Solved PCIe USB Cards

archfoto · Jul 12, 2024

I don't know why you might be experiencing your problems, but I ordered this card when I bought my new Dell: Amazon.com . It has been in use for about a year, and I run 3 external USB 3.0 drives from it, and so far, so good. Warning, it does not provide power to devices, only good for data. I hope that helps.

MrPig · Jul 12, 2024

That card appears to have a few issues judging by the comments. It may be the current crop of cards fitted with old chipsets that don't play well with PCIe 4.0/5.0 slots.
Boombastik may be right with a flaky BIOS but Gigabyte will just say its not on their QVL list.

spapakons · Jul 12, 2024

Do you have latest BIOS? If not upgrade, even if it is a Beta version. It might improve compatibility.

MrPig · Jul 12, 2024

BIOS is up to date.

spapakons · Jul 12, 2024

I would return the motherboard to the shop for replacement under Warranty, just in case. It shouldn't be the card since two different cards have the same issue. Don't tell them you have issues with the USB card, they will blame the card. Say you experience BSOD in Windows, it is hard to verify and they will replace the motherboard just in case.

MrPig · Jul 12, 2024

It is a replacement motherboard.

spapakons · Jul 13, 2024

Have a look in the advanced section in BIOS. Can you increase the voltage of the PCIe slots? Maybe it would help. Increase by small steps to avoid damage.

MrPig · Jul 13, 2024

spapakons said:
Have a look in the advanced section in BIOS. Can you increase the voltage of the PCIe slots? Maybe it would help. Increase by small steps to avoid damage.

Nope, never seen that on any mobo!

spapakons · Jul 13, 2024

Just curious, doesn't your motherboard already have USB 3.0 or higher ports? Why do you need the card? Why don't you just buy a USB 3.0 hub to increase them?

MrPig · Jul 13, 2024

The mobo does have some ports, not enough for me. It may well be that I buy a hub until some more modern cards appear on the market.

I have a development board that requires 3 USB connections.

boombastik · Jul 13, 2024

I insist to contact gigabyte support. This is not a motherboard problem. This is bios bug or eratta. I believe that the card will work fine if there exist a pcie slot from the chipset. In this motherboard all the pcie slots are from the cpu. With this new motherboard they will try to fix it.

Qvl list usually is only for ram and cpu, so you will not have a problem. You can try also to buy a USB with vl805 chipset.

spapakons · Jul 13, 2024

If he contacts Gigabyte it will take ages to reply only to finally claim their motherboard has no issues and blame the USB card. Not the result he is waiting for.

This reminds me back in the Intel Pentium 4 socket 478 days that legacy PCI to USB 2.0 cards with a VIA chipset would be incompatible with the Intel 440BX chipset of the motherboard and produce a BSOD. No drivers could fix it, you needed to find a USB 2.0 card with a different chipset. This was hard to do because, at least here in Greece, most cards had a VIA chipset.

MrPig · Jul 14, 2024

So I plugged the Fresco card into my old box (ASUS X99-E) & it works perfectly. Multiple reboots & no lock ups.
When searching for USB cards I have seen a few on Amazon where they state the card will not work on PCIe 4.0 slots.
I also contacted Gigabyte support to see if they have a explanation, BIOS and/or firmware update.

spapakons · Jul 14, 2024

You already have USB 3.0 ports. I would just buy a powered 4-port or larger USB 3.0 hub to increase the number of ports.

MrPig · Jul 16, 2024

Downloaded the Fresco datasheet for their FL1100 host controller & the chip on my *NEW* card is 11 years old!

spapakons · Jul 17, 2024

Google for the chipset FL1100. Try any drivers you can find, even from different manufacturers using the same chipset. One of them should work for you.

MrPig · Jul 17, 2024

Done that nothing works.

MrPig · Aug 4, 2024

Got some answers from Gigabyte.

They recommend buying the PCI USB card on their QVL list: can't do that as not available in UK or the slots are duff & mobo needs RMA!
I did explain I have tried the USB cards in all slots (failed) & tried my GPU in all slots and that still works.
Don't understand why pressing F10 & invoking boot manager the system loads & runs perfectly.

Any guru's here who understands what happens when UEFI hands over to boot manager? Is there something I can change or a program to analyse the boot process?

spapakons · Aug 5, 2024

When pressing F10 to bypass boot sequence and go directly to the Windows disk, it makes sense to load instantly. This suggests some device in the boot sequence that takes more time to identify and hence the delay. In any other system I would suspect a faulty disk (usual cause of boot delay or of boot freeze). However, you already found is your USB card. Probably it tries to determine if any bootable USB flash drive or hard disk is connected before going to the next device. Can you disable boot ROM of your card, if there is any configuration menu? Does it make any difference if you set your Windows disk first in BIOS?

MrPig · Aug 5, 2024

Done all that, makes no difference.

I have two NVMe drives & I swapped them around the other day & when I powered on, the system booted correctly, no freeze!
However, after a power cycle, back to normal & it froze at the Windows screen. So it can work but what is happening?

I have been playing with xbootmgr to analyse the boot process & I still have to press F10 & go through boot manager to get it to run.