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I have an Alienware 15 R2 and it ONLY has USB 3.0 ports. I run the Dell diagnostic on my machine and it says the USB ports are all running at 1.1 as the current speed with a max of 2.0 and it passes the test... For starters it should max out at 3.0, not 2.0. and secondly if it's only running at a current speed of 1.1 and is capable of faster then it is NOT passing in my book! I have updated my BIOS to the latest version offered by Dell as of Aug. 2017 and my laptop still xfers at snail speeds via USB. please help get this PoS working properly! thx in advance to any help.

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    How fast does it read from a usb drive? It's a "laptop... PoS" I take it?
    – Xen2050
    Commented Dec 8, 2017 at 1:01
  • For those of us not familiar with the Dell diagnostic, how is it performed? Do you need to insert a USB device or it does some internal test with no device inserted? If it tests with a device inserted, what device are you using? Can you post a snapshot of the test output (just what's USB-related)? What performance do you get plugging in a USB 3.0 storage device that has demonstrated USB 3.0 speeds on another computer?
    – fixer1234
    Commented Dec 8, 2017 at 4:37
  • The DELL diagnostic is an online assisted diagnostic. It runs the test from the DELL website with help from a local exe and you can check the performance of various components of your Computer.
    – Casey Smith
    Commented Dec 9, 2017 at 15:35
  • Do you have any USB functionality? Any pen drive, any external keyboard/mouse?
    – Ale..chenski
    Commented Dec 11, 2017 at 7:12

2 Answers 2

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Windows 7 is from 2009; it doesn't have drivers for USB 3.anything. It's treating the ports as the most basic kind of USB it knows, because it doesn't recognize their capabilities.

You need to either use Win8 (or newer; realistically, use Win10) or install a third-party USB3 driver (Dell/Alienware's site probably offers the one you need, it is not the BIOS/firmware driver).

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  • USB 3.0 drivers must have been added to Win 7 along the way. I've got a Win 7 laptop with only USB 3.0 ports and they function correctly.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Dec 8, 2017 at 6:29
  • @fixer1234 If you're running an OEM image, it will have come pre-configured with USB3 drivers. If you were running a stock Windows install with just the Microsoft drivers, though, you would not have USB3.
    – CBHacking
    Commented Dec 8, 2017 at 6:35
  • Its an Alienware 15 R2 and DELL only offers drivers for Windows 8.1 and 10. At this point I'd be happy if I could even get it to run at 2.0.
    – Casey Smith
    Commented Dec 9, 2017 at 15:32
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For Windows 7, you need to find a Win7 driver for XHCI controller for Skylake 170 chipset. If Dell doesn't offer it, try other places as ASUS, Lenovo, MSI, etc. Maybe Intel itself. Or HP, they are conservative and might still support Win7. And check out this Tomshardware thread.

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