PureBasic Forums - English

I've got a USB2 card which, from what I gather, is supposed to be fast. But
when I transfer photos from my Pentax Optio S to my PC, the transfer takes
about 2 minutes for a 2 MB photo. This isn't right, is it? Way too slow?

Try to buy a card reader

That's not the point; I need to know if the USB2 card is working to its full potential.
I have other devices running off the card and if it's working slow then I'd like to
know. Can anyone confirm if a file transfer of that speed is correct?

yes 17kb/s is very slow. maybe your pentax can only send data due usb 1.x speed but even so, its still too slow. if you can somehow, try a usb 2.0 stick (or whatever) transfare to your card and if its fast, then your card is ok and the pentax transfare seems bad. try newer drivers.

c ya,
nco2k

yes. this usb1 memory stick behind an usb1 hub does approx. 14 kb

you probably have another usb1 device connected to that card that slows all usb devices down to usb1

there are some tools on the net that show you capabilities and current speed of usb ports, try one and verify that you're not running usb1 speeds...

Well, basically I've got my iPAQ 1910 PocketPC plugged in and I transfer
the Pentax storage card pics via that, ie. I take the SD card out of the
Pentax and plug it into the PPC, then explore the PPC disk and copy the
files that way. This is because it's too much hassle plugging/unplugging
the Pentax/PPC all the time, so I just leave the PPC plugged in always.

Now, the USB2 card I have is plugged into a PCI slot, which I assume is
okay because that's what it was made for and advertised as. However,
I just ran the speed test app found here...

http://www.passmark.com/products/usb2test.htm

...and it gives me this error message when I run it:
Does this mean my USB2 card is running at USB1 speed or something???

In my opinion that camera only supports USB 1.1.
But since I don't have it here with me, can't say I'm 100% sure, but I'm 86% sure.

Got the camera's manual handy?

@PB
i am getting the same error here.

that tool is not for testing the usb2 speed in general, it requires the driver from the same vendor and maybe hardware too.

@dagcrack
even so... i tested to copy a 1mb file from hdd to my usb stick and from usb stick, back to hdd again. my stick is usb2 but the front-hub of my tower, where i have tested it, is usb1. i am getting a message in winxp that the stick can reach higher speed if i plug it into a usb2 port. so it has to run with usb1 speed. and here are the results:
and then i tested it directly to my usb2 port on the mobo:
c ya,
nco2k

The Optio S is USB 1.1 compatible.

But 2 minutes for a 2 MB photo is very slow !

I've got a USB2 card

--> The Optio S need SD card

@Droopy
i think he mentioned the usb2 pci card in his pc.

c ya,
nco2k

> i think he mentioned the usb2 pci card in his pc

Yep, the SD card from the Optio S is in my Pocket PC, where I transfer it to
my PC -- basically I use the Pocket PC as a "card reader" of sorts. Not sure
why it's so slow. I'll look into it further tomorrow.

Droopy wrote:The Optio S is USB 1.1 compatible.

But 2 minutes for a 2 MB photo is very slow !

I've got a USB2 card

--> The Optio S need SD card

17KBs * 60secs = 1020KBs

So in 2 minutes he gets 2MB and a little more.. However thats not as far as 1.1 goes... but as you might know, usb ports are bandwidth shared.. so if you have 5 USB devices, they are all sharing the bandwidth..

Anyway... check that your SD is one of the latest, very old SD cards and readers were not fast at all, before thinking anything else, try to get another device to test with.. be it 1.1 or 2.0 (both if you can) for better testing..

It's like having a ferrari with kitchen oil as fuel

PB What operating system are you running?

If it's XP, check that at least Service Pack 1 is installed because that's when Microsoft put USB 2.0 support natively into the O/S and supported a lot of new hardware 'out of the box'.

Before that, it was a nightmare to get USB 2.0 running, especially if your hardware wasn't on the supported list.

Also check that your manufacturer's hardware is supported fully by it's own drivers for the service pack level for which you are installing it on (if it is xp).

A lot of hardware vendors still make generic drivers which are not SP2 compatible yet and they cause all sorts of USB problems. There are even some (still!!) that aren't even SP1 ready!

> PB What operating system are you running?

Currently Win2K Pro with Service Pack 4 and Update Rollup 1.
Although, I'm thinking of re-installing WinXP again instead soon.

> If it's XP, check that at least Service Pack 1 is installed because that's
> when Microsoft put USB 2.0 support natively into the O/S

Ah, cool. Another strong reason to go back to XP then! Thanks.

> check that your manufacturer's hardware is supported fully by it's own
> drivers for the service pack level for which you are installing it on (if it is xp)

I assume my Hewlett-Packard PocketPC should support USB2 perfectly?

@dagcrack
> However thats not as far as 1.1 goes...
yes, usb 1.1 can transfer up to 12mbit (~1,5mb/s). 17kb/s is far away of that.

> so if you have 5 USB devices, they are all sharing the bandwidth...
but only when they are turned on and really transfer/require/share/whatever data. a printer without work to do, doesnt eat anything of the bandwidth up. i have more than 5 devices pluged in, with no bandwith problems, because they (almost) never run at same time.

@PB
> I assume my Hewlett-Packard PocketPC should support USB2 perfectly?
well it should, so it could be a problem between your pc and ppc.

other stupid idea, have you tried a different usb-cable?

c ya,
nco2k