Acer Nitro 5 Model AN515-52 USB 3.0 problem

I got a Seagate External Hard Drive back in October 2017. I bought this laptop back in October 2018. I wasn't told that I shouldn't be watching movies or playing games while the files were still on the External Hard Drive so disaster struck. I think my USB 3.0 port is broken. Whenever I tried to plug in the Seagate External Hard Drive, it would take 5 minutes to load the disk, then once it was loaded, I cannot do anything with the files (copy, delete, rename). I think because of that as well, my Seagate Drive also died in the process.

Now I tried to use a new WD Elements External Hard Drive and when I tried to plug it in the USB 3.0 port, it would make the same issue as with my previous Seagate External Hard Drive (loadup is almost 5 minutes, once loaded I cannot do anything). Can I still troubleshoot the problem or am I going to be forced to take it into the shop again?

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philetus

Go to Device Manager and click the arrow on Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Are there any flags on any thing marked USB?
Right click it and uninstall and reboot.

Fallen_Her0

philetus said:

Go to Device Manager and click the arrow on Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Are there any flags on any thing marked USB?
Right click it and uninstall and reboot.

Actually, there aren't any flags on all the USB drivers when I connect the WD External Hard Drive. I even tried to uninstall and reinstall all the USB drivers when I first encountered the problem in my Seagate Hard Drive but it didn't do anything.

*Update - the WD Elements works just fine on my USB 2.0 port. I was able to successfully transfer files there.

philetus

Do a Clean boot and see if it is still slow when you plug it in to USB 3.0 port .
Search the the event viewer in windows, click on "windows logs" option and then on "system". Do a test by plugging any of your HDD to USB3.0. Then right-click over "system" and refresh the list.

Fallen_Her0

philetus said:

Do a Clean boot and see if it is still slow when you plug it in to USB 3.0 port .
Search the the event viewer in windows, click on "windows logs" option and then on "system". Do a test by plugging any of your HDD to USB3.0. Then right-click over "system" and refresh the list.

I performed the Clean Boot and plugged in the WD Elements Hard Drive. It never loaded.

When I opened the Event Viewer > Windows Logs > System. I tried to refresh it a couple of times but nothing happened. These are the results when I connected the External Hard Drive through the USB 3.0 port. :

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/b6/e59cz0ech25v.png

philetus

It's either a damaged usb port or Windows.
Open a command prompt as Administrator and run sfc /scannow If you haven't used it before read this:
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161
If this doesn't fix it, you may need to refresh Windows.

philetus

Did you uninstall anything that says USB 3.0 without the external HDs plugged in and reboot?

Fallen_Her0

philetus said:

Did you uninstall anything that says USB 3.0 without the external HDs plugged in and reboot?

Yup. That was the one of the first things I did when I encountered the problem.

Fallen_Her0

philetus said:

It's either a damaged usb port or Windows.
Open a command prompt as Administrator and run sfc /scannow If you haven't used it before read this:
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161
If this doesn't fix it, you may need to refresh Windows.

Yes, while I was searching for other troubleshooting information, I stumbled upon another forum that said maybe a run of the System File Checker should fix the problem. I tried it, said it fixed some issues but it also didn't work. The External Hard Drive would still load slowly and after that, if I tried to access it, it would freeze the laptop.

Fallen_Her0

philetus said:

It's either a damaged usb port or Windows.
Open a command prompt as Administrator and run sfc /scannow If you haven't used it before read this:
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161
If this doesn't fix it, you may need to refresh Windows.

Yup, while I was searching for other troubleshooting information, I stumbled upon another forum that said maybe a run of the System File Checker should fix the problem. I tried it, said it fixed some issues but it also didn't work. The External Hard Drive still would still load slowly and after that, if I tried to access it, it would just freeze the laptop.

Commodore_1995#

Probably the USB 3.0 port is having problems. However, check to see if a battery reset solves the problem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfhgnxUJoZo&list=FLVBqwtBw09_Z9tXo1Injakw&index=3&t=0s

Fallen_Her0

egydiocoelho said:

Probably the USB 3.0 port is having problems. However, check to see if a battery reset solves the problem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfhgnxUJoZo&list=FLVBqwtBw09_Z9tXo1Injakw&index=3&t=0s

Sorry, a battery reset didn't solve the problem. For now I'm thinking about what philetus said, would a fresh Windows fix it?

philetus

If the port itself is not damaged, I would think a refresh would fix it. Something is causing all those errors in the system logs.

Fallen_Her0

philetus said:

If the port itself is not damaged, I would think a refresh would fix it. Something is causing all those errors in the system logs.

I recently finished refreshing Windows. Unfortunately, the USB 3.0 port still won't function normally. I guess I'll take it to the shop for the second time. Thanks for the help and advice @philetus and @egydiocoelho !