Windows 10: External 3.5" Buffalo USB 3.0 drive only connects at USB 2.0 mode

I have a desktop PC that does not come with any USB 3 ports on its mainboard. Yesterday I bought a PCI-E to USB 3.0 expansion card with two ports.

I installed the card, connected the floppy power cable, and windows 10 installed its driver with no issues. There is no yellow mark in the device manager.

First I connected my USB 3.0, 2.5" Seagate drive and windows properly recognized it and set its speed at USB 3.0. I copied a lot of files at a constant max speed of about 95 MB/s. So far everything is good.

Then I tried my 3.5" Buffalo USB 3.0 drive. No matter what I did, it simply would not connect at USB 3 speed, only USB 2. I tried both ports. The drive's external power adapter is connected.

Windows does know that it's a USB 3 device, since it shows the message "This device can perform faster if connected to USB 3.0".

The drive does come with a cable with blue USB 3 connectors.

Anyone ever experienced such an issue before?

:)

 

how do u update from usb 2 to usb 3

Hi,

USB 3.0 devices are backward compatible with USB 2.0. Therefore your USB 3.0 flash drive should work connected

to your USB 2.0 PC. (It will only work at USB 2.0 specs, but it should work.)

The only way to get USB 3.0 ports on a notebook, laptop, tablet PC is to buy a system that already has USB 3.0 ports.

Desktop PC motherboards that only come with USB 2.0 ports can usually be upgraded to USB 3.0 by simply installing

a USB 3.0 PCI add in card to one of the motherboards available PCI slots (or buying a new Desktop motherboard

with USB 3.0 ports.)

However, if you don't mind the much slower USB 2.0 performance your USB 3.0 Flash drive will have it should still

be detected & work connected to your USB 2.0 PC. This is a hardware issue, no update or software alone can

change a USB 2.0 port into a USB 3.0 port.

 

hi

Blu-Ray drives of all external models require a USB 3.0 port only. Make sure you plug it into a USB 3.0 port. If your laptop does not have one and only USB 2.0 ports, you will not function that drive with it.

 

In general, the first thing to try with any USB device that doesn't behave correctly (or at all) is to open Device Manager, find the device and uninstall it. If you don't currently have the device connected you may need to select 'show hidden devices' in Device Manager's 'View' menu.

If an inappropriate driver had been loaded the first time it was connected it will continue to be used on all subsequent times. Uninstalling it will make windows 'forget' and choose the driver from scratch.

 

From my experience,I recommend you to install specific manufacturer driver for PCI-E to USB3 card.If you cannot find such drivers, look at device itself and write down the name of the chip and look online for that model.

 

I did as you said but no change. Is it possible that the disk itself has a fault and cannot connect at USB 3? Firmware incompatibility?

Maybe it's the cable but I have no spare one. It has a big USB B plug. I've used it very few times, so I doubt it's worn out, unless it was faulty from the factory.

I did but couldn't find anything proper. They were all at least 4 years old. The card itself came with a CD but the driver is dated 2009. I tried this one too but nothing happened at all.

 

Please provide your computer specs, including the model of PCI-E card you are using.

Have you tried the drive on another computer?

 

Please, note manufacturer of PCI -E card and find out what chip is using.And based on the name of that chip search for generic drivers, or inf drivers add install them using add new hardware and manual select inf file, or right click on inf file and select install.The chip might be Renessas, or Asmedia, or something like that, regardless of the actual name of PCI-E card.

 

And in bios if you have an option to enable legacy usb 3 device, enable it.

 

Well, I took the card to the shop and tested it there too, and my 3.5" hard disk did not work at USB 3.0 on their PC either. Apparently the card itself is faulty.

I bought another card from another brand and it works as intended. Full USB 3.0 with my both drives. Problem solved.

The first card was detected as "Renesas USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller - 0.96 (Microsoft)".

The second card is detected as "Etron USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller - 1.0 (Microsoft)".

I don't know what those 0.96 and 1.0 numbers mean.