Windows 8 and Intel USB 3.0 Host Controllers

One of the new features of Windows 8 is the built in XHCI host controller software and USB stack. While this brings some benefits like UASP support, there are some devices that currently don’t work with the Microsoft stack on the Intel USB 3.0 host controller. This can be fixed by forcing Windows to use the Intel USB 3.0 host controller drivers instead of the built in stack.

*NOTE* These instructions are only for machines with an Intel eXtensible Host Controller. Look for the Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller under Universal Serial Bus controllers in Device Manager.

First, download the latest driver package from Intel. It’s currently at version 1.0.6.245 and can be downloaded from the following link:

Intel(R)_USB_3.0_eXtensible_Host_Controller_Driver rev. 1.0.6.245

Once the download has finished, extract the .zip file to a known location.

Now download these two .inf files which have been modified to allow the Intel driver to install on Windows 8:

We are going to replace the existing versions of these two files with the ones we just downloaded. Place the files in the following directory of the unzipped driver package and click yes when Windows warns that we are over writing a file with the same name:

Intel(R)_USB_3.0_eXtensible_Host_Controller_Driver\Drivers\Win7\x64\

This will update these two infs with the modified versions that will allow the Intel driver to install on Windows 8 when the Host Controller and USB hub drivers are updated.

To install the Intel drivers in place of the in box XHCI stack, we’ll have to temporarily disable Driver Signing Enforcement. To do this press the Windows key + R and in the run box type:

shutdown.exe /r /o /f /t 00

Now make the following selections to boot into the Start Up Setting Screen

Troubleshoot — Advanced options — Start Up Settings — Restart

Then, when the machine restarts, select “Disable driver signature enforcement”. Your machine will start with Driver signing enforcement disabled until the next reboot.

When the machine restarts, open Device Manager (win + r, devmgmt.msc). Double click on the entry for the Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller and select the Drivers tab. You should see that the driver provider is Microsoft.

Now click “Update Driver” and then select “Browse my computer for driver software”.

Next choose “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer”.

Next, select “Have Disk”.

In the Window that pops up titled “Install From Disk” choose “Browse” and navigate to the location where we replace the original infs with the two modified .inf files we downloaded earlier. Select iusb3xhc.inf and click ok.

Windows will warn that the driver is not signed and will require you to confirm the installation.

Once the installation is complete, reboot the machine following the same procedure as above:

shutdown.exe /r /o /f /t 00

Now make the following selections to boot into the Start Up Setting Screen

Troubleshoot — Advanced options — Start Up Settings — Restart

When the machine starts, select “Disable driver signature enforcement”. Your machine will start with Driver signing enforcement disabled until the next reboot. Once logged in, open Device Manager (win + r “devmgmt.msc”) and locate the entry under Other devices for an Unknown device, to find the correct one, double click on the entry for the unknown device view the details tab. Make sure it has the VID_8086.

Once you have located the correct device right click on it and choose “Update Driver” Choose “Browse my computer”, Windows will ask you to identify the type of device, scroll down and select “Universal Serial Bus Devices”.

Click next, choose “Have Disk”, “Browse” and select the modified iusb3hub.inf that we placed in the Intel(R)_USB_3.0_eXtensible_Host_Controller_Driver\Drivers\Win7\x64\ folder earlier and click ok.

Again, Windows will warn about driver signing, when the install is finished, reboot your machine.

When it restarts look at the driver tab for the Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller and the Intel(R) USB 3.0 Root Hub to confirm that you are now running the Intel drivers.

To return to the built in Microsoft USB 3.0 driver stack, use the uninstall drivers button from the driver tab in device manager. When it’s finished, select the Action menu of Device Manager and “scan for hardware changes” Windows should find the Intel USB 3.0 host controller and re-install it using the built in Microsoft XHCI stack.

Thanks to Ekko for his original work on this. Please comment below if you have any corrections or refinements. We’d also love to have comments mentioning the problems you were having, and whether the Intel stack solved them for you. Thanks!

108 thoughts on “Windows 8 and Intel USB 3.0 Host Controllers”

  1. Pedro Basualdo

    Thank you Jerome, but i wanna to tell you that in my case it worked for a while but something weird happened, apperantly it doesnt work anymore, i repeat the steps described it worked again, but after two days, it stops working again. So anyone have any idea of what might be happening to me. I would appreciate any help.

    Thank you in advance,

    Pedro

    Reply ↓
  2. Ali

    Hi,

    Thank you so much for this post, I purchased a Dell XPS12 and the Kensington dock 3.0 which Dell sold as a compatible device! clearly not tested to see if its compatible with windows 8!

    Following these steps resolved the issue with the dock not working.

    Thank you

    Ali

    Reply ↓
  4. Kevin

    This is the best way to fix the compatibility between the Corsair Voyager GT USB 3.0 thumbdrive and Windows 8.

    Reply ↓
  5. Wojtek

    A great guide! The best I could find in the entire internet. For over a week I have been struggling to make my new Corsair Voyager GT 3.0 USB flash memory work with a Lenovo Thinkpad T430s with Windows 8 (I mean in USB 3.0 mode). I’ve tried almost everything (incuding complete reinstallation of the system) and nothing worked. Until I found this article.
    I did everything as described. And the thumbdrive finally works!!!
    Thank you!
    W.

    Reply ↓
    1. Marco M.

      Hello,

      I had the same issue/problem on a Thinkpad X230i. The guide solved it. Perfect. Thanks for the help!

      Reply ↓
  8. lukas naske

    hi
    a really great guide, and it worked for a short period but hasn’t solved the real problem ^^

    if i plug in the USB device after i restartet the computer it works and worked even before i used this guide, but if i use hibernate usb 3.0 just does not work, any suggestions here????

    Reply ↓
  9. Bryan

    Please say more about what sorts of specific issues this procedure resolves. It’s a rather scary workaround – disabling driver signing is NOT a step which should be taken lightly, in my opinion.

    Also a bit more followup would be handy. As of this writing, Intel have revved that driver again and their website lists 1.0.7.248 as current.

    Since I am not sure if this will resolve the issue I’m facing (USB3 sticks from PQI and Team Color Turn not formatting properly), it’s not worth the possible unintended consequences. I’m not trying to be stuffy about this, but as a sysadmin I’ve been burned a few too many times by this sort of thing.

    Reply ↓
  10. Trevor

    This absolutely worked for me, so thanks!
    Remains to be seen if the fix holds or I get the same problems as some others.
    I’d be interested in knowing more about Bryan’s post here above mine.
    Is it worth looking for the newer Intel drivers?

    Reply ↓
    1. solr

      Update Lenovo E430 Thinkpad running Win8. Using ATTO benchmark and a Mediasonic USB3 enclosure with a Seagate 7200 RPM 2.5 320GB drive, throughput on the USB 3 ports is about 120MBS, about 4 times USB2.

      Your work around worked perfectly! Thanks.
      Currently using the Pluagble USB3 PCIe card in a Windows 2003 R2 Lenovo TD100x server to backup 400GB every night in under 2 hrs!

      Reply ↓
  14. Daniel

    My computer could detect my USB 3.0 devices just fine, but the problem was that i could not send files to my external hard drive, though i could send files from the external hard drive to the computer (these would be sent at a low speed, approx 20 MB/s). After doing this, at first my computer couldnt detect the external hard drive at all…so i went into the Device manager and found that the drivers for startup of the external hard drive were now lacking (this didnt show up before i followed this guide) so i installed them and now everything is working fine. Lets just hope it keeps working since some people have said that it has stopped working after a few days.

    Reply ↓
  15. Matty

    I just want to say thank you. Very legible guide. My issue wasn’t with speed… it wouldn’t recognise my 3TB external at all! After this, it does and runs fast. The USB2 ports still don’t recognise it though, but I don’t mind that. I wish Intel would just recognise the problem and get the ball rolling on a true driver.

    Reply ↓
  16. Jedster

    I also had the issue of the drivers stop working after a short while. I have found that I was able to right click on each of the .inf replacement files in the Intel(R)_USB_3.0_eXtensible_
    Host_Controller_Driver\Driver\Win7\x64\ folder and then click install. Windows 8 confirmed it had installed these drivers again without any warnings. My USB 3.0 is still working properly as of this comment. No need to go through the entire installation procedure as documented by Ekko. This worked for me and maybe worth a try for you.
    Nevertheless, thanks to Ekko for his post and procedure without which none of this would be possible.

    Reply ↓

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  20. Michele

    I just got a new Toshiba laptop with Windows 8. I have a Rocketfish bluetooth adapter that works fine on my old laptop with Vista. It worked for a couple days on the Toshiba but windows did an update a couple days ago and now it doesn’t work on startup. It does work if I plug it in once the computer has started or unplug and plug back in. At first it would turn off in sleep mode but I have gotten it to start back up after resuming from sleep. When I shut down completely and start the computer the next day, I get the error 43-the usb device last connected malfunctioned.

    I was going to try the Intel win 7 driver solution but I’m not sure if it is for the same problem or if there is a setting I have to change. After enabling sleep and charge mode on the laptop, that made it start working after sleep mode. I also checked Toshiba’s site and there is a bios update so wondering if I should try that first. If anyone can give me some suggestions, I’d appreciate it. I should also mention that the morning after the update I got the message “driver power state failure”, I also got this yesterday after a restart. I’m thinking it has something to do with the driver not starting after reboot so the computer doesn’t recognize the usb port. Should I just use the win7 drivers and see what happens? I’ve had this computer only 5 days now.

    Reply ↓
    1. Bernie ThompsonBernie Thompson

      Hi Michele, for your scenario, I’d work with Rocketfish (I think it’s a Best Buy house brand, right?). I wouldn’t recommend this USB 3.0 stack change.

      Reply ↓
      1. Michele

        Thanks for the fast reply but I downloaded the drivers last week when I first set up the adapter and they are the same ones. Rocketfish is BB but on their site it directs you to Broadcom to download the drivers. They have been uninstalled/reinstalled multiple times now. Should I try the bios update? I don’t think Rocketfish will be any help, I was on the phone with BB geek squad yesterday for over 2 hrs.

        Reply ↓
      2. Michele

        Bernie, I’m looking at the bt adapter on this site and wondering if this would work or if I would still have to install the intel drivers.

        Reply ↓
  21. Michele

    Ok, I went ahead and called Rocketfish and even though they have a link to the drivers they said it doesn’t work with windows 8. They were surprised I got it to work at all initially. When I got home and started it up today it started up fine and the light is on but my bt mouse is back to not working again. Problem is I’ve looked online and don’t see one that is specifically for win 8. I only want to use it for occasionally connecting my mouse when the laptop is hooked up to the tv w/hdmi. I don’t use it all the time. Does anyone know of an adapter that works with 8?

    Reply ↓

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  23. Abhishek

    Thanks for this brilliant guide.

    I followed every bit of it and it worked perfectly. My external HDD with USB3.0 was running at USB3.0 speeds.

    But that changed when I restarted my computer. It reverted back to its previous state.

    But the drivers are all intact. The changes mentioned in the guide are intact and I can see Intel drivers in Details.

    Reply ↓
  24. andrew

    I’ve got a Dell Inspiron14z and a Kensington sd3000v, OS is Windows 8 64bit. I tried to reboot the system in different ways, but I didn’t get the “Start up settings” option. The menu shows the “Uefi settings” instead, so I am not able to choose the “Disable driver signature enforcement” option. Any suggestion?

    Reply ↓
  25. GzyOnline

    The Intel USB 3.0 controller is the only one I AM NOT having an issue with.. having issues with AMD & Renesas USB 3.0 controllers (after plugging in Corsair VOYAGER slider USB 3.0 flash drive, Windows says USB Device Not Recognized/Driver Error). Can anyone confirm if this solution and these modified *.inf files can be used with Renesas USB 3.0 controller?

    Thanks!

    Reply ↓
  26. Cleber

    This is the best way to fix the compatibility between the Corsair Voyager GT USB 3.0 thumbdrive and Windows 8. [2] Thank you. I was almost going crazy.

    Reply ↓
  27. Alexandre

    Hi,

    Thank you so much for your help!

    I purchased an ASUS Vivobook and the Kensington docking station sd3000v and nothing works. Following this incredible guide, now everythng is all right.

    Great job!

    Reply ↓

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  29. Thiago

    I have the same problem, i`m with a Lenovo Yoga 13 and iGO Iomega 3.0, i cant send any files to this HD and some times it do not connect. When i try to update force the update windows says that it has already the newest drive and did not let me update it, i`m doing some thing wrong or i have to do another thing?

    Thanks

    Reply ↓
  31. jaca

    Hi, have same problem with asus ultrabook, but when i get to install downoladed drivers (after rebooting system) windows says that i already have actual drivers set and i can’t do anything more about it. The problem is still there.

    Reply ↓
  32. Karl

    I have an ASUS X55A which would not work with a Samsung 500GB external drive. It does now thanks team.

    Reply ↓
  33. norepli

    Thank you for this wonderful fix. I used driver version 1.0.8.251. For those having a problem with the XHCI drivers reverting to the Win 8 stack version, I would suggest you “disable” Windows 8 auto-driver updates. Thanks again! Oh, BTW, you can easily overwrite the driver version in both of the .inf files (downloaded from this website) to match the actual version you downloaded from Intel. That way, they will display correctly in device manager. The information will be either on line 24 or 25 and here is what I inserted to match my current driver version: DriverVer=03/30/2013,1.0.8.251

    Reply ↓
  34. norepli

    Just a follow-up to my previous post (which should be right above this one). Ok, so everything was working fine for a while; however, on my last test, my USB 3.0 device was not recognized as such and it ended up on one of the USB 2.0 root hubs. So I checked my device manager and discovered that I now had “two” XHCI root hubs. The first one, labeled Intel(R) USB 3.0 Root Hub has the Win 7 drivers that were installed via this guide; however, the second one, labeled USB XHCI Root Hub appears to be the original one because it still has the Win8 stack drivers. Anyway, I’m not sure whether it was left there as some sort of duplicate hub or if it just magically came back on its own. So, hoping that it was just left there and was (somehow) the cause of my recent problem, I simply deleted it and, since doing so, I have done multiple reboots and insertions of USB 3.0 devices and they were all correctly identified as such. With that said, I’m going to keep watch over the next few days and I’ll report back if there is another issue.

    Reply ↓
  35. norepli

    This is my final follow-up to my previous posts and (unfortunately) I have to report that my intermittent detection problem has returned so I must conclude that this procedure did not work for me but I had fun trying to fix anyway. However, I am glad to hear that it did work for many!

    Reply ↓

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