This device can perform faster

I have an Acer Aspire 6920G with 4 USB 2.0 ports. I have a Dynex 7-port hub plugged into 1 port, with all 7 ports full. Recently I've been told by Vista that my device can perform faster. I tried all my ports, no luck. Uninstalled all drivers from Device Manager and reinstalled with Windows Update, no luck. Plugged it into my friend's HP laptop (2 months old), no luck. Any tips? I'm getting speeds of 800 KB/s while I used to be getting 10 MB/s or more.

 

Does it have an additional power plug that you aren't plugging in to the hub? It's possible that it drops down to 1.1 compatibility if it doesn't have enough juice.

 

Yes I have the hub plugged into my power bar.

 

It may be running into hardware limitations. Does it pop up to full speed if you start removing devices?

Also note that many machines only have one true USB controller that shares the bandwidth with ALL devices connected to it, including things like your Bluetooth adapter or integrated webcams.

 

Is this 800 KB/s from transfering files to an external harddrive? Just curious how you are measuring the transfer speed.

 

OK umm apparently I have 2 controllers (from that dialog box you get when you click the tray icon). I then tried plugging a USB drive directly into my laptop and I got transfer rates that went from 140 MB/s down to 20 MB/s, with a little lag time once the file finished copying (progress stayed at 100% for about 10 seconds before I clicked Cancel).

I measure speeds by copying a movie to my Lacie 1 TB eHDD 7200 RPM and reading Windows' copying progress dialog box.

 

Is that "KB" as in kilo- bytes or as in kilo- bits?

 

20MBs isn't too bad. Although you should be getting better speeds, there are too many factors to ask about. The lag at the end is normal. my computer does the same thing after a large transfer (20GB +).

 

KB (kilobytes). And about the lag speed, this file was only 698 MB ...

 

So basically, when you plug the drive into your hub, you get low transfer speeds, and when you plug it directly into the PC, you get good transfer speeds.
The reason for this is quite simple. Either the hub is unable to supply sufficient power to all of its ports, or the hub itself is a USB 1.x hub, or the hub has so many devices plugged in that there isn't enough bandwidth left on the USB port to which the hub is connected to transfer data at good speeds.
The solution to this would be to either purchase a new USB hub that uses the cardbus/expresscard interface, Firewire, or just another USB port. You could of course also just plug the stick into a free USB port on your PC.

 

Nice. I totally missed the part where he actually plugged it into his laptop.