USB 3.0 X230 Win7 Problems

[myxomop]

I am the proud owner of an x230 (specs in sig) with version 2.73 BIOS. For the entire time I've owned my machine, it has never achieved file transfer speeds in keeping with reasonable USB 3.0 expectations when a USB 3.0 compatible device is connected to the blue USB 3.0 port. I think I did a driver update some time ago to try and fix it to no avail. I've attached a screenshot of my USB section of Device Manager, and can post back with any driver name/date/revision upon request.



Many thanks in advance,

-Danny

[RealBlackStuff]

You are obviously missing the USB3.0 driver: https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/ie/en/prod ... s/ds034760

[dr_st]

Edit: RBS was faster.

Windows 7 does not have built-in USB 3.0 drivers. You need this one: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downlo ... t-thinkpad

However I would expect the USB 3.0 controller to appear in the device manager with a yellow bang for missing driver. What's under "Other Devices"?

[myxomop]

Here are the two "Other Devices" entries:



I downloaded the linked driver, and in the process of installing, was prompted with a dialog box asking if I wanted to write over the existing default installation directory, which already exists. I think this is the driver update I mentioned, which did not get me anywhere near USB 3.0 speeds:



Should I overwrite the contents of the folder? Should I remove and install the new driver rather than replace old with new?

Thanks for your continued help.

-myxomop

[RealBlackStuff]

Install to that folder anyway.

[dr_st]

1180:E823 is the Realtek Card Reader.

8086:1E31 is the USB 3.0 controller. Looks like you just need to extract the driver (to the same folder, as RBS suggested) and run Setup.exe.

[myxomop]

installed, restarted. it's gotten worse:

[dr_st]

Does the USB 3.0 controller appear in Device Manager now?

[myxomop]

[dr_st]

Looks fine to me.

To test that USB 3.0 works, connect a USB 3.0-capable drive, then use CrystalDiskMark to test the various read/write speeds.

Manually copying random files is a problematic experiment to deduce from.

[myxomop]

Left this thread for a long time, finally coming back to it. I've installed and run CrystalDiskMark, using a PNY 32GB USB 3.1 flash drive. Prior to running the diagnostic, I initiated a file transfer from my desktop to the flash drive, averaging ~8MB/s speeds.



EDIT: Just used the same drive to transfer files on my Win10 workstation with speeds 4-8 times that of the x230.

[dr_st]

What is the exact model of the flash drive?

I assume the benchmark is from the X230 with Win7. It does seem awfully low, especially in random writes. Could you run the same benchmark on your Win10 machine?

[axur-delmeria]

It's likely that the lack of UASP support in Intel's Windows 7 driver for its USB 3.0 controllers is what's causing the slowdown.

[dr_st]

It's likely that the lack of UASP support in Intel's Windows 7 driver for its USB 3.0 controllers is what's causing the slowdown.

That would explain the sequential speed cap, but random access at 0.01MB/s is not something I would expect. AFAIK, no pre-Win8 driver support UASP, and I don't recall things being so atrocious in my tests, when I tested USB 3.0 in Win7, Vista, even XP.

[axur-delmeria]

It's likely that the lack of UASP support in Intel's Windows 7 driver for its USB 3.0 controllers is what's causing the slowdown.

That would explain the sequential speed cap, but random access at 0.01MB/s is not something I would expect. AFAIK, no pre-Win8 driver support UASP, and I don't recall things being so atrocious in my tests, when I tested USB 3.0 in Win7, Vista, even XP.

Some Asus desktop motherboards have Windows 7 UASP support due to Asus licensing a third-party UASP driver.

If it's not UASP, could it be some weird issue between a USB 3.1 device and what's essentially a 1st-gen USB 3.0 controller?

[myxomop]

same flash drive, different machine (win10 desktop, using USB3 port on the side of the case)

[dr_st]

Interesting. There are no meaningful differences. Random 4K write speeds are at zero on both systems = flash drive is crap (maybe defective).

[axur-delmeria]

TBH flash drives in general are crap. If I wanted fast USB storage, I'd get a SATA SSD (preferably M.2 as it's physically smaller) and put it in an enclosure.

[dr_st]

TBH flash drives in general are crap.

Not nearly as crap as these benchmark results show. Sure, they are not as fast as SSDs, but most of the time they are quite usable.