win 7 doesn't recognize NEC usb 3.0 driver  

Hi! New to this forum and hope someone can help.

Just installed WD My Book 3.0 (usb 2/3). Followed user guide, installed NEC usb 3.0 driver v.1.0.18 first from cd, then NEC usb 3.0 pci-e card in empty pci-e slot on Rampage Formula mobo - yes, I know this is not a usb 3.0 mobo, but according to multiple sources a usb 3 pci-e card should work ok with the correct driver. Connected to ext. drive using supplied 3.0 cable and booted. Win 7 x64 recognized ext. drive but installed its generic ms usb 2.0 driver (dated 6/21/06, vers. 6.1.7600.16385) without giving me an opportunity to select/load the 3.0 driver I had installed from cd. Checked, and the cd installation did correctly install 2 driver files (nusb3hub.sys & nusb3xhc.sys) to windows\system 32\drivers folder. Moreover, there is usb 3.0 hub controller showing in start menu. But according to usb properties window, the above ms usb 2.0 driver is the one being used. If I try to update driver and point win to usb 3 driver, it tells me the current driver (i.e. usb 2.0) is best driver and won't let me go further. If I try to uninstall this driver then when I reboot win again installs the same usb 2.0 driver without giving me option of selecting the 3.0 driver from cd. Tech support at WD really couldn't help, told me to "ignore" the info about generic ms driver installed, and that my ext. drive was operating at 3.0 speed. I did a check, copying 13 GB file from int. hd to ext. drive. Took 4 min, 20 secs. If I did the math correctly, this is approx. 400 Mbps, which is 2.0 speed and not anywhere close to "theoretical" 3.0 speed of 5 Gbps. I have tried reinstalling the NEC 3.0 driver, with same results. By the way, the ext. drive otherwise works just fine!
So, basically, the ext. drive and the usb 3.0 pci-e card are recognized, but for some reason win 7 doesn't recognize/allow loading the usb 3.0 driver and I'm still at usb 2.0 speed.
Anybody had a similar problem, or can suggest a solution?

Just checked again in device mgr. Under "disk drives" > My Book 3.0 > driver, it is showing the generic ms usb 2.0 driver. But under "USB Controllers" > NEC USB 3.0 Host Controller and also under NEC USB 3.0 Root Hub both locations show the NEC USB 3.0 driver. So was the WD techie correct? Do I just ignore the usb 2.0 driver listed under the disk drive itself, and is this the best speed (400 Mbps) I can expect under 3.0 (I know the 5 Gbps 3.0 spec is just theoretical)? Or should the drive itself in device mgr also be showing the usb 3.0 driver?

drtim said:

Hi! New to this forum and hope someone can help.

Just installed WD My Book 3.0 (usb 2/3). Followed user guide, installed NEC usb 3.0 driver v.1.0.18 first from cd, then NEC usb 3.0 pci-e card in empty pci-e slot on Rampage Formula mobo - yes, I know this is not a usb 3.0 mobo, but according to multiple sources a usb 3 pci-e card should work ok with the correct driver. Connected to ext. drive using supplied 3.0 cable and booted. Win 7 x64 recognized ext. drive but installed its generic ms usb 2.0 driver (dated 6/21/06, vers. 6.1.7600.16385) without giving me an opportunity to select/load the 3.0 driver I had installed from cd. Checked, and the cd installation did correctly install 2 driver files (nusb3hub.sys & nusb3xhc.sys) to windows\system 32\drivers folder. Moreover, there is usb 3.0 hub controller showing in start menu. But according to usb properties window, the above ms usb 2.0 driver is the one being used. If I try to update driver and point win to usb 3 driver, it tells me the current driver (i.e. usb 2.0) is best driver and won't let me go further. If I try to uninstall this driver then when I reboot win again installs the same usb 2.0 driver without giving me option of selecting the 3.0 driver from cd. Tech support at WD really couldn't help, told me to "ignore" the info about generic ms driver installed, and that my ext. drive was operating at 3.0 speed. I did a check, copying 13 GB file from int. hd to ext. drive. Took 4 min, 20 secs. If I did the math correctly, this is approx. 400 Mbps, which is 2.0 speed and not anywhere close to "theoretical" 3.0 speed of 5 Gbps. I have tried reinstalling the NEC 3.0 driver, with same results. By the way, the ext. drive otherwise works just fine!
So, basically, the ext. drive and the usb 3.0 pci-e card are recognized, but for some reason win 7 doesn't recognize/allow loading the usb 3.0 driver and I'm still at usb 2.0 speed.
Anybody had a similar problem, or can suggest a solution?

Just checked again in device mgr. Under "disk drives" > My Book 3.0 > driver, it is showing the generic ms usb 2.0 driver. But under "USB Controllers" > NEC USB 3.0 Host Controller and also under NEC USB 3.0 Root Hub both locations show the NEC USB 3.0 driver. So was the WD techie correct? Do I just ignore the usb 2.0 driver listed under the disk drive itself, and is this the best speed (400 Mbps) I can expect under 3.0 (I know the 5 Gbps 3.0 spec is just theoretical)? Or should the drive itself in device mgr also be showing the usb 3.0 driver?

Hi and welcome to SF! :)
Correct me if I'm wrong. You said to have used the pci-e connection to install your hdd. However, it seems weird that you mention "usb" driver in device manager?! I suppose you were to look under "System Devices", don't you?!

drtim said:

I know the 5 Gbps 3.0 spec is just theoretical?

Hello drtim The actual speed you can expect from usb3 tends to be very similar to sata speeds.

See the attachment

Actual speeds will vary depending on type of data being transferred and types of HDD, SSD etc

It is however clearly faster than usb2 my set up rarely got over 25MB/Sec
I hope this helps

drtim said:

Hey Pooch -

Thx for your comments. Yeah, I know a lot of factors can affect usb 3/2 speed, and my current est. speed of 400 Mbps is definitely faster that I was getting with an older, usb 2.0 drive. But my internal drive that I was copying from in the test referenced has a transfer rate of 3 Gbps, and the nec usb 3.0 card by definition has a theoretical limit of 5 Gbps -- plus I'm using AHCI interface. It just bugs me that in device mgr. the driver for the external hd appears to be a ms legacy usb 2.0. Maybe I'm being stupid, but it still seems to me that win 7 should have used/accepted the usb 3.0 driver I "supplied" for this drive.

Could you post an attachment from Device manager showing the driver?

Edit it should look something like this one

renesas took over from nec, i have a similar nec based usb3 pci-e card, works fine in win7 x64.


you can download the latest win7 x86/x64 drivers at:

Code:

http://www.station-drivers.com/page/nec.htm

my 8gb usb flash drive runs at almost 3x what it does in a usb2 port.

edited: noted 2.0.34 is latest, i also just updated mine to that from 2.0.32 within the last few minutes. added new screen shot...:)

same drivers as in my post mine also has the latest firmware update to build 3027. see release notes (generated when you run the exe - an archive self extracter)