USB question.

[Perd Hapley]

The USB ports on my computer box are 2.0. They should be, since I just got the motherboard a year or two ago.

When I plug my phone in, to charge, the 'puter shows that old "This device would be more awesome if you had USB 2.0 in your box" message.

Why come that is?

[Jim147]

My thought would be the cable you are using.

Charging takes a lot more then data.

jim

[Harold Tuttle]

Mayhaps you need moar better firmwarez

[robear]

Check your BIOS setup also.   Mine -an ASUS- has options for HiSpeed (480Mbps, or USB 2.0) and FullSpeed (12Mbps, or USB 1.0).
Make sure it's set to HiSpeed, or whatever your MBs equivalent is.

[Perd Hapley]

If the problem is in my grandpa box computer, wouldn't it do that with flash drives and other such devices? It only happens with the phone.

[BryanP]

If the problem is in my grandpa box computer, wouldn't it do that with flash drives and other such devices? It only happens with the phone.

Not if the problem is the cable.

[Ben]

Yeah, I would check the cable. I've used cheap after market cables before that didn't allow my phone to be recognized as a device. It would charge in the USB socket, but wouldn't show up as a phone or disk drive. By cheap I mean the cable was simply a piece of junk. I use some aftermarket cables sold by Amazon for $3 each. They seem to be Chinese and say they are for a Blackberry, but they are my best cables.

[birdman]

There could be several issues, depending on the type of error and cable being used.
If the error is data speed related, then it could be the cable, as crappy cables may not permit the self negotiation of speed to pass at higher rates.
If the error is charging related, it could be either cable, or motherboard.  Sme devices (iPad for example) require a charging port to be be able to deliver 1-2A to be recognized as charging, which is more than a normal USB port (500mA) can supply and requires a dedicated charging port.  If it is a device that normally accepts 500mA for charging, AND it's plugged into a USB port on the motherboard capable of supplying that (not all can) then it could be cable related, as a higher resistivity (due to crappiness or length) cable may not permit the charging negotiation to work (requires very specific voltages on the D+/D- lines), or even if those voltages are correct, the actual cable resistance may put the delivered voltage out of the acceptable range. 

[Ben]

Oh yeah, Birdman reminded me of another issue. You're plugging directly into the computer's USB port versus a hub? Because some unpowered hubs will also give you issues with stuff that draws more than minimal power.

[birdman]

Oh yeah, Birdman reminded me of another issue. You're plugging directly into the computer's USB port versus a hub? Because some unpowered hubs will also give you issues with stuff that draws more than minimal power.

Absolutely true.  The USB minimum is 100mA at 5V.  Unpowered hubs will usually draw 500mA (but usually no more) from their upstream connection, but then this is divided among their downstream ports, and in some cases, they won't allow any more than the minimum on those, even if there is only one device present.  So if the device uses USB for power, or draws more than 100mA in operation, use a powered hub or connect direct to PC.  Also, because USB is an interleaved non-duplex connection, using a hub will dramatically (by more than bandwidth/N where N is the number of attached devices) reduce data throughout as devices compete for bandwidth in both directions and acknowledgements become a greater fraction of the time.  For instance a high rate and low rate device (say an thumb drive and a mouse) attached to a hub will result in the mouse killing the bandwidth of the port.

This is why I setup USB devices with high bandwidth ones connected directly to the computer, and low bandwidth ones to a hub (if I'm short on ports...which happens, and I have a mobo with 14!)

[brimic]

Ihave never been able to get USB ports to function as USB 2.0 ports reliably with XP, if at all.

[AJ Dual]

I've seen this on several phones too, and it's claiming that it's USB 1.0 although in some cases sustained data transfer rates clearly show 2.0 is working.  

So the charging issue/cable issues mentioned above I think are very likely. A lot of phones use extra pins/wires in the USB micro connector when hooked to their dedicated charger to get more amperage to the battery than the standard USB pin-out, so you'll also notice that when hooked to a PC or other generic USB standard connection it charges more slowly than when on it's OEM wall-wart box.

I also have a suspicion that there may be something intentional in this that the phone mfg's do to encourage you to install their drivers and proprietary PC/phone link software which can steer you away from unlocking/jailbreaking your phone.

[birdman]

They don't use extra pins for power (mini/micro/std USB all have only 4 pins), but they (e.g. The iPhone or iPad) use specific voltages on the two data pins to designate their high power charge modes.  For instance, when both pins hare held at 2V, an iPhone will recognize it as its 500mA (2.5W) charger, which is different than the standard DDCP (dedicated downstream charging port) specification IIRC.

I would assume other devices do similar weird things.  It's probably not to fore you to buy their products, but rather to ensure their products aren't damaged by off-spec devices due to low voltage, sunstantially off normal source impedance, or other aspects.

[GigaBuist]

USB is kinda funky with the speed stuff because of the variations you can experience in power, cable quality, distance of run, driver support, etc.  Yadda yadda yadda people have covered that stuff.

My best advice is that if you're transferring data FROM the phone hold it up higher than the USB port.  That'll help the electrons flow about 9.8m/s/s faster.  Likewise if you're transferring data TO the phone hold it below the computer and that'll get you going 9.8m/s/s faster which is like 18 parsecs per hogshead in networking lingo.

[Perd Hapley]

There's a workstation I plug into at work sometimes, to charge the phone. (different cable) It recognizes my phone as an optical drive AND removable media drive.

[Fitz]

Yep. The optical drive part will contain drivers and *expletive deleted*it software, while the flash device is the actual phone storage

[Hawkmoon]

It has been suggested to me that the USB ports on the back of a desktop box are more capable than those on the front (the one you can reach -- go figure).

Which port or ports were you trying to use?

[BryanP]

It has been suggested to me that the USB ports on the back of a desktop box are more capable than those on the front (the one you can reach -- go figure).

Which port or ports were you trying to use?

That's one I've never heard before.  Hmmm.  The ports on the back are generally the ones that are directly on the motherboard, whereas the front ports are whatever they put in the case and then cabled to the motherboard. That's the only logic for that one I can think of.

[birdman]

That's one I've never heard before.  Hmmm.  The ports on the back are generally the ones that are directly on the motherboard, whereas the front ports are whatever they put in the case and then cabled to the motherboard. That's the only logic for that one I can think of.

Quite regularly, the back ones will have charging capability (500mA) but the front ones won't.

[Perd Hapley]

Quite regularly, the back ones will have charging capability (500mA) but the front ones won't.

What the...?  So they only use three wires? Why?

Anyway, I'm using a back-mounted port. It does charge, or I wouldn't use it. Besides, my front ports should have power, since I'm using the whole pin-out.

[birdman]

What the...?  So they only use three wires? Why?

Anyway, I'm using a back-mounted port. It does charge, or I wouldn't use it. Besides, my front ports should have power, since I'm using the whole pin-out.

They all use all 4 wires.  It's a matter of the USB chipset and power ICs used for the port...the USB minimum is 100mA per port, or 0.5W.  By separating downstream charging ports from regular, a manufacturer doesn't have to supply multiple amps to the USB ports in total.  Also, the voltage specs on USB are 5V +\-5% (4.75-5.25).  At 500mA, it only takes a spurious 0.5 ohms in the wire or connector to drop that, so since a mfg doesn't know how long or what gauge internal cable you have, they can't guarantee that at the USB connector there will be the minimum at 500mA, so many make only the ports that have direct type A connectors downstream charging capable ports, and the rest 'vanilla' USB.

USB requires all 4 pins, it's Vdd,gnd, and then D+ and D- data lines.