dell-inspironthunderboltusb
I have a Dell Inspiron 15R 5520 laptop with 4 USB ports.
One of them has nothing on it.
Two of them have a USB symbol with SS.(USB 3.0 I suppose)
One of them has USB with both SS and a bolt symbol. (Maybe USB 3.0 Thunderbolt)
But when I transfer data from my laptop through USB cable, the speed doesn't go beyond 1mbps.
Where lies the problem ?
Thanks in advance.
Ensure first that you have installed the latest BIOS, then read further if the problem still exists. Check carefully that the linked version is later than the one you have.
From Windows 8 and Intel USB 3.0 Host Controllers :
One of the new features of Windows 8 is the built in XHCI host controller software and USB stack. While this brings some benefits like UASP support, there are some devices that currently don’t work with the Microsoft stack on the Intel USB 3.0 host controller. This can be fixed by forcing Windows to use the Intel USB 3.0 host controller drivers instead of the built in stack.
The article then describes in great detail how to force the installation of the Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver. The download link it gives to the Intel site will contain the latest version, rather than the one mentioned in the article.
However, before executing this, I suggest to ensure that you have backups, at least creating a system restore point (but even better is taking an image of the system disk).
I had the same problem but I only managed to fix it on the dekstop, not my laptop. I plugged it into a different port (at the back). The front blue ports were doing only 35-40 MB/s. The back port is proper. The difference between the port is if they belong to your chipset or if there is a dedicated chip for those USB3 ports.
Use "USB Device Tree Viever" free software to see this:
You can see that some controllers only do USB 2. But I first tried it in the bottom one which is an Intel. I'm currently looking for drivers for that because it's not so convenient to plug the external disk to the back of the desktop PC everytime. I understand if your laptop doesn't have more than 1-2 controllers, but it's worth a try to go through all possible ports.
Previously it looked like this (hard limit due to wrong or misconfigured USB controller):
Now it looks like this (nothing is wrong with the drive):
This seems like a nice guide and program to update your drivers.
Best Answer
According to this review:
So it would seem the answer is yes. The bolt symbol most likely means its a powered port - meaning it will provide USB power to charge devices even if it is off. It is most definitely not Thunderbolt, which is a different technology and connector all together.
Also, just because the ports are USB 3, doesnt mean you will get USB 3 speeds. Your devices and USB cable need to be USB 3, as well. If not, it will fall back to USB version 1, 1.1, or 2 speeds depending on the device.