need help finding USB 3.0 drivers

[Diogones]

Hey all,


I have a Digital Storm desktop with an EVGA X58 SLI LE motherboard, running Windows 7 Pro x64. I recently installed a PCIe to USB 3.0 card in one of the available slots in the computer, but naturally Windows can't find a driver for it by itself. The card didn't include a driver CD, and I'm not sure which version of the driver I should use. I've tried several from both NEC and Renesas, and the card seems to work sometimes.


I got the card because I have a 3TB WD My Book Essential with a 3.0 cable, and I wanted to take advantage of the faster speeds. Whenever I plug the drive into a 2.0 port, everything is fine. But when I attach it to the USB 3.0 port, the results are sporadic. Sometimes it doesn't recognize the drive at all and nothing happens, or I get the message, "This device will perform faster if plugged into a USB Superspeed port." It will work when that message comes up, but I'm not sure if it is transferring at 2.0 or 3.0 speeds.


I have checked to ensure that 3.0 is enabled in the BIOS, and I've connected the 4-pin Molex connector to the card when using any device that has its own power supply, like my external drive.

[RetiredGeek]

FAICT you need to get the drivers from the manufacturer of the card. Was there any indication of the manufacturer on the packaging or on the board itself? If so, I'd go to that site and look for drivers. As a last resort you can check out the chipset manufacturers site for drivers.

Good Luck.

[CLiNT]

Make and model of device, and manufacturer name please.

[Diogones]

I only know what you guys see in the link to the device I provided in my original post. There isn't any information printed on the card, and all I know is it is a NEC card, which sometimes uses Renesas drivers.

[Diogones]

I realize now that I don't have SP1 installed for Windows 7. I haven't been able to, because it gives me an error message that some system components are missing. I've read that SP1 adds USB 3.0 support to Windows. Might this be the answer? If so, how would I get SP1 installed? Just a repair install, or would I have to make a clean go of it?

[Medico]

You could try to download the SP1 file, disconnect from the internet, turn off all security apps and install.

If you have to clean install you can download the Win 7 iso file that includes SP1, burn to DVD and use it along with your original key to install Win 7.

I hope this helps. Happy New Year!

[Diogones]

Thanks for the Win 7 iso download links Ted, they were great! I never knew you could download a whole iso of Win7+SP1 without running into legal trouble! I have tried running the SP1 as a standalone installer as you suggested, but no luck. I get the exact same error message. I may have to use the iso file that you suggested, and try a fresh install.

Any other suggestions as to a proper driver to use? I did find that I had two background USB 3.0 processes running: NUSB3MON and RUSB3MON, both of which are located in the same directory. I'm wondering if they are causing a conflict? I'll try disabling one and then the other with separate restarts just to see if that's the problem.

[Medico]

Have you attempted to contact the seller on eBay. Years ago when I sold these type items I would have S/W available, or know where to point buyers for this S/W. Might be worth an email.

Unfortunately this seller is located in Hong Kong, and many of these Asian sellers have been chronically somewhat unreliable.

[Diogones]

Glad you asked Ted; I have indeed sent an email to the seller, so hopefully they will respond within the next couple of days and help to clear this up. You're right: the fact that it is an overseas purchase, and especially from Hong Kong, doesn't help matters any. If they don't reply, I'll probably just go ahead and do the reinstall so I can install SP1. I don't know what third party software would have modified Windows enough that SP1 won't install. I download and try all sorts of different software all the time, so it could have been anything, and it certainly could have started months ago, so it would be very hard to pinpoint the exact software causing the problem.

[Diogones]

Great news! The buyer responded and he gave me a link to a NEC driver, so I'm going to install it and see if it works, after I uninstall every other USB 3.0 driver I've installed first. I'll let you know what happens.

[Medico]

Glad the seller actually responded. That is great news. Here's hoping the installation is successful.

[Diogones]

Well bad news. The driver that the seller provided did not work, which doesn't surprise me one bit!

I also tried using the Startup Repair option 3 times, as I've heard that can help, but no luck with that method either.

I finally gave in and decided to use the repair install option to fix Windows, but I've hit a snag:

I tried using my retail Win 7 disc, but after I clicked the "Upgrade" option, I received a dialogue which stated that, "Windows Professional cannot be upgraded to Windows Professional." I got the same error after I downloaded the SP1 integrated Win 7 iso, burned that to a DVD, and tried using it to run the repair. I thought I was just doing a repair install? But for some reason, when I select Upgrade instead of Custom, the installer will not let me proceed. Very strange!

[Infinicore]

Oh dear! My friend, I would have strongly cautioned you against anything from overseas that is 1/3 to 1/4 the price it should be. In this same timeframe I set up a Renesas Electronics USB 3 1xPCIe card from Rosewill (RC-505). I think I got it from Newegg and upon first use with a linear copy of data to a 1TB Seagate mechanical drive, saw copy speeds up to 108 MB/s and some sustained speeds right around 90 MB/s. So you might expect better speeds than I reported before, at least when copying large blocks of contiguous data to a defragmented drive.

Are you starting the repair install from an admin account in Win 7? You can't do it by booting to the disc. Here is some more do's and don'ts and how to stuff.

[Diogones]

Yeah, hindsight is 20/10, isn't it Infinicore? Still, the seller has been helpful, and he will accept returns, if I decide to send the card back his way. But I am excited about the transfer speeds you've reported; if I can get this working, there is no telling what sort of speeds I might witness.

Yep, I followed the sevenforums guide to the letter: it is my admin account, and it is from within Windows. I've heard that MS has removed the repair install option now, and won't let us use it? Maybe that would explain why I can't perform the in-place repair. Otherwise, I don't know what it could be.

[curiousclive]

Sounds like the same thing that is stopping you from installing SP1 is also interfering with the repair options.. May be a good idea to save all important data and do a complete image backup. So can go back if things go wrong. Then clean install using 'custom' option to format drive before install. Have to do this from booting to Disk though. (Use the win7 disk with SP1 and your original activation key).