I removed the device, uninstalled the device reinstalled the device, did the same with all usb hubs and controllers, cleanup the registry, I really tried everything you can think of, also updating all drivers (which were updated) except reinstalling WinXP. (which would be universally stupid).

My Iomega drive of also 2TB worked without problems on the same computer.

The drive gave the same problem on another XP machine but it worked without any problem on an Acer One netbook of 4 years old.

This made me realize that there must be a latency problem with the older motherboards and the newer USB2.0 devices or at least a mismatch in the connection handshake.

Then I used a powered USB hub and the drive (with own power supply) worked without problems, not at top speed but about 114Mbits/s ~ 12MB/s which is 25% of the theoretical max speed of USB2.0

That was weird, then I used a not self powered 4 ports USB2.0 hub, connected this to the same XP machine and connected the drive to this non powered hub, worked also at about 25% of the speed, so connected to EHCI (Enhanced Host Controller Interface) which was also visible in the device manager.

Then I found out that the Iomega drive has its own internal Generic USB hub and the Verbatim does not.
Same for my Sandisk Extreme
However my Kingston Datatraveller 100G2 did not have its own generic USB hub inside but that worked without problems, same for some other Flashdrives.

So the conclusion is this:
If the USB2.0 devise runs like USB1.1 and you tried all usual things like reinstalling drivers, updating all, reinstalling devices, removing all from registry…etc. you need to compensate for the difference in timing of the handshakes, a cheap generic USB hub (Hama or Trust) will do this for you so this is how to solve the problem.
This problem occurs with older motherboards (2001/2005… I think) running WinXP-SP3. There is no other cure (at least apparently no one knows one…) for bad designed USB2.0 devices in combination with older motherboards.

So good luck to you all.. I gave up finding a real solution, the USB hub is a workaround I can live with.

I just found the problem in my office PC and I think now I know how this problem starts. While copying data to my pen drive I removed pen drive from PC and inserted it back immediately. Boom !!! The problem starts “The USB 2.0 device can perform faster if you connect to a high speed USB 2.0 port”. Data transfer speed dropped down 100 to 10. :( My device is ok as I tested it another PC.

Can anyone advise me how to resolve this problem without reinstalling windows 7?
For your information there is no error (Yellow mark) in Device Manager under Universal Serial Bus Controller.

Still giving me the message and still doesn’t look as though my USB 3.0 external enclosure (housing a 2Terabyte WD) is working at USB3.0. Only get roughly somewhere between 30-35MB/s.

Checked my bios there’s nothing wrong with the default settings at all.

It’s such a joke oh well, looks like I’ll have to live with it.