Extremely Slow USB ports

For the last year or so my USB ports have been running really slowly. I'm almost positive they are supposed to be USB 2.0 but I can never get speeds of more than 4mbps. This happens when I'm transferring one 4gb file, or a folder of mp3s. It happens when using a flash drive, using an external hard drive, using an SD card (or microSD) with adapter, or when plugged directly into MP3 player or Android Tablet.

So I guess I have a few questions: How do I check to make sure my ports are USB 2.0 and have the correct drivers? Am I overreacting to normal speeds or is 4mbps as slow as I think it is and if it really is slow does anybody have any suggestions for solving the problem?

Thanks for any and all help and if there is already a thread for this I apologize for wasting time and space, please point me in the direction of the correct thread. Thanks again.

Have a look here Really slow USB 2.0 transfer rate since installing SP1 9th post down.

Hmm, I tried that and it didin't change anything. It said everything was up to date and there was nothing to fix; but I'm still stuck at 4mb/s or less.