slow Axon bootloader problem with XP3 - fixed?

[Admin]

I decided to research this problem further, and it turns out XP SP3 broke USB. Somehow it gives you USB1.1 speeds instead of USB2.0 speeds.

everyone is having the problem:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itproxpsp/thread/83e26ea9-1c50-424e-a1e6-62337c35f2d5

I just found this fix, but as I'm still on SP2, I'm not able to try it myself. Can someone with SP3 and an Axon test to see if this fixes the ultra-slow problem?

http://thebackroomtech.com/2008/09/29/howto-fix-slow-usb-20-file-transfer-on-windows-xp/

Howto: Fix Slow USB 2.0 file transfer on Windows XP
September 29, 2008 — Julie
USB storage devices can be optimized for either quick removal or performance.  If optimized for quick removal, data transfer can potentially be reduced to a crawl.

To optimize your USB drive for performance:
Right click on the USB drive and select properties
Select the Hardware tab
Under All Disk Drives, highlight your USB drive and select Properties
Select the Policies tab and select Optimize for performance.
Press OK twice, and your transfer speeds should increase dramatically
Note that when your drive is optimized for performance you’ll need to use the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the taskbar to eject the drive – otherwise you’ll risk corrupting your data by just removing the drive from the port.

[KurtEck]

Thanks for the tip .  I am running Windows7 not XP, but I have wondered for awhile if my external hard disk was running at full speed.  It turns out that Write caching was turned off and so for this drive I turned it on.  .  I fully understand why Microsoft turned it off by default, as probably too many people would simply remove their USB drives without using the command to safely eject them, so any writes that were cached up would be lost.

However my gut tells me this won't help with the Axon botloader.  I don't believe there is any such Tab associated with a comm port.  I know that there is not one on W7.
Sounds more like a driver compatibility issue.  I wonder if the latest driver (v5.40.29)from Silicon Labs would help.  I just updated my W7 to it and it still appears to work...

Kurt

[KurtEck]

Just a quick update here.  I had an old portable sitting around with XP on it, so I thought I would try.  Before SP3, it downloaded my Brat code in about 3-5 seconds, with SP3 it is about 90 seconds.   I saw something up on the silicon Labs forum, someone talking about why the current version is so much slower than version 4. on single byte stuff, so I wonder if we can find an older driver to run on these machines...

Could not find any equivalent setting for the comm port, tried changing buffer sizes, use the buffer... Did not help much, ranged from about 85 to 95 seconds... so 

Well back to my main machine with Windows7...
Kurt

[VOne]

I tried this on my SP3 - and it seems to work with a usb drive.  The instructions say to right click on the "drive" in Window Explorerer - but, since the Axon does not show up as a drive, I can not find the same type of setting for the USB to UART Port (either in the Device Manager Ports, USB Root Hub, or Host controller).

I did just try putting in a usb drive, making the setting change, pulling it out, and using that USB port for the axon, but I still get the 45 seconds to load, so no imporvement.

Thanks for looking into this, I have tried everything I can think of - although this slow down only forces me to double check my code, so its not too big of a deal.  I just can't to the old Trial and Error technique as easily.

[Admin]

hmmmm well that sucks . . .


VOne, just downgrade back to SP2 (add/remove programs).

[Admin]

FYI, SP2 support ends tomorrow.