USB 2.0 performing as USB 1.0

[brilldan]

Hi guys hopefully someone can help this is driving me mad ! I have an alienware m9750 laptop which I had to reformat due to a number of problems. Now its all restored all my USB ports which have allways been usb 2 its a £2000 laptop so it definatly had them ! but when ever i plug something in i get the message "this could perform faster if you connect it to a USB 2.0 port" it is extreemly annoying as it can takes hours to sync my iphone and i really need to sort it out.

 

I understand that it should say enhanced controller in device manager if they are usb 2.0 drivers installed is that correct because mine says Intel® 82801G (ICH7 Familiy) USB Universal Host Controller.

 

Please can someone give me a hand

cheers

Dan

[Dalo Harkin]

You should have some drivers/utilities disks or visit the alienware website, in device manager you will have some yellow exclamation marks under USB host controller - try and update, they may be lurking on the system somewhere/windows update may find them, if not then its off to Alienware site for them.

 

If you need anymore help just shout

[brilldan]

Hi thanks for your suggestions, there are no exclamation marks in the device manager as the USB ports are working but only at USB 1 speed which is soo slow ! updated with all the latest drivers from the alienware site ? Is there anything else i can try or will i have to reformat again ?

 

Thanks

[Dalo Harkin]

The only thing I could find on Alienware older models was this

http://support.alienware.co.uk/Support_Pages/Restricted_Pages/driver_downloads.aspx

 

I would uninstall the USB drivers from device manager and then reboot the lappy, it should find them again automatically.

USB 1.0 drivers and standard OS built in ones, so you need whatever disk that came with the lappy named 'drivers/utilities' in the drive and when it asks for the driver set it to search the disk

[brilldan]

When i do that it never asks to install the drivers they are just allways somehow there ? I got impacient and reformatted using my vista cd. i now have a fresh install was hoping this would fix it but all 4 of my usb ports are showing as Intel® 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C8 where they should all be enhanced as they should be usb 2. I have installed the latest chipset driver both from the intel site and the alienware site and its still bloody the same.

 

Please is there any way of getting these freaking usb ports to run as usb 2 like they should its useless without them mite aswell chuck it out and buy a new one ! grr

[Dalo Harkin]

When you go to device manager - where the USB host controller is double click it and there should be an 'update driver' option, do that and have any cd/dvd that you got from Alienware in the cd/dvd drive and it 'should' find the drivers.

 

Vista 'should' find these from windows update under 'optional hardware updates'

[brilldan]

Ive just done this for the root hubs and host controllers and i just get a message saying the best driver for your device is already installed ?

[Synapse]

Other people on the Alienware forums has complained of the exact same issue and as yet it is unsolved.

 

One theory is that there may be hardware fault, which at this stage does not seem unconceiveable.

[Dalo Harkin]

Unless they have a BIOS update available, then it could be linked to hardware,

a USB device will operate in USB 1 form ONLY if its an old PC and does not support USB 2 or 3 or if there are no drivers installed for the host controller and it uses the windows built in USB 1 drivers