When is a hi-speed USB 2.0 port not a hi-speed USB 2.0 port?

[DennisD]

I thought I would post of my recent experience regarding hi-speed USB 2.0, as there may be other folk with the same problem I've just had and don't realize it yet.

Bought myself a nice new Western Digital Elements 320gb Portable Hard Drive the other day.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=674

Thought I would have nothing to do but plug it in and back up all my music, my daughter iTunes music etc etc.

Also downloaded what has turned out to be an excellent data transfer utility called TeraCopy, and I would recommend the free version without hesitation.

So, plugged it in, set it away, and sat and watched my new toy.

Something not right here, I'm only getting about 800kbps transfer speed when it should be substantially more than that. Tried other USB2 Ports with the same result. (All my ports are stamped with USB2.)

A run through HD Tune confirmed it:



Did a lot of googling, and came up with a lot of similar situations, but never a solution. Eventually, as a last resort I decided to go into Device Manager, and check all USB entries for the availability of updated drivers.

I worked up the list of them shown here, with the "Enhanced Controller" being last.



As I worked up the list I got what I expected. Installed driver is the latest, until I did the last one and was gobsmacked when it said "driver successfully installed".

Went back to Teracopy, set it away, and now I was getting around 10 times the previous transfer speed with every one of my USB2 ports.

The difference was even more pronounced making a Macrium Image Backup.

Before:



After:



I've never previously used my USB ports to transfer data like this, so had no idea they weren't working as they should, and it's pretty annoying that Windows installed the hi-speed USB driver from off my PC.

It's always been there, but never installed.

It might be worth checking your own USB2 ports in Device Manager, just in case.

[marmite]

Interesting post Dennis, some food for thought there. I'll be taking a look at mine for sure.

 

We tend to assume (and certainly expect) that what's been put on our PCs before it gets to us has been done properly!

[Tasgandy]

I thought I would post of my recent experience regarding hi-speed USB2, as there may be other folk with the same problem I've just had and don't realize it yet.

 

Bought myself a nice new Western Digital Elements 320gb Portable Hard Drive the other day.

 

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=674

 

Thought I would have nothing to do but plug it in and back up all my music, my daughter iTunes music etc etc.

 

Also downloaded what has turned out to be an excellent data transfer utility called TeraCopy, and I would recommend the free version without hesitation.

 

So, plugged it in, set it away, and sat and watched my new toy.

 

Something not right here, I'm only getting about 800kbps transfer speed when it should be substantially more than that. Tried other USB2 Ports with the same result. (All my ports are stamped with USB2.)

 

A run through HD Tune confirmed it:

 

 

Did a lot of googling, and came up with a lot of similar situations, but never a solution. Eventually, as a last resort I decided to go into Device Manager, and check all USB entries for the availability of updated drivers.

 

I worked up the list of them shown here, with the "Enhanced Controller" being last.

 

 

As I worked up the list I got what I expected. Installed driver is the latest, until I did the last one and was gobsmacked when it said "driver successfully installed".

 

Went back to Teracopy, set it away, and now I was getting around 10 times the previous transfer speed with every one of my USB2 ports.

 

The difference was even more pronounced making a Macrium Image Backup.

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

 

I've never previously used my USB ports to transfer data like this, so had no idea they weren't working as they should, and it's pretty annoying that Windows installed the hi-speed USB driver from off my PC.

 

It's always been there, but never installed.

 

It might be worth checking your own USB2 ports in Device Manager, just in case.

Now DennisD go to device manager again, USB controller list, properties, advanced Tab to see which USB (enhanced and universal) controller has the greatest % bandwidth.

 

My PC has 8 USB controllers, 2 enhanced (1 @ 15% bandwidth & 1 with 10% bandwidth) all the other universal controllers have 10% bandwidth.

 

Question: which UBS port is the 15% bandwidth one? They all have location and function numbers but I have not been able to identify which is which. Except that to back up my 30gig HD to my USB HD using Macrium Reflect takes about the same time as yours does. Maybe the next time I shall select a different USB port just in case the one I am using is only the 10% bandwidth allocation. I wonder if one can increase the bandwidth?

[kroozer]

My PC has 8 USB controllers, 2 enhanced (1 @ 15% bandwidth & 1 with 10% bandwidth) all the other universal controllers have 10% bandwidth.

Question: which UBS port is the 15% bandwidth one?

I have six USB ports - 4 in the rear and 2 in front. It seems that the eMachine informed me early on, by balloon, that I would have fastest speed using the front two.

[Tom AZ]

I don't have a lot of statistics to offer, but when I run a Macrium Image to my USB2 Western Digital external, it's usually 23GB - 25GB in size and takes about 55-60 minutes (with Verify on).

[Tasgandy]

I don't have a lot of statistics to offer, but when I run a Macrium Image to my USB2 Western Digital external, it's usually 23GB - 25GB in size and takes about 55-60 minutes (with Verify on).

Tom AZ I normally "manual verify" following the successful back up, where does one turn on auto verify?

 

I have just found the answer when I went to edit the XML definition file. It produced this message: Auto verify must be "N" for the Free version.

Given another good month I am going to purchase a FULL copy, it's a great application. Saved my bacon once so far.

[Tom AZ]

I have just found the answer when I went to edit the XML definition file. It produced this message: Auto verify must be "N" for the Free version.

I do have the commercial version, so that could be true for the free version.

[marmite]

Given another good month I am going to purchase a FULL copy, it's a great application. Saved my bacon once so far.

I remember a post where you said you use a few copies - you might be interested in this ... http://support.macrium.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1587 ... it's a discounted 4 license pack at 50% off!

[DennisD]

Question: which UBS port is the 15% bandwidth one? They all have location and function numbers but I have not been able to identify which is which. Except that to back up my 30gig HD to my USB HD using Macrium Reflect takes about the same time as yours does. Maybe the next time I shall select a different USB port just in case the one I am using is only the 10% bandwidth allocation. I wonder if one can increase the bandwidth?

 

I've had my head buried in this stuff before I started this topic, and have done for a couple of days now.

 

After a lot of reading, I'm pretty convinced that only Windows has any control over the amount of bandwidth allocated to the various USB ports.

 

You could have some influence over how the available bandwidth is allocated by disabling USB devices which are not in use, but I believe that's probably the best you could do.

 

A relevant point I learned is that besides "Enhanced Controllers" you should also have two "standard" version USB host controllers".

 

There should also be two "standard" version USB host controllers present as well. They are embedded in the USB chip which routes the differing USB speeds accordingly without user intervention.

 

Taken from here:

 

I've tried using the different USB2 ports on the front of my PC, and the difference was minimal, if indeed there was any. It's easy to imagine something you're looking for.

 

Finding out which actual ports are related to the entries in Device Manager isn't too straightforward, but you can get some information from the latest version of USBDeview.

 

It will give you a hub and port number, which may help.

 

 

I also came across a useful free utility called "DPC Latency Checker" whilst wading through all this stuff.

 

Found on this page about "USB DAQ Bandwidth Considerations and Troubleshooting"

 

It's use is explained in the link.

 

It's an interesting subject, and certainly a lot more complex than I imagined it would be.

[marmite]

I also came across a useful free utility called "DPC Latency Checker" whilst wading through all this stuff.

I 'found' this a couple of weeks ago whilst looking into a problem with bad Skype connectivity. I used it to successfully identify drivers that were contributing to my problem ... great little widget

[Tasgandy]

I've had my head buried in this stuff before I started this topic, and have done for a couple of days now.

 

After a lot of reading, I'm pretty convinced that only Windows has any control over the amount of bandwidth allocated to the various USB ports.

 

You could have some influence over how the available bandwidth is allocated by disabling USB devices which are not in use, but I believe that's probably the best you could do.

 

A relevant point I learned is that besides "Enhanced Controllers" you should also have two "standard" version USB host controllers".

 

Re bandwidth the following I found interesting:

 

The theoretical maximum data rate in USB 2.0 is 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s) per controller and is shared amongst all attached devices. Some chipset manufacturers overcome this bottleneck by providing multiple USB 2.0 controllers within the southbridge. Big performance gains can be achieved when attaching multiple high bandwidth USB devices such as disk enclosures in different controllers.

 

Every other AMD, Broadcom, Intel southbridge supporting USB 2.0 has only one EHCI controller. All SiS southbridge supporting USB 2.0 have only one EHCI controller. All ULi, VIA southbridge, single chip northbridge/southbridge supporting USB 2.0 have only one EHCI controller. Also all PCI USB 2.0 ICs used for add-in cards have only one EHCI controller. In PCIe, the usual design with multiple USB ports per EHCI controller has changed with the introduction of the MosChip MCS9990 IC. MCS9990 has one EHCI controller per port so all its USB ports can operate simultaneously without any performance limitations.

 

I have noticed that business card scanner I use (no seperate power supply, uses USB for the lot) will not work from the front USB ports but OK from the rear ports. This has happened on several PC's of mine. All Gigabyte MB's.

[DennisD]

You're right there I believe.

 

I have one Enhanced controller with 3 USB2 ports, and I have two standard controllers, although I haven't found out yet if the 4 ports on the back of my desktop are controlled by the two standard controllers, although I know that one of them at least is not USB2.

 

I'm now thinking of plugging my Wireless Adapter into one of the front ports to see if it makes any difference to downloaded data transfer speeds. Maybe not, but I'll never know if I don't give it a go.