USB ports not 100%

miser44

Hi,

I have been looking for a solution for my problem across the web but none have worked so far.
Heres my problem:

I have 8 usb ports on my PC, 4 of them are at the back and 4 at the front. 2 of them at the front dont work.
When I plug my external harddrive into the 6 that work I get a message saying ' usb can perform faster connected to a Hi Speed 2.0 port'.

I know that the 4 at the back are usb 2.0, the 4 at the front came with the case so cant be 100% sure but I think they are as the PC is 4-5 years old.

I am running windows 7 (straight upgrade from windows xp). I went into device manager and did update drivers but it returns saying software is up to date, I checked the bios to make sure usb 2 was enabled and it is.I also went to the manufacture of the motherboard (Asus) to get lastest drives from there but they have none for windows 7.

I know that it is not the harddrive or cable faulty because when I copying files from hdd to laptop I get around 20 - 30 MB/s, when I copying the same files on the PC I get 1MB/s.

What should I try next or do?

ZENER

Firstly, USB2.0 does not mean High Speed. It's merely a standard, not all USB 2.0 Ports are High Speed USB Ports. Check in Device Manager > USB Devices and see if a USB 2.0 High Speed Hubs or Ports exists there.

Download Everest Home and see what it reports. It should also show the Make/Model of your Motherboard if you don't already know it. Post it here.

Ken

CreepingDeath

miser44 wrote: »

I have 8 usb ports on my PC, 4 of them are at the back and 4 at the front. 2 of them at the front dont work.

Did you assemble/change the motherboard yourself?

miser44 wrote: »

When I plug my external harddrive into the 6 that work I get a message saying ' usb can perform faster connected to a Hi Speed 2.0 port'.

So you're plugging in the external HDD to the back usb ports then?
The ones directly mounted on the motherboard?

How large is the external HDD?
Does it require an external power supply, or take all it's power from the usb port?

Did you go into the bios settings, to ensure that USB 2 is enabled and that you have the latest BIOS firmware updates?

I'd try ( in order of price )
a) updating the bios and google for Windows drivers for the motherboard, don't rely on Windows update
b) if you own a powered usb 2.0 hub, try the external hdd on that
c) if you have one of those 2 ended usb splitter cables, which let you plug 2 usb cables into 2 ports of your PC, try that ( 2x power )

Also... just because you have 6-8 ports... doesn't mean you have 6-8 individual USB channels.
You probably only have 2 usb channels.
So if you're using more high bandwidth usb devices, eg. webcams, other usb drives, then they're going to be fighting for usb bandwidth.

miser44

ZENER wrote: »

Firstly, USB2.0 does not mean High Speed. It's merely a standard, not all USB 2.0 Ports are High Speed USB Ports. Check in Device Manager > USB Devices and see if a USB 2.0 High Speed Hubs or Ports exists there.

Download Everest Home and see what it reports. It should also show the Make/Model of your Motherboard if you don't already know it. Post it here.

Ken

The motherboard is a ASUS M2N-SLI.
Under USB Devices I have:
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller and 2 USB Root Hub

miser44

Creeping Death

The motherboard has not been changed since I built it.
I am connecting the hdd to the usb ports mounted on the motherboard.
THe hdd is 500gb WD and has its own power supply.
USB 2.0 is enabled but I never checked the bios firmware is up to date so I will do that now
The only other usb device plugged in at the moment is a wireless mouse receiver which I wouldnt think would takeup much bandwidth.

miser44

Just a update guys

So I updated my bios without a problem and also my chipset.
I found out that my chipset does not support windows 7 but other users just used the windows vista drivers and it works with them no problem so I dont know it that will be a issue.
After these updates nothing has changed.

Even if the ports are not HI - Speed should I not be getting better then 1mbs transfer speeds?

Also I tried the hdd on a friends laptop and he copied a film and everything was fine with normal speeds just to make sure that it isnt the hdd.

Any ideas or advice is grateful

I believe Microsoft released a hotfix for the USB ports on NVIDIA motherboards via Windows Update. Do you have Windows 7 SP1 installed?

ZENER

miser44 wrote: »

Just a update guys

So I updated my bios without a problem and also my chipset.
I found out that my chipset does not support windows 7 but other users just used the windows vista drivers and it works with them no problem so I dont know it that will be a issue.
After these updates nothing has changed.

Maybe nVidia have drivers for your chipset ? Worth a try.

Even if the ports are not HI - Speed should I not be getting better then 1mbs transfer speeds?

Depends on the driver. USB2.0 doesn't mean Hi-Speed but Windows can sometimes recognise Hi-Speed and install a default driver. Doesn't seem to have happened in your case though. The message you get "usb can perform faster connected to a Hi Speed 2.0 port " indicates that your ports are not recognisd as such.

Also I tried the hdd on a friends laptop and he copied a film and everything was fine with normal speeds just to make sure that it isnt the hdd.

Proves the point.

Maybe you can find drivers here ?

Ken

miser44

I installed the hotfix that was mentioned and I do have windows 7 sp1
and installed the chipset drivers and still nothing has changed

http://ralphflora.blogspot.ie/2010/02/upgrading-bios-on-asus-m2n-sli-deluxe.html

Not the exact same issue but it's a similar board and the same OS. Maybe try clearing your CMOS?

miser44

So I cleared the CMOS
Now when I copy a file to the hdd it will get to say 90% according to the bar very quickly, getting speeds like 40 and 50 mbs and then just hang there for a while and never finishes copy, also the speed starts to decrease when it gets to the 90% mark all the way back to 1mbs and sometimes under that

CreepingDeath

It might be trying to verify the contents it just wrote.

So the write speed drops, because technically it's finished, but it re-reads the source and destination to compare them ?

miser44

If that is the case why does it not happen when I copy a file on my laptop and how can I turn that option verify the files of if you can