USB-C and VI laptop setup trouble

EB5AGV

Some time ago, while setting up my desktop PC for Virtual Instruments (VI) use, after lots of struggle with internal SSDs, which had some speed hiccups, I found a solution which has worked nicely for years: I installed a Samsung T7 external USB 3.0 SSD to host the VI samples. It works amazingly well with a variety of VIs, from NI to VSL.

So, while setting up my upcoming laptop based rig (Windows 10 64b), which has a fast internal 1TB SSD, I decided to use also an external T7 for VSL Synchron pianos, which are really large. As the laptop has two USB-A and one USB-C ports, and the USB-A were already used, I connected the T7 to USB-C. To my dismay, the speeds were painfully slow. I tried quite a lot of things but nothing helped. So I connected the SSD to the USB-A connected powered hub… and the speed was 10x than on USB-C! 🤯

I wonder why is this happening. In theory, all USB ports on my laptop are USB 3.1

I can use it with this solution, as I need the hub already for other reasons. But wonder why the USB-C port is not working at same speed.

Anyone with a similar experience or a hint on this? 🤔

HZPiano

EB5AGV a hint on this? 🤔

I don't have any definitive answer but let me take a guess:

USB ports are often "behind" internal hubs which are on the motherboard. If the type A ports are behind a different hub than the type C, and things in BIOS or Windows or whatnot are set differently for each hub, this may explain the difference you experience.

Again, just a wild guess, or hunch if you will.

Cheers and happy connections,

David Lai

It could be that different USB controllers are sharing the bandwidth of information. So it could be that when both USB-A ports are plugged in, it leaves no room for the USB-C to continue taking bandwidth, thus you will experience slowness in USB-C. I've experienced that I could plug everything on to my USB hub, and things get slowed down, or some ports just gets a power cut off. Hope this helps somewhat.

MacMacMac

USB speed ratings are a joke. I've never seen USB achieve the claimed speed. Not even close.

n-player

Try swapping your devices to different USB ports and see how things perform.

Some ports will perform better than others and some essentially serve multiple roles.

EB5AGV

Thanks for your comments. All the tests produced the same result: USB-C port is always about 1/10 speed of USB-A port. I guess there is some driver problem, but there is no indication of that on device management. I will keep checking things

David Lai

EB5AGV Could it be your C port is only used for charging and not for data?

EB5AGV

David Lai no, it is intended for data… if slow 🫤

CeDur

What's the laptop model? I had trouble with USB-C port on my laptop not providing 'extra' energy for audio interface (Audient ID4 which I'm using switches to 'extra power' mode when connected by USB-C and can power high Ohm headphones) and updating BIOS and installing USB drivers from HP website, not Windows default ones helped.

EB5AGV

CeDur Is an HP 15s-eq0022ns and, yes, I will recheck all of that in detail. It should be a software issue

MacMacMac

Also ... check with the manufacturer. Is there a help forum?

It's likely that others have had the same problem. If so then a solution might be found there.

EB5AGV

MacMacMac I had looked for that info and found some leads, but nothing helped. The laptop is an HP 15s-eq0022ns I recovered from a sure death… It had an exploded battery and burnt covers and damaged display. I did a new install of Windows 10 and also used an HP tool to update all needed drivers. I will recheck anything USB related.

So far, as using USB-A ports work nicely, it is not an urgent thing to get USB-C behaving properly, but still puzzles me and, well, as an stubborn perfectionist, ALL should work fine 😁

MacMacMac

EB5AGV I had looked for that info and found some leads, but nothing helped.

I have a similar problem with my Dell desktop. Not as bad as your problem though.

In my case the USB 3.0 ports are not slower than the 2.0. They're just about the same speed. I'm using high-end 32 GB SanDisk thumb drives. I paid for the better speed units … but I'm not getting the speed.

I'm quite unimpressed with USB 3.0.

EB5AGV

MacMacMac Thumb drives are relatively slow compared to SSDs, due to their different architecture. I get really good performance from external SSD drives and USB 3.x except for the commented USB-C port. In fact, I have a desktop PC devoted only to music with all large VSTs residing on an external SSD connected by USB 3 and work perfectly.

Beware if you use USB hubs, as the slowest device will define the maximum performance of all the connected devices