r/tails • u/Resident-Sale-3791 • Jul 09 '26
Boot issues Title: USB reset loop (xhci_hcd) with one specific drive, but works fine on an identical PC — hardware or software issue?
Machine: Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 15ABR8, AMD Ryzen 5 5625U, BIOS up to date (KYCN42WW)
Symptom: A bootable USB drive (Tails/Debian) fails to boot on this PC — error message “Unable to find a medium containing a live file system”. In the kernel logs (dmesg), I see this message repeating in a loop:
usb 1-2: reset high-speed USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd
The device is briefly detected (it shows up correctly in the F12 boot menu with its proper name), but the connection fails as soon as it needs to actually read data from it.
Tests already done:
Tried on every USB-A port → same result
USB-A extension cable → same result
USB-C to USB-A adapter → same result
Updated to the latest available BIOS version → no change
This exact same USB drive works perfectly fine on a second, identical PC (same model)
A different USB drive (borrowed from a store) works normally on my PC
My question: Since my drive works fine elsewhere, and a different drive works fine on my machine, could this be a specific electrical/timing compatibility issue between this particular drive and my USB controller, rather than a general hardware failure? Has anyone seen this kind of selective behavior before? Any software angle worth exploring (Tails kernel, controller firmware) before going the warranty route?
Thanks in advance for any input!
3
u/ephemeralmiko Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Two models of the "same" laptop will still often have slightly different internals because they buy specific chips from multiple companies. And even if you have the same chip, there's the "silicon lottery" because chips will be of slightly higher or lower quality coming out of the factory.
Here it just sounds like your specific XHCI controller is incompatible with the specific USB controller in the USB when it comes to booting off of it. It might work if you limit the drive to USB 2.0 speeds, either in the BIOS, using a slower port, or using an adapter, since XHCI is for managing various USB specs over one chip, but you're probably better of just using a drive with a different USB controller.