouse (Logitech G502) in BIOS.

Also, even i only have one mouse and one keyboard connected, at boot time i can see something like this: "USB Controllers: 3 XHCIs / USB Devices: 2 Drives, 4 Keyboards, 3 Mice, 5 Hubs". 4 Keyboards and 3 Mice?!? What in the world? Where does that coming from? I don't even have so many keyboards and mices in my whole house...

Also, strange things happen to my two USB external HUB's (Anker AH241 USB 3.0 Aluminum 13-Port Hub and Icybox IB-AC6702 USB 3.0 Hub). After booting up and enter Windows, i have to reset both hub's, as some of my devices do not fully work. That never happened with my old Maximus VIII Hero.

I have tried all drivers (Intel Chipset drivers + USB 3.x drivers) from the official Asus page, and then tried the latest Intel official and un-official drivers. Also i have been using the latest ASMedia ASM2142 USB 3.1 xHCI Controller drivers.

I do not know what to do next. Initially i wanted to get a replacement for my Maximus X Hero motherboard, but as i have read in the forum, a lot of other people are experiencing USB problems.

Could this be fixed with a new BIOS? New drivers? Some firmware patch for the USB chipsets? Or is it a design flaw and i would better give up and return the motherboard?

Any advice would be apreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Deepcuts]

The 4-5 keyboards problem happened on my old VI HERO also all the time. Nevertheless, I did not have the problems I am having with X HERO and its USB ports.
Just yesterday I bought a USB 3.0 hub. Of course it is not working on X HERO.
Plugged it in my old VI HERO: works. Go figure.
Too much money on marketing. Too few on development and testing.

[MonkY]

I have tried now using an addon PCIe USB card, hoping it will somehow bypass all the onboard Asus Maximus Hero USB chipsets and i will able to use my keyboard and mouse inside the BIOS. It's an Inateck 7 ports USB card. Unfortunately, it doesn't help.

So, if using addon PCIe cards doesn't work, using internal ones also doesn't work... should i give up on Maximus X Hero? I never had a motherboard i couldn't get into BIOS with my keyboard. I miss the old PS/2 ones, they never failed...

As far as i understand, the USB ports are not handled corectly by the BIOS. On the Maximus VIII Hero, the USB 2.0 chipset was enabled and used directly in BIOS, while on this Maximus X Hero, the USB 2.0 is actually used via the USB 3.0 chipset. Maybe a better USB support in BIOS could fix this...

Anyway, i have opened a support ticket... i hope somebody will have some answers. I will post in here as soon as i get a response.

[Raja@ASUS]

Monky, please list all usb devices you have plugged into the board, which ports they are plugged into, and the firmware version of each device. I may be able to ask for a replication.

As for the number of keyboards reported by uefi, that's how the keyboard represents itself due to rollover limitations.

Edit: As you've already contacted support, I'll let you work with them. Good luck!

[MonkY]

Hello Raja@ASUS!
I take any help i can get... it doesn't matter if it's oficial support, user support or anyone else. So if you can help us, let us know!

Regarding the list of all usb devices, let's ignore all of them for the moment and just focus on mouse and keyboard support, to actually be able to enter BIOS. Without that, any feature a motherboard like Maximus X Hero has is actually USELESS. How can i overclock, how can i setup my boot, how can i check settings, voltages and temps if i can't get into BIOS?

So, the only 2 devices i can list are: Dell Multimedia USB Keyboard + Logitech G502 Proteus Core. None of them are receiving power at boot time (i can see there is no Num Lock LED on, also no lights on the mouse). They only get power after Windows is started. And that's bad...

As i have said, i removed every USB device, except these two. I have tried all the USB ports... with no luck.

What to do next?

[Deepcuts]

MonkY, did you enable Fast Boot by any chance?

[kidofthe80s]

Hello All

Just came across this thread and other on the forum with regards to our non functioning USB ports on our STRIX-E MB....What the heck is happening to our MB ?!?

I've done exactly the same as other folks here on the forum have done to resolve this - hours spent - rebooted, updated drivers, bios upgrade, cmos battery, fresh install of windows, change settings in the BIOS settings, fast / normal boot, windows 10 regedits, etc, etc...all concludes with the fact that USB 2.0 and USB 3.1 are not simply functioning !

The only way I managed to get access to the bios and windows - is the one and only USB 3.1 Gen 2 port was still working and I had MS mouse-without-borders, installed on another PC so I could at least use a mouse to navigate...but thats not the point - I want all my USB ports to be working not just one !

The bottom line, something is very wrong with the bios code ...its can't be coincidence that other STRIX-E motherboards have experienced this issue - practically at the same time - one evening everything is good - the next morning - dead USB ports - and nothing changed !

ASUS Team we need some indepth diagnostic here...simply asking about what USB devices are plugged into our MB - isn't going to solve this issue...its much deep rooted than that....

I'm going to give it another 24 hours before I give in and get this replaced / refunded with 'another' MB...only had it for less than 2 weeks...

Help...

[MonkY]

MonkY, did you enable Fast Boot by any chance?

Only if it's enabled by default (even after CMOS reset), because at the moment, i have 2 keyboards... none of them get recognized in BIOS, therefore i can't Enable/Disable Fast Boot. Actually i can't change anything, sorry. It's getting frustrating, i know, specially for a something was supposed to be a high end motherboard. I haven't got these kind of issues with my cheapest ones... I hope Asus will come with an update on this.

P.S. The tech support asked me to check if i have CPU socket fins bent/damaged... even to check if the graphics card is properly inserted in the PCI-E slot. Really Asus? Since when a graphic card makes some keyboards not detectable in BIOS, but working in Windows?!?

[JonRedcorn]

Yeah this is ridiculous I previously had a 50 dollar biostar board that is still running just fine and it's 6 years old. Spent 200 on this strix-e and apparently the more expensive hero is having the same problems.

[Raja@ASUS]

Regarding the list of all usb devices, let's ignore all of them for the moment and just focus on mouse and keyboard support, to actually be able to enter BIOS. Without that, any feature a motherboard like Maximus X Hero has is actually USELESS. How can i overclock, how can i setup my boot, how can i check settings, voltages and temps if i can't get into BIOS?

Let's not ignore them.


List everything plugged into the board before this issue occured. Replication on a fresh system requires retracing steps that caused the issue to manifest. Until we know more, its difficult to pinpoint why it happened. Need all info, even if you think it's irrelevant. There are a lot of things that may be involved.

Which bios version were you using when the ports first stopped working? Was the system overclocked? Any other changes made to uefi?

Need that info to pass to replication teams. If that cones back negative, I'll ask someone to ship a board back to hq. I'm here at hq until April 3rd, so can deal with this directly.