WD admits this is an Issue.  Get a Powered Hub or use USB Y Cable to tap more power.

Also the Passport is not Standard Mass Storage it uses SES Driver

SES Driver Download:

http://download.wdc.com/smartware/WD_SES_Device_Driver.zip

Each USB 2 port is capable of delivering 500mA @ 5Volts max.

Each USB 3 port is REQUIRES 900mA @ 5Volts

I have an SES driver, and the Passport drive is sometimes recognized and works. I recently tried a powered hub, but it did not help the recognition frequency. The hub did help the problem of decreased wireless mouse smoothness and range when the WD was plugged into rear ports.

The funny thing is, when I unplugged the hub and connected the WD direct to a rear hub again, the mouse continued to work smoothly. I rebooted the computer and plugged the WD into rear directly again (without first plugging in the powered hub) and the old mouse problem returned.

To me, this seems like a USB power management problem whose characteristics are different when a powered hub is plugged in (or even when the computer thinks a powered hub is plugged in). I am also thinking the whole problem is a poor implementation of USB 3.0 on the new XPS 8500 machines.

I just got a new XPS 8500. I also have had problems with USB 3.0 drives. If I used 3.5 inch drives in a NexStar drive dock, it works in both front and back ports. The drive dock has a power supply of course. If I use an SSD drive in a 2.5 inch enclosure, it only works on the front USB 3.0 ports, and not in the back. The computer displays an error message that the drivers did not install. It does not matter if the additional power plug is used or not. The fact that there is a disparity between the front and back ports reveals a problem. I also tried a USB 3.0 Patriot SuperSonic Pulse drive. It had the very same problem, and it needs no additional power at all. Also note that if these drives are placed in USB 2.0 ports, they all work just fine.

I have replaced the hard drive, the entire O/S, manually installed the current driver, and even let Dell replace the motherboard, to no avail. It results in the same device driver error message. Dell has offered to replace the PC claiming no one else has this problem and that another new PC will fix it. But I have already replaced everything that could possibly affect it. Go figure.

In my case, the answer is obvious to me. The device driver error message is right. I would ask Dell to contact Intel to find out why the back ports don't work, but the front ones do. Maybe some other Dell tech rep could take interest in this and solve it quickly. (I am wanting to stay positive here.)

The refund option is sounding pretty nice though.

.. Jim ..

I'm happy you added your experiences to this. I think it's odd that your main trouble was with the back 3.0 ports and mine were with the front. I didn't want to spend a lot of time with tech support and definitely din't want to start replacing things like motherboards. So I just retruned mine to my local Costco store for a full refund. I have a new XPS 8500 of the same configuration on order through Costco so I will see if a new system will help. I'll post my findings, good or bad, after I get the new one.

I'm not confident the problem will be fixed, but with the lack of people posting about USB 3.0 problems, I have to wonder if only a small percentage of systems have this trouble. We'll see.

I have a minor problem with USB 3.0 on my XPS 8500.  On occassion, it doesn't recognize my plugged in HD on boot, but replug seem to solve my issue.  This is a Seagate 3TB USB 3.0 external desktop drive with external power supply.

I returned my first XPS 8500 and have received a new one of the same configuration--and same USB problem as stated in the original post. I actually have no problems with either a WD Passport drive or Rocketfish power 3.0 hub being recognized using the rear ports. I do still have the mouse response characteristics with the WD drive plugged into the rear, but I now realize that may be due to some possibly unfair variables in my environment.

The main problem I do see is one of the front USB 3.0 ports being loose and of different physical specs from the ones in the rear. I very rarely can get a 3.0 connection in the front ports, and if I do happen to it can be down to 2.0 in a second. It is very unstable.

Since this is a specific problem, I have started a new post on it specifically.

It is at: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19453369.aspx

Dell is going to have to replace these poorly designed ports in the front if we are ever going to get stable connections in the front.

The new release of BIOS version A06 helped solve the problem with my Patriot 3.0 flash drive and my Sandisk all-in-one card reader, both of which are USB 3.0 devices. Previously, it could not recognize them in the two back ports. However, it still cannot read my SSD drive in a NexStar 2.5 inch enclosure with USB 3.0. So it is only a partial solution.

I have BIOS A06, but my Western Digital MyBook Usb 3.0 (dekstop model) not able to detect if i power on the drive while in windows.

Either I power on the drive before power on the XPS 8500, or after turn on the pc, then reinsert the usb cable, else it wont detect

I am having similar USB 3.0 issues as well. This is addition to the Pcie slot issues. Read the last 5 or 6 posts in this thread en.community.dell.com/.../19449717.aspx . I have not tried this fix yet. Just thought I would post it here.

Hi Repitall,

I would recommend installing this BIOS update, as this version of BIOS has the following fixes:

1. Add two sets boot orders function, Legacy and UEFI has different boot order.
2. Add UEFI PXE function.
3. Fix SMBIOS Type17 show 1333MHz when use Sandy Bridge CPU and 1600MHz Memory.
4. Fix Show no boot device when remove USB KB in RAID mode and UEFI OS.
5. Add 50ms delay to wait PCIE16x ready to fix change CPU from SNB to IVB when use add on graphics no display.

You can download the latest BIOS from: http://dell.to/PjjooH

Do reply with results