Category Archives: USB devices

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 11

Copilot+ PCs Bring Better USB4 Support

July 23, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

When I went to build recovery media for the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Copilot+ PC last week, I dropped a Belkin TB3 dock into one of its 3 USB-C ports. Why? Because I needed a USB-A port into which to plug the Mushkin Atom UFD I targeted for that purpose. The lead-in graphic shows the dock at the “other end” of USB4 host router 1 (right-click the graphic and open in its own tab to see the whole thing). The next screencap shows the Hardware tab from Properties for that recovery drive (E:). Thus, I claim that Copilot+ PCs bring better USB4 support because until USB4 hubs and devices appeared in settings, users had to run a separate (and less informative) Thunderbolt app from Intel to see what was what. This has improved!

The Mushkin E: drive is an older USB 3.0 Atom device.

So What If Copilot+ PCs Bring Better USB4 Support?

Though I’ve yet to see any laptops or PCs endowed with USB 4 2.0 (you can see version 1.0 in the lead-in graphic) this is now part and parcel of Windows 11 as well. It will also allow channel speeds to double from 40 Gbps (which 1.0 supports) to 80 Gbps (2.0 only, and primarily limited to video links). This probably doesn’t matter much right now, given that these top-of-the-line versions aren’t yet widely available. But for those who need the speed, this will matter once the peripherals and docks gain USB4 2.0 support.

I’ve got a Qualcomm Copilot+ Developer Kit SFF PC showing up here at Chez Tittel in the next day or two (today, even, maybe). I’ll be quite curious to see what Settings > Bluetooth & devices > USB > USB4 hubs and devices has to tell me about what’s inside and the docks and other devices I plan to hook up. Indeed, I’m going to start with a Lenovo P27u20 monitor, with its integrated TB4 docking capability. Hopefully, it will not only provide a great display, but also the means to hook up my keyboard and mouse. Stay tuned! These USB4 adventures will continue…

Backup/Restpre, Cool Tools, Insider stuff, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 11

Channel Speed Trumps Device Speed

July 16, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I kind of knew this already, but I wanted to prove it to myself through hands-on experience. Thus, I sprung for what Tom’s Hardware calls “the fastest SSD” around right now. It’s depicted in the lead-in graphic: The Crucial T705. It’s read/write ratings range from 13,600/10,200 MB/sec for big items to 1,400K/1,750K IOPS on random 4K items. That’s fast!

Why Say: Channel Speed Trumps Device Speed?

I know this NVMe drive would scream if I mounted it in an M.2 PCIe x5 slot on a motherboard. But I wanted to see if it made any difference if plugged into the M.2 slot inside a 40Gbps USB4 NVMe enclosure. Long story short: it doesn’t. It runs more or less indistinguishably from the 2022 model WD Black SN770 I replaced in the US$53 Maiwo USB4 fan-cooled enclosure.

Although the T705 is much faster than the SN770, those speed differences only count when the bandwidth from the SSD to the CPU is fast enough to actually show off such deltas. Because Lenovo sent me the Yoga Slim 7x with a smaller, slower C: drive device, I’ll probably end up plugging into that PCIe channel to see what it does as an internal drive.

But that’s a project for another day. Today, I have two “lessons learned” to share:

1. A PCIe x3 or x4 NVMe SSD is plenty fast enough for even the fastest, most expensive USB4 drive enclosures currently available.

2. The T705 at US$165 is about twice as expensive as the SN770 (and the SN770 2TB model at US$120 is a much better deal, $/GB-wise)

What can I say? I had to know. Now I do, and I’m moving on to other, better uses for the T705. I may have to use Linux to clone the existing 0.5TB NVMe in the Slim 7X, but I’ll figure out how to make that swap work. As I said earlier: that’ll have to wait for another day.

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 11

USB4 Gets MS Fixer

June 11, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Just over a year ago (May 24, 2023) MS added support for USB4 to Windows 11. Curiously enough, multiple MS sources — such as MS Learn, for example — attribute this introduction to KB5026446. A quick check shows no mention of USB4 in that announcement. Be that as it may, MS has released a Support article entitled Fix USB-C problems in Windows. It explains how to troubleshoot the now-common “USB4 functionality may be limited” error message. Of course, you’d need a suitably-equipped PC to see that. This drives my title: USB4 gets MS fixer.

What USB Gets MS Fixer Actually Says…

I’ve been working with USB4 directly since Panasonic sent me a Toughbook just before Christmas in 2023. (See my January 3 2024 post HWiNFO Bestows USB4 Insight for my first hands-on peek.) Thus, what I see in the Fixer item linked earlier is mostly a distillation of common sense gotchas that meeting USB4 link-up requirements imposes:

Gotta have the device (can’t get USB4 from something USB3 or older)
Gotta have the right cable (can’t move at USB4 speeds over older cables: they must be rated TB3 or higher, USB4 or higher)
Gotta have a USB4/TB4 port (strictly speaking, USB4 is a subset of TB4 so either will do — but nothing older handles USB4 devices at native speeds and capabilities)
Gotta have the right drivers (while I’ve never seen a working USB4 port come up with the wrong ones, this is a given to make sure the device chain from port through cable to device will work).

What’s interesting about the MS Learn item is that it mentions a whole slew of error messages that you might see when trying to use a USB4 device — 11 in all, in fact. Worth reading the piece over if only to see how many of them you might have encountered before. FWIW, my personal count is 5 at this point.

The High Cost of USB4 Entry

When I started mucking about with USB4 last fall, I bought a couple of USB4/TB4 NVMe enclosures. These were limited to 20 Gbps aggregrate throughput, but still cost from ~US$120 to $150 or so. Now, you can buy 40 Gbps USB4 enclosures for ~US$70 to $120. The surrounding specs and verbiage claims real-world throughputs from 25000 to 3000 Mbps. I’ll have to check that for myself, but I have seen speeds in that range in CrystalDiskMark for my 20 Gbps Acasis and Konyead units on some laptops (e.g. Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Mobile Workstation and Yoga P9i models).

It’s still pretty darned expensive to take advantage of USB4 for external storage access. But it’s pretty darned fast, and keeps getting faster. I’m hoping to write a more in-depth examination for AskWoody in the near future. Stay tuned!

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, USB devices, WED Blog

So Long Syba DUAL mSATA

March 20, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I guess it was inevitable. I purchased a Syba Dual mSATA SSD adapter (model SD-ADA40107) back in 2015 or thereabouts. Yesterday, I plugged it into multiple PCs and laptops inside a USB 3.0 SATA drive caddy and … nothing doing. It’s resisted all resuscitation attempts, including the maker’s own hardware utility, as shown in the lead-in graphic. Thus, I must say “So long, SYBA Dual mSATA” and consign it to my Goodwill safe e-waste disposal bag. It was nice while it lasted.

After So Long Syba DUAL mSATA, Then What?

I’ve had trouble with this and other similar devices. It cost perhaps US$45 when I bought it back when, so it’s no great loss. The real question is: do I buy more hardware to house those still-usable Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB SSDs the now-failed adapter houses? I can now buy the same Sabrent USB 3.0 mSATA enclosure that used to cost US$30 or more for about $15. That’s pretty cheap.

“Why bother?” you ask. Because even an mSATA SSD in a USB 3.0 enclosure is still 8 or more time faster than an equivalent flash drive or a conventional HDD. But because I have 3 of them already (250, 500 and 1000 MB in size) it may be a simple case of overkill. I’ll have to ponder the state of the exchequer and think about this for a while. As I’m thinking you can see what CystalDiskMark says about the 500 MiB mSATA device I just plugged in:

This is still 4-8X faster than UFDs or HDDs (same port, same PC).

As I do, I’ll bid adieu to the non-functional Syba adapter. It was a useful bit of hardware. I’ve still got another one (also with 2x250GB Samsung EVO SSDs) ensconced in a drive caddy where it serves as my M: drive on the production PC. I guess I should start planning to replace that, too. It’s just a matter of time…

Device drivers, Insider stuff, Networking, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog

Windows 11 Wi-Fi 7 & USB4v2: What’s Up?

February 26, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

On January 8, 2024 Wi-Fi 7 went public. That’s the same day the Wi-Fi Alliance introduced its Wi-Fi Certified 7 program. USB4 version 2.0 goes all the way back to October 18, 2022. But only with the release of Insider Preview Canary Channel Build 26063 in February 2022 did MS start testing support for related Wi-Fi 7 drivers. (USB4 version 2.0 has been baked in since Build 23615 in the Dev Channel, released January 11, 2024.) Neither has appeared in a production version of the OS. Thus, a valid question for Windows 11 Wi-Fi 7 & USB4v2 has to be: What’s going on? TLDR answer right now is “Not much just yet.” There are lots of good reasons why so please let me explain…

What’s Afoot with Windows 11 Wi-Fi 7 & USB4v2?

One way to look at this is from a market availability standpoint. Precious few devices for sale right now support either or both of these standards. As I write this item, I see exactly 2 network adapters (one USB, the other PCIe x4) that support Wi-Fi 7.Ditto for Wi-Fi 7 routers. I can’t find any laptops that offer built-in support for either standard just yet. Many new models are promised later in 2024, and could change that.

Though it’s being proclaimed as something of an oversight it’s really just a function of supply and demand. (See this Tom’s Hardware news item by way of illustration.) Basic economics and recent history with Wi-Fi 6 and USB4 version 1.0 show that it takes about two years for these new standards to make their way from introduction and into more general adoption. I don’t see this latest iteration as terribly different.

Shoot! I didn’t lay hands on my first PC with built-in USB4 capability until the Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 showed up here at Chez Tittel late last year. Just before Christmas, in fact. If it takes that long to hit my hot little hands again, I’m looking into late 2025 before a personal encounter might happen.

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, USB devices, WED Blog

Wired Mouse Means No Stutter

February 12, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Remember that scene near the end of The Incredibles where one older cop says to the other “No school like the old school?” That snippet of wisdom crossed my mind as I decided to switch from an MS wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 to an MS Basic Optical Mouse 2.0. Why? Because a wired mouse means no stutter, lag, or hesitation when working on my desktop (or playing Gnu Backgammon or MS Solitaire, two of my fave diversions). Sigh.

Why Wired Mouse Means No Stutter?

I’m pretty sure the fault is mine for the wireless mouse issue. I had its transceiver mounted on my Luxo lamp, right next to a couple of monitors and less than 2 feet away from my Asus 802.11ax router. Not to mention further, it’s in close range of 3 laptops and my desktop as well. Your basic signal-rich, if not downright noisy, wirelesss environment. That said, I didn’t have these problems with the older MS Mobile Mouse 3000 (but alas, they don’t make them anymore).

But now that I’ve got a more isolated communications channel between desktop and mouse, there’s no more stutter or delay. Sometimes, the old school is the only school that works without issue. I have a feeling this may be one of those times. Plus: it was really bugging me. Go figure!

While you’re doing that, I’ll be taking the occasional break for backgammon or solitaire, content in believing that my ancient but unhampered wired mouse will remain snappy enough for my needs. Thank goodness!

Cool Tools, Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog

Windows 11 Disks & Volumes Info

January 9, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s something I didn’t know. Through System → Storage → Disks & volumes, Windows 11 makes all kinds of storage device info available. Indeed, such Windows 11 Disks & Volumes info (see lead-in graphic) even includes “Drive Health” for suitably-equipped devices. Let’s explore a little bit more about what that means. But first, take another look at the graphic above.

Digging Into Windows 11 Disks & Volumes Info

What can you see in this graphic? The first section shows disk info for the internal SSD, a 1 TB Kioxia NVMe. It also shows bus, target and logical unit number (LUN 0) data. There’s a Status field that shows the drive is online. Next, a Health section shows remaining life, available spare, and temperature. Finally, Partition Style shows up as GUID Partition Table (GPT). Previously, garnering this info required accessing Disk Management and Device Properties. Fabu!

In fact, if you click on Advanced Disk Properties, the same Properties page you can access through those other utilities comes up. But to me, that’s not what’s most interesting. Turns out, older USB attached devices (USB 3.x, in my local case) do not show the Drive Health section. That only works for USB4 devices (including Thunderbolt 4 items, as USB4 is a strict subset of TB4).

Now I Get It, Yet Again

Once again, I’m seeing a tangible improvement in transparency and usability when plugging in newer and more capable (but also more costly) USB4 peripherals. Even on laptops like the 2022 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad P1Gen6 Mobile Workstation (which still relies on the Thunderbolt Controller not a USB4 Host Router) these benefits convey.

As I said before in an earlier blog post “NOW I get it.” The value of the new interface is starting to come ever clearer. When I talk to the Panasonic engineers in a few minutes, I hope I will learn more. Stay tuned!

{Note Added 4 Hours Later] None of the engineers or developers I talked to was conversant with the switchover from Thunderbolt to USB4 Host Router at the hardware level. They’re floating a discreet inquiry to the Japanese engineering team to find out more. When I get more info, I’ll share it here (or in a new post, as things unfurl). Again: stay tuned!

Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog

Incase Takes Over MS Branded Keyboards

January 8, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Last year, MS announced it would stop making its company-branded mice and keyboards. As somebody’s who’s been using MS keyboards since Homer was a pup, I was naturally concerned. But those concerns were allayed last week. That’s when peripheral maker Incase announced it would sell those products as “Incase designed by Microsoft” items. Indeed, Incase takes over MS branded keyboards as part of that deal. As you can see in the lead-in screencap, that includes my beloved Natural Ergonomic 4000 (top center).

When Incase Takes Over MS Branded Keyboards, Then?

The announcement isn’t completely clear about exactly when this cutover will occur. When MS announced they’d exit this segment of the hardware business (they’re sticking purely to Surface branded hardware going forward), they simply said they’d sell out of existing stock. Methinks Incase will need to ramp up and get going before the new incarnations of the old MS-branded items will reappear for sale.

Currently, my fave model under the old brand goes for about US$400 on Amazon. The last time I bought a pair was in 2020, and I paid US$108 for 2 of them from Newegg. I still have one unopened in the original box, but the one I’m typing on right now is about ready to be retired. It still works like a champ, but the keycaps for A, S, D, C, V and M are worn to invisibility, and many of the other right- and left-hand main keys are spotty at best. And I’ve spilled at least three coffees on this puppy over the past 3-4 years…

Hopefully, Incase Restores Rational Pricing

Most other vendors are selling ergonomic keyboards in the US$35 to $70 range (I just checked at Newegg). I’m hoping that means when Incase turns the tap back on they’ll fall somewhere in that range. If and when that happens, I’ll order another pair of keyboards. When I need a new one, I always order two, so I’ll have a spare in case something goes wrong with the one I put in service first. Fingers crossed.

At any rate, I’m grateful Incase took over these venerable mice and keyboards from MS. Hopefully, I’ll keep clacking away at the same layout until I decide to hang things up for my own retirement. Even then, I’m sure I’ll keep at least one around for old time’s sake.

Cool Tools, Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog

HWiNFO Bestows USB4 Insight

January 3, 2024 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I just learned something very interesting. Most of it comes courtesy of the GitHub HWiNFO project. Use it to garner system information and diagnostics in Windows. The lead-in graphic shows a Thunder-bolt 4 NVMe enclosure plugged into a Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55. There (upper right) it appears as a Crucial NVMe SSD with PCIe x4 controller. For reasons I am about to reveal, I believe HWiNFO bestows USB4 insight into the USB-C connection in use.

What HWiNFO Bestows USB4 Insight Means

That insight comes from the full text of the Drive Controller info. It reads “NVMe (PCIe x4 8.0 GT/s @x4 8.0 GT/s). That means the PC sees the external drive, plugged in through a USB-C port on the FZ-55 as a PCIe x4 device capable of up to 8 giga-transfers per second (that latter part is what 8.0 GT/s means).

Basically, rating throughput in GT/s gives drive makers a way to account for encoding overhead in the PCIe protocol. Note: 8 GT/s translates into 7.877 Gbps with overhead backed out. Indeed, what this really means is the connection clocks half the maximum speed per PCIe x4 lane (16 GT/s). To me that indicates this connection tops out at a nominal 10 Gbps ( aka USB 3.2 Gen 2×1).

Where USB4 Comes Into Play

This is where I finally get to see a feature in Windows 11 I’ve read about but hasn’t manifested on PCs in my possession. The Toughbook FZ-553 delivered just before Christmas displays a USB option labeled “USB4 Hubs and Devices” (see below).

If I hadn’t seen the PCIe x4 stuff in HWiNFO, I’d never have looked for this!

Indeed, it was seeing the mention of a visible NVMe controller and its PCIe x4 details in HWiNFO that led me to start wondering about USB4 and related Thunderbolt support. On other (older) PCs, I’ve only been able to access info about USB4 and Thunderbolt devices through the Intel Thunderbolt Control Center app. That’s been present by default on those other PCs with high-speed USB-C ports. On the FZ-55, Thunderbolt Control Center is absent. It doesn’t even come up in the Store (though it shows up clearly as a search string).

OK, NOW I get it: the Intel USB4 Host Router does on newer PCs what the Intel Thunderbolt Control Center does on older ones. It makes USB4 storage devices visible and accessible. Good to know!

Thankfully, HWiNFO shows more about the device, including the NVMe maker, controller, and drive model (a 1TB PCIe x4 Crucial NVMe drive). Likewise good to know; more insight, too!

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 11

Avoid Cascading Thunderbolt 4 Hubs

June 12, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I guess it makes sense, now that I’ve figured out what’s going on. I’m using the Lenovo ThinkVision P27u-20 flat panel monitor with a Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Hybrid PC. It’s been an interesting ride, getting it working once again. (I wrote about it first last December upon its arrival here at Chez Tittel.) Over the weekend, I got it working again Among the various things I learned along the way: avoid cascading Thunderbolt 4 hubs.

Why Avoid Cascading Thunderbolt 4 Hubs?

Simple, short answer: Windows 11 can’t find the monitor when it has to traverse an upstream TB4 hub and a downstream one. There’s a longer, more complex answer as well. Too much throughput is required for an all-purpose power/video/peripherals link between host and monitor. Multiple TB4 hubs don’t work that way.

This drove me batty for a while. That’s because I used the CalDigit TS4 hub as the primary. Then, I ran a video connection from it to the P27u-20. But the monitor features a built-in TB4 hub that doesn’t work in that configuration. Good to know, but hard to figure out. What led me to this discovery? In part, a consistent report that my power link wasn’t beefy enough to recharge the X12’s battery.

When I finally checked the port map for the monitor I saw that only one is labeled both Thunderbolt 4 and “full function upstream port with max 96W With Smart Power PD output” (see pg. 6). And sure enough, that’s the one I had to hook directly to the primary USB-C port on the X12 to get the monitor recognized as a 2nd working display.

It’s all good now. But if you use a monitor like the P27u-20 with integrated hub, it’s best to avoid bringing another TB4 hub into that mix. ‘Nuff said!