After three weeks of investigating USB issues that are plaguing 500 series motherboards, hope is on the horizon as AMD says it’s “isolated the root cause” and has a patch on the way. You’ll have to wait until early April to download the BIOS update, though, as it needs to go through motherboard partners like Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and Asrock first.
AMD didn’t elaborate on what the cause of the problem is or exactly what the fixes are, but says the update should address the various problems users are experiencing, such as USB ports intermittently dropping out, audio from DACs and AMPs crackling, USB/PCIe Gen 4 exclusion, and possibly more problems that aren’t listed in the post.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that chipset bandwidth issues are the culprit, especially given that problems are exacerbated when the best graphics card makes an appearance. Unfortunately, switching from PCIe 4.0 to Gen3 or USB ports from 3.0 to 2.0 only helps some users combat the problem, and they’re not exactly ideal solutions.
AMD’s packaged the fix in with its AGESA 1.2.0.2, which the company plans to distribute to vendors next week. From there, motherboard manufacturers will test and implement the changes before issuing the BIOS update to customers. Since different brands process things at different speeds, there’s no telling when you’ll get your hands on the patch, so you’ll need to keep an eye out throughout April.
If you continue to experience problems, AMD says to download the standalone AMD Bug Report Tool and open a ticket with customer support.