So I have an oldish Steelseries Siberia 350 USB headset and a very new MSI Force G20 gamepad controller, both of which work perfectly well when in use. Except both devices stop working with Windows when the computer reboots or cold starts. All my other USB devices (memory sticks, keyboard, mouse) work perfectly without any issues. If I unplug the affected devices, and replug them back in again, then the issue is resolved, until next reboot.
Is there any reason for this? For the life of me I cannot work it out what is going wrong. Both affected devices are USB 2.0 devices connected to the computer via USB 2.0 ports.
Additional Info
I have had the Steelseries 350 for sometime. It worked flawlessly on Windows 7, and then this issue started occurring on Windows 10, and I never got to the bottom of the problem. I assumed it was because the headset was old, but read on and I'll explain.
Then I built a new Windows 11 machine with a new processor and motherboard. The Windows 11 was achieved by clean installing the Windows 10 key on a newly formatted stick, and then upgrading to Windows 11 immediately afterwards.
The new motherboard+CPU, Windows installation and Win 11 upgrade never cured the issue. So I still suspected the age of the headset.
Then, a few months ago I bought the MSI Force G20 gamepad controller, and it too exhibited the same symptoms: works fine when in use, and then stops connecting on reboot. The MSI device has flashing LEDs on front. From my understanding, when it is properly connected only two of the LEDs flash. Which LEDs flash depend on whether wireless or wired connection is used. I only use wired. However, when not connected to PC, then all four LEDs flash until a connection is established or the device goes power saving. And that is what I am seeing: I see all four lights initially flash indicating power but no connection. If I unplug it and plug it back in to the same port, then the two LEDs flash, and it is fine again. (Because the gamepad has a battery, it is a job to tell whether the power is from USB or from the battery, when the issue occurs.)
Well, the problem cannot be the age of the headset if the new gamepad also exhibits same issue. Sounds fair?
That is not the end of it. Next, I try a test where I plug in a problem device during the bootup sequence. If I plug in the device during the BIOS splash screen phase, it works as expected after Windows has loaded. How about that? It cannot even be a Windows problem, if plugging in during boot fixes it. On two separate motherboards, from two different manufacturers (Asrock and MSI), I get the same problem.
The two identified common denominators that affect the systems (Win 10 and Win 11) are:
Is there any reason for this? For the life of me I cannot work it out what is going wrong. Both affected devices are USB 2.0 devices connected to the computer via USB 2.0 ports.
Additional Info
I have had the Steelseries 350 for sometime. It worked flawlessly on Windows 7, and then this issue started occurring on Windows 10, and I never got to the bottom of the problem. I assumed it was because the headset was old, but read on and I'll explain.
Then I built a new Windows 11 machine with a new processor and motherboard. The Windows 11 was achieved by clean installing the Windows 10 key on a newly formatted stick, and then upgrading to Windows 11 immediately afterwards.
The new motherboard+CPU, Windows installation and Win 11 upgrade never cured the issue. So I still suspected the age of the headset.
Then, a few months ago I bought the MSI Force G20 gamepad controller, and it too exhibited the same symptoms: works fine when in use, and then stops connecting on reboot. The MSI device has flashing LEDs on front. From my understanding, when it is properly connected only two of the LEDs flash. Which LEDs flash depend on whether wireless or wired connection is used. I only use wired. However, when not connected to PC, then all four LEDs flash until a connection is established or the device goes power saving. And that is what I am seeing: I see all four lights initially flash indicating power but no connection. If I unplug it and plug it back in to the same port, then the two LEDs flash, and it is fine again. (Because the gamepad has a battery, it is a job to tell whether the power is from USB or from the battery, when the issue occurs.)
Well, the problem cannot be the age of the headset if the new gamepad also exhibits same issue. Sounds fair?
That is not the end of it. Next, I try a test where I plug in a problem device during the bootup sequence. If I plug in the device during the BIOS splash screen phase, it works as expected after Windows has loaded. How about that? It cannot even be a Windows problem, if plugging in during boot fixes it. On two separate motherboards, from two different manufacturers (Asrock and MSI), I get the same problem.
The two identified common denominators that affect the systems (Win 10 and Win 11) are:
- affected machines are both AMD machines, while the earlier *working* Windows 7 machine was Intel. So is AMD a problem with USB 2.0 devices? Surely is it that simple? Any other suggestions?
- USB 2.0 used on USB 3.0/3.1 motherboards. Is that an issue? They are supposed to be backward compatible, but the power ratings, at least, are different. Currently haven't seen any posts from posters with the same issue with their headsets and gamepads, so why me?
- Windows Build/Version
- Windows 11 23H2 Build 22631.3347 + Windows 10 (unknown build)
My Computers
System One System Two
-
- OS
- Windows 11
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 5 5600
- Motherboard
- MSI B550-A Pro
- Memory
- 16 GB
- Graphics Card(s)
- Sapphire Radeon RX 6500XT (8 GB version)
- Monitor(s) Displays
- BenQ Mobuiz EX2710Q QHD, Iiyama ProLite X23377HDS
- Hard Drives
- MSI Spatium M461 4TB
-
- Operating System
- Windows 11
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Acer A114
- CPU
- Intel Celeron N4020