How do I find out how many USB 3.0 ports I have?

[skiiermike]

Here's the situation. My new laptop says it has USB 3.0. It has three USB ports but only one has the blue tab the other two have black tabs. All three have the + above the USB symbol.

How do I find out if all three are 3.0?

Thanks for your help

[TechieAbe]

USB 3.0 should only have the blue tabs, the other USB ports are most likely USB 2.0

And what is the model of your laptop?

[skiiermike]

Thanks,

That's what I thought but is there any way to check for sure?

[Indigo]

Blue tabs are USB 3.0. Non blue tabbed ones are USB 2.0.

A good way to test is to use a USB 3.0 device such as a flash drive, and plug it into each slot. The USB 3.0 slot will "just work" while the 2.0 slots will pop a bubble up in Windows that says "This device can perform faster..."

[skiiermike]

Thanks, that should clear things up.

[skiiermike]

Here's an update. I tried all my USB ports with a new USB 3.0 drive and none said that they could perform faster. One of the black tabbed USB ports transferred at 70 mb/s however the blue tabbed USB slot only transferred at 42 mb/s for the same drive. Weird...

[OhSnapWord]

If you have access to the manual for the laptop, that should tell you which ports are USB 3.0.

[Steve6375]

You can tell by looking at the connector.
USB 2 has four contacts on one side.
USB 3 has the same 4 contacts, but also has 5 on the other side as well.
USB 3.0 'This device can perform faster' System Tray message! - RMPrepUSB