Slow USB2!

[John Brown]

Have fitted USB2 card but throughput speed very slow....seems less than USB1
speed!
XP Devise Manager shows Standard Enhanced PCI to USB host controller and
driver as Microsoft driver and date 01/06/02...is that the latest?
If not where can I download the latest drivers? Thanks. John

 

[Paul]

Have fitted USB2 card but throughput speed very slow....seems less than USB1
speed!
XP Devise Manager shows Standard Enhanced PCI to USB host controller and
driver as Microsoft driver and date 01/06/02...is that the latest?
If not where can I download the latest drivers? Thanks. John

Is the device you are connected to, actually a USB2 device ?
There are some scanners for example, where the manufacturer
calls them USB2, but in fact they are "USB2 compatible" and
are only USB 1.1 speed devices. There are some USB flash keys,
that can barely manage USB 1.1 transfer rates, and USB2
doesn't help them at all.

For more help with USB2, see:

"USB 2.0 Latest News and Information"

http://www.usbman.com/USB 2 News.htm

"How to Check for High Speed USB (USB 2.0) Support"

http://www.usbman.com/Guides/checking_for_usb_2.htm

"Cleanup Windows Device Manager in SAFE MODE"

http://www.usbman.com/Guides/Cleanup Device Manager Safe Mode.htm

HTH,
Paul

 

[OhNo]

Have fitted USB2 card but throughput speed very slow....seems less than
USB1 speed!
XP Devise Manager shows Standard Enhanced PCI to USB host controller and
driver as Microsoft driver and date 01/06/02...is that the latest?
If not where can I download the latest drivers? Thanks. John

I recall a previous discussion whereby if "enhanced" was stated in DM then
it is USB 2.0

 

[John Brown]

Is the device you are connected to, actually a USB2 device ?
There are some scanners for example, where the manufacturer
calls them USB2, but in fact they are "USB2 compatible" and
are only USB 1.1 speed devices. There are some USB flash keys,
that can barely manage USB 1.1 transfer rates, and USB2
doesn't help them at all.

For more help with USB2, see:

"USB 2.0 Latest News and Information"

http://www.usbman.com/USB 2 News.htm

"How to Check for High Speed USB (USB 2.0) Support"

http://www.usbman.com/Guides/checking_for_usb_2.htm

"Cleanup Windows Device Manager in SAFE MODE"

http://www.usbman.com/Guides/Cleanup Device Manager Safe Mode.htm

HTH,
Paul

-------------
Bit further forward...question raised because new flash pen drive showed as
crawling assumed it was the USB card but when comparing with another flash
pen drive now realise its the damned pen that's outputting speeds less than
USB1 !....perhaps my fault for buying it cheap from Hongkong (but made in
China)!
Anyone know if that's it or is it possible to somehow "upgrade" such a flash
pen drive from slow to USB2 speeds?
And also anyone know if flash pens are supposed to function at the same
speed when transfering data TO and FROM the pen?
Thanks J

 

[Mike Walsh]

Flash memory is very slow compared to other types of memory. Some early flash memory could read at only 1 MB/sec. I recently bought a 1 GB TechSolutions drive that reads at 13.2 MB/sec and writes at 5.4 MB/sec with write cache enabled.

 

[kony]

Bit further forward...question raised because new flash pen drive showed as
crawling assumed it was the USB card but when comparing with another flash
pen drive now realise its the damned pen that's outputting speeds less than
USB1 !....perhaps my fault for buying it cheap from Hongkong (but made in
China)!

Probably, but was it speed-rated? If a generic flash media
device isn't speed rated, and/or you can't track down the
manufacturer as a reputable firm, odds are pretty high it's
not fast media- since speed is among the more desirable,
marketed features of flash. I usually assume anything
unrated is only 4-8X speed and am pleasantly surprised when
it's better than that (but seldom ever over 40X without a
rating... but then I dont' buy very large generic cards
(over 1GB) so I don't know what's going into those).

Anyone know if that's it or is it possible to somehow "upgrade" such a flash
pen drive from slow to USB2 speeds?

No it is not. might be the chips or the controller but you
can't reasonably upgrade either of these.

And also anyone know if flash pens are supposed to function at the same
speed when transfering data TO and FROM the pen?
Thanks J

They practically always read faster than writing.
They usually write large files faster than (same total size
of) several smaller ones.
They're often faster at FAT16 than FAT32.

 

[John Brown]

Probably, but was it speed-rated? If a generic flash media
device isn't speed rated, and/or you can't track down the
manufacturer as a reputable firm, odds are pretty high it's
not fast media- since speed is among the more desirable,
marketed features of flash. I usually assume anything
unrated is only 4-8X speed and am pleasantly surprised when
it's better than that (but seldom ever over 40X without a
rating... but then I dont' buy very large generic cards
(over 1GB) so I don't know what's going into those).




No it is not. might be the chips or the controller but you
can't reasonably upgrade either of these.



They practically always read faster than writing.
They usually write large files faster than (same total size
of) several smaller ones.
They're often faster at FAT16 than FAT32.

 

[beenthere]

snipped for shortness

------------------------------
Yes it is a non name pen :-( ..although on the pack it says USB 2.0 Data
Transfer.
BTW it shows in Disc Management as FAT...not FAT 16 or 32 just FAT...duno
if that is significant?

Just checked mine in DM John, it shows as 128mb Fat32.
Perhaps you ought to clear it, and reformat as Fat32.

 

[Paul]

Yes it is a non name pen :-( ..although on the pack it says USB 2.0 Data
Transfer.
BTW it shows in Disc Management as FAT...not FAT 16 or 32 just FAT...duno if
that is significant?

That is one of those "USB2 Compatible" scams. If the media doesn't
have the performance, then having USB2 will make little difference.

Another thing you can experiment with, is the writing of many
small files, versus using one big ZIP file. Writing many small
files slows transfer to a crawl, as the directory structure is
updated after each small file is added to the device. If you
ZIP the files together first, then write the ZIP file to the
device, that should go faster for you (within the limits of
what the media supports).

Paul