Title explains very well my problem. I have a USB flash drive with approx. 2GB of space (actually slightly less 1.98 Gigs or so). I was transferring files from MacBook to be burned on a windows machine because my mac lacks a dvd burner, as well as the fact that the cd burner also seems to burn pretty slowly.

Anyhow, I downloaded (or uploaded, take your pick ;) ) the nearly 2 gigs of audio files onto the Sony VAIO in about four minutes or thereabouts. Pretty good speed for that amount of data, I'm guessing.

Cleared the USB drive, and plugged it back into my MacBook to transfer so more stuff. Again , filled it up to about 1.9 gigs. This time, plugging it into the VAIO (same port, not more than an hour later) it tells me that the device is low-speed, or something like that. Took almost a half-hour to transfer the same amount of data that I did earlier in much less time.

Due to the physical design of the flashdrive, it won't fit into the USB port on the front of the computer, which only leaves one empty port on the back of the computer, so it won't be possible to try it in another port without unhooking something else, which I don't feel too anxious to do. (I will be getting a hub soon)

Does anyone have any idea what would make this happen?

I have experienced this once before. I did restart the computer, but it made no difference. Could it possibly have something to do with whether I delete the files from the drive on a certain computer. I deleted them when it was plugged into the Sony. Would that have affected anything?

:shrug:

Thank you for reading this.

You're welcome. My personal vote is for 'uploaded'. It just seems... right somehow, when you're transferring materials from your scout craft to the mothership. Ideally it should be a poll though, so that we can quantify the data on this important question.

As for your problem: sorry, I haven't the foggiest.

Download, definitely.
You download TO your computer and upload FROM your computer.

I don't know what the problem is either.

Heh heh.

Re-installing the USB 2.0 drivers may correct the problem. Unfortunately I can't find a direct download for them. I know they come with XP Service Pack 1 but that's quite a big download for such a small thing.

But don't worry. Someone will come along and provide a direct download link real soon. With any luck they may even have the the faintest idea what they're talking about and tell you don't need to update your drivers at all - you just need to "plug in your ABSS tray and synchronise your kumquats" or something!

Reinstall your OS.

Anyhow, I downloaded (or uploaded, take your pick ;) ) the nearly 2 gigs of audio files onto the Sony VAIO in about four minutes or thereabouts. Pretty good speed for that amount of data, I'm guessing.
it is by CD burner standards.
to burn approx 650 MB @ 24x takes about 5 minutes.

Due to the physical design of the flashdrive, it won't fit into the USB port on the front of the computer, which only leaves one empty port on the back of the computer, so it won't be possible to try it in another port without unhooking something else, which I don't feel too anxious to do. (I will be getting a hub soon)
that is the whole design philosophy behind USB. to be able to plug in and unplug on the fly without harming the device, computer, or data.
you can try unplugging your gamepad or printer and using that port.

Does anyone have any idea what would make this happen?
nope. i've never used one of them thar watch-a-ma-callits.
anyway you might be right, different hardware. but that doesn't sound right to me. maybe you need to format the flash drive.
this might sound silly but have you read the instructions that came with the drive? don't know if it will help you though.

Re-installing the USB 2.0 drivers may correct the problem. Unfortunately I can't find a direct download for them. I know they come with XP Service Pack 1 but that's quite a big download for such a small thing.

Thanks, I think.

Thing is, I had the exact same problem once before with the exact same Flash Drive, and the problem went away on it's own, so I don't know if it would be drivers or not.

Oh, one more thing. It is possible, I think, to damage your flash drive by unplugging it whilst it's writing data - and because Windows uses write-behind caching (ask a computer boffin for a detailed explanation of what this means) it doesn't always write the data straight away. You should always eject the drive from My Computer (right-click the drive name and click Eject on the context menu) before removing it.

Or so I'm told. Mind you, that could be a load of bollocks as well, for all I know - so forget I spoke.

this might sound silly but have you read the instructions that came with the drive? don't know if it will help you though.

Back to the basics, huh?

I don't know if it even came with instructions, honestly. Well, it had a PDF loaded on it, all pretty basic stuff. The fact that it works great almost all the time, and this problem has occurred only twice, makes me think that it is an intermittent compatibility problem dependent perhaps on something that I did/didn't do. What that thing is, I don't know.

I do know that I deleted the files while using the Sony, and other times I clear the drive when it's in the mac.

See if Sony has any BIOS or USB controller updates for your VAIO, this type of stuff is usually fixed through a BIOS/driver update. Sony might use it's own USB controllers which use their own Sony-written drivers (using standard usb controller drivers may cause unknown effects).

Oh, one more thing. It is possible, I think, to damage your flash drive by unplugging it whilst it's writing data - and because Windows uses write-behind caching (ask a computer boffin for a detailed explanation of what this means) it doesn't always write the data straight away. You should always eject the drive from My Computer (right-click the drive name and click Eject on the context menu) before removing it.

Or so I'm told. Mind you, that could be a load of bollocks as well, for all I know - so forget I spoke.

http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/dictionary/detail.asp?searchtype=2&DicID=4211&RefType=Dictionary&guid=F1EB8BFBFC434E54910AD60F8F9223BF

That explains Write behind the Cache, for the most part your right you should choose to eject the drive to make sure that the drive has finished operating otherwise your data could be fragmented and suffer errors. For the most part though I believe it would only corrupt the data stored and wouldn't slam the drive in a lesser mode.

Usually lesser modes are only achieved when the device isn't connected properly and the speed isn't detected properly.

It is known that if you change USB ports that it can alter the settings assigned to that device and therefore would require installing on that particular port, not all devices suffer this problem but there are the few that do.

For the most part if the system was working fine previously there should be no need to reinstall drivers, try ejecting the drive and doing a reboot on the system. When the OS has fully reloaded, reattach your device to the port you installed it on and see if it's made any difference.

nevermind.

It is known that if you change USB ports that it can alter the settings assigned to that device and therefore would require installing on that particular port, not all devices suffer this problem but there are the few that do.


Yes. If you remember a while back, I had a problem with a USB MIDI device not being recognized, and you informed me of this problem. I've kept it confined to the same port when it's plugged into the VAIO (cause I use it also with my laptop) and so far it hasn't required a driver reinstillation. ;)

For the most part if the system was working fine previously there should be no need to reinstall drivers, try ejecting the drive and doing a reboot on the system. When the OS has fully reloaded, reattach your device to the port you installed it on and see if it's made any difference.

Unfortunately, rebooting didn't seem to affect it. I will say, however, that I usually don't eject it properly, at least not on the Sony, because the way you do it on the mac is a little more convenient. I'm wondering though if it isn't either that, or even which computer you delete the memory of the drive on? Whatever it is, it happened before, and cleared up without me knowing why it did.

Incidentally, I really need a good USB 2.0 hub, because this particular computer only has 2 free ports, and as far as my flash drive is concerned, the port on the front of the computer is recessed just enough, and the actual computer case around the port prevents the flash drive from inserting correctly, because the stick is too wide. Which means that I have to connect it to the rear of the computer, and that's a little more difficult, as you can guess.

On that note, I purchased a cheap (too cheap!!!??!?:rolleyes:) hub advertised as 2.0 hi-speed, both pc and mac compatible. I got it on eBay. I'm sure some of you already know where this going... sigh...
Turns out, after trying it on 4 different computers, it did NOT work properly in any of them. Tried it on 2 regular PCs, the Sony VAIO and an HP Pavilion, and if I remember correctly, it worked as a 1.0 device in the Sony, and not at all in the Pavilion (got some error message).
Tried it on two laptops, a Windows machine and a Mac. The Windows laptop behaved the same as the Sony (registered as 1.0 device), and did not work at all on the Mac. Didn't even acknowledge it was connected. If I remember right, the little power-on light on the hub didn't even come on.
Received a replacement item at no charge. Behaved the same !!!

In fact, it looked just like this! (http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-2-0-HUB-4-Ports-BUS-or-opt-Self-Powered-w-2A-AC_W0QQitemZ190153480847QQihZ009QQcategoryZ116343Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

Thankfully I spent under $10 for it. Anyone else ever get gyped by a product like this??? It was cheap, but I figured that USB hubs probably are pretty simple in design, and wouldn't need to be that expensive in the first place. I had seen similar-looking hubs on other websites, and I figured, why not take a gamble. :shrug:

Any recommendations on that? Anyone?

Thanks for the responses, people!

Heh heh.

Re-installing the USB 2.0 drivers may correct the problem. Unfortunately I can't find a direct download for them. I know they come with XP Service Pack 1 but that's quite a big download for such a small thing.


That's also what I was thinking. USB ports on some PCs are by default version 1.1 which has about a 12 Mbps transfer rate. Once you install the correct drivers for it, it becomes USB 2.0, which has a 480 Mbps rate.

Giam,
You should be able to go to Sony's website for the Viao and download the current USB controller drivers.
This statement of yours:
This time, plugging it into the VAIO (same port, not more than an hour later) it tells me that the device is low-speed, or something like that.
Is giving me the hypothesis I made above.
Are you familiar with Device Manager on Windows XP?

Are you familiar with Device Manager on Windows XP?

Umm, let's see, is it the list of connected devices and ports, as well as the drivers and the
I believe we're talking about the same thing. I'm not on that computer now (on my Mac). I'll check the drivers later, but it seems like I already did that, and there isn't any newer available.

I'll say that I've used the flashdrive in question probably almost two dozen times, and another much lower capacity one (though in a different port) and only twice have I encountered this problem. I'm not sure why a driver would work sometimes, but not another.

Nonetheless, I will check the driver versions later. It is an impossibility for me right now. :sleep:

Wow, I guess I was supposed to respond here, but have taken forever.

Well, first and foremost, the problem has, like the other time or two it happened, gone away. It seems to be operating normally now.

As for the drivers, I did check them, as I believe I did one other time before that. It tells me no newer versions are available.

I guess maybe the case of the Automatic Speed-Switching USB Flash Drive is a mystery I'm going to have to live with, eh?? :runaway:

I guess maybe the case of the Automatic Speed-Switching USB Flash Drive is a mystery I'm going to have to live with, eh?? :runaway:
Have you tried another flash drive in the Vaio to see if it gives you the same message?

If all the USB controller up-to-date drivers are installed, and you have no warning or error messages in the device manager, and with the exception of the mac, the flash drive is doing the same thing in a different laptop, then it could be the flash drive itself.
Do you have another flash drive you could try?
Have you tried the flash drive in a USB port of another intel/windows PC?

I do have another flash drive, though only 128mb, and since I routinely transfer more than that when I do transfer, it doesn't get used much. However, I have not noticed the same problem.

I want to say that maybe once I noticed it going slower in the Mac, but not positive. Usage in the other computer (HP) is very rare. I might try it a couple times, though, just to see. I have wondered if it isn't the flash drive. Perhaps I should perform some experiments.

I've used several flash drives, between Mac and Windows. Nope never had this problem.

I've used several flash drives, between Mac and Windows. Nope never had this problem.
Thanks for that useful, insightful post Sam. With the guidance you have provided for Giambattista, he should be well on his way to solving his problem.

Giamba,

Selective interchange is a useful troubleshooting step. You can try your flash drive in another laptop, but be sure it's a fairly new one so we know that it has USB 2.0 ports. If it's an older machine that has USB 1.1 ports, you will get the same 'low speed device' message; you don't want that.
You can also try another flash drive (one that you know works) in your Vaio.
As for the hub, the hub is a good idea, especially if you want to hook up more peripherals to it. However, if the port on the laptop is functioning at the USB 1.1 speed, the hub will too.

Thanks for that useful, insightful post Sam. With the guidance you have provided for Giambattista, he should be well on his way to solving his problem.


Negative data is also data. :spank:

Negative data is also data. :spank:

Negative data might be data, but that doesn't mean people want it, or want to hear it.
Is this the day that you see how many asinine posts you can make in a 24 hour period? No wait. That's everyday. Nevermind. Carry on.