nanopi

it's not the distributor - it's the company behind NanoPi boards..
 
IMO the whole thread can be moved to: https://forum.armbian.com/forum/31-sd-card-and-psu-issues/
 
NanoPi M4 being not PD-compliant and therefore might be troublesome is mentioned on the dowloadpage:
 
linking to
btw @Igor or @lanefu we might add the same disclaimer from nanopi m4 to the orangepi 4 cause this board will have the same issues (I updated the thread but forgot my credentials to the WP admin board to do it on my own - feel free to remove my rights there anyways I didn't do much maintenance of it and honestly don't plan to change that in the future).
 
(hidden cause not really an advice more a hack to maybe achieve what you want but not what you should - having a sane powering for your setup)
 
3 amps at 5V is sufficient for the NanoPi M4 in most scenarios I had. But if you look at their "expansion hats", the USB3 and the SATA "hat" provide a barrel plug and for the sata hat additionally a ATX12V 4 Pin connector indicating that even they do not recommend using USB-C for such set-ups.. 

Sorry for the other topic. I had made it before you replied and didn't know how to delete it.
 
Now things seem to be clearer.
I used to power it with an 5V/3A AC/DC power and a USB cable which is sold by FriendlyElec, a distributer of NanoPi M4
https://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=234
but the power supply for boot was not enough so the USB device was seen as USB2.0 after the boot.
 
Then I changed the power supply from that to a regulated dc power supply and power the pc via USB type-C connector.
This resulted in what I've wanted, I finally got the USB3.0 connection at boot.
It it strange but FriendlyElec's official power supply system isn't that good.
 
 
 

I edited [solved] into the topic.
 
Don't feel bad, this power issue bit even someone as experienced as @lanefu as we witnessed first hand in IRC recently. There is a reason it is harped upon constantly...
 
Back to the issue. I don't want to speak for @Cornelius, but that seems to me like just a diagnostic step (and/or, temporary work-around). Now that you know what the problem is, try and find a better way of powering.
 
Scanning quickly over the issue (so I may have missed it) it seems you were referring to "USB device" earlier and only "drive" later on. Mentioning "drive" earlier on may have helped better grasp the issue at hand (x y problem), as yes they require more power at startup. I'm not picking at you, just saying (and maybe I even missed it).
 
Anyway, quick look at NanoPi M4 (I don't own one) seems to reveal USB type-C power connector, which is better than Micro SD (potentially) but even that can have potential issues as I read some of them are not specced correctly. I have no idea if that is the case here or not.
 
Anyway I think you know where to look now. I would be very surprised if a forum search for "NanoPi M4 power" or similar did not turn up some solutions. But actually I would do (in order):
use some USB to SATA adapter that injects power (especially if 3.5" HDD!) [1] make sure throughput of USB Type C connector is sufficient make sure power supply itself, is sufficient if none of above are sufficient, look into powering through GPIO Note 1: This could be the whole problem, especially if you are dealing with 3.5" HDD, which require much more power. I have several of this one because I found them highly recommended by @tkaiser in this thread.

@NanoP
 
I don't own a M4, but I do have a T4 and whilst testing on that my drive came up as it should. My own personal experience with Rockchip and USB3 ports hasn't really been a good one and because of that, I do not use them as a NAS. Which is and I'm just guessing here, what ur trying to do.
 
If it is power related, may i suggest getting a small USB powered hub?

@NanoP,
 
Please do not spam multiple topics of same problem. I merged the two topics together. I also gave them a better title, after reading through both.
 
Back to your issue, I am not sure what else to try other than what has already been suggested.
 
An in-line physical switch? Very hacky. There is a low power Sonoff if you end up having to go this route (if nothing else works). Then at least you could remote control the disconnect and reconnect of the USB wire (you said it is in an out of the way location).
 
Have you tried maybe changing USB cables? I am running out of ideas...
 
Maybe someone else will come along who has a better idea.
 
If/when you figure it out, please remember to come back and share the solution.

There is also possibility of a remote controlled relay switch that you would plug the power supply in to.
 
Sonoff are popular for Wi-Fi based control, bu there are also the ISM bands (315/433Mhz, etc. depending on your country rules). I use the former for SBCs, this way if they get "stuck" somehow to where I cannot ssh in any more, I have that option which I can reach from other devices on the network to remotely turn them off and back on.
 
Sonoff are nice if you get ESPxx ones, there is a vibrant ecosystem of aftermarket firmware, you can add temperature and other sensors to them, etc... and only a few dollars each!

Did you try a software based reset what does not involve the power line?
Something like this:https://askubuntu.com/questions/645/how-do-you-reset-a-usb-device-from-the-command-line

The OrangePi One is an sunxi board, the M4 is a RK3399. Cannot be compared
 
Anyway, I took a look at the schematics and at least from the powering point of view there is no way to toggle them by software. The 5V sys voltage is fed into a RT9724 rate controlled load switch (basiclly the overcurrent protecion) and then connected to Pin1 of the USB (VBUS). So no possible switch inbetween.
If you are really (REALLY, probably just forget about it) good at soldering you could desolder the EN of the RT9724GQW and add some kind a switch through the GPIOs there.....
 

In my case the USB3 port comes up as 006 001 when checking with lsusb and if I do the following it resets the port.
 
sudo sh -c 'echo 6-1 > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind' sudo sh -c 'echo 6-1 > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind'  

I have had usb3.0 problems with my NanoPC-T4,  close relative of your NanoPi-M4 but not really the same. 
When using my ZWO ASI294MC pro camera (USB3.0) the first image in any sequence is saved, but then the software goes into a cycle where the countdown continues for the next image, reaches zero  but the image is not saved, this continues over and over.  To reset, I need to shutdown the software and re-boot the NanoPC-T4. The camera works fine when plugged into one of the NanoPC-T4 usb2.0 ports, it just saves images at the usb2.0 speed. That isn't a big problem for me as I just do DSO imaging anyway. Still it would be nice to have it working as I need all three usb ports.
There are reports from NanoPi-M4 users on the indilib.org forum having the same problem as I have with the ASI294 camera and their usb3.0 ports.
A few weeks ago I burned the Armbian 5.98 image to an SD card, then upgraded the kernel to 5.3    from Armbian-Config and the usb3.0 problem with my camera was cured, however networking did not work so I am still using the 4.4.192 kernel for now. 
If you have an extra SD card you could give the 5.3 kernel a try.
Sorry I can't be more helpful