USB 1.0 or 2.0?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
Use 'Device Manager' to check your USB devices,
if the word 'Enhanced' is present then you have USB 2.0

JS
 
Right click on My computer, left click on Manage, left click on Device
Manager then scroll down to the bottom of the list for Universal Serial Bus
controllers. Click on the + to expand the list. If it says "... USB
Enhanced Host Controller" anywhere in the list you at least have one USB 2.0
port. If the USB Host Controller is listed without the word Enhanced you
have USB 1.1. If both are listed, you have both and it can be a bear to
find out which ports are which on a machine.
 
LVTravel said:
Right click on My computer, left click on Manage, left click on Device
Manager then scroll down to the bottom of the list for Universal Serial Bus
controllers. Click on the + to expand the list. If it says "... USB
Enhanced Host Controller" anywhere in the list you at least have one USB 2.0
port. If the USB Host Controller is listed without the word Enhanced you
have USB 1.1. If both are listed, you have both and it can be a bear to
find out which ports are which on a machine.
Click to expand...

There are some pictures here, of an "Enhanced" entry for USB2.

http://www.usbman.com/Guides/checking_for_usb_2.htm

Paul
 
John said:
How can I determine whether my USB ports are v1.0 or 2.0?
Click to expand...

Sure fire way is to plug in a USB 2.0 device, XP will spank you (in so many
words) if the port is not USB 2.0 capable. This is ASSUMING that you have
the USB 2.0 EHCI driver installed and is visible in device manager and shows
no problems.
--
Dave

Speculation on a product or material that is
an obvious need, is not speculation per se
as there is no risk to the speculator.
Common were those selling food and other
supplies in the gold rush days.
In this case, its oil and its everyone who
bites the bullet. And most everyone has no gold
to be made, just business as usual.
 
JS said:
Use 'Device Manager' to check your USB devices,
if the word 'Enhanced' is present then you have USB 2.0
Click to expand...

That is not necesarily true. Some USB 2 drivers do not include the word
'enhanced' in their name.

The best way is to see how many ports you have on the root hubs in device
manager. If there are twice as many ports as actual holes in the machine
then you have USB2. However, even this isn't foolproof because some
machines have ports built into the chipsets that are not brought to the
outside world.
 
LVTravel said:
Right click on My computer, left click on Manage, left click on Device
Manager then scroll down to the bottom of the list for Universal Serial
Bus controllers. Click on the + to expand the list. If it says "... USB
Enhanced Host Controller" anywhere in the list you at least have one USB
2.0 port. If the USB Host Controller is listed without the word Enhanced
you have USB 1.1. If both are listed, you have both and it can be a bear
to find out which ports are which on a machine.
Click to expand...

Not always true - see my other post.
 
John said:
How can I determine whether my USB ports are v1.0 or 2.0?
Click to expand...

You have actually (inadvertently) asked the wrong question. If your PC has
any type of USB port then it is USB 2 compliant. USB2 includes USB1.1 as a
subset. What you really want to know is if your USB ports support high
speed communication.

Go to device manager and go to the bottom where the USB devices are. Expand
the list and look to see if the word 'enhanced' appears against any of the
devices. If it does, you have high speed. If it doesn't, you need to make
an additional check. Open the properties of the lowest 'root hub' and
select the 'power' tab. If the tab shows the hub as having more than 2
ports then you very probably have high speed ports. If it shows only 2 then
you probably don't.

The real check is to connect a high speed device and see if you get high
speed transfer speeds.
 
John said:
How can I determine whether my USB ports are v1.0 or 2.0?
Click to expand...

The other advice is excellent, but there's another way, too. Do you know
what motherboard model is in your system? Or, what's the model of the PC?
The system specs will usually give up such secrets.

-John O
 
JohnO said:
The other advice is excellent, but there's another way, too. Do you know
what motherboard model is in your system? Or, what's the model of the PC?
The system specs will usually give up such secrets.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, even that isn't foolproof. Some PC and motherboard suppliers
(and peripheral suppliers come to that) are less than honest and will claim
that their product supports USB2 when it does not support high speed
communication. They can get away with this because nothing in the USB2
specification makes high speed compulsory.
 
Hey

what do i do if i have couple 2.0 USB ports...but they act really slow like
1.1 USB ports.

the windows update wont let me install the 2.0 drivers and i did what you
asked it shows 3 ports available!

(this happened when i reformatted my computer a few days ago)
yes SP2 is installed already and SP3.

when i went to download the enhanced USB driver download, it wont let me
install it saying it had some WEB update error or something.


please help! you seem to know whats going on >___<
 
Melloyellow said:
Hey

what do i do if i have couple 2.0 USB ports...but they act really slow
like
1.1 USB ports.

the windows update wont let me install the 2.0 drivers and i did what you
asked it shows 3 ports available!

(this happened when i reformatted my computer a few days ago)
Click to expand...

Did you also install the core driver disk that came with your system's
motherboard? Do you have such a CD?

If not, determine the board make and model (it's screened onto the board
itself), go to the manufactuer's site, download and install them.

USB ports often won't run as USB2 till those drvers are installed.

If your system is more than four or five years old, its ports may, in fact,
only be USB 1. (again this will be something you can determine at the
manufacturer's site).

In that case, you can't change it with software, you have to add hardware.
PCI USB2 cards are about $20 or so.

HTH
-pk
 
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