B450 pro4 IO errors on external HDDs
Printed From: ASRock.com
Category: Technical Support
Forum Name: AMD Motherboards
Forum Description: Question about ASRock AMD motherboards
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=113501
Printed Date: 15 Jun 2026 at 10:34pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: B450 pro4 IO errors on external HDDs
Posted By: garagedrive
Subject: B450 pro4 IO errors on external HDDs
Date Posted: 28 Apr 2026 at 7:32pm
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after applying KB5083769, USB3.0 external USB HDDs don't work properly. They often show I/O errors. HDDs are safe. I've confirmed them connecting them to internal SATA ports. I've also changed HDD cases, and the problem remains. mobo B450 pro4 BIOS 10.60 (latest) Windows 11 home 25H2 latest windows updates applied |
Replies:
Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 28 Apr 2026 at 7:49pm
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I would recommend updating your chipset/all in one drivers. I find that most often windows updates break things then AMD releases a new driver package to fix them again. ------------- 
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Posted By: garagedrive
Date Posted: 28 Apr 2026 at 8:15pm
| already re-installed latest AMD chiset driver, 8.02.18.557. Unfortunately problem remains. |
Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 28 Apr 2026 at 11:14pm
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And these drives worked without error prior to the windows update? More often than not, IO errors on external drives come down to either bad cables or bad drives. If you have ruled out the drives then the next thing to rule out is the cables. External HDDs are incredibly sensitive to cable length and voltage drop. We had another forum member complaining about similar issues a few months back. In the end it turned out that they had replaced their case and were trying to use the front panel USB ports to connect their drives. It had worked fine in the old case because the front panel headers used short cables to connect to the motherboard but the new case used much longer cables and it was causing too much voltage droop. We were back and forth troubleshooting for quite some time before figuring it out. Try the drives connected to rear IO USB ports using shorter cables and see if that clears it up. If not then try a live linux distro on a USB drive and see if you get errors under linux to rule out the windows update itself as being the issue. You will likely need to use a linux drive testing tool. -------------
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Posted By: garagedrive
Date Posted: 29 Apr 2026 at 7:06am
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HDDs are healthy. I took them out from the enclosures, connected them to internal SATA ports, and found them "safe". I also purchased brand-new enclosures/cables/ACs, replaced them with existing ones, and found out I/O errors again. I use rear USB ports. Cables are less than 3fts. should try Linux distro, or clean install windows. |
Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 30 Apr 2026 at 4:21am
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With external drives I find cables over about 30cm tend to be too long. It may be worth trying with much shorter ones. A 1m long cable is far longer than I would use on an external drive. 1m is roughly 3ft. -------------
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Posted By: garagedrive
Date Posted: 01 May 2026 at 9:00am
| I temporarily install Windows to another drive, 25H2 with latest windows updates along with AMD latest drivers. I could successfully access to USB HDDs, which means there's no hardware related damage, but some software/configulation issues brought me this I/O error. I will check various customizations I've done so far to figure out this issue. I appreciate if you have any suggestions which may affect I/O issues. As for power, "USB selective suspend" and "PCIe link" options are NOT applied. Thx. |
Posted By: garagedrive
Date Posted: 01 May 2026 at 3:38pm
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I found out the IO error case. Pawn IO, which is developped under Gifthub community, and is a core program of various PC monitoring tools is the one. Monitoring tools include Libre Hardware Monitor, FanCtrl, FanControl, and so on. Pawn IO became popular after "WinRing0 trojan issue". Most application switched core from "WinRing0" to "Pawn". Since every ver. works fine but the latest, it took long time for me to catch it. Thanks again! |
Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 01 May 2026 at 3:55pm
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Awesome, thanks a ton for tracking it down and sharing the cause for anyone else who may be struggling with it  -------------
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