SmartStick "Lost" on my System Every 10 minutes! Ideas?

Hello all,

I have a mystery that I'd really like help solving.

I recently moved from HS2 to HS3 and am still a majority X10 user. I am slowing moving to Z-wave and only have a couple of devices so far. I am using the SmartStick as my main controller, and it seems to be working fine except for the following. Every 10 minutes, down to the second practically, it falls off my COM port briefly then comes back. Here's a filtered excerpt from my HS3 log:
Jul-08 9:18:30 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 9:08:30 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 8:58:30 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 8:48:30 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 8:38:30 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 8:28:30 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 8:18:30 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 8:08:30 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 7:58:30 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 7:48:30 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 7:38:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 7:28:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 7:18:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 7:08:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 6:58:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 6:48:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 6:38:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 6:28:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 6:18:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 6:08:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 5:58:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 5:48:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...
Jul-08 5:38:29 AM Z-Wave Warning SmartStickPlus: The serial port (COM3) was not found in the system. Will keep waiting for it...

Now I have suspected that my USB ports on my ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard have been going bad for some time now, as most of my other USB peripherals have had some issues.So much so that I installed a PCI card with 4 USB3.0 ports to run other things (and unfortunately I could not get HS3 to recognize the SmartStick in those ports, dammit).

So anyone have any idea why 1) the COM3 fails every 10 minutes, and 2) why the SmartStick won't work on my USB3.0 PCI card?

Thanks!

Mike