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Review on StarTech.com SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Card Adapter - Dual Port Flush Mount ExpressCard 54mm Controller with UASP for Laptop (ECUSB3S254F) by Ethan Delaney

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Meets my needs

Powered by Dell Precision M4600 with i7-2820QM processor, Windows 7 Pro. Getting the map to work was a bit of an adventure; I skipped the minidisk drivers as my laptop can't read these discs and went to the official website instead. My "fault" was that I didn't see the "warning" that you can't update the firmware if the device isn't working properly, so . I installed the driver and then updated the firmware. At this point, after restarting, the computer did not recognize any flash drives through this card. What worked for me was uninstalling the driver, ejecting the card, restarting the computer, then reinstalling the card and finally the driver. One note: while the instructions state that the card is hot-swappable, at least in Windows 7 Pro this is NOT the case (at least in the sense that you can take it out and put it back in and it will work). If you accidentally pull the card out of the slot while the laptop is on, the only way Windows can see it again is to restart the computer. It seems that at least in my case there is a discrepancy between the BIOS (A08 from Dell), Windows and the card driver. I shouldn't keep messing with it as it works for what I need, but thought I'd share my experience, maybe it can help others. In terms of speed, I could only test with a USB 2.0 drive and it works very well (read/write around 65MB/s according to CrystalDisk) I only gave 4 stars because it "clicks" when inserted properly, but not" click" when ejecting and will therefore not be automatically ejected; this makes it harder to eject (I used a flash drive to eject the card as it actually pops out when you remove the drive). Comparing the depth of the card to Dell's plastic slot cover, I thought that this card is too short and maybe that's why it doesn't eject properly (even the USB ports are well hidden inside when inserted). laptop frame) Overall it's a good buy as it serves me for what I need and I don't think there's anything better but it takes a while to get it working properly as well as extreme care when removing various USB Devices to not pull the card (in this case, Windows requires a restart to make it work again).

Pros
  • Compatible with Dell Latitude E5530
Cons
  • Will be added later