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#1
USB 3.0 ports refuse to work as USB 3.0 ports
A few days ago I installed a USB 3.0 card (to be precise, this one: 2-Port USB 3.0 SuperSpeed PCI-E Controller Card - Free Shipping - DealExtreme). It uses the very common NEC µPD720200 USB 3.0 controller. I installed the required drivers for Windows 7, and the card worked fine for the first day or so. but not since. Whenever I plug in a USB 3.0 external hard drive, I get a false "This device can perform faster..." message, as if I had plugged the drive in a USB 2.0 port.
The external drive I am using is a Western Digital MyBook Essential 1130. It is definitely a USB 3.0 drive, and came with the required USB 3.0 cable. While the USB 3.0 card was working, I got full-speed transfers to the limit of the hard drive's ability, about 90-100 MB/s. Now I can only get USB 2.0 speeds (33-34 MB/s). Windows insists I have the drive plugged into a USB 2.0 port even though it is plugged directly into the USB 3.0 card.
Things I tried so far:
-rebooting and complete power cycle. No difference.
-plugging the drive into one port or the other. Also no difference.
-Looked in Device manager. No help there either. The controller is recognized as a USB 3.0 device is using the proper NEC drivers.
Other info that may be important:
-No overclocking settings in use.
-I made sure the cable was plugged in all the way. It's in as far as it can go, but the ports will still only act like USB 2.0 ports.
This is very frustrating. How do I fix it? I might as well throw the card away if it is only going to act as a USB 2.0 device.