HP Pro Mini 400 G9 i7, Samsung external SSD disconnecting frequently from front USB 20Gbps port

[Jayjay2025]

Hi - got a HP Pro Mini 400 G9 i7 (937Y4EA) and bought a Samsung T9 External SSD (4TB) to take advantage of the HP's front 20Gbps* USB port (theoretically a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2).

I installed the Samsung Magician software on unwrapping and connecting, plus accepted the firmware download - only to find that the Samsung now disconnects frequently (maybe every 10 secs or so) and randomly, making it unusable.

I'm trying to work out if the fault lies with my Samsung, the Samsung software or the HP USB port.

Anyone else had issues?

Thanks

*Talking of USB ports, have to say that the labelling of them is very confusing. The SuperSpeed ones either just have SS or SS + Lightning flash/Power plug on them, so it is guesswork which is 20/10/5Gbps.

Is there some HP software utility which gives the exact version of each USB? My HP Z210 Xeon used to have a great HP Performance Advisor utility which would show a schematic of all the ports etc. with clear version info.

[Jayjay2025]

More info on this:

So, I did some tests. Switching the T9 SSD to the rear USB-C (10Gbps?) port eliminated the frequent disconnections. I put the WD Portable HD (which had been there) on the front USB-C (20Gbps?) in case there was some issue with drive interaction. Still all worked fine.

So problem is either the front USB-C or the T9 SSD interacting with the front USB-C

Switched the drives back around, i.e. T9 SSD on front USB-C -  problems started again.

To be specific, around every 60 secs (or can be more frequent) I hear the ding of the taskbar notification thing, followed by another ding and "Autoplay T9 (D:) Select what happens with this disk" followed by "Choose what to do with removable drives: Configure Storage Setings/ Open folder to view files / Take no action"  i.e. the PC thinks the drive was disconnected then reconnected (interestingly you would think that this would cause the Samsung Magician software to prompt me to re-enter the encryption password... but it doesn't and I can click on Explorer and still access the T9).

I temporarily removed encryption, still same. I unloaded the Samsung Magician services, still the same.

I changed all the Power Settings in Windows I could find to Performance/5 mins shutoff, still the same. Even did it in USB Device Manager ... still the same...

As I speak... just had the T9 disconnect-reconnect about 6 times in 60 seconds... complete with very annoying 'ding.. ding'.

Frustrating, as clearly something to do with the T9 interacting with the front HP USB-C 20Gbps? port, and not too sure whether the finger of suspicion points to Samsung or HP.

Any help appreciated - I guess I could live with the T9 on the rear USB-C 10Gbps? port, but seems a waste,

[Jayjay2025]

OK, had some time to experiment, think I got somewhere (BTW should have said Win 11 Pro, fully updated as is all the rest of the sw and hw).

It looks like... it is the WD software for my My Passport Ultra 6TB (bought as a backup drive) which is the culprit.

I disabled WD Discovery.exe and WDDriveUtilitiesHelper.exe from startup, but still disconnections.

Went to Services and noted that WDDriveService (WD Drive Manager) was still running - Stopped it.

No more disconnections...

Did a web search, looks like WD have form on this one:

https://forums.sandisk.com/t/wd-security-wd-drive-manager-disrupts-usb-on-windows-11/286980

Annoying, as I want to be able to use Encryption on my WD 6TB backup drive - looks like I will need to backup from my main machine to it without any WD apps/services installed, then connect it to my laptop and turn on/off Encryption.

Anyone seen this with WD before?