L645-S4104 USB2.0 write speed.

Friends i3 L645-S4104 has a write problem on all his USB port writing to external DVD burner at 2x(out of 18X) speeds. Burner 100% and verified not the problem.

Anyone one else tried using a burner with this model? The internal drive is good and works for 8x.

Toshiba support is getting bad reviews so it may get sent back to newegg.

Anyone?

TIA

 

Your internal DVD player is connected to a SATA II bus, (allows up to 3.0 Gb/s) whereas USB 2.0 has a bottleneck of 480 Mb/s or 0.48 Gb/s;
That's speeds of 3.0 vs 0.48). Real life speeds are usually slower in both cases.

I don't actually know the "normal" external write speeds for a USB 2.0 port, but I'm guessing because the external device has to go through the USB port, that is the problem to why your getting slower speeds.


That's my best guess to the problem. Good luck



**EDIT**
Also, if the person just bought the laptop and plans to keep it, they can opt to upgrade their warranty to On-Site for 2 years (I think its about $80 for Satellites). Would work wonders for any future repairs it might need; repairer comes to you instead of sending to depot.

 

Thx, the usb ports have plenty of bandwidth for the external LG writer such as his 5 year old Tosh which handles 16x just fine; around 177Mb/s.

The On-site is for Toshiba or third part? Like dell @home service?
If so I'll pass that on!

 

Maybe they could try a different brand of DVD media. Also, make sure that the DVD burner has the latest firmware.

 

In addition to trying some other media check the policies under the Device Manager properties. Make sure it is best peformance and not safe removal.

John

 

Thx guys,

The media and burner is good over 3 other vista/w7 laptops. I'll have to wait to check John's policy settings. In the meantime I'll get him to run speed checks using plain old USB HD drive, to see if the problem follows, and use different writing programs.

cheers

 

You know that USB 2.0 is never reaching its max speed cause its bottlenecked from the chipset or the USB controller chip. eSATA sticks are really fast! Also check the BIOS for SATA/USB performance settings .

 

Yep, understood. We are just trying to find out why same drive, same version iTunes, only fails to reach max burn speed in one out of four notebooks.

I know of several third party work arounds so just want to verify if he has a driver or hardware problem before newegg return is void..his decision.

 

Everyone with the new hybrid USB 2.0/3.0 L645-xxx series may want to verify their USB write and read speeds. I cannot get to the notebook mentioned but the USB speed were dismal in both directions using usb hard drives in over the phone tests. His 4 year old Toshiba was blowing the doors off it in the USB speeds.

We have nothing to indicate why we are having this problem other than Intel has not released usb 3.0 chipsets..guesing here. Nothing in hardware manger suggest anything is wrong and policies are set for max performance.

Not wanting to play the old reformat drive / guessing game with the Toshiba script kiddies, laptop is going back to Newegg as it's been three weeks.

cheers

 

Thought I would update; problem solved.

The return date was over so Tom and I hooked up, and I re-imaged drive, no luck.

Called tosh tech support who had us install virtual desktop and run the itunes dianostics..USB 1 shown, not USB 2 device. All latest firmware installed laptop and burner, yada, yada.

I'm now out of country for work

Toshiba sent boxes to have Tom send laptop in for service. Main board and ram replaced, sent back, same problem.

Tom calls corporate..

Called and asked to send in again. Hard drive replaced !?!

Laptop returned second time..SAME problem.."duh" entered here!

Tom calls corporate and agreed to send i7 laptop for time lost and such!

New i7 arrives..SAME problem! Tom is stroked by the i7, particularly at the price paid for the i3. Tom's keeping this one!

Two weeks later, Tom buys a new MS wireless mouse. Installs drivers, then a day later, rechecks burner. Burner working fine at usb 2.0 speeds!


I think kudos for Toshiba making the effort to solve this is in order!


Heck, I was impressed by the effort on Toshiba, so bought son Qosmio X775-Q7380 for Christmas...he thinks he's getting a stinky old desktop

 

so the laptop fixed itself once a random other usb mouse driver was installed???

 

Apparently..I asked Tom to plug his old original MS Notebook mouse and retest.

Tom said he threw the old mouse away...

what kills me is that every windows update was completed in previous trouble shooting..without using the old mouse..(sound of faraway wolf howl)

Oh well, good for Tom..