AMD has announced via a reddit post that it has found a fix for the widely-reported USB connectivity issues that have impacted systems with Ryzen processors, saying, “With your help, we believe we have isolated the root cause and developed a solution that addresses a range of reported symptoms[…].” The fix comes after AMD acknowledged reports of the issues last month and asked users to help it pinpoint the source of the problem by submitting detailed logs.
AMD will release a new AGESA 1.2.0.2 to motherboard vendors in ‘about a week,’ and downloadable beta BIOSes with the patch will land in early April. Naturally, fully-validated BIOS versions with the fix will arrive shortly thereafter.
AMD hasn’t provided further clarity about the fix or the nature of the underlying problem, but the issues seemed confined to Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series CPUs in 500- and 400-series motherboards (i.e., X570, X470, B550, and B450) and consisted of random dropouts for USB-connected devices. The complaints encompassed several different types of USB devices, including unresponsive external capture devices, momentary keyboard connection drops, slow mouse responses, issues with VR headsets, external storage devices, and USB-connected CPU coolers.
Motherboard vendors build firmware upon the AGESA bedrock, so improvements to the underlying code take some time to filter out to the general public. As a reminder, AGESA (AMD Generic Encapsulated System Architecture) is a bootstrap protocol that initializes processor cores, memory, and the HyperTransport (now Infinity Fabric) controller.
Here’s AMD’s post regarding the matter:
“We would like to thank the community here on r/AMD for its assistance with logs and reports as we investigated the intermittent USB connectivity you highlighted. With your help, we believe we have isolated the root cause and developed a solution that addresses a range of reported symptoms, including (but not limited to): USB port dropout, USB 2.0 audio crackling (e.g., DAC/AMP combos), and USB/PCIe Gen 4 exclusion.
AMD has prepared AGESA 1.2.0.2 to deploy this update, and we plan to distribute 1.2.0.2 to our motherboard partners for integration in about a week. Customers can expect downloadable BIOSes containing AGESA 1.2.0.2 to begin with beta updates in early April. The exact update schedule for your system will depend on the test and implementation schedule for your vendor and specific motherboard model. If you continue to experience intermittent USB connectivity issues after updating your system to AGESA 1.2.0.2, we encourage you to download the standalone AMD Bug Report Tool and open a ticket with AMD Customer Support.”If you’re experiencing issues with USB connectivity issues now, AMD has previously issued a few suggestions on how to resolve the issue. You can apply those fixes now while you wait for the new BIOS revisions. We followed up with AMD for more information on the nature of the problems, but the company says it isn’t providing further information on the matter.