Nec Usb Open Host Controller Drivers For Mac
I recently bought a computer with an Asus P8 Z77 V Pro Mobo, which, ostensibly, has USB 3.0 ports courtesy of Intel and ASMedia. Since I didn't own a USB device of the new SuperSpeed variety, I bought myself a WD My Book 2TB. It was a fiasco.
As recounted elsewhere in these forums, it was unreliable. It would mount, except when it wouldn't - which was more than half the time. There was always a lengthy delay when plugging it in, even when it was properly recognized.
Sometimes it would just go.poof. and vanish while I was browsing files on it. Finally, Win8 said it needed to be formatted every time I successfully connected it. The formats always failed. So I RMA'd it. Got the new drive yesterday and it behaved the same way.
Looked at the logs and found a bunch of device could not start errors. I figured that WD surely checked this thing before they shipped it, so what the foxtrot was going on? Turns out there's a NEC USB Host Controller on my board which is, for all practical purposes, undocumented. No mention of it in the Asus manual, can't find it in Device Manager. The only clue that it existed was an entry under NEC Electronics in my program list for 'USB 3.0 Host Controller Driver USB 3.0 Host Controller Utility' but clicking on that resulted in a 'USB 3.0 Host Controller not found' message. The files were present but the utility wouldn't run. I ended up searching through hardware forums for people with similar issues and I found discussions of the NEC (now Renesas) drivers and firmware updates that solved USB 3.0 issues for some of the afflicted.
I opted to try a driver from Intel's site with only a small amount of trepidation. It installed as a Renesas product and it works splendidly.
Nec Usb Open Host Controller Drivers For Macbook Pro
My WD external is now recognized quickly every time I plug it in. Data transfers seem a bit speedier too. I'd like to update my firmware as well, but first I need to find out what specific chip I have. Since the Asus site seems devoid of information I guess I'll crack open the case and look for the NEC logo. Hope this helps someone else and I also hope this isn't one of those things everyone but me already knew. PS: The Renesas USB Host Controller Utility won't run either but, since the hardware seems to be working, I can live with that.