USB 2.0 - Hi Speed Finally

The world is getting faster by the day and USB is no exception. All the new USB devices are moving towards USB 2.0. With USB 2.0, the data is transferred at the rate of 480 Mbps (that’s Mega bits per second). Where as the earlier versions i.e., USB 1.1 (and 1.0), transferred data at the rate of mere 12 Mbps. And, 12 Mbps is way too slow.My motherboard at home, ASUS A7N266-VM has support for only USB 1.1. So, around a year back, I decided to go for a PCI to USB card, which would give me USB 2.0 ports. My vendor gave me a PCI to USB card which had a ALi chipset. I installed the card, but I never managed to get USB 2.0 working. No matter what I tried, it acted like USB 1.1. I tried reinstalling the drivers and tried all possible workarounds. But no matter what I did, the ports worked as if they were 1.1 ports. So, whenever I used to plug-in a USB 2.0 device (like my Sandisk Pen drive), windows would warn me that I have plugged in a Hi-speed device to a Low Speed port. :(. In fact, the problem continued after reinstalling windows (after the ants attack).

Finally, I posted this problem on one of the USB forums. And to my surprise, found that the ALi chipset cards are not very reliable, and are prone to problems!. The folks at the forum suggested that I replace the card with one that has NEC chipset. So, next, called up my vendor, and told him about this problem. Luckily, he offered me a replacement card. This time, it was a Intex PCI to USB card, with 4 (+1 internal) USB 2.0 ports. The Intex card was based on the VIA chipset. My vendor did not have any cards with NEC chipset.

I took this new Intex card home, removed my old card off the PCI slot, and plugged this card in (after clearing up the old drivers etc). Booted the machine. Windows detected the new card correctly (thanks to PnP!), and automatically installed some standard Microsoft drivers. And now…I have USB 2.0 ports. Now the data transfers are blazing fast!

Just to give you and Idea. .. Earlier it used to take around 12 to 14 mins to transfer 1 GB of data from PC to my Sandisk Pen drive using USB 1.1 ports. Now, the same process takes around 1.5 mins!!

Sigh!!

13 comments | December 27th, 2005 at 01:58pm