Alienware Replaced my MB with Non-USB 3 Ports...

[cohenfive]

This is an odd one, and I am partly to blame for not noticing the issue, but here is the situation...

I have an alienware laptop whose mb died about a year ago under warranty...Great warranty service, they sent the part out and the next day a tech showed up and installed the new board. At the time I didn't have any usb 3 devices to use with it, so life went on. However, I just got a netgear a6210 external wireless antenna as I never liked the wireless card that came with the laptop, and it is a usb 3 device. When I plugged it into my laptop, I noticed that the two usb 3 ports I was supposed to have are not blue...and when I plugged the a6210 into one of the ports that was supposed to be usb 3, i got the message that the device would work better if I plugged it into a usb 3 port. I contacted dell/alienware, but now the pc is out of warranty and they really don't give a sh*t about it. I tried updating the driver to no avail, am out of options that I can think of.

Do I have any options other than replacing the mb again (this time at my expense)? Other than this, the laptop is 100% functional so I'm hesitant to replace something that works, even though it was a sneaky downgrade on dell's part...

Thanks

 

[cohenfive]

From the sound of crickets I am hearing, I guess only option is to replace the mb.

 

[crashtech]

Other than making sure everyone you know is aware that Dell will replace their defective parts with substandard replacement units, what else is there to do?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Pretty much.

Incidentally, what model laptop?

As an aside, your USB2 isn't really a bottleneck for wifi.

 

[cohenfive]

I have been running speed test with the new usb 3 netgear a6210 adapter, that's how I stupidly realized they downgraded my mb when they replaced it some time ago. It says that the device will be faster performing when plugged into usb 3 ports, so then I started digging around and saw that I only had usb 2 ports. it is an alienware m14xc-r2. 2012 vintage, so far from new now, but the original mb had usb 3 ports. I just forgot to check when they replaced the mb under warranty...who knew that they would do that to a customer....I know, I know!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Interesting.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409004,00.asp

...and two USB 3.0 ports—which, for the record, are colored black rather than the usual blue.

USB3 was a baseline feature of the laptop. Did they downgrade your CPU/GPU to an older version too?

If not, it probably IS a driver or cable problem. (I had an extension cable that made my USB 2 hub run at 1.1 speeds, for instance.)

 

[cohenfive]

I don't think so. I have no 'blue' usb ports any more, as I did on original mb. And when I plug in a usb 3 device, I get the speed message. I don't understand what happened, but Dell/Alienware doesn't care any more..and I guess in some way I don't blame them since it is no longer under warranty. My bad, and their bad.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The link I posted to a review of that laptop indicated that the USB3 ports were black, not blue. But like I said, it's more likely that you have a configuration problem than Alienware conjured up a USB2-only version of their motherboard just for you.

This article was interesting:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/usbcoreblog...3-0-device-is-operating-at-a-lower-speed.aspx

 

[vailr]

Sue them in small claims court.
Write a letter to your Congressman.
Call Michael Dell and complain that you want a brand new Dell Alienware laptop computer (with blue USB 3.0 ports) as a replacement.
Or: just sell it on Craigslist, and use the money to buy a Lenovo laptop.

 

[Joepublic2]

USB ports can be any color. I don't think it's specified in the spec.

3 has 5 additional contact pads on the edge of the port as you can see on the left and the four spring contacts in the back for legacy USB 2/1 devices.

 

[Joepublic2]

dp

 

[cohenfive]

Thanks. So maybe the color doesn't matter. I do have Intel usb 3.0 extensible host controller, maybe it just isn't working right for some reason. Any ideas on how to get it functioning properly?

 

[Batmeat]

USB ports can be any color. I don't think it's specified in the spec.

3 has 5 additional contact pads on the edge of the port as you can see on the left and the four spring contacts in the back for legacy USB 2/1 devices.

Not only that, every usb 3.0 port I've seen has the 'SS' by it. It stands for 'super speed'.

 

[Joepublic2]

Thanks. So maybe the color doesn't matter. I do have Intel usb 3.0 extensible host controller, maybe it just isn't working right for some reason. Any ideas on how to get it functioning properly?

It's probably a software/driver issue. I'd uninstall/re-install the intel chipset drivers first. It might also just be a marginal cable/device as other people have suggested.

 

[cohenfive]

I'm pretty sure it is a software/driver issue. The a6210 lets you plug in directly or via its base, and I've tried both and both times am getting the same 'this can run faster' message. Trying to find what might be a new driver to install. Is the right course to try uninstalling the intel extensible usb 3.0 host controller, then reboot and see what happens? Thanks.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Is the right course to try uninstalling the intel extensible usb 3.0 host controller, then reboot and see what happens? Thanks.

That's what I would try first. If you're running Windows 8, the Microsoft driver is better, otherwise the Intel one should reinstall.

I'd also double-check those BIOS settings.

Do you have any other usb3 devices to check with? Thumb drives are pretty cheap...

 

[potzocalli]

Check the number of pins. USB 3 can come in black too. My alienware 14 has black USB3 ports. IF number of pins is correct then maybe just a driver issue or if your luck is very bad you could have faulty USB ports .

 

[Ketchup]

Does CPU-Z give you the model of the board? That and some research should tell you if they indeed replaced it with the wrong board.

An even easier way may be through device manager. My laptop identifies my controller as Intel USB 3.0.

 

[Dahak]

You could also check in the bios that the usb 3.0 is enabled. I had seen a machine, cannot remember which one now... but it had a bios option to enable/disable the usb 3 speeds.

If it is disabled it will run at usb 2, and will still show the usb 3 controller in devices manager as the controller can do usb 2 speeds as well

 

[Mushkins]

I'd also make sure you're running the latest version BIOS available for that motherboard. For every warranty replacement MB i've ever dealt with, they just plop it in and walk away, it's probably still running whatever 1.0 version it was originally manufactured with that may have some USB issues.

 

[cohenfive]

How can I check the bios to see if usb 3 is enabled? I reloaded the latest driver and that didn't fix the problem. I haven't uninstalled the controller yet, will try that as well.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

How can I check the bios to see if usb 3 is enabled? I reloaded the latest driver and that didn't fix the problem. I haven't uninstalled the controller yet, will try that as well.

Generally I would try a re-install of the OS and see if that sorts it out. That recommendation is generally too arduous for most folks so an alternative might be to get a bootable CD/DVD for some other os like a linux distro. You can just pop in the boot disk, let it boot up and test to see if it finds your ports as USB 3.0. You could also just search around for new and different USB drivers. If you are seeing the USB 3.0 host controller under devices I would suspect it's there, but not working correctly. If you have other USB 3.0 devices you might check those as well to see if they are "more' compatible.

good luck.

 

[cohenfive]

I'm not keen on reinstalling windows (7). As I said, I loaded the latest driver, that didn't do it. I do see the intel usb 3.0 host controller under devices, and other usb 3 devices I've tried do not work as ubs 3 either. Thanks.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Alienware is one of the few laptops that you can actually upgrade including the wireless card. I recently replaced my intel centrino ultimate n-6300 with an intel 7260ac which works great. As for your usb ports go into the bios and make sure that usb 3 is enabled.

 

[cohenfive]

How can I go into the bios to see whether usb 3 is enabled?