M15x USB 3.0 Express Card 54

Just a silly question, doesn't the M15X come with USB 3.0?

 

Is it flush to the M15x express card slot?

 

No, the laptop doesn't come with USB 3.0, but with one eSATA/USB combo port.

Pretty perfect fit imo, mine sticks out a tiny bit, maybe 1.5mm. There are pictures on the first page. If you want some more I can make you some.

Totally worth the 15 bucks, 2 more USB ports, and even a decent USB 3.0 speed.

 

Thank svl7. So is it just plug and play or do I also need to the install the driver and firmware from the first page?

 

You need to install the driver, it will come with a disc, but you can't put it in the M15x since it's a mini CD (well, you technically you can, lol )

But you'll find a newer driver online, so it doesn't matter, check the thread of DR650SE, he posted a link there:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...on-owners-lounge-part-3-a-23.html#post7050586

 

Koo. One more question do you install the driver and firmware first then plug in the usb 3.0 or you plug it in first then install the driver and firmware afterward?

 

This definitely seems worth it, thank you for the link!

It will increase my movie data transfer rates significantly over to my external that has usb 3.0 and i haven't even taken advantage of it yet haha.

 

Do you download the driver or firmware? Is there a different?

 

No, the firmware isn't the same as the driver... hmm, didn't knew there was a new version, I'll have to try it.

The firmware is internally controlling the expresscard, it's saved on an eeprom somwhere on the PCB.

The driver is needed, that your system can communicate with the card and allows higher-level software to interact with the expresscard.

 

I am using version 2.1.16.0 drivers from here (newer than the ones from the M17xR2 link above):
SONY/NEC/RENESAS Drivers & Firmwares

 

The link leads to the same version, only the name of the link is outdated

 

Ill update my link name Reminds me, I should update my driver...

 

I bought mine from dealextreme:
$19.30 - 34/54MM Express to USB 3.0 Card for Notebook (Max 5.0 Gpbs) - Laptop Gadgets

 

My card just arrived in the mail today, I have this exact same problem, but the slots seem to work fine, just can't update the FW. Version in the utility says 4015 as well.

I ordered my card from the HK Ebay seller listed on the first page of this thread somewhere.

Does the different FW affect me in anyway?

 

Not that anyone has been able to determine.

 

I've been wanting more USB ports this thing is perfect thanks op. Ordered it today $12.77 us delivered

 

Is this slot ok?
eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

 

Is this slot also need to be powered by USB?

if yes, then it means we got extra two USB 3.0 slot but need to use 1 USB 2.0 slot as power source..

i really want to mod the card so can take power using cable directly connect to the board.. hmmm

 

This sure is great! Will transfer speeds increase even for usb 2.0 devices??

edit: it is so cheap bought one anyways hopefully can get max usb 2.0 spec speeds out of my external 2TB HDD now!

 

That won't change because it can't use the USB3 bus. It never hits the max because of connection overhead.

 

Nope it will not get max, but however, i read in magazines that it increases speed up to 10% for usb 2.0 devices.

 

For me that is worth the small cost of this upgrade. Transfering 100s of GB of data at once over usb 2.0 is a tedious process!

 

$4.34 + 5.99 shipping

 

I have tried two of these now (the latest being the StarTech one).

Both of them "work" (i.e. they can power a USB 3.0 drive chassis from a single USB 3.0 cable) but they don't do plug-n-play.

Every time I plug in a new drive I have to pop-out the Express-Card and plug it back in again .. sometimes this doesn't work either and I have to reboot!

I have the latest Reneas drivers and NEC firmware for the ExpressCard (like I said .. I bought a second one just in case it was a hardware issue .. but they both have the same behaviour).

Anyone else have this experience or am I doing something wrong? Is there a BIOS or Windows setting to get this working better?

Once the drive is detected (usually after a reboot) then the speeds are fast (I'm getting ~ 75MB/sec sustained read/write from a 2.5" 7200rpm Momentus XT 500GB drive .. this is ~20-25MB/sec on the USB 2.0 ports .. apparently this will cap out at 5Gbps speeds so it is mostly drive limited unless you have a next-gen SSD drive).

Just for reference I ran Crystal DiskMark against the following drive:

2.5" 500GB Momentus XT (7200rpm / Flash Hybrid)
Running in 2.5" USB 3.0 Drive Chassis

USB 3.0 Connection
Sequential >> Read: 72.45 MB/s | Write: 67.11 MB/s
Random (512K) >> Read: 33.77 MB/s | Write: 47.69 MB/s
Random (4K) >> Read: 0.58 MB/s | Write: 0.87 MB/s
Random (4K QD32) >> Read: 0.62 MB/s | Write: 0.87 MB/s

USB 2.0 Connection
Sequential >> Read: 30.27 MB/s | Write: 21.62 MB/s
Random (512K) >> Read: 20.56 MB/s | Write: 20.43 MB/s
Random (4K) >> Read: 0.57 MB/s | Write: 0.87 MB/s
Random (4K QD32) >> Read: 0.59 MB/s | Write: 0.87 MB/s

Obviously some of these are hitting mechanical drive limits so a fast SSD would no doubt give you MUCH better times (especially on the Randoms) .. but if you are doing large file copes (i.e. Sequential read/writes or large-block random read/writes) then you should see at least a 2x improvement if you go to USB 3.0 .. in some cases much more.

 

Interesting findings martin. I will also report any increase in transfer speed with my usb 2.0 external. When it arrives that is lol

 

Just got my card today, but can't seem to get it to work. The link you provided in the first post brings to a lot of drivers and versions. I just don't know which one to download.

EDITED: I use drivers from this instead. Works like a charm.

http://www.station-drivers.com/page/asmedia.htm

 

Got mine 2 days ago. Put it in and it fits nice.
But have some questions.

1. Does the spring inside supposed to push it out back? Coz mine goes in and like gets "stuck" in there? Cant pull it out unless plug in a usb device and pull it out gently. (It goes all the way in, not sticking out abit.)

2. The slot/card seem come out easily if pulled a little hard. Im afraid it might cause problem if it keep coming out/hanging halfway.

other than that, its a good find.

 

I have the same issue with the card being pushed out slowly... It doesn't happen while I have a drive in plugged in, so it's really not a problem. I just make sure that it's seated correctly in the computer before I use the USB card.

 

I got one of those a couple weeks ago too, my card when it and the machine were cold did come out rather slowly or get stuck. Once the card and the computer warmed up it came out much easier.

 

Just installed mine. Got it to work. For some reason though it won't work with my external bluray drive... comes up with hardware ID error.

 

I get blue screens when this thing is connected. It drops in and out of the device manager and takes forever to become semi-stable. I don't if it's the card of my computer. Worth it to try another card?

 

What USB 3.0 controller is in your current card? Asmedia, NEC or other?

 

It's the AKE card and I'm using the 2.1.28.1 drivers from this page:

RENESAS/NEC Drivers & Firmwares

and it's this exact card: AKE 5Gbps BC618T 54mm 2 Port USB 3. Laptop Express Card help win7 | network adapter review

 

Have you already tried any of the firmware updates? (note: I don't know if they will help or make things worse )

 

The firmware updater hangs every time I try to run it. ugh.

I think there's an actual problem with the physical connection. If I plug the card in very slowly, it has a better chance of the not giving me a blue screen and showing up in the device manager. I guess I'll just use the card when I need to do large transfers and deal with the slower 2.0 speeds.

 

It's not convenient, but maybe you can try put your computer into standby before you plug the USB 3.0 card in and see if that makes any difference.

I have to do that with my current card, though mine has an Asmedia chipset (and it doesn't seem to work at all in Windows 8) but I'm also looking at getting another card instead..

 

I bought this card for £8, and it's well worth it. My Seagate Goflex 'ultra-portable' works without needing to have the card powered with the cable, so that's a plus.

I have managed to induce a bluescreen by connecting my portable headphone amp and Seagate Goflex at the same time, without the power cable, and with further experimentation, with the power cable. It's rather strange, but doesn't exactly ruin it.

 

yeah it is a good purchase. I get 10% faster transfer speeds on my USB 2 external HDD

 

So the one I got was a lemon I guess, because I decided to order a more expensive one and it worked immediately and seems of much higher quality.

Amazon.com: StarTech.com 2-Port Flush Mount ExpressCard 54mm SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Card Adapter (ECUSB3S254F): Electronics

 

This tech is great.!Once again got opportunity to use it transferring a huge set of files and got transfer speeds bottoming out at 35mb/s this is a good 5-7mb/s faster than before.

Proves that having a usb 3 port helps speed up even usb 2 HDD's!

 

I have the same Startech Card, but it wont lock into place, everytime im pulling the USB cable out the whole express card comes out, any advice???

And it wont recognize my WD My Book Essential 3TB USB 3.0, but works fine with my 1TB USB 2.0, what can i do?

 

I have to be careful when removing USB devices from the card as well, but as long as I do it slowly and hold the card in place with a finger - it stays in place. I'm not sure why your 2.0 drive works, but the 3.0 won't. Sorry I can't answer that.

 

Doesn't your 3Tb HDD come with a Y shaped USB cable, if so, you'll have to plug both USB connectors, one USB port won't provide enough power.

If it has a separate small PSU, you'll need to plug it.

 

I've got two generic branded cards. One seems slightly thicker than the other, which gets stuck once pushed in the slot. I have to open up the laptop cover to push it out from inside.

The slimmer one slots in better and actually catches in place when first pushed in and released (pulled back out) slightly. To remove, I just push it in and it comes out with a little help from the attached USB flash drive.

I think the thinner the Express Card, the easier it is to slot in and catch, then push in again to let the laptop built-in spring to push it back out.

Mine seems to work as "plug and play" with no known issues. My laptop manual suggests to disable the device when not in use to "save on power". I tried it and plugged in the USB 3.0 flash drive and it does not read the drive. Enabling it again immediately reads the drive.

Cheers

 

Hey guys, thx for your advice. I have been searching the WD forums and it looks like its a general problem with many of these new WD usb 3.0 drives, so ill have to try with another usb 3.0 device to see if its the hdd´s fault and not the express card.

 

What a coincidence, USB3.0 expansion card looks the same, the driver I downloaded from the Internet, speed is also OK

 

I am having ongoing problems with mine and corrupted HDD partitions.

I am now on my second USB 3.0 Express Card (from two different manufacturers, although they both use the same driver).

I also have two external 2.5" HDD Caddies.

Both of these work perfectly fine when I plug them into my built-in USB2laptop ports. But when I try to use the USB3 ports in my express card one of 3 things randomly happens:

1. It works the way it should .. this happens maybe 10% of the time
2. the drive isn't detected, and won't work until I reboot (this happens maybe 70% of the time)
3. the HDD partition is corrupted .. and windows forces me to re-format the drive (this happens maybe 20% of the time?)

I'm getting this with different hard drive caddies, and different express cards.

The only thing I would say is that I'm using 7200rpm drives in my disk caddies, so maybe it is a power thing?

This is really annoying me .. I've had to reformat one of my drives 3 times in 2 days now. If I stick with USB2 then it works first time, every time .. with no problems.

 

What is the brand of your card and what drivers are you using? Also, are you formatting in NTFS? I suppose it would not hurt to try an additional or y-power cable for your drive.

 

Hi.

Yes I formatted for NTFS and I have tried using a separate DC --> USB cable which came with the caddy (doesn't make any difference .. and using a single cable on the built-in USB 2.0 ports works fine).

the card I am using at the moment is;
StarTech 2-port Flush Mount 54mm SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ExpressCard

Drivers
Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Root Hub
2.0.20.0 (27/07/2010)

Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller
20.0.32.0 (10/12/2010)

 

Did you already try the drivers from here? RENESAS/NEC Drivers & Firmwares