USB thumbdrive not using 2.0 speed on front USB ports

[scottb721]

I have an iRiver MP3 player/thumbdrive. When I connect it to the front USB ports of the PC a message appears saying "This device can perform faster if you connect it to a 2.0 port"

The front USB ports go to header pins on the motherboard. If I connect the player to the rear ports it doesn't give me that message. The strange thing is that the rear ports go to header pins also, right next to where the front ports are connected.

The speed message also says to "click here" to see my high speed ports.I click that and get a list of 6 ports. Including the 2 front ports I only have 6 in total. 4 via header pins and 2 with MB mounted ports.

MB is a Gigabyte GA7-VAX
XP Home SP2

Any ideas why fronts aren't 2.0 ?
Anything to do with the wiring that joins front ports to MB ?

Thanks

[redwudz]

If the front works as USB 1.1, but not 2.0, it sounds like either a driver problem, (Which is not likely if the rear works as 2.0) or a problem with the MB. Maybe on that MB, that socket is not 2.0. Check your manual.

I don't think the wiring would make a difference, as 1.1 works and the wiring for 1.1 is the same.

I would also unplug all USB devices, except for the USB drive and try it. USB 1.1 on the same port would drag down the connection speed.

Check the MB website or their forums to see if there are any hits there.

There may be another explanation, but that's all I can think of.

[koinhelgo]

Wow I thought I was the only one in the world with this problem and accused the company I bought the pc from of ripping me off- they said it wasn't anything to do with them and have now gone bust - I only bought pc at Xmas too. I get EXACTLY the same messages from my pc
I was told that some Mobos have two hubs - one 2.0 and one 1.1. but when I investigated recently the front ports are wired to pins on the Mobo and underneath these pins it actually says USB 2.0. The Mobo is an MSI and they say that it should be USB 2.0. So that leaves the idea that the ports at the front aren't correct, the front hub USB driver needs to be updated (unlikely if the rear ports are OK) or there is something up with the wiring.
If anyone can fix this problem I would be elated.
Note though that the external USB 2.0 drives I have complain but do work with these front ports all-be-it at a much slower rate.

[ViRaL1]

Some cases' ports are only rated USB 1.1. I'm not an engineer so I don't really know what the physical differences are in the hardware, but I'd guess it's more than just the hub / controller as everything in the chain from the hub to the cable to the device itself needs to be rated for USB 2 in order to achieve optimal usage.

[redwudz]

One good source for USB 2.0 information is:http://www.everythingusb.com/usb2/faq.htm

You will find USB 2.0 differs from USB 1.1 only in the controller. The cables, sockets and otherwise are exactly the same. As long as they are high quality USB 1.1 compliant, they are also USB 2.0 compliant.

There are four wires on a USB hookup:
Pin 1 Red +5vdc, Pin 2 White Data -, Pin 3 Green Data +, Pin 4 Black Ground.

I would check your motherboard pinout for USB connections. With only four wires, it should be easy enough to compare them to the front panel USB jack. You could use a volt meter to confirm the +5volt and the ground leads. If the Data + and - leads were reversed, it may not work, but should cause no damage.

Note that plugging a USB 1.1 device into a USB 2.0 channel will default that channel to 1.1 speed. I would unplug all USB devices and just plug in the USB 2.0 device. It could be that a USB mouse or keyboard shares the same channel as the front USB jack.

Here is a site for USB pinout and other info:

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

Hope that helps.

[Shard92]

I agree with ViRaL1. It's probably the ports on the CASE dont' support 2.0 and that is why you are not getting 2.0 speed. The fact that the software tells you all 6 PORTS support it supports that. The PORT supports it but the connections on the case do not. You could test this by connecting the back header to the port in question and see if you then get 2.0 speed. If so then it's just the connectors that came in the CASE are 1.1 while the ones in back probably came with the MOTHERBOARD and so support what the motherboard does ( ie2.0 )


--- edit ----

Oh and yes this is a typical problem. Cases didn't catch up to motherboards for awhile ( IE cases with built in USB ports didn't support 2.0 until awhile after motherboards were supporting 2.0 )

[scottb721]

This sounds like the most likely situation.

But what then makes a port only 1.1 ?
What about the cable from the port to the MB pins. Any special requirements for those ?

Thanks

[Shard92]

Not exactly sure what the actual physical difference is..... It might be like the ultra ata cables and just need more insulation to keep from having data loss. But what you need is a cable that supports 2.0.

[ofbarea]

I have a similar problem. The USB ports in front of my machine do not recognize my MP3 player, but all of the rear ports recognize it properly. The motherboard is an Intel D865GLC and the player is a Sony VGF-AP1L.

Other USB2 devices like a NuTech SBW-24 combo drive are recognized properly.

[RabidDog]

This actually may be due to windows .. what you need to do is to unplug ALL usb devices, go in to windows and delete all the usb ports, then reboot with no devices plugged in.. then plug in your usb2.0 device and it should work at full speed. Not all usb devices are mass storage devices some still need drivers to work properly...