Is my USB Controller displaying usb 3.0?

[shutteringfocus]

Here is a screen shot of my Device Manager with the Universal Serial Bus Controller section expanded.

How do I know if the USB 3.0 is working? I have two 3.0 ports on the back of my computer. When I plug in a WD My Passport 1tb USB 3.0 drive I only get a 19mb/s write speed using NovaBench to test.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Here is a screen shot of my Device Manager with the Universal Serial Bus Controller section expanded.

How do I know if the USB 3.0 is working? I have two 3.0 ports on the back of my computer. When I plug in a WD My Passport 1tb USB 3.0 drive I only get a 19mb/s write speed using NovaBench to test.

I don't see the screenshot!
Same speed on usb2.0 port?

 

[shutteringfocus]

USB 2.0 is writing at 1mb/s according to NovaBench

Sorry, having trouble figuring out how to imbed the image. It's linking you to my website.

 

[TVeblen]

Here is a good way to test to see if the drive is connected to the USB 3.0 controller:
Intel® USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver — How to check connected USB 3.0 devices status?
It does not matter if you do not have an Intel Controller, whichever brand, the check is the same.

The transfer speed can be affected by other factors, like the amount of fragmentation of the file(s) you are transferring.

To test the speed of the controller/port try copying a single large file (about 500MB or more) to a USB stick and then transfer that to a hard disk via USB 3 port and note the speed.

 

[shutteringfocus]

So, doing some more testing...

My SandDisk SSD hard drive is running at 106mb/s and my Segate Barracude HHD is running 160mb/s.

Those numbers don't seem right either.

What's up?

 

[TVeblen]

How old is that version of Novabench?

 

[shutteringfocus]

Version 3.0.4 - July 27, 2011

Have a different benchmark program I should use?

 

[TVeblen]

I see a lot of folks here use HD Tune. But yours is recent enough to be SSD and USB3 aware. You may have something else going on.

Is this a laptop or desktop?
Store bought or self built (desktop)?
Came with Windows loaded or did you install?

 

[shutteringfocus]

Snapshot from my device manager.

Seeing as the USB Root Hub does not say 3.0, does that mean something isn't installed right?

This is a custom built desktop that someone helped me build because obviously I'm learning how this all works.

I did install Windows on it, he did not help me with that. Did I forget to do something?

 

[TVeblen]

Yes. I'm guessing that you did not install the driver for the USB 3.0 controller.
Do you have any unknown devices showing up in Device Manager?
What is the brand and model number of your motherboard?

 

[maxie]

Some times when you plug a device into USB two in Windows 7 you would be told that you have a faster three USB port but my guess is also you don't have the driver installed

 

[shutteringfocus]

MB: ASUS P7P55D

I ran the motherboard CD again and installed everything.

No changes.

Everything still slow, all usb, and internal drives all slow.

Is the USB Controller Driver something Windows installs? I ran a Windows update, nothing new to install.

 

[TVeblen]

That motherboard does not have USB 3.0 capability.
ASUS - - ASUS P7P55D
Were you told something different?

 

[shutteringfocus]

Sorry, it is the ASUS P7P55D PRO

 

[TVeblen]

If you install and run CPU-Z (free) it will give you the motherboard information. But you can look at the motherboard and find the model number printed on it somewhere.

I do not believe that any P7 series motherboard had USB 3.0 capability. The thing to keep in mind is that until the Ivy Bridge chipsets came out (these are the most current Intel chipsets) that USB3 was not included in the chipset. Manufacturer's like ASUS and Gigabyte added USB3 controllers and separate drivers to their boards to supplement the Intel chipset. So this is a matter of reading specs carefully.

That older motherboard will probably have a legacy BIOS, which means that it would have been very important to have installed Windows in AHCI mode for the SATA controller. Do you know that it was? This could negatively affect the performance of the SSD if Windows was installed in legacy IDE mode.

 

[TVeblen]

Nope. Still no USB3 controller on that board:
ASUS - - ASUS P7P55D PRO

 

[shutteringfocus]

Yeah. I see that.

Well, I'll have to go back to the guy who built it for me and push on that.

Tell me more about loading windows in AHCI mode. I put the windows install disk into the CD-ROM and booted from it. I didn't make any other changes in the BIOS. How do I know which mode I loaded it in? Is the only option to reload everything? Can I do that and still save my settings and programs?

Thanks for all your help!

 

[TVeblen]

No there is a way around reinstalling. But before I get that for you, go into your BIOS settings > Main Tab > Storage Configuration > and see what it says next to "Configure SATA as:"

 

[shutteringfocus]

Yep, it says "As IED"

Dang.

So can I do a reboot of Windows from the install disk but not do a clean install so that it keeps all my settings and programs?

If you could link me somewhere or give me instructions for that, that would be great.

I guess I know just enough to be dangerous, but not enough to really know what I'm doing.

I appreciate all the help.
Zach

 

[TVeblen]

This is how you do it. It is relatively easy:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html

Just to enhance what BareFoot Kid wrote up, the process is:

• Change the registry value
• Reboot and go immediately into BIOS Settings *
• Change the "Configure SATA as" to AHCI
• Save and Exit BIOS Settings, and let it start Windows

* It is very important that you do not "miss" the keystroke to get into BIOS Settings before Windows starts. If you need to practice, do so!