Asmedia ASW1142 usb 3.1/C not working properly on msi z170a m7

[Belmoto]

Hi there,

Recently I had a problem with my msi z170a m7 mobo usb c/3.1 port,

The port connects normally but when I transfer data it transfers with full speed (from the pc to the device I'm sending to) but it does not receive with the same speed, to make it simpler, if I plugged a wifi adapter to it, I can upload with full speed but I can't download with the same speed, but if I connected the adapter to different port it downloads at full speed.

I'm not sure if it's a HW problem or a SW one,

I have MSI z170a m7, with modded bios to install coffee lake CPU ( intel 9600k)

I don't think it's the bios because it was working after the mod, the problem occurred just recently,

something happened with the port and I think this problem is probably because of it,
I connected a device the has a modded type c port as a charger, the port was faulty and it shorted when I plugged it in the hub that was connected through the type c/3.1 port

I`m not sure if this caused the problem or not,
But apparently it is

My question is, is there any way someone can teach me how to test if it's was the Asmedia ASW1142 controller that got damaged or some capacitor that I can easily change

(i have a multimeter and a I'm fairly good with micro soldering)
I just need a guide to properly test it and fix it if possible.

Sorry for the long as* post but I want to cover everything as much as I can.

And I think the only place that can help me is this forum since it's purely about electronics and troubleshooting

Thank you guys in advance for helping me out, I really appreciate it

[mon2]

Suggest to test the ports in DIODE mode. Remove all power. Meter in DIODE mode.

Red meter probe, yes RED to ground. Black meter probe to the point to test.

Start with a known good USB port that is confirmed to be working in both directions of data transfer. Red probe to ground & black probe to the USB contact pin. Note the measurement and move to the next USB connector pin till all contacts have been probed.

Repeat the same test with the non-working / slower USB port. Compare the measurements between the 2 ports. Post your measurements for a review.

[Belmoto]

Suggest to test the ports in DIODE mode. Remove all power. Meter in DIODE mode.

Red meter probe, yes RED to ground. Black meter probe to the point to test.

Start with a known good USB port that is confirmed to be working in both directions of data transfer. Red probe to ground & black probe to the USB contact pin. Note the measurement and move to the next USB connector pin till all contacts have been probed.

Repeat the same test with the non-working / slower USB port. Compare the measurements between the 2 ports. Post your measurements for a review.

Thank You mate


I'm sorry I didn't come back earlier but I was out of town so couldn't give you the measurements

I did what you asked me to do and apparently there is two open lines (OL) on the faulty USB C/3.1

I tried to write all the measurements on the boardview and it get messy with all the numbers, I tried my best to make it clearer and less messy so I apologize if it isn't clear

please let me know if I can make anything to fix that.

*ps: I posted this post on 3 other forums, you are the only decent guy/gal who didn't start to make fun of why I'm trying to fix this mobo, so I guess I shall say thank you very much and I appreciate it a lot.



THIS IS THE WORKING 3.0




FAULTY USBC/3.1

[DynaxSC]

Hi guys, I usually measure only the data lines, for me the simplest way is to do it with a sharp probe on the tiny ESD devices which are attached to any USB data lines. There are two types of them, the 10 pin (like DU5 on your picture) or the bigger ones with 6 pins (like DU3 on your picture). Just measure on both devices all the pins in both rows, which are not the mid 2 pins (one of these mid pins is GND, the other is VCC, so the protection is against both power supply networks). I measure just the resistance to ground, but reverse diode will do also. Resistance (board totally disconnected from PSU or PSU off for at least 90 seconds) should be in Mohms range or even not measurable. Diode mode don't know. There are usually two failures, either the ESD devices are shorted or low ohm, or the USB controller is shorted or low ohm. If the ESD only is affected, then replacing the ESD device will repair the USB port (majority of cases). If Controller is broken, you need to replace the controller. It naturally can happen that both devices are broken, depends of the energy of the electrostatical overload which hit the port. Your case is however little unusual, as the port works, but very slow. So it could be the controller which is somehow partially broken due to silicon degradation. ASMedia USB controllers work in quite high temperatures so their durability is not endless, replaced already some of them due to silicon degradation "end of life ". The ESD devices can be taken from any donor board, preferably same brand, ASMedia controllers are available on Aliexpress.

One thing good to check is also the stability of the +5V supply voltage of the USB port under load. Especially older boards may not have enough power through-output to handle modern USB devices. Best is to look on it with a scope. Another issue could be corrupted firmware of the ASMedia controller, if any present.

BTW, what editing program you used to make these nice arrows and value legend on the picture ?

[Belmoto]

Hi guys, I usually measure only the data lines, for me the simplest way is to do it with a sharp probe on the tiny ESD devices which are attached to any USB data lines. There are two types of them, the 10 pin (like DU5 on your picture) or the bigger ones with 6 pins (like DU3 on your picture). Just measure on both devices all the pins in both rows, which are not the mid 2 pins (one of these mid pins is GND, the other is VCC, so the protection is against both power supply networks). I measure just the resistance to ground, but reverse diode will do also. Resistance (board totally disconnected from PSU or PSU off for at least 90 seconds) should be in Mohms range or even not measurable. Diode mode don't know. There are usually two failures, either the ESD devices are shorted or low ohm, or the USB controller is shorted or low ohm. If the ESD only is affected, then replacing the ESD device will repair the USB port (majority of cases). If Controller is broken, you need to replace the controller. It naturally can happen that both devices are broken, depends of the energy of the electrostatical overload which hit the port. Your case is however little unusual, as the port works, but very slow. So it could be the controller which is somehow partially broken due to silicon degradation. ASMedia USB controllers work in quite high temperatures so their durability is not endless, replaced already some of them due to silicon degradation "end of life ". The ESD devices can be taken from any donor board, preferably same brand, ASMedia controllers are available on Aliexpress.

One thing good to check is also the stability of the +5V supply voltage of the USB port under load. Especially older boards may not have enough power through-output to handle modern USB devices. Best is to look on it with a scope. Another issue could be corrupted firmware of the ASMedia controller, if any present.

BTW, what editing program you used to make these nice arrows and value legend on the picture ?

Hi DynaxSC,

I really appreciate your comment, I tried to measure them with resistance mode but at first I was very confused because I didn't know where to put the probs so I tried on every ESD chip and it was hell of a challenge because I don't have a microscope,

so I measured them and no short appeared (one prob on GND and the other on each pin), I double checked and it's the same, so I tried with Diode mode, I couldn't see anything significant except for 2 pins on DU5 (the left 2 bottom pins) their measurements were off compared to all other pins on every similar ESD chips, (they were 0.45 and the others were 0.68 - 0.73) so I don't really know if it's safe to say that this DU5 is faulty or it's within normal (acceptable) values, and if it was faulty, is there a way to bypass this ESD rather than replacing it ?
cuz I don't think I have any energy left to order and wait and try to fix and troubleshoot. it's really exhausting.


thank you very much pal,

and for the editing xD, thank you for your compliment xDDD it's the editing mode when you edit a Screenshot on MacOs (yep using this stupid piece of machine cuz I don't have a windows laptop).

[DynaxSC]

The values you measured seem to be OK. There might be some differences on the pins, as there are two types of lines: TX lines, and also RX lines, so can be different devices behind in the USB controller. Anyhow the differences should be symmetric and here it seems they aren't. Also as you do not measure short or low ohm, it seems the ESD devs are OK. So my guess is the controller is bad.

Regarding removing ESD practically you can just remove the ESD devices and solder just bridges on the data lines (pin paires opposite to each other, except GND and VCC), the USB will work further, but you will loose the protection which is not optimal. The USB controller will be directly exposed to any surcharge. In winter and dry air its very easy to have such a surcharge, would not recommend to do so. And most probably the ESD's are OK. You could remove the suspicious one and make bridges just for test purposes, that would be OK. However it is a kind of watchmaker work, you would need a 0.1 mm copper wire and a 15x lens (head attachable to have two free hands). Microscope is not mandatory.

The 10-pin ESD devices are difficult to desolder with hotair from the top board side, not melting some plastics in the I/O sockets or making the electrolytic caps' acid boil or the cap even explode. You can try to heat the board from the bottom side instead, with a high air temperature, eg. 450 C, giving some flux to the ESD's - longer heating time is needed, and it must be done with care not to destroy the board material (the older board, the less resistant to heat is the material) - monitor any strange smell, which is the first symptom of an fried board. Also its a little bit tricky to hit the right area on the bottom side.

[anikin73]

ASM 1142 I had seen 2 pcs which is very hot and tend to cause motherboard random shutdown. And because it is a quite of big pc of QFN, harder to desolder and solder .

[DynaxSC]

For the ASMedia USB controllers its quite normal to get very hot, its their nature, so this must not mean anything. They are always the hottest devices on a board, which is not just under a heavy cpu load.