Any port in a storm. Or hub. Or root. HELP!

hybernia

There must be a simple answer to this so sorry in advance for being stupid.

We were out yesterday and I took some pictures and today, transferred them to the computer using a USB card reader. After I'd put the card reader into the USB socket, a message came on screen. It said:

"Your USB Mass Storage Device can perform faster if it is plugged into a hi-speed port."

Well, I hope so. I had 72 pictures from my Nikon D5200 totalling 686Gb and it took 13 minutes 40 seconds to move them off the camera's card onto the PC.

The on-screen notice went on to say:

"The hubs shown in bold type have free ports that can support the HI-SPEED USB device."

And then a ladder diagram appeared below that helpful information headed 'Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller' under which is 'USB Root Hub (6 ports)' (in bold type, and under that are six entries, five of which read 'Unused Port'.

Then under that lot is another 'Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Controller' and another 'USB Root Hub (6 ports)' (bold type) and under that six entries four of which read 'Unused Port'.

So I seem to have a total of 9 'unused ports'. The on screen notice finishes up with:

'Recommendation. Disconnect the USB Mass Storage Device from its current port and then connect it to one of the ports on a hub shown in bold type.'

Great. Thanks. The only thing is:

How the heck am I going to know *where* those 'unused ports' are?? And if I do find a USB slot, will I know it's the right one for high speed transfer?

The top of my machine has four USB slots, two of which have never seemed to work. The back of my machine presumably has more but it's so long since hubby connected things up I've no idea.

So my question is: as the on-screen notice doesn't actually tell me anything I can understand, is there anywhere else on the computer that I can access which will trigger a notice showing that yes, I am now connected to a previously 'unused port' and that yes, this port is going to support my HI-SPEED USB device (the capital letters are in the notice, not mine.)

In other words: isn't there anywhere on this computer where I can actually look at what my device is plugged into????

I'm running Windows 7. Help appreciated.

Strider590

Rear ports will always be high speed.

S0litaire

The USB3 sockets *might* have a coloured border to separate them from the usual USB2 sockets.
(PC and Motherboard makers vary on this!)

Also the internal Motherboard might have a set of pins on them to add additional USB ports. These will show up as "unused" in windows, but they don't have a physical USB socket attached to these pins. (you might need to check the PC / Motherboard documentation to see if you do have these additional USB pins.)

grumbler

hybernia wrote: »

...I had 72 pictures from my Nikon D5200 totalling 686Gb ...

Is it really possible for a photo to take ~10GB=10,000MB?

Just curious...

megaginge

I'm sure the OP meant MB.

It's a standard point and click camera. They simply cannot have meant GB.

kwikbreaks

I suspect part of the speed issue is the camera itself. I've always found taking the SD card out and using it in a card reader or directly into one in the computer works faster than through any cameras I've had.

Plus that message suggests that the device is USB3 yet the specs say - External Connections:USB 2.0 High Speed so something is rather strange.

hybernia

Thanks everyone for the advice, and mea culpa re that transfer size: 686 GB? No wonder it baffled others. I should of course have said 686Mb, which I suppose is still pretty substantial for 70-odd shots but the Nikon is a 24Mp dSLR shooting "best" jpeg as I've given up trying to understand Lightroom and working with RAW.

As kwikbreaks says, the process followed in this instance was straightforward, removing from the Nikon its Sandisk Class 10 SD HC (I bet I'm muddling this up, too) which is a 16Gb card engraved with the description 80 Mb/s, placing the card in the Integral card reader, then popping that into one of the four USB ports on the top of my computer's case.

I've looked again at the arrangement there; it says the two ports on the left are 2.0, while the two on the right are 3.0. Assuming this means USB 3.0, then so far, so bad, because nothing I've ever plugged into either of those ports has registered in Windows Explorer. I've therefore concluded that they don't work, hence why this SD HC card went, via the card reader, into a 2.0 port.

But perhaps if I'd tried one of the 3.0 ports (in view of the card's specs)?

I'll do so later. For now though, thanks again, everyone.

Oblivion

Slightly puzzled as to why you are removing the card from the camera? Your D5200 has a USB port built in allowing it to be directly connected to the PC with a USB lead which should have been supplied with the camera along with Nikon Transfer software to facilitate the transfer of images. There is no need to use a card reader.

Oblivion

Strider590 wrote: »

Rear ports will always be high speed.

Really? First I've heard of that.

kwikbreaks

Oblivion wrote: »

Slightly puzzled as to why you are removing the card from the camera? Your D5200 has a USB port built in allowing it to be directly connected to the PC with a USB lead which should have been supplied with the camera along with Nikon Transfer software to facilitate the transfer of images. There is no need to use a card reader.

I've found that a lot of the time it is quicker to bypass a camera hub and use the card in a card reader or directly into an inbuilt slot on the machine. In this case it seems it was still very slow for some reason. I'd certainly avoid the bloatware you get with most cameras unless wanting to use raw.

kwikbreaks

Oblivion wrote: »

Strider590 wrote: »

Rear ports will always be high speed.

Really? First I've heard of that.

Certainly not always but where there are mixed ports it does seem (annoyingly) more normal for them to be the rear ports rather than those on the front. The last two machines I've had were that way.