Slow USB Flash Drive

[slumbergod]

Hey all, I was hoping someone with a bit more knowledge than me might be able to explain a curious issue I have...

I have an old laptop. If I do a clean install of XP, the USB works at 1.1 speed until I install an m$ driver that boosts it up to more or less USB 2.0 speeds. Then any flash drives work as you'd expect.

But I ditched XP completely some time ago in favour of Xubuntu Gutsy and now Xubuntu Hardy. But there has always been a weird issue with USB flash drives in Linux for me - they are just too slow.

I have search high and low on the net and I see many others have weird issues but here is what I have observed:
- normally 1.1 speed (about 1Mb/s speed)
- transferring a large file (like a 700mb xvid) the transfer starts off super quick like I'd expect, then after 100mb or so, drops to impossibly slow 1.1 speeds
- if I do the transfer as super-user, the speed is at least twice that of 1.1 speed (usually between 2mb/s and 5mb/s)
- external hard drives operate as expected when I plug them into a USB port
- brand and size makes no difference for the USB flash drives (mine is a Transcend 4Gb and on any Windows system it works perfectly)
- formatting the flash drive in NTFS, FAT/FAT32/EXT2 or 3 makes no difference.

I am just relying on Xubuntu's built-in functionality to mount flash drives. I read that for these drives (removable) one should do that rather than experiment with fstab.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this bizarre behaviour? Eventually I will replace the laptop with a newer one but it doesn't change the fact that I want to understand why it is behaving in a weird way with just one type of hardware.

Thanks

[Dino_]

That would be very odd: usb 1.1 ports are usb 1.1 ports.
You can't get any faster then usb 1.1 on a 1.1 port.
That just doesn't make sense too me!

Anyway, a slowdown is possible but that can have a large number of causes: quality of motherboard, quality of usb ports, quality of flashdrive, are the "connections" of the port worn out, driver problem, slow HD read/access,...
But you say that things speed up as root, which points at software trouble?

I haven't noticed any slowdown on my pc though...

[slumbergod]

Yeah, I was very surprised too when I was running Windows XP after a clean install but before doing a Windows Update. I thought the USB ports had died. But then there was a driver in the updates and bingo the usb ports started working faster. Isn't there three standards for USB? 1.1 at the bottom, then Hi-Speed, then Full-Speed (2.0).

The hardware is old...but the part that gets me is that it is only with flash drives and if I use Windows XP those drives operate as they should. That suggests a driver issue - something to do with the way the USB driver modules are loaded in Linux perhaps? A search online reveals that a few others have observed this too.

[Logiphile]

i have the same problem. transfer rate start with jump then get slower gradually to unbearable extend. i tried to format with different file system FAT32, NTFS & ext3, but the same. i tried it under another PC using windows xp and worked fine. my usb flash drive [kingston data traveler 120]. i also don't know how to know USB port version 1.0 or 2.0

[slumbergod]

Actually, it's really embarrassing. I'll go to give a large file to a work colleague and they'll wait beside me. Then they'll ask "why is it taking so long?" I always have to explain, "It's Linux...USB file transfer is impossibly slow!"

They usually reply, "Why?"

"I have no idea...it has never worked for me and they've never fixed it!!"

[webdebbyjoss]

I'm experiencing the same problem.
How can we investigate and resolve this?

I've found that if I use "Gnome Commander" - it doesn't slows down almost to 0 kb/c.
So the problem can be in Gnome file manager Nautilus

Also the problem reproduces only on flash drive and it works Ok on my USB HDD