Windows 8.1 'drive standby' issue---

--- for lack of a better description...

I've got my old work computers working pretty good for the most part, not too much to complain about. My 8.1 is the newest 'work computer' I have, the only reason I rebuilt IT is because at least for a little while I can run TurboTax on it. And with 'Classic Shell' other than the actual working windows it looks and acts like any win7.

I have several multi-TB external drives, one is a portable Sandisk SSD 2tb that I store ALL of my jobs on, and plug it into ONE computer, where it becomes a network drive for all the other computers. It's BEEN connected to my newest win7 computer, and has been working wonderfully. I have (had) another 2tb 'my book' connected to the same computer, working great. However, the ONLY computer I have with high speed USB ports is the Win8. So last weekend I got the bright idea of moving these drives to the Win8's high speed ports. WOW-! I was able to copy my entire 20 year old Corel jobs catalog to my 5tb drive (connected to my router) in about 8 minutes. This used to take near an hour to do!

So what's the problem? IF the Win8 computer is 'idle' for like 1, maybe 2 minutes, then ALL its drives, even accessing them from itself, takes several seconds- like 8 to 30 on average-! , for any files or folders to show up. Once they show up, the drives work great. But after a minute or so wait before accessing a drive, and the wait-for-files-to-show-up BS happens.

This did NOT, and DOES not happen with ANY other computer in the house, by wireless, ethernet or directly.

It seems like the drives are going to sleep, but I really don't know WHAT the problem is. The only thing I've done to try to fix the problem is make the computer NEVER turns off the drives, display, etc, and set it for "max performance" in the advanced settings...

First step is determining whether they're really going to sleep...got a stethoscope handy?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kev Williams

I have several multi-TB external drives, one is a portable Sandisk SSD 2tb that I store ALL of my jobs on, and plug it into ONE computer, where it becomes a network drive for all the other computers. It's BEEN connected to my newest win7 computer, and has been working wonderfully. I have (had) another 2tb 'my book' connected to the same computer, working great. However, the ONLY computer I have with high speed USB ports is the Win8.

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Before we get too deep, I suppose just adding a USB3 board to the Win7 machine wasn't an option?

Acutally it IS an option-- honestly I'm just learning about 3.0 ports, the hard way! While fixing up the new-to-me Dell Optiplex 790 I bought a 4-port 3.0 PCIe USB port for it. What I didn't know until a few days ago is that (as I understand it) because it's only powered by the PCI's 5 volts (didn't have a separate power connector) it won't work correctly. And it doesn't. So I going to pull that one and get a powered one, then move the drives again.

Stethoscope; so I just accessed the 'my book' on the network while typing this, and it immediately began vibrating and there was no file lag at all- So I accessed the portable SSD, and, first folder appeared immediately, second folder immediately, third folder I got the slow-moving green bar and about a 6 second wait. I didn't stethoscope it, the 'puter is under a workbench and the drive is in back, I'll check later... Will a scope 'hear' an SSD working? --need to experiment!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kev Williams

Will a scope 'hear' an SSD working? --need to experiment!

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LOL, don't think so. :)

My question was more to the point of whether the (mechanical) drive was really going to sleep, or if it was making rotation or seek noise after the system had been idle for a couple of minutes. If it is, Task Manager could tell you what it thinks it's doing.

I didn't think so either ;) -- but the SSD DOES get warm pretty quick when it's working-

The win8 hard drive- with the stethoscope it makes noise continuously- note that the drive isn't mounted and for this test it's resting on the linoleum floor, no contact with the computer cabinet.

The little My Book (about 1/4" thick x 3" x 4-1/2") makes no noise thru the stethoscope, running or not! But I can feel when it's running... Second test after some idle time it was 'dead'. It comes to life immediately when accessing it, and right now, about 2-3 minutes since I opened a PDF file from it, it's still running...

Not sure if it matters but the win8's C drive is 'hard', while both my win7's- which don't seem to suffer the lag time on USB drives- have a Crucial 1tb SSD C drive...

My T5400, for about a month after changing out the win7pro64 for win7ulitmate64 it ran just plain GREAT- then it started in with 'dropping' USB connections; I'd get an intermittent dead mouse and/or keyboard (mouse is wireless, keyboard is wired) followed by a nag message 'this USB port can work faster...' -- which is why I put the win8 into service. I need TWO separate good-working computers, all because the two C02 lasers in the basement require different drivers, and Windows considers them the same driver and defaults to the newest one, which won't work on the older laser. So I need the 2nd computer JUST to run the 2nd laser...All a PIA!

Not sure what's causing the USB problem but I ordered a new motherboard for the T5400 and it came yesterday. Now I just need X amount of hours to change it out. Maybe the new board and some good 3.0 ports for the 790 will fix my problems, and the win8 can just sit around as a backup-- again!

I appreciate the feedback :) Attachment 480932

>edit< fwiw, the 'my book' drive is now dead, the HDD is still making noise...

Any time I have issues with USB devices seeming to go to sleep or similar, I check to make sure to check the power settings for the USB device and make sure the "allow computer to turn this device off to save power" box is not checked. Never used Win 8, but usually this setting is accessed using device manager. And I have seen a windows update change these settings at least once, so worth checking even if you've checked it before.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paul F Franklin

Any time I have issues with USB devices seeming to go to sleep or similar, I check to make sure to check the power settings for the USB device and make sure the "allow computer to turn this device off to save power" box is not checked. Never used Win 8, but usually this setting is accessed using device manager. And I have seen a windows update change these settings at least once, so worth checking even if you've checked it before.

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I'm looking at that, and in Win10 that checkbox isn't with the USB device, it's with the USB controller. To determine which one a particular device is plugged into, you're really gonna need this:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...bugger/usbview
(Possibly my system is abnormal, but I'm seeing nine different USB controllers under Device Manager.)

Took me a minute to find the right place to look in the device manager, but I found it, has 9 'USB input devices', all of which had the 'save power' box checked. All boxes UNchecked now, so we shall see!
Many Thanks! Attachment 480987

SO, to update, unchecking all those boxes in hopes of having the drives react faster, did absolutely zilch. I counted a couple of wait times to be over 30 seconds before responding, which is totally unacceptable. So I'm figuring it's either a security-check thing, a verify-data thing, or just plain a Windows 8 thing. Don't really know, don't care. I received my new 5 port 3.0 USB PCIe card with SATA cable connection and got it installed in the 790 Win7 yesterday, and I'm reworking all my network drives back to the way they were before.

As of right now, everything is lightning fast, as it should be. Haven't had a chance to see if the speeds remain after waiting around a bit.

FWIW, all of my computers except 2 laptops that are connected to 2 of my fiber lasers are networked by ethernet, so no wireless speed issues...