USB Speed Mode Detection Utility

[ITgreybeard]

Does anyone know of a utility for Win7 that will detect not what actual throughput on a USB port is, but what speed mode (1, 2, 3) it is operating at?

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

Lol you dont need any software...

connect a 3 to a 3 motherboard it runs at 3

connect a 2 to a 2 motherboard it runs at 2

connect a 1 to a 1 motherboard it runs at 1

They are all backwardly compatible...so a 2 will run at 2 speeds in a 3 etc...

etc etc

All the best Brett

 

[ITgreybeard]

Hi Brett. Thanks for taking a moment on this.


I have found that sometimes a USB port manager will downgrade the connection, despite the external device being capable of higher performance. So a 2 device will sometimes run as a 1 on a 2 port. More often than not these days, that would be triggered on an internal USB port connecting with an external USB hub which has one or more devices connected. It seems that an occasional misfire with device communication will evidence it too, though that is appearing less often than it had earlier.

And I've had cheap USB 3 cables prove themselves incapable of actually running USB at 3.

So the answer may be more complicated than your reply might be construed to indicate.

Therefore I was looking for a Windows utility to perform the check. If you do not know of such a utility, don't concern yourself further about it.

Regards.

Ye Old IT Greybeard

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi Brett. Thanks for taking a moment on this.


I have found that sometimes a USB port manager will downgrade the connection, despite the external device being capable of higher performance. So a 2 device will sometimes run as a 1 on a 2 port. More often than not these days, that would be triggered on an internal USB port connecting with an external USB hub which has one or more devices connected. It seems that an occasional misfire with device communication will evidence it too, though that is appearing less often than it had earlier.

And I've had cheap USB 3 cables prove themselves incapable of actually running USB at 3.

So the answer may be more complicated than your reply might be construed to indicate.

Therefore I was looking for a Windows utility to perform the check. If you do not know of such a utility, don't concern yourself further about it.

Regards.

Ye Old IT Greybeard

Hi

You realise that NONE of them..3,2,1 run at anywhere near the so called advertised speeds ?


All the best Brett

 

[ITgreybeard]

Ah yes. Looking the tech 'gift horse' in the mouth -- especially before taking a ride -- is always a good idea! Most 'new' features are old nags in disguise, e.g. a mule with a jet pack.

The rule of thumb that I've operated with for quite some time now is that 50% of stated capability is probably the optimal maximum, with 25% of stated capability being the typical top performance.

For instance, it's been interesting to plug 32GB SDHC cards - even 10x ones -- into a USB 3.0 reader on a USB 3.0 port and see max performance of 45-50MB/second. A person would need good diagnostics to determine whether the port, the reader or the card circuitry is providing the overriding constraint.

Regards.