Find USB Type

[Percy Vere]

I have a few usb's of various capacity but don't know how to find if they are 2.0, 3.0 or something else. Can you help.

[HansV]

Black vs Blue

USB.jpg

[StuartR]

What do you actually mean by "I have a few usb's"
Hans picture shows how to tell whether a cable is USB 2 or USB 3
For a device it may be more difficult, depending on the type of device.

The pictures on this page show how to examine a USB socket to check for the extra pins used by USB 3

If you connect a USB disk drive then you can look in Windows Explorer, enable the details pane, and select the device to see something like this...

USB 3.png

Here is the display I see when I plug this same device into a USB 2 socket

USB 3 on 2.jpg

And here is what I see when I plug a USB 2 memory stick into the same computer...

USB 2.png

[Percy Vere]

Hello Stuart What do you actually mean by "I have a few usb's"? I have 13 usb flash drives from 4GB - 32GB 6 black, 3 red + 4 blue inserts as displayed by Hans.
My Laptop has one USB 2.0 + two USB 3.0 sockets.
The only image I get when connecting any flash drive to any socket is:-

usb.png

the insert colour is red.

[HansV]

A red insert means "sleep and charge".

This color indicates that the connector does not power off during sleep or standby mode. On laptop or desktop computers, they are great for charging external devices like smartphones.

See: How to tell what type of USB connector you have by color

[StuartR]

I am pretty sure that the image you posted is from a USB 2 device. If it were USB 3 then you would get a message underneath the size and file system info.

[Percy Vere]

Hello StuartR I know that the image was taken from a recently purchased item and is definitely type 3.0

[StuartR]

Hello StuartR I know that the image was taken from a recently purchased item and is definitely type 3.0

What version of Windows is this computer?

[Percy Vere]

Edition Windows 10 Home
Version 20H2
Installed on ‎10/‎09/‎2020
OS build 19042.985
Serial number PF1YPTW1
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.2020.0

[StuartR]

How do you know that this "is definitely type 3.0". If you look at the connector can you see the extra pins described in my earlier post?

[Percy Vere]

A red insert means "sleep and charge".

This color indicates that the connector does not power off during sleep or standby mode. On laptop or desktop computers, they are great for charging external devices like smartphones.

See: How to tell what type of USB connector you have by color

Using your link, I found this:-
-

red.PNG

This is what my new cordless mouse uses. I also have one for my old cordless mouse but the inserted section is white.
-
I also found this whilst looking for my usb purchases:-
-

usb 2.PNG

[StuartR]

That picture says "USB 2.0 Flash Drive", which is what I expected

[Percy Vere]

In the link from Hans, USB 2.0 are coloured Black ?

[HansV]

See this reply higher up in this thread

[Percy Vere]

This is an image from my laptop user pdf. All sockets are black.

Laptop.PNG

[HansV]

So your laptop has one USB2 connector and two USB3 connectors.
Since their inserts are black, not red, they are (probably) of the type that powers off when the laptop goes into sleep or standby mode.

[Percy Vere]

Thanks, I use the middle one, its 3.2 so I can use the correct socket for the flash drive I'm using.
Today I reset my Laptop as I wasn't getting notified by emai.l

[HansV]

We have an ongoing problem with notifications - see Emails to Admin. Nobody is receiving notifications from Eileen's Lounge at the moment.

[Percy Vere]

I saw the Emails to Admin entry and thought it only affected it.