My old laptop sports Windows 8.0 (core edition) and has Intel 7-series hardware chipset. Which also controls the USB3.0 ports.

Symptoms/Problem:

My external USB3.0-SATA enclosure with ASMedia1153E (USB to SATA bridge) chipset. Currently has a SATA drive in it. This disk does work properly and transfer-speeds to and from this disk are conform USB3.0 (80-200mb/s) though the USB3.0 port on my laptop. However the SMART features on this disk cannot be reached/read/modified. In addition I cannot turn certain SMART features like tler on/off. "Smartmontools" utility supports many USB-SATA bridge chipsets, even the ASMedia without 'E' version. It can recognize these chipsets in external enclosures through USB and issue pass-through commands to read/manipulate SMART data. But the 1153E is a no go (it seems).

I have a feeling it's not the chipset at fault. But the Intel xHCI driver.