Gł - Windows > All Platforms + General: USB 2.0

If you take a look at the Device Transfer Speed page you'll see that the speed increase from USB 1.1 to USB 2.0 is quite remarkable. You may be wondering if you have this feature or not and you might not know how to check. There's a few ways of finding this information out.

Option #1 (The long way)

Open the System Properties applet from the control panel

OR click Start > Run... > and type sysdm.cpl
OR right-click My Computer on the Desktop and select Properties
OR press the "WinKey + Pause/Break"

Click on the Hardware tab
Click the Device Manager button
Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers
Look for "Enhanced" in the list
If you see "Enhanced" you have USB 2.0 if not then, well, you don't...

Option #2 (The easy way)

Go to this page: Troubleshooting Windows XP, Tweaks and Fixes for Windows XP
Scroll all the way down to line 330
Look on the right hand side, and download the script "Test for USB2"
Run the script from the saved location
Read the results
Say thank you to Kelly for the wonderful script

Option #3 (Other ways)

Read your owner's manual
Look for USB information
Count the number of ports — if you have only two than they're probably USB 1.1 and in most cases, not the USB 2.0 type
Find your favorite online vendor and buy a simple PCI USB 2.0 kit

You will see that your old devices will work just fine work on USB 2.0 ports, and faster. a great deal faster (than USB 1.1).

USB 2.0 devices will work on USB 1.1 ports, but, of course, they will transfer data at the slower speeds - as listed in Device Transfer Speed. I suppose if there's a very small time-out, there's a chance that they could not work — but that's unlikely to happen and I've never come across a case where it's happened.

For more information, post questions in the G³ Forum.

OS: All Platforms > General
Date: 11/15/05