LeicaIIIf

Thanks Andre, but I did finally get the 8.1 update to install, and my USB 3 external hard drives work fine now.

There were actually 2 updates with the same number released for the 8.1 update. KB2919355 was the large update (over 800MB) released on 8 April. Then on 17 April I noticed another KB2919355 (about 200MB) which I also installed. I think the smaller one was offered only to those people who were able to install the large update released on 8 April. According to the MS Community Forum there are still a lot of people who cannot install the large update. In my case the update fixed all the problems I was having with my USB 3 external hard drives, so I am happy for that. Don't know what else it fixed. LeicaIIIf

Thanks Helmut and Magic Andre for your suggestions - If only I could install the large 8.1 update (KB2919355) I might get the use of my USB ports back, but the install from Windows Update fails on my machine. The Windows Troubleshooter and all the Microsoft suggestions for the failure to install is to start from scratch with Win 8, then reinstall Win 8.1, but that would result in the loss of all my desktop applications. I don't really want to do that because I don't have the installation files for many of my applications. The failure of the new 8.1 update seems to be widespread as there are many complaints around the internet, and nothing but silence from Microsoft. I think I'll give up on 8 and 8.1 for now - maybe Microsoft will have a fix for this failure soon. LeicaIIf

Computer is HP 1037cb desktop with AMD 4 core processor (2011 vintage) with upgraded 16GB memory, graphics card, power supply and Cavalry 2 port USB 3 PCIe card. Original hard disk is a 1 TB Seagate with Windows 7 Home Premium installed. I added 2 external USB 3 hard drives - a 2 TB Iomega, and a 2 TB Seagate Free Agent GoFlex. This setup ran well with no problems. When Win 8 was released I added a second internal Western Digital 1 TB hard drive and installed the Win 8, then upgraded to Win 8.1 when it was released so I could boot to either Win 7 or Win 8.1. When I boot to Win 8.1 there is a problem with both USB 3 external disk drives. The external USB 3 Seagate drive goes into sleep mode about every 20 seconds, then wakes up again about 20 seconds later and keeps repeating this until shutdown. The external USB 3 Iomega does not go to sleep, but there is a series of audible beeps and disk activity every 20 seconds that repeats until shutdown. When I installed Win 8.1 the OS recognized the USB 3 card and installed Microsoft drivers. The Win 7 disk has drivers supplied by NEC Electronics and there are no USB 3 problems when running Win 7, only when running Win 8.1. I suspect the USB 3 card is incompatible with Win 8.1, but the Win 8 upgrade wizard did not detect any hardware incompatibility before installation. USB 3 cards are fairly inexpensive so I plan to try a different card. Has anyone else had any USB 3 problems in Win 8.1? Also if anyone has added a USB 3 card to an older computer and has no problems I would appreciate knowing what brand of card works. Thanks in advance. LeicaIIIf P. S. - Sorry for double post - Don't see how to delete a post.