Test Whether a USB Port Is USB 2 or 3

An **xHCI** controller serves USB 3 ports; **EHCI** is USB 2 only. A machine with only EHCI controllers has no USB 3 at all, whatever the port colour suggests.

Get-CimInstance Win32_USBController | Select-Object Name,Manufacturer,Status,DeviceID
Get-PnpDevice -Class USB | Where-Object FriendlyName -match 'Host Controller|xHCI|eHCI' | Select-Object FriendlyName,Status
Get-Service USBXHCI | Select-Object Name,Status,StartType

A SuperSpeed hub sits next to the USB 2 hub on the same physical port. Seeing a SuperSpeed hub for the device means the link has all four extra pins connected.

Get-PnpDevice -Class USB | Select-Object FriendlyName,Status,InstanceId | Where-Object FriendlyName -match 'Hub'
Get-CimInstance Win32_USBHub | Select-Object Name,DeviceID,Status
Get-PnpDeviceProperty -InstanceId (Get-PnpDevice -Class USB | Where-Object FriendlyName -match 'SuperSpeed' | Select-Object -First 1).InstanceId -KeyName 'DEVPKEY_Device_LocationInfo' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object Data

**DEVPKEY_Device_LocationInfo** reports the bus, port and hub path, which maps to a physical socket. Comparing two sockets on the same machine is the direct test.

$dev = Get-PnpDevice -Class DiskDrive | Select-Object -First 1
$dev | Select-Object FriendlyName,InstanceId
Get-PnpDeviceProperty -InstanceId $dev.InstanceId -KeyName 'DEVPKEY_Device_LocationInfo','DEVPKEY_Device_LocationPaths' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object KeyName,Data

A USB 3 drive at 480 Mbps caps near 40 MB/s, a USB 3 link near 400 MB/s. A timed copy of a large file is the honest measurement.

$src = (Get-ChildItem 'F:\' -Filter *.bin -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Sort-Object Length -Descending | Select-Object -First 1).FullName
$src
Measure-Command { Copy-Item $src 'C:\temp\usbtest.bin' -Force } | Select-Object TotalSeconds
Get-NetAdapter -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null

A USB 2 cable, an unpowered hub or a USB 2 device in a USB 3 port all produce the slow rate. Swapping one component identifies which of the three it is.

Get-PnpDevice -PresentOnly -Class USB | Select-Object FriendlyName,Status
Get-CimInstance Win32_USBControllerDevice | ForEach-Object { [wmi]$_.Dependent } | Where-Object Name -match 'Hub|Device' | Select-Object Name,Status | Select-Object -First 8
Get-Disk | Where-Object BusType -eq 'USB' | Select-Object FriendlyName,Size,BusType

A table of socket, controller and measured rate saves the next guess. Label the case with tape if the ports look identical.

Get-CimInstance Win32_USBController | Select-Object Name,DeviceID
Get-PnpDevice -Class USB | Where-Object FriendlyName -match 'Hub' | Select-Object FriendlyName,InstanceId
Get-Disk | Where-Object BusType -eq 'USB' | Select-Object Number,FriendlyName | ConvertTo-Json