Passport Essential SE 3.0 will not work on USB 3 but will work on USB 2
I have a
Asrock Extreme4
2600K
8GB ram
I tried the drive on USB 2 and it works perfectly but when I try to use it on USB 3.0 it doesn’t work and the USB 3.0 drives stop working. I tried it on another computer with a USB 3.0 pci-express card and the drive didn’t work as well. I don’t have the original usb 3.0 cable so I bought one off ebay could that be the problem? Or is the drive just not getting enough power to run off USB 3.0?
On USB2 mode drive is configured to work on 500mA power source. But on USB3 mode drive is expecting nearly 900mA from the port. PCI express cards need 5Volts 2A external power adaptor to work on USB3.
Only pen drives/mice etc may work on PCI express cards without a power adaptor.
Most importantly, you need original USB3 cable form WD to use Passport drives properly. I think you could get a free replacement if you live in Northern America or in EU.
