Last month, we reported that AMD had been made aware of many users experiencing intermittent connectivity issues with USB ports on its Ryzen 500-series motherboards. Requesting that users with any USB drop-out issues reach out directly to them, AMD has now released a statement confirming that it's planning to release a firmware update via a new AGESA update.

A post on Reddit by the official AMD account, u/AMD, has revealed that AMD will distribute a new firmware update named AGESA 1.2.0.2 to its motherboard partners within a week. AGESA (AMD's Generic Encapsulated System Architecture) is AMD's primary base on which motherboard vendors build their firmware around. This means it's likely that an update alleviating users with problematic and intermittent USB issues isn't far away.

AMD's official statement on its new updated AGESA reads as follows:

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.

Randomized USB disconnects can present many issues for a variety of users, with reports of USB capture devices cutting out while recording and problems with VR headsets that primarily rely on its power from USB ports. This also stretches to mouse and keyboard input issues which can also cause an inconvenience to end-users. 

Despite AMD admitting that there is an underlying issue surrounding USB ports on its Ryzen 5000 and Ryzen 3000 processors when used with 500 and 400-series motherboards, it hasn't gone into details about the fix. They believe they have identified the root cause of the issues, and the new AGESA 1.2.0.2 firmware should begin rolling out sometime in April.

Source: r/AMD

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  • Colin1497 - Wednesday, March 17, 2021 - link

    It's a shame that this issue existed and I hope that AMD carried their root cause investigation all the way to their design and validation process.

    That said, the response seems to be relatively good.
  • Cellar Door - Wednesday, March 17, 2021 - link

    This is after a MOJOR outcry on r/AMD - there have been threads after threads. It took waaay too long for AMD to even recognize that people were not making stuff up.

    It has been mostly the x570 crowd that had major issues - now think, how long has x570 been out?
  • Cellar Door - Wednesday, March 17, 2021 - link

    major*
  • Samus - Tuesday, March 23, 2021 - link

    While X570 has been out over a year, the issues have existed less than half that time. It isn't like people were having USB issues in 2019.
  • Silver5urfer - Wednesday, March 17, 2021 - link

    I wish someone who is capable and knowledgeable enough with HW can test and report their findings to the people. USB failures is a serious issue no matter how we see it, I see on my laptop because of high RPM USB 3.0 drives requesting more voltage or some it causes the USB reset. It happens rarely and it only happens because there's always high I/O going on these drives, like utorrent checking. It's a very old HW so it's fine and it's isolated case.

    But 500 series chipsets on a 2021 platform and HW is not acceptable. They should have disclosed it, I want to know if it's a Software issue or a HW issue getting a workaround SW fix.
  • ZolaIII - Wednesday, March 17, 2021 - link

    It whose related to USB 2.0 controllers (only) on AMD 5xx series boards and that much is confirmed, then people started reporting more and more different mostly individual problems regarding USB's with different AMD boards including series 4xx. How much of that is and can be validated remains to be seen. USB is plagued with problems agnostic of vendor, especially when it comes to USB Audio 2.0. AMD just stepped out eknowledged it and trying to fix. I had the mentioned problem regarding USB 2.0 with Gigabyte B550 board and it's been fixed (first partially that controler doesn't get overrun, then that it doesn't stall) completely even with BIOS (which whosent flagged as final BIOS version) with AGESA 1.2.0.0. (never had a DAC problem as I used best available attended USB port for it). People purposely over blown this but that's not a bad thing as now same questions will rise above AMD as vendor.
  • voicequal - Wednesday, March 17, 2021 - link

    USB3.0 is only requires power delivery of 0.9A @ 4.75V, and hubs may have further cumulative total limits across all ports. If you're connecting a spinning disk, you really should use a powered dock, or at least use a USB hub with a higher power rating.
  • fierywater - Wednesday, March 17, 2021 - link

    Glad to see they're fixing this, I just bought a 5800X that's going to be on its way back to Amazon because mouse/keyboard cutout issues made it entirely unusable. Slotting my 2700X back into my motherboard made the issues go away. I hope ASRock actually updates my X470 board with this.
  • duploxxx - Thursday, March 25, 2021 - link

    the usual internet posting scam ... yek yek blabla. Let me guys you will know buy the rocket lake as this does not have these USB issues..... I have 3 gmaing rigs all with 500 series mobo and 3-5k series ryzen. All with different mobo vendors and keyb/mouse/video capture devices.... The only issue i have is one that not always boot with keyb/mouse and than i just need to reseat it... yeah off course i need to send it back.
  • DominionSeraph - Wednesday, March 17, 2021 - link

    And now we get to serve as unpaid beta test as to what their "fix" breaks. My mouse will probably go from disconnecting once a month to once a day.

    AMD can't write software to save their lives.

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