Fix slow USB 3.0 which is working at USB 2.0 speeds with USB 3.0 flash card???

[Simon1]

Hi I'm loking for advice on how to fix a slow USB 3.0 which is working at USB 2.0 speeds with a USB 3.0 flash drive connected.

I have a Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 board with USB 3.0 at the rear panel & a Bitfenix USB 3.0 twin header from the mother board. I have the latest Etron drivers installed and tried old one with no joy.

I have a Transcend JetFlash 700 16GB USB 3.0 flash memory stick, which I have formatted with NTFS & FAT32, testing different block sizes again no increase.

Transfering a 700mb test file takes exactly the same time in any USB 2 or 3 port. Atto Write speed test of the blank formatted card give the same result in any USB 2.0 & 3.0 port of 17.3/MB's.

In either USB 2.0 or 3.0 ports the on screen status shows the file instantly capy approx 70% then stall for the remainder of the transer show a 0 transfer rate and 'Calculating' on the time remainig. The display wont change and will just jump to 100% from 70% when the transfer is complete.

The transfer works. Any Ideas would be greatly received. Thanks Simon.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi Simon,

I am unsure which ports you are trying to run the USB3.0 drive from ? The most stable and ones that work with least problems are usually the rear motherboard ones that are direct. Often using front or ports which are connected to a hub can cause issues.

Make sure that you have USB3.0 enabled in the BIOS and USB3.0 Turbo disabled. If you are not using it also disable the ESATA.

[absic]

Hi Simon,

I have the GA-Z68UD3P-B3 mobo which uses the same Etron EJ168 USB3 Chips as your motherboard and I am running the latest Etron drivers which are 1.11 that I downloaded from here: http://www.station-drivers.com/page/etron.htm these are working better on my system than previous drivers.

Also have you tried the latest BIOS for your motherboard which is F10, that you can download from TweakTown here: http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html as a recent update for my own board has also helped?

I would beg to differ with DM over disabling the USB3 Turbo feature in BIOS as I have actually found that this can help but the transfer speeds of different devices does vary widely. For example, a SATA2  Seagate HDD attached via a USB3 dock gives very fast speeds on my system as does my ADATA 8GB USB3 Pendrive. But, a SATA2 Hitachi Deskstar and an un-named brand 32GB USB3 Pendrive I have perform very poorly in comparison.

So the other variable of USB3 hardware that you are using could well have an impact on performance rather than it being BIOS, Drivers or motherboard implementation and is worth bearing in mind when trying to find solutions.

[Dark Mantis]

Yes that is true enough absic some USB3.0 devices perform terribly compared to some ordinary USB2.0 drives. There is a massive difference between them all.

[Lsdmeasap]

This is the exact model right?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208566
http://www.transcend-info.com/products/Catlist.asp?LangNo=0&modno=312

If so, it's rated for 70MB/s read and 20MB/s write, so 17MB/s sounds about average and correct for your transfer, if you are writing to the drive during the times you took that 17MB/s as an example.

Do you see the same speeds when directly using the rear USB 3 ports on the motherboard?

Can you please post a screenhot of your scores using Crystaldiskmark with test data set to All 0x00 - Zero Fill, run this test on the rear USB 3.0 ports directly.  Be sure you select zero fill, it's in "file" menu then "test data"
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html

[Simon1]

Thanks both. Purchased the transcend stick after reading the review here

 http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/storage/best-usb-3-0-flash-drive-5-reviewed-and-rated-998031

Although my flash drive is only 16gb I assumed it would transfer the 700mb file in 20 seconds at 39MB's as the 32gb one does.

The product links you sent are correct. Maybe my under performing usb 3 ports are ok and ive a rubbish flash drive.

Ill try the latest drivers again and bios but I'm gonna order a fast usb 3 flash drive first, so ill be a few days before I update you. Thanks again Simon.

[Simon1]

One quick question, I can't find a value for USB 3.0 turbo in my BIOS as DM mentions

'I would beg to differ with DM over disabling the USB3 Turbo feature in BIOS'

Any pointers to where this value can be changed?

Thanks
Simon

[absic]

Hi Simon,

It may not actually be an available option in your BIOS so don't worry too much if you can't find it.

On my own motherboard it is an available option in the current BIOS but was disabled in some previous versions. Try and figure that one out if you can.

[Dark Mantis]

I didn't check to see if it was in the BIOS as an option, it was merely a case that if it was there. Anyway probably best just to ignore it anyway.

[Lsdmeasap]

Thanks both. Purchased the transcend stick after reading the review here

 http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/storage/best-usb-3-0-flash-drive-5-reviewed-and-rated-998031

Although my flash drive is only 16gb I assumed it would transfer the 700mb file in 20 seconds at 39MB's as the 32gb one does.

The product links you sent are correct. Maybe my under performing usb 3 ports are ok and ive a rubbish flash drive.

Ill try the latest drivers again and bios but I'm gonna order a fast usb 3 flash drive first, so ill be a few days before I update you. Thanks again Simon.

Ya, that's part of the problem probably.   You are expecting transfer times based on a larger drives results, and those are almost always faster than the smaller drives.   I see an average of 17MB/s Write speeds from others with your model, so sounds about right to me.   Plus you can't compare timed transfers from your own tests with anyone elses, as the whole system (All other hardware) and it's overclock comes into play when you are timing out a transfer

There is a new Etron Driver here you can try, but I don't expect you are going to get much more out of that drive above 17-20/MB/s write as that is it's rated speed.

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Passport-for-PC/My-Passport-Essential-with-Gigabyte-Motherboard-using-Etron/td-p/372821

Direct link
http://www.etron.com/manager/uploads/ver%201.0.0.111.zip