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Topic: Odd Issues with USB3 External Enclosures (Read 2733 times) previous topic - next topic
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Odd Issues with USB3 External Enclosures

I've got a number of USB2.0 and USB 3.0 external drive enclosures to allow me to have multiple different types of drive connected to my PC once for Ripping CDs etc.  I recently ripped a lot with 7 drives (5 external and two internal) - using CueRipper.  I first found i had bus hanging issues with one of the USB3 drives plugged in, but i swapped it onto another cable in another port and it worked - so i assumed a dodgy cable.  I've now rebuilt my OS from scratch (clean Win10 Pro, 20H2 latest build). I also got hold of an older Plextor drive so bought an extra enclosure for that as well All good i thought!

Tonight i've spent 5 hours trying to work out what on earth is wrong!  Whenever i try to use Cueripper (2.16 or 2.17) with my external enclosures; it detects and ID's the disc, downloads artwork etc.  but when i click Go I get the "detecting drive features" in bottom left, the drive access light flickers once....and thats it.  except it completely kills cueripper and also does odd things on the bus - the only way i can recover is to pull the power out of the drive, everything comes back again and i get an Error unable to read from disc message from CueRipper.  What i couldn't understand is how 2 of my ports were working fine, and the others not and displaying this same problem.  To further complicate things, i bought another cheap external enclosure - and no matter what port this is plugged into, it works fine!

So in desperation (and reinstalling all USB and motherboard drives, sfc /scannow etc, trawling logs) I downloaded a small tools called USB Device Tree Viewer - this gives me details of everything connected, but speeds, commands etc - nice free tool! And this is where i've discovered the something interesting!

The expensive (£60 each) enclosures I am using are Lindy USB3.0 units. If these connect to the PC and are plugged into a port that sees them as USB3.0 - CueRipper exhibits the above issues.  if they only connect as USB 2.10 - they work fine!  no issues at all.  To further complicate things, when i plug the chinese junk enclosure, this connects at USB3.0 and works perfectly!  I've also tested using the same ports that CueRipper can't handle using EAC - this detects the drive, sets it up and rips without any problems or lockups at all.

So my only thought is perhaps CueRipper is not liking talking to these enclosures all of a sudden?  seems odd as it worked before (although i cannot guarantee that they weren't just plugged into ports it couldn't connect on above USB 2.10)....

Can anyone help please?  I'm running an i9-10900 with a Gigabyte Z490 Vision D board, and i'm using Lindy Usb 3.0 enclosures (https://www.lindy-international.com/USB-3-0-Enclosure-5-25-for-BD-DVD-CD-Drives.htm?websale8=ld0101.ld020102&pi=43138&ci=5004).  I'm running out of ideas, so ANY help would be appreciated!

Re: Odd Issues with USB3 External Enclosures

Reply #1
Could it be a problem with the power brick?
Who are you and how did you get in here ?
I'm a locksmith, I'm a locksmith.


Re: Odd Issues with USB3 External Enclosures

Reply #3
@zordaz thanks for that.  I did wonder if this was the case, except it completely crashes the USB bus it seems and i literally have to force a reset of the port to resolve it.  I did try using EAC and that worked fine, so i'm not sure if its something to do with the USB enclosure or Cueripper - clearly something between the two!

I have got 3 of these enclosures, and tried all three brickswith teh same issue.  tried differnt short USB3 cables, different ports etc - exactly the same issues.

The only differnce bettwen the Lindy devices that don't work at USB3 and the Generic chinese one is that the Generic one uses a Profilic chipset; whereas the Lindy one appears to use a VIA chipset - i can't tell because the device descriptors haven't been changed from the sample firmware clearly - the product and device strings still report "VLI Manufacturer string", vendor ID 0x1234/Device I 0x5678!

Re: Odd Issues with USB3 External Enclosures

Reply #4
so i've now tried 3 other usb 3 enclosures, all using different chipsets and none of them exhibit this issue.  i've also obtained a newer firmware for the controller and that makes no difference.  whenever the enclosure is used with CueRipper it seems to completly crash the whole hub

Re: Odd Issues with USB3 External Enclosures

Reply #5
I've logged a support post on the cuetools issues page and added load of information - no-one has even bothered to acknowledge my issue even :(

 

Re: Odd Issues with USB3 External Enclosures

Reply #6
I've logged a support post on the cuetools issues page and added load of information - no-one has even bothered to acknowledge my issue even :(

I did as well, without any reaction. I think CUETools is more or less a dead project.