How to check USB version

what kind of motherboard you are using?
some motherboards show the type of USB when you start your PC.. yeah.. right after your bios (memory counting) there is a device table... try looking for it there...

you can roughly know whether your board has usb 2.0
what age is your PC? or what era is it in?

usb 2.0 is available since the late intel P3 and P4.
so if your pc is below that, most probably it has only usb 2.0

also add what OS are you useing?

Access Device Manager, click the + next to Uinversal Serial Bus controllers, if there is USB 2.0 Enhanced Open Host Controller there then you have USB 2.0.

To access device manager right click My Computer, select properties. If you're running 98/ME then click on the Device Manager tab, if you're running 2k/XP then click the Hardware tab and then Device Manager button.

Try using trail version of USBMON from here:

http://www.hhdsoftware.com/usbmon.html

Hey yongsing,

As StealthMullet stated, if you access the "Device Manager" and look under the "Universal Serial Bus Controllers", you should see one or two host controllers located there.

Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller - USB 1.1
Enhanced Universal PCI to USB Host Controller - USB 2.0

Hope this helps,

Eric

I'm trying to determine the USB version on my home computer, which runs on Windows 2000 Professional. I haven't accessed my home computer since Sunday, but I'll check it out tonight with your suggestions.

I did use StealthMullet's suggestion on my IBM Thinkpad R31 notebook (Windows 2000 Professional). The Device Manager reported the following for "Universal Serial Bus Controllers":

Intel(R) 82801CA/CAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2482
Intel(R) 82801CA/CAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2484
Intel(R) 82801CA/CAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2487
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub

Doesn't seem very helpful to me. :-)

I really did not think it would work either

what you need to do is download Aida32, which is the program that coral47 has listed for you.  From there you can find out what your motherboard is.  After finding out what motherboard you have, you can then go to the manufacturers website to figure out what the motherboard supports.  Simple as that.

I just downloaded Sisoft Sandra and tried it out on my notebook. It looks like my notebook's USB ports are version 1.1. I will try it out on my home computer tonight.

The reason that I wanted to know the USB version is that I intend to buy an Apple iPod. According to the iPod system requirement, I need a PC with USB 2.0 or FireWire:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/71505/wo/
[Long (and broken) URL edited by The--Captain]

I am not sure if I my home PC will be able to support it.

a cheap USB card sounds like a plan.

you can upgrade usb 1.1 to 2.0

>>you can upgrade usb 1.1 to 2.0
no you can't, the ports have a very different transfer speed.   I guess you can call adding a card upgrading, but then you need to be more specific.

just get a new comp, its the better option dont bother upgrading one part of it, upgrade the whole thing whn u realli feel the need and btw unless u r in dire need of the 2.0 transferr speeds then most devices are backwards compatible with usb 1.1

I used Sisoft Sandra to check my USB version on my home PC. It seems to be version 1.1. That's what I found when I connected my printer, mouse and thumb drive. Not sure if the program is reporting the version of the device or the port itself.

The Apple site states that the iPod requires a PC with USB 2.0. It seems to imply that it is not backward compatible with 1.1. Looks like I have to give up the thought of buying the iPod. :-( Upgrading USB 1.1 to 2.0 doesn't sounds very appealing to me.

Thanks everyone for your helps! I awarded the points to the two persons whose answers are most helpful to me.

Thank you much.    : )

USB 2.0 controllers will (in my experience) ALWAYS contain either the word "enhanced host controller" or "USB 2.0 host controller" --> just look in device manager under Universal Serial Bus Controllers

All USB 2.0 devices are backward compatible with 1.1 devices--that was one of the design requirements for 2.0 compliance.  The iPod definitely DOES work with USB 1.1...it is just quite slow.  For example, USB 1.1 allows for transfer speeds of 1.5Mbps or 12Mbps.  USB 2.0 matches those and also adds 480Mbps.

The iPod's also support IEEE1394 or "Firewire" as Apple has trademarked it.  Most devices do 400Mbps but the spec will go up to 1.2Gbps.

One note regarding USB 2.0 controllers -- as StealthMullet already said, you must upgrade your Windows system files to support USB 2.0.  What was not made clear is that many users have found that just running Windows Update fails to register their USB 2.0 devices properly (still sees them as 1.1).  Then you must go to Device Manager and then to the USB Host Controller and "Update Driver" manually.  Select from list rather than letting Windows do it automatically.

If you're serious about spending the money on an iPod...just upgrade to USB 2.0 and/or Firewire.  Heck you can buy a combo card that you can slip into an available PCI slot that will give you BOTH for $15.  And a 4 or 5-port USB 2.0 card can be had for less than $10.  You can get a 2-port card for your laptop for around $25.  Hardly calls for "buy a new computer".  Check pricewatch.com or pricegrabber.com for a source.

Hi flamedog,

Thanks for the information. If I don't upgrade to USB 2.0 and I still buy the iPod, can I assume a worse case transfer speed of 1.5Mbps? At this speed, I guess it would take like 16 seconds to transfer a 3MB song to the iPod, right?

I have had first hand experience with the USB 2.0 versus 1.1 for my new iPod. I tried to use the iPod with my Windows 2000 prof machine. As soon the the iPod was identified as a "USB Mass Storage" device and when the drivers got loaded, the machine crashed. After multiple reboots/driver updates, etc, I ended up with a confused win2k OS. lo behold, my long time "task on hand" to move on to XP Professional was finally done. And there I go again with the iPod, and the same thing happened again....although XP was graceful enough to tell me that "A High speed USB device is connected to a lower speed USB hub, so the device will function, but to a limited extent". Although the iPod functioned well a couple of times, my machine crashed again.

Final solution: A PCI card with 4 USB 2.0 ports and 2 FireWire ports.
Bottom line: Upgrade to 2.0 hardware is the best solution. If you can add in a PCI card with Fireware...nothing like it. Amazing speed, works like a charm.

Under winxp if u plug in a usb2.0 device to win1.1, windows would tell you. if no message comes up, then u can be sure it's usb2.0