Hi there
I have a Dell XPS 8700. It has a fairly high end configuration as follows: Intel Core i7-4770 3.4ghz, 24gb RAM, Sandisk Extreme 240gb SSD, Seagate 1TB 7200 rpm and 64bit Windows 8.1 with all drivers/updates current as far as I am aware. I originally had the A06 bios and deliberately downgraded to A03 as people say that A03 has a performance boost. The problem below happens with both A06 and A03 bios versions.
I have two external USB hard drives connected - a USB 2.0 Western Digital Mybook and a USB 3.0 Seagate Backup Plus. They are connected directly to the respective USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports.
When I boot Windows, the external hard drives are always available in Windows explorer. However, I often find that at random points when Windows is running, I will hear the USB disconnect sound and one of the drives will at that point disappear from Windows explorer. Sometimes, if I continue working on my computer, later on, this may also happen in respect of the other drive. When this occurs, device manager shows an "unknown usb device set address failed" in Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
Rebooting fixes things, but it's annoying to have to always reboot when this happens. Also, I have found that sometimes when rebooting upon this occurring (and I think this is when I have tried un-installing the device in device manager that shows "unknown usb device set address failed"), the computer hangs on the Dell logo at boot (and I have to keep my finger on the power button to turn it and off again at this point if I want the computer to load into Windows).
Please could someone help?
Many thanks
Elliot