- Feb 26, 2023
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This may be so much a niche issue that this won't help anyone, but after some frustration, the solution to a problem I was having was enough in the weeds that I thought it worth posting in the hopes it might keep someone else from pulling their hair out.
I have an Asus Vivobook M6500RE (AMD Ryzen 7 6800H) that includes a USB4 port. The notebook comes with a 150 watt barrel charger, but it will also charge using the USB4 port. Given the chunkiness of the barrel charger, I have been using a 100watt Anker 736 (model A2145) charger when I travel since I can charge phone, tablet, notebook, power banks, etc. all with a single compact charger.
Recently, I experienced a failure on the USB4 port. It would show charging when plugged into the Anker brick, but would not charge. Moreover, the port wouid not recognize any devices plugged into it (USB audio, thumb drives, etc.). I did the usual searching for solutions and went through the Asus USB troubleshooting page along with several other possible ideas to no avail. The notebook would still charge with the barrel charger, however. So, it was still usable. Also, all of the other USB ports worked fine.
I contacted Asus and prepared to return the notebook for repair believing it was a hardware failure. Then I found a webpage regarding laptops not charging and the suggestion to reset the charging embedded controller (EC). Since it was still charging with the regular charger, I didn't think this would fix things, but I did the suggested shut down, held the power button for 40 seconds, and then restarted. After doing this, the USB4 port recognized devices and seemed to be fine.
Then, I plugged in my Anker charger and found the notebook still wouldn't charge and, worse, the port was again nonfunctional for other devices. I reset the EC again and, using a different cable, found that the USB4 port would charge and remain functional. It's been a week now, and all seems normal again with the port and the rest of the notebook.
So, the root cause of the failure was a USB C cable that had gone bad (it was only a few months old and rated for 100watts). The solution was to reset a fail state in the EC. Both things were simple in the end, but finding the cause and solution was not straightforward.
I suggested that Asus add this step to their troubleshooting page for USB, but have seen nothing so far. I went ahead and bought a Plugable USB C Power Meter Tester from Amazon and tested all my cables with a battery bank and the same charger, finding and then discarding another cable that didn't seem right.
Note that though my issue was with a USB4 port, the same solution might also apply to a PD capable USB 3.2.
Hope this helps someone down the road.
I have an Asus Vivobook M6500RE (AMD Ryzen 7 6800H) that includes a USB4 port. The notebook comes with a 150 watt barrel charger, but it will also charge using the USB4 port. Given the chunkiness of the barrel charger, I have been using a 100watt Anker 736 (model A2145) charger when I travel since I can charge phone, tablet, notebook, power banks, etc. all with a single compact charger.
Recently, I experienced a failure on the USB4 port. It would show charging when plugged into the Anker brick, but would not charge. Moreover, the port wouid not recognize any devices plugged into it (USB audio, thumb drives, etc.). I did the usual searching for solutions and went through the Asus USB troubleshooting page along with several other possible ideas to no avail. The notebook would still charge with the barrel charger, however. So, it was still usable. Also, all of the other USB ports worked fine.
I contacted Asus and prepared to return the notebook for repair believing it was a hardware failure. Then I found a webpage regarding laptops not charging and the suggestion to reset the charging embedded controller (EC). Since it was still charging with the regular charger, I didn't think this would fix things, but I did the suggested shut down, held the power button for 40 seconds, and then restarted. After doing this, the USB4 port recognized devices and seemed to be fine.
Then, I plugged in my Anker charger and found the notebook still wouldn't charge and, worse, the port was again nonfunctional for other devices. I reset the EC again and, using a different cable, found that the USB4 port would charge and remain functional. It's been a week now, and all seems normal again with the port and the rest of the notebook.
So, the root cause of the failure was a USB C cable that had gone bad (it was only a few months old and rated for 100watts). The solution was to reset a fail state in the EC. Both things were simple in the end, but finding the cause and solution was not straightforward.
I suggested that Asus add this step to their troubleshooting page for USB, but have seen nothing so far. I went ahead and bought a Plugable USB C Power Meter Tester from Amazon and tested all my cables with a battery bank and the same charger, finding and then discarding another cable that didn't seem right.
Note that though my issue was with a USB4 port, the same solution might also apply to a PD capable USB 3.2.
Hope this helps someone down the road.
Last edited:
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