I have a data acquisition application controlled by a Windows PC. I am using an Intel Desktop Board DH67CL motherboard. This has 6 USB2 ports along with 2 of the new blue USB3 ports. The DAQ instrument connects via USB to the computer. Roughly once every day or two there is a short communication glitch with the USB that causes the instrument to disconnect briefly and then reconnect. This is logged so I know whenever it happens. Occasionally it will cause the data acquisition to stop. I've verified that the glitches will go away if I use the USB3 ports, or if I use a PCI add-on card with USB ports.

So it seems that there is something going on with these built-in USB2 ports on this motherboard. I haven't yet had a chance to test with other motherboards.

My question: what could be causing these glitches and how to get rid of them for this board, or is there a better motherboard to use?

We have standardized on the DH67CL because it's inexpensive, has 3 PCI slots that we need, and is readily available. We don't need the power of higher-end server boards but reliability is important.

Thanks.

Update: This problem has been reproduced many times on different hardware, though we always use the same model of motherboard (DH67CL) and power supply (Antec EA-430D). I don't think the power requirements are very high but will check on that.