Front USB 2.0 Port Issue: Can Only Power One Adapter/Receiver at a time (Crashing)

Templeton Peck · November 2, 2020

I have a Fractal Define 7 case. My motherboard is an ASUS Z490-A Gaming. I'm running Windows 10 professional.

The case has 4 USB ports on the front (well five USB C as well). Two USB 2.0 and Two USB 3.0.

I have plugged into the USB 2.0 ports a XBOX one wireless adapter and a logitech unifying receiver for my home theatre media keyboard.

The issue I have is only one of these can work/exists at a time. If I use the controller for example all is well, but when I go to use the keyboard it doesn't work (device manager says "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43) A request for the USB device descriptor failed."). I have to unplug it and plug it back in to get it going. It's like it can only power one port at a time. I tried to force it to do both once and it BSOD me (KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED).

I wouldn't usually have both going at the same time anyways, but it's annoying to have to unplug and plug back in the adapters each time, as it can't dynamically switch to one after using the other.

If I plug both into the USB 3.0 ports it works fine. I'd prefer not to do this as I use those ports as well and would like to know if these ports are faulty.

If I plug one adapter in to the USB 2.0 ports and one flash/thumb drive it works (originally I thought it didn't when first trying, but retrying again it works fine in this configuration). If I plug in two flash/thumb drives into the USB 2.0 ports and run them at the same time, it works fine.

Is there some power limitation of USB 2.0 where it can't run two wireless adapters off the shared two front ports? Is it faulty case port/wiring, or is it the motherboard USB 2.0 connector?

Templeton Peck · November 2, 2020

Update: I hooked both wireless adapters up to a pair of USB 2.0 ports on an old case and it worked without issue. Something definitely wrong with the ports, header or cabling.

Templeton Peck · November 2, 2020

My motherboard has an additional USB2 header on it. I swapped to it and the issue persists.

Also, I tried another combination with a wired XBOX 360 controller and one of the adapters and it couldn't power both at the same time.

It seems to be the higher the power draw of the two devices the more likely only one port will work at time or if I try to use both at the same time the ports go dead or my computer crashes.

Templeton Peck · November 13, 2020

If anyone cares I ended up contacting Fractal and they sent me a replacement for the ports. Disassembly and reassembly wasn't fun, but I got it done and have functioning ports again.

Their customer service was super fast in responding to my ticket and had replacements on the way within a day. They shipped from Texas so they took a little bit to reach me here in British Columbia.