How to solve USB 4 device not recognized on PC with Windows 10/11?

This article provides requirements and procedures for using Ankmax USB4 devices on a Windows PC.

Ankmax's USB4 device UC4M2 is also a Thunderbolt 4/3-capable storage device that can be used with Windows PCs with Thunderbolt 4/3 ports. However, you may experience connection issues between the storage device and the Thunderbolt 4/3 ports on your Windows PC. Therefore, if you have problems with unrecognized devices or other connection issues when using this USB 4 storage device, the solutions in several cases are as follows:

1.When the USB 4 enclosure with the installed SSD is connected to the Thunderbolt port of the Windows device, the LED indicator of the USB4 enclosure will light up green.

2. Click the icon of the desktop computer, right-click and select Manage, the name of the inserted device will appear in the storage under the Windows computer management. If a new SSD is used for the first time, it will prompt that it needs to be initialized and formatted before it can be used.

3. At this time, if the device cannot be found under the management of the computer, check whether the LED light is on? As long as a good SSD is installed, the indicator light will be on, even if the wrong type of SSD is installed. If the LED light is on at this time, please skip to step 4 below.

If the LED light does not light up, it means that the SSD may not be installed or installed correctly, please refer to the following illustration to reinstall it again. If the LED still does not light up after reinstallation, it may be caused by a defective SSD. Please replace it with another SSD and try again.

4. At this time, the LED is confirmed to be lit, but the device cannot be found under the management of the computer. You can open the computer search, search for Thunderbolt Control Center and enter, you can find that under port 1 or port 2, you will find a device named Intel Tahini Creek connected, which means that the USB4 enclosure has been identified under the Thunderbolt interface.

At this point, even if there is no SSD installed, just plug in an empty USB 4 enclosure, and a device named Intel Tahini Creekde will be found. But Thunderbolt Control Center also won't show Thunderbolt devices if the wrong type of SSD is installed that isn't supported.

At this point, if the device named Intel Tahini Creekde cannot be found under Thunderbolt Control Center, it means that the USB 4 Enclosure is not correctly recognized by the Windows computer. Refer to the following possible solutions:

First: Please check whether the Thunderbolt3 cable in the product accessories is used, and do not use other cables;
Second: Please re-plug and unplug the two ends of the USB 4 Enclosure cable, or change the direction;
Third: Please check that the installed SSD is a compatible type. For details, please refer to the SSD compatibility list;
Fourth: Search for Thunderbolt Control Center and enter, select "Always stay connected" to approve;
Fifth: Visit your PC manufacturer's website and update the Windows PC's thunderbolt firmware and driver to the latest version; for specific steps, please refer to the important matters in the FAQ of Ankmax's official website;
Sixth: Please restart your Windows device and reinsert the USB 4 Enclosure device.

5. In the Device Manager of Computer Management, under Storage Control, a new standard NVMe Controller can be found, and the device name of the installed SSD will be displayed under Disk Drive.

6. If the new standard NVMe Controller cannot be found under the storage control of the device manager of the computer management, and there is no new SSD storage device under the disk drive, it may be that the SSD is not installed or the NVMe SSD is not installed. At this point, you need to check the type of SSD, and select the NVMe SSD supported by the USB4 enclosure for use.

7. The UC4M2 SSD Enclosure is specially designed for M Key & B+M Key NVMe SSD up to 8TB capacity. The applicable M.2 SSD size is 2280.
Not compatible with SATA SSD, mSATA or PCIe AHCI SSDs.

8. If the above steps have been confirmed and the device cannot be found, please contact Ankmax’s support team directly and describe the problem you encountered in detail, and email support@ankmax.com, we will reply to you as soon as possible.

More: IMPORTANT: Using Ankmax UC4M2 USB4 M.2 SSD Enclosure on Windows PC

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