USB Port of XPS M1530 not High-Powered?

Hey guys,

I recently came across something regarding the right USB port of my M1530 (the port right below the Slot-Loading Optical Drive and next to S-Video).

The two ports on the left were full (one 160GB External HD and a Logitech V450 Mouse Receiver). When I plugged my other 80GB external hard disk to the right USB port, a pop-up box said that I should plug it into a "high-powered USB port" to maximize its performance or something.

Sure enough, when I was transferring big folders of music files, the transfer rate was very slow. So I plugged the external hard disk to one of the ports on the left, and the speed was back to normal.

I haven't encountered this before, as I usually plug in small thumb drives, wireless mouse receivers, and printers to the Right USB port on the machine, and it has never said that it wasn't "High-Powered."

It was just pretty weird that the USB port could handle data transferring to a printer at reasonable speed, but is not "High-Powered" enough to handle an 80GB external HD.

That being said, I just wanted to clarify whether the XPS M1530 does only have Two "High-Powered" USB Ports (which are the two on the left). So the third one on the right is not High Powered?

Just clarifying so I won't plug in any USB-draining devices on the Right USB port anymore...

Thanks...

 

I think you're misinterpreting the error. I think it's telling you to plug your USB device into a high- speed USB port. As far as I know, all of the M1530's USB ports should be "high speed" as defined by this error. From my experience this is indicative of some software hiccup. Does the 80GB drive work properly in all of the other USB ports?

 

I often get this too. I've noticed it quite a few times with various devices.
I think for the most part it's the drivers for the device connected causing problems, In particular my Linksys usb seemed to cause quite a few of the error reports.

 

Yes, my 80GB drive works properly in all other USB ports. It only functions and performs very slow with the one port to the right near the S-video. Anyways, it's nothing really major. I just plug it in one of th ports on the left side. I was just clarifying whether the XPS M1530 only had 2 "high-speed" ports so in the future I know not to plug any high-speed devices there.

What particular devices do you notice that error message in? Are most of them high-powered, power-demanding devices? If it was just a Linksys USB (small capacity), then it's probably a driver problem. But in my case, I thought the 80GB external HD was very power-consuming for that one port to handle. Then again, my problem could be a driver one too...

 

Like I said, all the ports are high-speed. If the drive works in two ports, there's no reason it should not work in the third, unless the third port has a hardware defect. Have you just tried re-plugging and unplugging the thing a few times? The error message has nothing to do with how much power a device draws. You will get a different error message if you actually pull more current than your USB port can handle.