USB3 Drive Base Disconnecting During Write Cycle

Well, I spoke too soon about the second port not being a problem. It dropped hard just a few minutes ago.

I have my system hooked up to a Startech docking station, so I run 2 additional monitors, and it has a USB3 powered hub and ethernet on it. I was installing Battlenet onto the drive, and boom. It dropped. I lost my keyboard, ethernet, but surprisingly, my monitors were still on... I had to undock and redock the screen to get things back.

It's consistent now too, if I attempt to install Battlenet, it drops at 89% each time.

I then pulled out my hard drive dock, and plugged my drive in, installed Battlenet, and it worked...

I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to try and explain this too... I'm really starting to lean toward the return and wait till Surface Book 2... I really like what this machine can do, but these bugs and the constant fighting I have to do to get the machine to do what I want is really starting to wear on me.

It sounds like your issues are identical to mine.

I might swap mine out for another and also try out that cable. I hate the idea of having to get a new machine as much as I hate the idea of losing a USB port, but I need more reliability than this.

So, I was doing some more in-depth digging tonight, and ventured into the error logs.

In this location:

Application and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > StorDiag > Microsoft-Windows-Storage-ClassPnP/Operational

there is this error, it starts with this description: "Completing a failed Read SCSI SRB request"

Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-Storage-ClassPnP/Operational

Source:        Microsoft-Windows-StorDiag

Date:          12/1/2015 10:17:21 PM

Event ID:      505

Task Category: Class

Level:         Error

Keywords:      Low memory Read request,Paging Read request,Read request

User:          N/A

Computer:      DESKTOP-2SG1PM5

Description:

Completing a failed Read SCSI SRB request

Event Xml:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

  <System>

    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-StorDiag" Guid="{F5D05B38-80A6-4653-825D-C414E4AB3C68}" />

    <EventID>505</EventID>

    <Version>1</Version>

    <Level>2</Level>

    <Task>200</Task>

    <Opcode>101</Opcode>

    <Keywords>0x800000002a00000</Keywords>

    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2015-12-02T03:17:21.526715400Z" />

    <EventRecordID>1504</EventRecordID>

    <Correlation ActivityID="{03E80006-0002-0000-403B-321400E0FFFF}" />

    <Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />

    <Channel>Microsoft-Windows-Storage-ClassPnP/Operational</Channel>

    <Computer>DESKTOP-2SG1PM5</Computer>

    <Security />

  </System>

  <EventData>

    <Data Name="DeviceGUID">{A9B1A85C-C040-3304-E9CE-A70E8A95BA88}</Data>

    <Data Name="DeviceNumber">2</Data>

    <Data Name="Vendor">Samsung </Data>

    <Data Name="Model">SSD 850 EVO 500G</Data>

    <Data Name="FirmwareVersion">0   </Data>

    <Data Name="SerialNumber">B21987654321</Data>

    <Data Name="DownLevelIrpStatus">0xc00000a3</Data>

    <Data Name="SrbStatus">196</Data>

    <Data Name="ScsiStatus">2</Data>

    <Data Name="SenseKey">2</Data>

    <Data Name="AdditionalSenseCode">4</Data>

    <Data Name="AdditionalSenseCodeQualifier">1</Data>

    <Data Name="CdbByteCount">10</Data>

    <Data Name="CdbBytes">2800390BCD0000000800</Data>

    <Data Name="NumberOfRetriesDone">4</Data>

  </EventData>

</Event>

Then continues to "Completing a failed upper level paging read request."

Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-Storage-ClassPnP/Operational

Source:        Microsoft-Windows-StorDiag

Date:          12/1/2015 10:17:21 PM

Event ID:      502

Task Category: Class

Level:         Error

Keywords:      Paging Read request,Read request

User:          N/A

Computer:      DESKTOP-2SG1PM5

Description:

Completing a failed upper level paging read request.

Event Xml:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

  <System>

    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-StorDiag" Guid="{F5D05B38-80A6-4653-825D-C414E4AB3C68}" />

    <EventID>502</EventID>

    <Version>1</Version>

    <Level>2</Level>

    <Task>200</Task>

    <Opcode>101</Opcode>

    <Keywords>0x800000000a00000</Keywords>

    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2015-12-02T03:17:21.526719100Z" />

    <EventRecordID>1505</EventRecordID>

    <Correlation />

    <Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />

    <Channel>Microsoft-Windows-Storage-ClassPnP/Operational</Channel>

    <Computer>DESKTOP-2SG1PM5</Computer>

    <Security />

  </System>

  <EventData>

    <Data Name="DeviceGUID">{A9B1A85C-C040-3304-E9CE-A70E8A95BA88}</Data>

    <Data Name="DeviceNumber">2</Data>

    <Data Name="Vendor">Samsung </Data>

    <Data Name="Model">SSD 850 EVO 500G</Data>

    <Data Name="FirmwareVersion">0   </Data>

    <Data Name="SerialNumber">B21987654321</Data>

    <Data Name="IrpStatus">0xc00000a3</Data>

    <Data Name="LBA">0x390bcd00</Data>

    <Data Name="TransferByteCount">4096</Data>

    <Data Name="NvCachePriority">255</Data>

    <Data Name="PagingPriority">1</Data>

  </EventData>

</Event>

I'm going to attempt to talk to tech support tomorrow to see what they say. In the rear port, the drive unmounts, in the port near the SD card, it stays mounted, but the drive is not accessible anymore.

Ok, so further testing.

Tonight, I tried running my Battlenet install and my CrystalDiskMan test on my Western Digital MyPassport drive and a PNY 128GB USB3 flash drive. Both worked without issue. I even picked up another external USB enclosure, and it also failed in the CrystalDiskMan test, but surprisingly installed Battlenet. The only conclusion I can make at this point is somehow these USB3 enclosures may be drawing more power than the port is capable delivering... 

My only last test that I'm going to try and do is buy an actual external SSD unit by Samsung, to see if that makes any lick of difference.

I can't believe I'm actually doing all this... :(

USB3 definitely draws more power than USB2, but the thing that surprised me is that SSDs draw more power doing a read than a write.

I do have a Samsung T1 SSD and I have the same issues as you, so I'd hold off on that hefty purchase right now. I do have one of those Y cables arriving on Friday, so I'll let you know if that makes any difference because I do have that gut feeling this is all about power and maybe the SSD is having some kind of power spike.