2014 Archives

[jfred1979]

I have an Aspire 5750 which does not seem to be recognizing the fact that it has a USB 3.0 port. All the ports are working as USB 2.0, and despite installing the latest BIOS and USB 3.0 driver from the acer support site I can't get USB 3.0 working. I've used several USB diagnostic tools which report that all three ports are operating as USB 2.0 ports. Attached is what device manager shows for USB controllers. Any idea what I'm supposed to be seeing here or how I can fix this issue?

[Vince53]

Fred, you gave us a tough one here. Most, but not all, computers have painted their USB3 ports blue, rather than black. If not, they usually have a logo identifying them as a USB3 port.

To determine if your port is actually USB3, you have to connect a device that is itself USB3 (USB3 ports are backwards compatible, but they cannot convert a USB2 device to USB3.) With your USB3 devices connected,

• Open the Charms Bar by dragging the cursor to top right of the screen or by pressing Win + C.
• Select Settings and then Change PC settings, which is at the very bottom of the list.
• Select  Devices under PC settings application. It will list every device you have connected to a port. If you have a USB3 port, it will tell you if the connected device is USB2 or USB3.

Researching this on the web, I've found that IF it is a hardware problem, your internal cable to the USB3 port is probably defective. But usually, it is a Windows software problem. Try shutting down ( not restarting) your machine with a USB3 device connected to the USB3 port. If that doesn't work, try removing and re-installing the USB3 device several times while running. The most common successful cure is to upgrade your drivers and BIOS, but you've already done that.

And surprisingly, you might have a hard drive problem. This can cause your USB3 port to function at a lower speed that registers as USB2.

[jfred1979]

Thanks for the reply. I should have mentioned that I'm on windows 7, so I don't have a charms bar. The USB tools that I used indicated that there were no USB 3.0 ports, and the speed tests I did with the hard drive I have connected definitely were not USB 3.0 speeds (I am certain the drive supports USB 3.0, its all over the packaging and cable). I suppose my first order of business is to determine if I do actually have a USB 3.0 port on the computer. The exact model is 5750-6842, this page here seems to indicate that it DOES have one:

http://www.cnet.com/laptops/acer-aspire-5750-6842/4507-3121_7-35057015.html

not sure if that means anything, though. The port is not blue and there is no SS logo indicating that it is USB 3.0, but it does look different than the others (see attached, its the port on the right). 

[Vince53]

Fred, those are both USB2 logos. USB3 logos might be similar, but they will always have an emblem or the number 3.

Can you post the full model number of your laptop?

[bedouijassem]

the same problem here with many aspire 5750.. i got exactly the same problem.. there is no usb 3.0 in my model i wonder why ? in the book livred with the laptop, they said i got 2 usb 2.0 and one usb 3.0, in reality i got 3 usb 2.0.

ACER Aspire 5750G

HDD : 500

RAM : 4

intel HD 3000 and GT 540m

core i5

S/N : ****

[edited for privacy]

[Acer-Cory]

Just to confirm, the USB 3.0 port is not on all AS5750 models. As Vince mentioned previously, there are 2 ways that USB 3.0 is distinguishable from USB 2.0. The most common of course is that the port will be blue vs traditional black. The other less common characteristic is that the USB symbol is superceded by SS for SuperSpeed.

I posted a picture of what black USB ports with the SS logo would look like.

[Alan-London]

To get confirmation of my USB ports, I use the following free application that I find very useful:

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/UsbTreeView.zip

You can see at a glance if a particular port is operating at 3.0 spec - it will show 'Device Bus Speed : 0x03 (SuperSpeed)'
In short, if it shows 'SuperSpeed' it is a USB 3.0 port.

Check the authors web site for further info.

[brummyfan2]

If you have USB 3.0, it will show in device manager.

[bedouijassem]

i would like to thank everyone for answers , very usefull and quick reply.

unlucky i haven't usb 3.0 :'(