Wish to repair my Asmedia USB ports once and for all.. help!

[Izlude]

Hi all, I've had my mobo for a while, Aorus Gaming 7-OP, always wanted to try and use the USB-C ports and even the Red USB port  (phone and HDD). As it turns out, these ports simply don't work. There are different effects for each port:

Asmedia 3142:
Rear USB C - Connect phone, buzzes and prepares to charge, disconnects after 2-3 seconds. Reconnecting several times will get it to stay connected, but doesn't charge, just appears to be. Never shows up in This PC.
Front USB C - Connect phone, actually does charge, but real slow. Can sometimes browse files in the phone, but always results in a hang after a short time and then the phone disconnects. 
Red USB A (rear) - Used to be able to use it, kinda. Using HDD Dock, often times had that same issue with hanging while browsing files and then I had power off/on the drive to get it to show up again. Was a bit faster than the blue ports at least.

I'm wondering if what's depicted here (fuses) are damaged:

https://imgur.com/a/WbpAXdd

TBH, before I used these ports, I recalled one time seeing a yellow exclamation triangle in device manager for one of the USBs on the list, most likely the Red port. That triangle has disappeared since, and it was only after it disappeared that I finally decided to try to use any of the Asmedia USB ports, which exhibited the above symptoms. I tried diagnosing them with the Asmedia firmware update tool, which has a "Test" page. If all devices are physically plugged in, they show "pass", if not, they show "fail". Everything shows up as pass, except sometimes the rear C port unless I unplug/replug it several times to get it to stay connected (still doesn't charge/can't browse it). There's also a "fixture" test, which always says fail, not sure what that's for.

I did try an update on the firmware, it shows "pass/complete" and has the newer firmware now, same issues though. At least I know the controller chips are good and not fried, otherwise I'm certain the flashing would not have succeeded. I've gone through two updates already of two different versions (from a year before to present). So that leads me to believe that there is a fuse issue. Just need some input from others regarding this. Do you think it's possible to fix this?

For what it's worth, I have done some BGA reballing work before, so I'm comfortable with the task itself, just not sure if there's a better way or proper way to diagnose broken USB ports. Thanks.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Have you tried installing the Intel Driver & Support Assistant? https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html that will detect if you are missing any chipset drivers or whatever (if they are outdated).

You also didn't say what OS you are on, but you have Windows 10 in your sidebar profile. Did you do any power management things to put devices to sleep to save power?

You could try resetting the Balanced Power plan, which should also reset the advanced options of the plan.

A port working and then not working might indicate a hardware problem or driver issue.

Front panel slow USB speeds:

You'd have to confirm you have put the front panel USB port connector on the proper USB 3.0 header on the motherboard. Older motherboards used to have more than one USB header, so if yours does you could try putting it on the other header if that one is faulty.

[Izlude]

hi thanks for reply, it's win10 still, all drivers are a-OK. tried both asmedia driver (from mobo's driver page) and also the MS driver which many have suggested over the asmedia driver, but after trying, i stuck with the asmedia driver. there are no errors reported with either one. power settings are good, both in plan and in device manager (allow pc to turn off device is disabled, and in plan, selective suspend is disabled). i've also got Win7 and FreeBSD 14.0 Release on here, same issue. Highly convinced it's a hardware issue.

So I went to test these little components that are next to the Asmedia chips, they have 5 legs each, there's a total of 4, each Asmedia chip has 2 next to them.

https://imgur.com/a/xELdrj8

I took a multimeter to them, red probe on the pin that has the little arrow next to it, then black probe to test all the other pins. The readings in the continuity setting are as shown in the image. What do you make of them? I even tried looking them up, they're labeled as VA8BE or VA88E (very small print), can't find anything online about them, so I guess I can't even replace them if I wanted to... you think I should abandon this project?

As for the regular fuses (there's 2 of them, but only next to USB 2.0 headers, not near the other USB ports or even the regular 3.0 ports), they checked out as 0.0 reading, normal I think, they work just fine. they're the one's with a P on it with a number.

Edited February 20 by Izlude

[Steven P. Administrators]

If all your drivers and power plan settings are "a-ok" then it is likely a hardware fault.

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

Might want to check the BIOS settings, which Arous Gaming 7-OP do you have (chipset would help greatly) as theres a few different models, I have a 7-OP but it's a Z370




Gigabyte's "digital" fuses are designed to reset themselves when you power down the machine.

When I get a chance I'll go digging through the BIOS on my system to see if there is anything for the ASMedia ports/controller.  (pretty sure I use at least the red USB-A ports, don't have any USB-C devices to test the USB C port...)

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Just to confirm, this behavior occurs with multiple, different USB cables?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[Izlude]

Hi sorry for the delay.
-occurs with all manner of cables, new included. different devices two, i've got 3 phones in the household using C, one brand new, no go
-Aorus Gaming 7-OP, z370. Bios version didn't make a difference for me, but since f15b (not f15 capsule, avoiding btw), was causing my CPU to have sudden random drops (almost like a hiccup) I went back to f13, no more CPU issue.

Thanks again!