Hey all! I ran into a small issue today as I was setting up my Razer Core eGPU.
The USB hub (and most likely also Ethernet) don’t work on the eGPU box when I plug it into my Framework 16.
I’ve got Windows 11 23H2 installed. The GPU card itself in the Core is working fine. When I plug in the same Razer Core with the same GPU and the same cable into my XPS with an Intel processor, the USB hub works fine.
I found a similar-sounding thread on eGPU.io, but the solution outlined there (use Driver Easy) didn’t help - the software didn’t find the drivers for the three unknown devices.
Oh yeah, when I plug in the Razer Core, Device Manager starts showing three new Unknown devices, as you can see on this screenshot:
I tried manually setting the devices to be the ASMedia USB3.1 eXtensible Host Controlled (and others in the ASMedia group of drivers in the driver select dialog), but Windows said it couldn’t load the device:
I am out of ideas. I think, if it was a more widespread issue, I’d find more reports about this on the internet. Is there anything I can do here to try and fix this? (Only thing I don’t want to do is disable driver signing or Secure Boot as it’s a work machine.) Thank you.
Update: I’ve got a Windows To Go installation on an external SSD. The one I actually used to verify the hub working on the XPS with Intel processor.
I’ve used the same installation to boot the Laptop 16, installed the latest driver package (plus, EC driver from AMD AI 300 bundle), and there was no unknown devices in the device manager.
When I then plugged in the eGPU the hub worked fine. So this issue seems related to my Windows installation (unsurprisingly)
Edit: I have installed the Framework driver pack on the main Windows install, but it didn’t help. Guess, I have to reinstall Windows to get those USB ports working. Not worth it for now, but I’ll keep this in mind.
What did help is finding the working devices called “ASMedia USB 3.1 eXtensible Host Controller” under the “Universal Serial Bus controllers” in the Device Manager, selecting “Update Driver” option in the context menu → Browse my computer for drivers → Let me pick from a list of available drivers… → choosing a Microsoft driver instead of ASMedia one by selecting the “USB xHCI Compliant Host Controller” like here:
