DOCTOR
AMD USB Problems
I have an AMD R9 3900X build with an MSI X570 MPG Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard. I was having thermal issues with the voltage regulator modules, which meant the CPU was being throttled when the VRMs hit 95 degrees Celsius. I decided to replace the mobo with an ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair Hero VIII, which runs a lot cooler.
I originally stuck with the same Windows install, which settled down after several reboots and driver updates, but have now run into some weird issues. USB flash drives are only recognized 50 percent of the time when plugged into any USB 3.0 port, forcing me to unplug and reinsert them. Sometimes I get an error saying the USB device wasn’t removed properly, even when nothing is plugged into it!
Also, when the PC starts, it occasionally boots to a blurry login screen, but the login box does not appear, so I’m forced to reboot. I had to disable Quick Start to get around this issue. Finally, Device Manager shows an error: "Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed)." I’ve tried uninstalling and disabling the device, but the error always appears.
I did a complete fresh install of Windows 10 Pro as a last resort. After the fresh install, the Windows errors were still present, so I’m thinking the issue may be the motherboard. I hope you can provide me with some guidance. Thank you.
–Jon Shimamoto
THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: It pays to pair a brand new mobo with a fresh Windows install— wiping the hard drive completely clean, then performing a factory-fresh install with no traces of any old systems left. The Doc assumes it’s what you’ve (belatedly) done here.
The fact the problem has persisted means something isn’t right, however. You could try RMAing the board,
but an online search reveals numerous complaints about USBs on AMD chipsets. It means your issues could be down to anything from voltage settings or memory timings to drivers or USB power-saving settings. It’s worth troubleshooting further before returning your board.
A good tool for tracking down the source of USB problems is HWinfo ( www. hwinfo.com). In your case, the device descriptor error should point to a specific port—open HWinfo’s main screen, then expand “Ports > Serial Ports > USB >
AMD 3.10 eXtensible Host Controller—1.10 (Microsoft).” A list of all ports will be shown, along with the devices connected to each port. Selecting this should hopefully help you identify which device is causing the problem, allowing you to investigate further.
For more general troubleshooting, start by making sure you’ve got the latest BIOS update (dated March 20th) installed, and while you’re at it, visit https:// bit.ly/MPCAsus to see what drivers are available. If nothing shows up in the driver search, you may need to whitelist the site with your ad-blocker to make them visible. The obvious driver to install here is the chipset one, but there’s been reports that these are less stable than the ones supplied by Windows, so consider rolling back to the Windows ones to see if that improves matters.
Finally, others have traced their problems to the AMD Ryzen power plan—it’s not enough to simply switch to another plan, you need to remove the plan too. First, verify it exists: type “power plan” into the search box and click “Choose a power plan.” If an AMD Ryzen entry is present, first switch to another plan (say “Balanced”). Next, click “Change plan settings” next to the AMD Ryzen plan and click “Delete
this plan” to remove it. If the problem persists, access your new plan’s advanced power settings, expanding the USB section and disabling USB selective suspend.
Fix Filesystem Corruption
My Windows 10 64-bit system was reliable for years, but then began to hang for brief periods. After a fruitless search, someone suggested it might be down to a bad spot on the drive—I ran "chkdsk" and it found an error. I re-ran it, instructing it to repair the problem—it finished, rebooted, and then told me the filesystem was corrupt. I used a recovery boot CD and expected to find that the drive was empty, but all my files are still there. I’ve tried searching for any utility that might fix the filesystem problem but found nothing. Is there anything out there that might be able to repair the filesystem?
–Bill Simpson
THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: In an ideal world, we’d focus on recovering the specific program you want to save, but without knowing what it is we can’t determine whether you need to recover a product key (which may be stored in the Registry) or source an installer for that specific version of the program in order to resurrect it—and that’s before saving any configuration settings.
Consequently, the Doc will reveal a tool that enables you to take a fail-safe image of the entire hard drive before attempting to repair the filesystem using its own collection of tools. That tool is Lazesoft Recovery Suite ( www.lazesoft.com/lazesoftrecovery-suite-free.html). Install it on a working PC and use it to create a bootable USB flash drive or DVD to run on your afflicted PC.
Once done, boot your troublesome PC from the rescue media. Start by selecting “Lazesoft Disk Image & Clone” and choosing “Drive to Image” to create a VHD image of the entire drive on a backup drive. If all else fails, you’ll be able to access this VHD image in a number of ways—“mounted” like an actual physical disk using a free tool like OSFMount ( https://bit.ly/ MPCMount) to enable you to browse its contents and copy off individual items, for example. It can also be attached to a virtual machine using Virtualbox, or copied back to another hard drive (handy if you’d discovered your non-working PC’s drive was physically damaged and needed replacing).
With this fail-safe backup in place, you can then return to the main Lazesoft menu and choose “Windows Recovery.” Try the “One Click Fix” solution first—if it fails, undo it, then try “chkdsk” on the “BootCrash” tab, followed by “Check Partitions” and “Additional Tools > Run
SFC.” Still no luck? The “FinalSolution” will guide you through a Windows reinstall—you may be able to perform a repair install from here to bring Windows back again without losing any data or access to your program.
Wipe or Upgrade?
I’m finally ready to ditch Windows 7 for Windows 10. I’ve downloaded the free upgrade to a USB drive following your column in the August 2019 issue. My question is how to prep for this upgrade. I’ve always wiped the hard drive to do a clean install. Since this free Windows 10 upgrade didn’t come in a shrink-wrapped factory package CD with new registration code, must I install it on top of Windows 7?
–David Marshall
THE DOCTOR RESPONDS:
Follow the Doc’s advice and upgrade over the top of your existing Windows 7 installation— this will ensure that a valid digital license for Windows 10 Home is produced for your PC (after installation completes, open Settings and search for “see if Windows is activated” to confirm it’s worked—at time of writing, you are still able to get a free upgrade). Once you’ve got that, and linked it to a Microsoft account, feel free to wipe the drive and reinstall Windows 10 from scratch.
Pair Device Twice
I’ve got a Bluetooth mouse
I’d like to use on a dualboot system, but each time I pair it with one Windows 10 installation, it won’t then connect to the other unless I perform the pairing dance again. Other Bluetooth devices don’t have this problem—can I get the mouse to stay paired to both devices at the same time?
–Jake Wilkins
THE DOCTOR RESPONDS: Most Bluetooth mice (and keyboards) can only be paired with a single OS or machine at one time. Multi-device peripherals exist—for example, Logitech’s MK850 combines Bluetooth mouse and keyboard with support for up to three devices.
You can, however, see if you can trick your Bluetooth mouse into thinking your two Windows installations are one and the same. This relies on both installations sharing the same Bluetooth dongle (if you’re feeling brave, you may be able to adapt this to work on two separate Windows
PCs, so long as you remember to swap the Bluetooth adapter between each machine).
Step one is to pair your mouse with the first Windows partition. Once done, repeat for your second partition. As things stand, the mouse works with partition two, but not partition one. While still in partition two, open “Settings > Devices” and click “Devices and Printers” to open Control Panel. Double-click your Bluetooth mouse to open a “Properties” screen, switch to the “Bluetooth” tab and make a note of its unique identifier.
Next, press Win + R, type “regedit” and hit Enter. Browse to the following key: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ Services\BTHPORT\ Parameters\Keys.” Expand this, and you should find a subkey with a unique alphanumeric name (such as 001583ee1140) that refers to your Bluetooth adapter. Inside this will be a value that matches your mouse’s unique identifier. Right-click the subkey and choose “Export” to save it as a REG in a location accessible to partition one. Expand the “Devices key” above “Keys”—you’ll find a subkey that matches your mouse’s ID. Export this key too.
Attach a wired mouse to your PC and reboot into partition one. The Bluetooth mouse will stop working, but import the two REG files you created (double-click each in turn and follow the prompts to merge them into the Registry) and reboot again into partition one. You should now have access in both installations.