Usb 2.0 vs. Old usb (1.0,1.1)

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Anarchy1505

New Member
Hello I just recently bought a external hard drive for my computer. The problem is my computer is pretty old so it has the old usb ports on it. Now if I buy one of the 2.0 usb hubs and plug it into the old usb port on my computer is it going to be fast ( the 2.0 ) or is it going to drop the 2.0 usb hub down to the speed level of the old usb port. I am confused on how that would work.:confused: If anyone has an answer on this I would greatly appreciate it.


Thanks
-Aaron
 
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PC eye

banned
Usb 1.1 is not the ports but the standard for the bus speed. Usb 2.0 introduuced the high speed bus as well as the slower replacing 1.1. For seeing 2.0 you would have to add in a PCI usb card there to see 2.0 supported when going to use a hub.
 
2048Megabytes

2048Megabytes

Active Member
Maximum transfer rates of Universal Serial Bus 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0:
(Of course the real life transfer rate will likely be far below the advertised maximum transfer rate.)

USB 1.0: maximum transfer rate is 1.5 megabits per second (187 kilobytes per second).

USB 1.1: 1.5 to 12 megabits per second (187 kilobytes to 1.5 megabytes per second).

USB 2.0: up to 480 megabits per second (60 megabytes per second)
 
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PC eye

banned
The reason for the PCI card is that the PCI bus hasn't changed while the standards for the usb have. The card would automatically support the 2.0 standard soon to see another change to usb 3.0 by this time next year in fact. That was released in August of this year already.
 
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Davoguha

New Member
PC eye said:
The reason for the PCI card is that the PCI bus hasn't changed while the standards for the usb have. The card would automatically support the 2.0 standard soon to see another change to usb 3.0 by this time next year in fact. That was released in August of this year already.
Click to expand...

Do most PCI buses on newer computers automatically support the USB 2.0 now? Or do the mobos that have 'USB 2.0 ports' just come with a PCI card?
 
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PC eye

banned
With a newer board you wouldn't have any need for a pci card unless you ran out of ports. The old systems generally only saw one or two ports while boards out now see an average of 6 to 8 depending on make and model. Usb replaces the need for more then 2 or 3 PCI slots when comparing old and new where old boards typically saw 4-5 slots there.

New cases as well as many monitors and keyboards as well will often see a few ports on some models. That's how common place usb devices are now compared to what was seen back in the 1990s.

Have a digital camcorder? plug it into a port. 90% of printers for desktops and laptops as well plug into a port. The 2.0 standard has been out since April of 2000 and saw support for that included with XP when released a year later.
 
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oldcaliforniakid

New Member
I have a 2004 Sony PCV Rs-420 that has served me well for many years. Lately I get a popup that tells me that the devise I am using would be faster if I had a 2.0 USB hub. According to the literature on this computer, all my USB connections are 2.0. I've gone to the Device Manager and looked at my USB connections and I don't see 'enhanced' or 2.0 anywhere. What's going on?

Thanks in advance.
 
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Jamin43

banned
Davoguha said:
Do most PCI buses on newer computers automatically support the USB 2.0 now? Or do the mobos that have 'USB 2.0 ports' just come with a PCI card?
Click to expand...

USB is pretty standard as mentioned above - but the past month or two - USB 3.0 was released and is showing up on some of the newer MOBO's - but there's pretty much nothing in terms of Hardware / software support to take advantage of the High speed USB port.
 
2048Megabytes

2048Megabytes

Active Member
USB hubs slow down your data transfer rate to USB 1.1 speeds.

Someone told me the connecting USB 2.0 devices to a USB hub is like connecting a normal backyard garden hose to a fire extinguisher hydrant and expecting to get a fire hose flow of water out of a garden hose. The garden hose can only handle so much flow of water.
 
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oldcaliforniakid

New Member
2048Megabytes said:
USB hubs slow down your data transfer rate to USB 1.1 speeds.

Someone told me the connecting USB 2.0 devices to a USB hub is like connecting a normal backyard garden hose to a fire extinguisher hydrant and expecting to get a fire hose flow of water out of a garden hose. The garden hose can only handle so much flow of water.
Click to expand...

I'm not using any hubs and for the past 6 years I never had any notices popping up to tell me that the device I am using would be faster if I connected it to a high-speed USB port. I have recently gotten a new printer and an external hard drive, but I'm trying to find out what I can do to activate/reactivate my 2.0 USB ports.

Thanks.
 
J

Jamin43

banned
oldcaliforniakid said:
I'm not using any hubs and for the past 6 years I never had any notices popping up to tell me that the device I am using would be faster if I connected it to a high-speed USB port.
Click to expand...

Do you want your PC to tell you that your video card and CPU are running too slow too ;)

I have recently gotten a new printer and an external hard drive, but I'm trying to find out what I can do to activate/reactivate my 2.0 USB ports.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

You can either get a new motherboard - or follow the advice earlier on - and put a card with the USB 2.0 capacity in one of your board's PCI slots.

Your motherboard either has them - or doesn't. Whatever your MOBO USB ports are - they are - you can't reactivate or deactivate them to a faster standard. If you plug a USB 2.0 device into a USB 1.x port - the it'll scale back the data transfer rate to the USB 1.x capacity.
 
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oldcaliforniakid

New Member
Jamin43 said:
Do you want your PC to tell you that your video card and CPU are running too slow too ;)



You can either get a new motherboard - or follow the advice earlier on - and put a card with the USB 2.0 capacity in one of your board's PCI slots.

Your motherboard either has them - or doesn't. Whatever your MOBO USB ports are - they are - you can't reactivate or deactivate them to a faster standard. If you plug a USB 2.0 device into a USB 1.x port - the it'll scale back the data transfer rate to the USB 1.x capacity.
Click to expand...

This wasn't the answer, as I have 2.0 USB. It was not being found by my computer. From another tech forum, someone told me to go into my BIOS and restore the default values. I did that, which in turn made the enhanced USB port show up in Device Manager. I updated the driver and all pop ups are gone and all my USB ports are working at 2.0.

The advice to purchase a PCI card could have been expensive...
 
Dystopia

Dystopia

Active Member
oldcaliforniakid said:
This wasn't the answer, as I have 2.0 USB. It was not being found by my computer. From another tech forum, someone told me to go into my BIOS and restore the default values. I did that, which in turn made the enhanced USB port show up in Device Manager. I updated the driver and all pop ups are gone and all my USB ports are working at 2.0.

The advice to purchase a PCI card could have been expensive...
Click to expand...

Are you sure all the drivers are installed? They don't usually need it, but you never know. (sorry if you already answered taht, I didn't read the whole thread :p)
 
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