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How to make my USB 2.0 act like USB 2.0?

A

absinthe

Senior member
I recently acquired an Iomega external USB/Firewire hard drive. (I don't have a firewire port, but I made sure to get a drive with one for any future upgrade). Anyway, I've plugged it into the USB ports on two of my computers. On both, I get the message that "a high-speed USB device is plugged into a non-high-speed USB port," blah, blah, blah.

There's no doubt that both of these computers have USB 2.0 ports. I built one myself about a year or more ago, and I still have the box to the mobo, which clearly states "USB 2.0." The other is a Compaq laptop purchased in February of 2003.

I've done some web searches on this and inquired about it on a couple of other tech forums. Oddly, many people seem to have this problem. I've tried the usual advice, including downloading the latest drivers from VIA. I've read that I should look in Device Manager and check to see if the word "enhanced" appears next to the USB controller. It doesn't, no matter what I do. I've also been advised to run "MSINFO32.EXE" and look under "hardware > IRQs." Here are the results on my desktop box (the one I have the mobo box to):

IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK
IRQ 3 Communications Port (COM2) OK
IRQ 4 Communications Port (COM1) OK
IRQ 6 Standard floppy disk controller OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System OK
IRQ 10 Microsoft(R) PCI Adapter MN-130 OK
IRQ 10 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 10 Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller OK
IRQ 11 MSI MS-StarForce GeForce4 Ti 4200 (NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200) OK
IRQ 11 Creative SB Live! Value (WDM) OK
IRQ 11 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 11 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller OK
IRQ 12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE Channel OK

Again, I keep coming across people who have this problem. I've even come across one guy who claimed that he has to plug in his devices "slowly" to get them to operate at 2.0 speeds (?!?!). I've always assumed that my 2.0 ports are working like 2.0 ports, but I guess not. I understand that 2.0 is about 40x faster than 1.1, so I'd like to get this working if possible.

Advice?

thanks
=Aaron
 
I've seen many posts that say SP1 must be installed to get the proper USB2.0 drivers. This isn't always the case, eg: with a USB 2.0 controller card that comes with the proper drivers. However, it may be necessary here.
 
Yep, you need SP1. Even if you have SP1 installed, you sometimes have to remove the USB controllers from dev manager and have them be detected as "enhanced".
 
Now that you mention it, I did just recently (yesterday in fact) install SP1 on the desktop box. The laptop, as far as I know, should have had it for some time. But if you think I need to remove the controllers and have them re-detected, I'll give that a try.

If it looks like the following in Device Manager . . .

-> Universal Serial Bus Controllers
¬ USB Root Hub
¬ USB Root Hub
¬ USB Root Hub
¬ VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
¬ VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
¬ VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller

. . . what should I do to uninstall? Each of the 6 sub-entries has "disable" and "uninstall" listed as options upon right-clicking. Do I need to disable/uninstall each of them separately (or do it some different way)? And can I assume that XP will automatically find and reinstall them after that?

Also, do I need to disconnect everything from the USB ports before I do this?

Thanks,

=Aaron
 
I had to remove them on my nforce2 board, but I dont recall which one I had to delete. Sorry, never tried it on a VIA board.

Check this:

"USB 2.0 support may not be enabled by default in the BIOS. Ensure to enable the ECHI(USB 2.0) Controller option in the BIOS. This option in located in the BIOS CMOS setup under the Integrated Perp. section PCI Device Setup.

If your motherboard has more than two USB ports any USB port items may not display as USB 2.0 in Windows. The Intel ICH4 controller supports one USB 2.0 controller and additional USB ports. Although the other items do not show USB 2.0 they do indeed support it."

By the way, what motherboard do you have? Or laptop model?
 
You know, I actually never thought to look in the BIOS. But anyway, under 'Integrated Peripherals' I do find "USB 2.0 support: Enabled."

My mobo is an Epox 8k5a2 (a slot A). It's about 18 months old.

The laptop is a Compaq Presario 2100US, and it's about 14 months old.

I'm at a loss. All this time I thought I'd been moving along at 2.0 speeds. I'm a little nervous about uninstalling the USB controllers without someone here advising me on what I might expect or on how I should go about it. And then if that doesn't work . . . I dunno . . . e-mail EpOx or Compaq I guess ??

heeeeellllllpp 😕

=Aaron
 
uninstalling the usb devices in device manager is painless; remove all your usb hardware; unistall the device managers and reboot.

they will be automatically redetected and hopefully you'll have usb2.0 function.

i was likewise a bit nervous but it isnt a problem
 
Well, I uninstalled all the USB controllers. I rebooted. Sure enough, XP found them and reinstalled everything exactly as it was.

LTC8K6, I took your advice and downloaded HD Tach. I ran a test on my USB drive and the results were:

Read speed - maximum 0.9 MB/s, minimum 0.8 MB/s, average 1.0 MB/s

Definitely operating at USB 1.1 speed, which I understand is 1 MB/s.

Well, this sucks. I don't really know what else to try except maybe to e-mail Epox about their motherboard. This really doesn't mean that much to me as I really only transfer a few files now and then, and time isn't much of a consideration. But it's just one of those little things that's bugging me because, dammit, it OUGHT to work! Besides, I'd like to get an external CD or DVD writer soon and I don't think that would work with USB 1.1 . . . not very well anyway.

BTW, johnjkr1, my laptop's BIOS has an entry for "USB Legacy support: Enabled." That word "Legacy" makes me think that perhaps the laptop won't support USB 2.0 after all (but it oughta!!). Regardless, my other computer definitely should!

Anyone else have any ideas?

=Aaron
 
I don't have any suggestions to help with that problem, other than checking for the latest bios revisions and drivers, but just a heads up: almost every USB 2.0 HD out there has performance in the 15-20MB/s range, so while you will see marked improvement over USB 1.1, it will not be "40x faster".
 
Both your computers should be USB 2.0 Compatible. Usb legacy just refers to using usb in dos, so you can use your usb keyboard there. You have a very strange problem going on....if both have SP1, they should be using usb 2.0. Do you have any yellow !'s ?'s in device manager?
 
Did you go to Windows Update?

EPoX says that Windows Update will turn on USB2.0 for Windows XP.

Use the Windows Update Tool if you haven't yet.

Maybe the same for your lappy?

If you have tried this, then ignore me. 😀
 
Well, I solved it! It was johnjkr1's question about the yellow !'s in Device Manager that done it. In fact, I did have a yellow"!." See screenshot of my Device Manager.

I had previously only thought to try and update the drivers for the 6 USB controllers at the bottom. When I checked the properties of the "?Other device->Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller," the device "had a problem." I simply updated the driver. And there ya go. An "enhanced" USB controller appeared (see screenshot).

As for my laptop, I don't think it has USB 2.0 capability. I have a friend who bought a Dell laptap at about the same time (a somewhat more advanced model than my Compaq), and he says that his doesn't have USB 2.0, either. I may e-mail Compaq/HP just the same, but I think that's the case.

Thanks for the help!!

=Aaron
 
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