My motherboard says that it has USB 1.1/2.0 ports on it. However,
Windows always seems to think it's using USB 1.0. When I plug in
a USB 2.0 device, Windows says I have a high speed device plugged
into a low speed USB port. Is there some kind of other hardware I
need to get USB 2.0 working, or is this a Windows XP issue?
Thanks.
On older motherboards, the "extended" USB ports that connect to the
motherboard via the internal headers are USB 1.0, with the integral
USB ports out back being USB 2.0. The "extended" ports are the ones
that are mounted on the front of a case, or on a slot cover that you
attach internally to the motherboard via a cable or some sort. If
you want to make sure you have USB 2.0 ports, use the ones mounted to
the motherboard. Also, on most of these, the BIOS setup will have an
option to configure those built-in ports for USB 1.1 or USB 2.0
capability. This setting would only affect those ports actually
mounted on the motherboard. The 1.1 headers were hard wired as USB
1.1.
On more recent ones, all of them are USB 2.0 capable, but you may have
to specify it in the BIOS. My current board has an entry in the BIOS
setup that lets me set motherboard's USB ports as USB 1.1 or 2.0, and
another setting to set "Full Speed" or "Hi-Speed"
I've no idea why anyone would want to set their USB ports to the
slower speed or lower spec though. As far as I know, USB 2.0 is fully
compatible with USB 1.1 and USB 1.0, and Hi-Speed controllers should
auto adjust transfer rate to match the device up to the maximum.
Anyway, check the BIOS setup and see what yours are set for.
The only other issue I've seen is there's an update to the Windows USB
drivers for VIA chipsets. I'm not really sure what the issue is, as I
didn't have any trouble with the original USB driver that came with
windows (I updated it anyway, just in case). If your machine uses a
VIA chipset, you can get the updated driver at:
www.viaarena.com.
It's separate from the Hyperion chipset drivers.
