USB 2 and USB 1

[James Silverton]

Most things I have been able to find suggest looking at the
Device Manager to see if you have USB 2 support. This is all
very well but I have just accidentally discovered that my
machine has *both* sorts of port. I plugged a scanner into the
wrong port and got a message saying, more or less, this is a
high speed device and will work most efficiently using a USB2
port. It also says that the *computer* is not equipped with USB
2 capability which is transparently wrong.

Is plugging a device device designed for USB 2 into the ports
the best way to find out what they are or is there a better way?

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not

 

[Jim Macklin]

Yes, some mobo had a limited number of USB ports, a decade
ago, often computers had only 2 USB 1.0 or 1.1 ports on the
rear, then they added more ports and or headers for front
panel ports. The USB 2.0 was released and mobo started to
have 6 or 8 USB ports.

My computer uses a Intel D845GBVL mobo which has native USB
2.0 support, but the default BIOS does not turn it on. You
have to set the BIOS to have USB 2.0.

Some mobo had some ports at USB 1.1 for use with mice and
keyboards and some USB 2.0 ports for higher bandwidth
devices such as scanners and hard drives.

The documentation on the mobo should list which ports and
BIOS settings are required to have USB 2.0. If you don't
know the mobo, get a free computer scan program at
www.belarc.com and it will report you mobo make, model and
serial number. You can then find the manual on-line.



message | Most things I have been able to find suggest looking at
the
| Device Manager to see if you have USB 2 support. This is
all
| very well but I have just accidentally discovered that my
| machine has *both* sorts of port. I plugged a scanner into
the
| wrong port and got a message saying, more or less, this is
a
| high speed device and will work most efficiently using a
USB2
| port. It also says that the *computer* is not equipped
with USB
| 2 capability which is transparently wrong.
|
| Is plugging a device device designed for USB 2 into the
ports
| the best way to find out what they are or is there a
better way?
|
| James Silverton
| Potomac, Maryland
|
| E-mail, with obvious alterations:
| not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not
|