When I attach a Seagate 2tb hard drive that has its own power to the front USB port everything works the way it should. When I attach the same hard drive to the USB port on the back of the SMP, the hard drive starts up, runs for about 5 seconds, and then turns itself off (I’m guessing because it doesn’t sense a USB connection.) I have tried this with ‘ejecting’ it from the front USB port, but it still doesn’t work in the rear USB port.
If I attach this drive to the USB port on my PC, it works fine also.
I also notice that although it seems like it seats itself properly, the USB connector doesn’t go in as far into the rear USB port as it does on the front port. There is approx 1/8" of the USB connector that doesn’t go in - but it goes all the way in when I use the front port.
Also, the Seagate hard drive has an ‘auto-sleep’ setting, which I have switched to ‘never’ so it won’t auto-sleep.
Are these ports different, or do I have a defective SMP?
I’m having a simular issue myself. I started another thread for another reason, but now I’m focused on the usb ports and drives dissapearing, and my SMP freezing on playback.
Here is what I posted in my other thread,
Ok, we got a Trulink USB 3.0 hub, with 4 ports. We have 2 of the Seagate GoFlex Desk 2tb external drives and 1 Seagte GoFlex 4tb external drive connected to the usb hub. The WD SMP sees all 3 drives. So far so good.
But we still have the issue where the WD SMP just freezes in the middle of a movie. Most of the time it is within 15 to 30 minutes. Once this happens, we can only plug hte power and reboot. I used the Segate tool to disable auto sleep mode, but that didn’t seem to resolve anything.
We think the drives are disapearing right in the middle of browsing and watching a movie, thus causing it to freeze. When browsing, and looking at a list of moives, then bam, the usb drive is gone and no movies are listed. While the Seagate GoFlex drives are on the supported drive list, there seems to be a communication issue with the drives. This did the same thing with only 2 of these drives plugged directly into the WD SMP, so the hub didn’t cause this.
The WD SMP did a auto update last night too, but that didn’t help anything either.
The main issue seems to be with these drives. But, others have posted in this fourm saying they are using the same external drives, and not to mention, they are supported hw anyway. They don’t list the 4tb drive, but it’s the same series so it should work.
Any other suggestions before we call WD for support or just return it?
Switchblade - I don’t have any explanations for any of this, but I went and got a WD Mybook Essentials 2gb to replace the Seagate. I plugged the WD drive into the rear USB port and it works fine (so far).
So for me it looks like there is some problem using the Seagate drive. I wish I knew how others were getting the Seagates to work.
Anyway, I just started using the WD drive and it is good so far. I will know if it really works in a few days after I use it more.
Maybe someone else has an answer as to why the Seagates won’t work for us.
A small correction to my previous post. I didn’t realize that someone had moved it from the issue exchange to the general discussion area. I’ve asked them to move it back since it is a hardware issue with the product. If they do, please vote for it if you’ve had the same problem.
Ok I voted for your usb 3 issue. What is weird is our issue is a little different. The drives are Seagate 3tb GoFlex Desk and they are reconized without any issue. However, the ports on the WD SMP seem to have a communication issue with Seagate drives. This caused the drives to disappear and if you are in the middle of watching a movie, it freezes. No remote buttons work so all you can do is pull the plug and hope nothing gets corrupted.
It is total junk that WD is not addressing compatibility issues with other drive manufactures. They only fully support WD drives, which are slower and more expensive. If they just stuck to the standards, none of this would matter.
At this point I’m going to try rolling back the firmware to 1.0.4.12, to see if the freezing issue gets any better.
I also removed the usb hub and now only have two of the drives plugged in. If it can’t work like this, then the WD SMP is junk and it’s going in the trash. My popcorn hour should be here tomorrow and if all testing works with my drives, WD stuff is history! So frustraighting!
I am having the same issue with the rear USB not working with USB 3.0. I am using a WD Passport 3.0 HDD. It works perfectly when plugged into the front USB port, but will freeze up and disconnect after 20-40 minutes when attached to the rear port. I have to cycle the power to the player to get it to see the drive again afterward.
Like impdust, my unit was purchased at Best Buy (ugh) when they were first available. I am going to look into an RMA replacement for mine, looks like a manufacturing defect to me.
Switchblade- have you tried hooking your Seagate drives up to the front USB port only? If not, give that a try and let us know if it works.
Try rolling back to the previous firmware. That is what I’m testing now. I also am starting off with one drive attached to only the front port. If no freezing or other issues, then I will attach the 2nd drive to the rear port. At some point I need to get back to the hub setup so I have all 3 drives available all the time.
Mine was freezing at about the same point, 30 or 40 minutes into anything. But I had my hub plugged into the rear port, then the 3 drives plugged into the hub. I bet my issue is with the rear port and the latest firmware. Will know soon…
Ok, so far so good. I’m using 1 Seagate 3tb drive only for this test. We have been able to watch several movies, which we could not do before. The only difference is that we are not using the rear port. I had everything plugged into the rear port (hub and 3 drives) before, and had all of those problems, freezing, drives dissapearing, etc. After removing the other drives and hub and using the front port only, it does seem to point to the rear usb port as the main issue, and not the Segate drives.
I did roll back the firmware because others starting to complain after the recent verson came out. That said, it may not have anything to do with the firmware. Once I have tested everything with the old firmware, I’ll update it again and hope it does’t break. If the rear port is confirmed to be the problem, then I hope a future firmware update can resolve it. It’s kind of a eye sore to have to have the cable plugged into the front port. In fact, both ports should have been in the back, IMO.
My next test will be to use my usb 3 hub, plugged into the front port this time, with all 3 external Segate GoFlex drives. It will take a few days to test, but this should confirm there is a issue with the rear port and/or if there is a issue with a hub or Seagate drives.
Not on my SMP. I had a friend over yesterday and we plugged his CNMemory Core 1 TB 2.5" external USB3 drive into the rear port (using a little more force than necessary for my USB 2 drive) and watched several TV shows the whole evening without any problems or interruptions. Here are screenshots of my attached WD 500 GB Passport (thin cable)
My player has the same problem. Sometimes the USB drive works fine, other times it does not (especially if the cable has been moved in someway). It’ll work fine on the front USB port and on my older WD Live TV.
Like others have said, the USB plug does not go all the way in on the rear.
Ok, testing is complete and I have confirmed that all of my issues were caused by the rear port. I am back to have my usb 3 hub with 3 Seagate GoFlex Desk external usb hard drives plugged in, with the hub plugged into the front port. The WD shows all 3 drives and hasn’t frozen once.
I’m still on the older firmware, and that is my next and last test.
What we know so far:
1. The rear port has major issues, full stop! I even had issues with only 1 drive plugged into the rear port.
2. There does not seem to be a issue usinga usb hub, in fact mine is a 3.0 hub.
3. There is no issues with the Seagate GoFlex Desk drives, I have 2 of the 3tb and 1 of the 4tb.
So the story here is to not use the rear port and you most likely won’t have any issues with external hd’s and hub’s. It would be nice if WD would fix this, really lame.
I’ve used the rear port exclusively since day one with WD, Seagate, CNMemory drives (are hubs officially supported?) and as my photos show even with USB3. How can it be lame if only very few people are experiencing it which suggests it’s rare to reproduce?
Has WD tech support confirmed that this is a manufacturing fault? I’ve just taken delivery of my unit today and will check it later to see if I have the same problem. Has anyone done an RMA and gotten a replacement device that allows a usb device to be plugged into the rear port fully?
If you look at your ports you will see that the front port does not come out all the way to the front, it is the thickness of the plastic case back whereas the back port comes through the case and is flush with the back. That is the reason there is a gap at the back. There is no difference between the actual ports, its just the way they fit in the case.
Great explanation richUK, thanks for pointing that out, it makes perfect sense. Although USB 3.0 standard hard disks should still work fine with this model. Will need to verify later.
Okay checked this last night, my USB 3.0 2.5" drives are detected on the rear usb port correctly and I can play media, the player did loose power to the drives around 4 times and randomly rebooted, will need to monitor this over the next couple of days to see if it keeps happening.
It would find my drives as well when plugged into the back, that isn’t the issue. The issue is that the unit will loose the drives, or freeze up, or reboot. I was able to go about 2 days before the problems surfaced.
However, after moving the plug to the front usb port, the issue has not returned . Therefore, I don’t care what anyone says because I’ve done the testing and the rear port has issues. Perhaps it only has issues with some Seagate drives, but it clearly has a communication problem.
Given how lame this is, I have decided to dump this device and I now have the Popcorn Hour A-300, which totally smokes the WD right out of the gate.
