Is My USB REALLY Running @ 2.0?

tubatodd · 02-08-2007, 09:23 PM

How can I test to see if my USB 2.0 ports are detecting my USB 2.0 devices properly? For example: I have a USB 2.0 flash drive that works in USB 1.1 mode, but I want to make sure that when it is connected to my machine which has USB 2.0 that it is running at top speed. Thanks for your help!

jonnycando · 02-08-2007, 10:12 PM

I don't know how you measure it, but if it's a USB 2.0 port with USB 2.0 controller, and a USB 2.0 device it should operate...."up to"....USB 2.0 spec. Whenever zippiness is quantified among computer devices I think it wise to to never expect maximum ability at all times. Your actual mileage varies of course with what ever else your computer is doing at the time. And of course your CPU and chipset can only do so much at once. Figure the phase of the moon and other esoterica and you can estimate something reasonable.

tubatodd · 02-09-2007, 08:19 AM

There has to be some way to test the speed of the connection. Any ideas?

ctkroeker · 02-09-2007, 05:22 PM

Well copy something onto it and see if you get for than 3MB/sec.

tubatodd · 02-11-2007, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ctkroeker

Well copy something onto it and see if you get for than 3MB/sec.

I'm transfering files to my external hard drive right now. Every file is 3MB - 8MB and the rate of transfer appears to be about 2-4 files per second. So is this USB 2.0 performance?

Thanks

ctkroeker · 02-13-2007, 07:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tubatodd

I'm transfering files to my external hard drive right now. Every file is 3MB - 8MB and the rate of transfer appears to be about 2-4 files per second. So is this USB 2.0 performance?

Thanks

Hard to tell, as I've noticed that on some USB drive it only writes the data after you unmount (or "eject") it. Especially on LG drives, no problem though with Kingston.
As for finding out the actual speed, have you searched google yet? I'm sure there is a lot of info on this.

Dudydoo · 02-13-2007, 07:51 AM

You can tell what speed the device is connected at by:

Code:

less /proc/bus/usb/devices

... and looking for the device. The speed is indicated by Spd=... (480 for USB2.0)

tubatodd · 02-13-2007, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dudydoo

You can tell what speed the device is connected at by:

Code:

less /proc/bus/usb/devices

... and looking for the device. The speed is indicated by Spd=... (480 for USB2.0)

Thank you for your response. Your command produced the following results....

Code:

T:  Bus=05 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=480 MxCh= 8
B:  Alloc=  0/800 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06
S:  Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.15-28-686 ehci_hcd
S:  Product=EHCI Host Controller

According to the Spd=480....my flash drive was working as USB 2.0. Thanks again!!!!!

Dudydoo · 02-13-2007, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tubatodd

S: Product=EHCI Host Controller

No, that's the controller; which means the ports are recognised as USB 2.0. It's not the connected device.

Have a look further in the results.

DiBosco · 02-13-2007, 08:24 AM

Remember that just because something is USB2.0 does not mean it will necessarity run high speed (480M). The are plenty of 2.0 devices that will only run full speed (12M). As far as I understand it, USB 1.1 to 2.0 was the possibility to run at 480M and some protocol changes.

tubatodd · 02-13-2007, 10:15 AM

Thank you for the clarification. My USB 2.0 hard drive and USB 2.0 flash drive are performing nicely so I have no complaints.

**Windows Question**

On a semi-related note, my dad had a USB 2.0 PCI card installed in his WinXP machine. Though his printer is plugged into the new USB 2.0 port, he is still receiving a message saying that if the device was plugged into a USB 2.0 port he would have better performance. Of course, the printer IS plugged into a 2.0 port. What's the deal?

BTW, if my dad has any more WinXP issues.....I'm installing Ubuntu on his machine next time I visit them in NY.

Dudydoo · 02-13-2007, 10:26 AM

Possible clues:

1. Check device manager to see if the card is listed and an "Enhanced USB Controller"

2. Maybe he needs to install updated Windows XP USB 2.0 drivers for his motherboard

markos · 02-16-2007, 11:12 PM

Another thing that can kill your usb 2 hard drive performance
is if the mount is setup to be synchronous. I have
a large usb 2 disk formatted as an XFS volume. I was
noticing even rather small files were very slow to
copy. The drive icon showed that checkbox "synchronous"
was checked, after putting that off the speed got much
better.
Mark