Question NVME USB drives Realtek RTL9210/RTL9220 Firmware Version 1.xx

I'd guess this is just some freak occurrence, or something I did wrong, but after a failed flash on mine, the procedure appears to have managed to kill the USB 3 functionality of a front panel card reader/USB port here.

I grabbed the 1.33.7 bundle and used the updater from that. I believe the previous FW was Sabrent's 1.32.87.082923. I can't remember what the specific message was, but it errored out, and afterward, refused to see the device at all. I moved it to a different rear panel port, got it recognized, and then flashed again (successfully) with the Realtek FW. After some testing, I found that the front panel multi-reader will no longer see anything as USB3, but 2.0 devices are OK. With the Sabrent, it refuses even to see it at all.

I was relieved to see that the actual controller on my motherboard, and the internal socket the reader is on are still functioning properly, so I guess it's the circuitry in the card reader (which I don't care too much about). The initial failed flash happened with the NVMe drive still in the box, and I think I took it out to be safe on the reflash, but it was probably just putting it on a non-dead port that got it recognized and fixed. The drive was a 512GB Micron MTFDKBA512QFM that I pulled from a new mini PC. The OS was Windows 7 64bit.

Just figured I'd post a warning that it might be worth doing it on a hub or secondary computer. I have no idea why it would be able to do that, or what it actually did, so if anybody has a good guess, I'd be interested. I know they fuse some of the ports on motherboards for overcurrent protection, but I thought they were a type which reset themselves somehow. Again, it was probably just a fluke and bad luck.

Take Care

PS- The reason I found this thread was that the Sabrent frequently gets picked up as a USB2.1 device, with a couple different cables and connection methods. I thought maybe the Realtek FW would fix that, but I've seen it do it on that as well a couple times now. I've also seen it stay physically connected, through a reboot into a different OS, and show up as 2.1, despite being at USB3.2 before, so it's not the insertion of the plug or anything. If there's some special trick to that, I'd be interested in that as well. -Thanks    

@Jidis Try going into Device Manger and the at the bottom of the list it should say Universal Serial Bus Controllers,next delete the drivers for each one and then reinstall them or try doing a Windows update to reinstall them,that may fix your problem by wiping out the wrong driver.

Also if your enclosure isn't working right I have a massive collection of the configure files and I'd be glad to email them to you if you want,just email me at tjw4700@yahoo.ca and title the configure files and I'll be glad to email them to you.

My guess also is that your card reader is a Realtek device and somehow something got messed up,did you make sure to see how many device's the firmware tool was going to update and then deselect other device's.

Hey @Laroldski,

Much thanks for all the tips! Pulling everything one by one from the device manager was one of the first things I did when the panic struck. After a few reboots, I think I had gotten to all of them (kept killing the one my keys and mouse are on). I didn't change drivers or anything when each one got re-detected, but just let it reinstall what it had before. After last night's tests, I'm pretty sure that part of the chain is OK anyway. I've got two internal USB3 headers on my board. One goes to that card reader/port thing, and the other goes to one of those rear panel slot cover brackets with two USB3 type A's on it. Swapping them, and putting the rear bracket on the suspected problem header exhibited no trouble with USB3, so I think it's pretty well narrowed down to the front panel thing.

Checking out that card reader thing in the USB Tree Viewer utility just now, shows it as an "Alcor Micro", and I can't spot anything in the ID data about Realtek, so I'm guessing it's some cheap oddball chipset. I'm pretty sure the Sabrent was the only thing showing in the flash utility when I did it, and launching the utility just now (with no Sabrent attached) gives me no other devices.

I'll admit, I didn't do much preparation or reading before attempting that first flash, and wasn't even aware that there was config file data I might need to deal with. I was so fed up with having to unplug/re-plug the Sabrent five times to get a 3.2 connection that I just wanted to hurry up and try out the Realtek FW. Is it possible that there's anything config or software-wise which could guarantee a USB3 connection each time, or is it just something with the hardware?

If I didn't just manage to get a lemon, I have a feeling there are people out there dealing with the same thing, who might not realize they're occasionally connecting at USB2 speed. I bought it for use as an external boot drive for Windows10 under 32GB of RAM, so while it's booted up and performing OS duties, it's not the night and day difference you might see when dragging giant files back and forth, but I'm sure there's still a huge effect in there. CrystalDiskMark shows over a 400MB/sec improvement on throughput when it gets properly detected, so now that I'm aware of the issue, checking the Tree View is the first thing I do when it connects. It sucked to discover that it can get misdetected even after the physical connection is made though. If I just connect it as an external to my internal system drive, I can keep unplugging it until it cooperates, but as an external boot drive, I'd have to do a full shutdown and reboot (with my fingers crossed). I've got a USB3 cable coming today with an integrated on/off switch. I thought that by keeping the drive physically connected after making a solid USB3 connection, all that crap would be behind me.

Thanks Again!   

New Firmware Realtek RTL92xx( NVMe/USB 3.1 Controller Version 1.33.44.011824

A big improvement to my Asus TUF A1 (RTL9210B) in terms of speed 

 

 

Download
NVMe/USB 3.1 (station-drivers.com)

sdefrwggerg wrote:

are you sure that´s a Realtek RTL9210/RTL9220 Chip inside?
 

Yes, of course.