X220 (and X201, X200) USB 3.0 Expresscard

marYn · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 2:06 am

I have bought an AKE USB 3.0 Expresscard from DealExtreme and it doesn't work very well.

After installing drivers in my Win 7 64bit (Fresco drivers) the card is recognized, Windows also recognize USB drive connected to it, but the drive is not mounted. The drive spins up, seem to work fine, but is not visible even in Disk Management..

Widows Son · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:52 am

marYn wrote:

... The drive spins up, seem to work fine, but is not visible even in Disk Management..

]

"spins up"?

marYn · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:05 pm

"spins up"?

- sorry for my English, it's not my mother tongue
- I mean the HDD's platters start to rotate, you can feel it vibrate, the status LED light is on. I can either see the label of the disk drive in Windows' "Safely remove hardware and eject media". The problem is that the drive is not recognized by Windows at all. There is no drive in Disk management tool but local HDD.

azX32 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:21 pm

marYn wrote:

"spins up"?

- sorry for my English, it's not my mother tongue

Your English is fine. What you wrote was perfectly clear to me the first time you wrote it. "Spins up" is a common phrase with regard to HDDs.

hyde · **Posted:** Sun Sep 11, 2011 9:51 pm

How does Lenovo add USB 3 to i7 systems? Is there something else they add to the motherboard to make it work with i7?
Regarding above, this review scared me: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2XRBIOM39 ... hisHelpful
Do you really have to remove it every time you restart? I normally don't restart, I put my thinkpad to sleep all the time.

beluga22 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 26, 2011 4:30 pm

Hi, has anybody had success yet getting an USB3 Expresscard working on the x220 ? Any suggestions which one to buy ? I don't need full USB3 speed, just a fair bit more then USB2 would be nice, so i can speed up backing up files from one hd to another. I have two usb3 harddrives.
Thanks for any advice or suggestions on which card to get !

JPH · **Posted:** Sat Oct 29, 2011 1:07 pm

I have both the dual USB3.0 Expresscard and the USB3.0/eSATA Expresscard. They are both by AKE and work very well with any USB 3.0 drive - I constantly get 90-110MB/s TFR rate (with a Buffalo PNT3U 1TB portable HDD). My only issue is the second card - where plugging an eSATA drive results in my being asked to reformat the drive (whereas with another dual eSATA Expresscard it works perfectly well).
In terms of speed between eSATA and USB3.0, there is no major difference in everyday use with all those external Expresscards. But of course the USB 3.0 is more practical as it needs no additional power.

hugolin69 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:04 am

For the AKE 2 USB, do you need to use extra power usb ? or just pluck the express card, without additional USB ?

Is this one ? http://www.amazon.com/Express-card-54mm-Port-expresscard/dp/B0046XUMDW

Thank you !

azX32 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:03 pm

Yes, that's the one.

No, you don't need extra power to use the card's USB ports, but if your particular device needs two USB ports to work under USB 2.0, it will still need two USB ports with this Expresscard adapter. For instance, my external USB DVD drive needs two USB ports for some functions, and I have found that the two ports on this Expresscard are not sufficient - one of the ports has to be one of the other USB ports on the X220.

hugolin69 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 11, 2012 4:25 pm

OK thanks.

As I can not be delivered in France, even if I found it on ebay, I finally choose one which is according to me from the same chinese company, but which look like more "branded" http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B00535CMEE

As in France our AKE card still been sold around 30EUR...

Like for the laptop, we pay more than you pay in units, and additionnaly in EUR... if we could pay same price inUSD, it would be amazing cheap...

chears

azX32 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 11, 2012 8:35 pm

If you have not bought it yet, check out item # 280594445293 on Ebay. It ships worldwide (except to Canada).

davidlg16 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 15, 2012 1:35 am

hyde wrote:

How does Lenovo add USB 3 to i7 systems? Is there something else they add to the motherboard to make it work with i7?
Regarding above, this review scared me: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2XRBIOM39 ... hisHelpful
Do you really have to remove it every time you restart? I normally don't restart, I put my thinkpad to sleep all the time.

Happens to me also, whenever I restart with the expresscard inserted, my x220 goes nuts!

I have the AKE 54mm USB3 card, my X220 is an i7, I really only needed it to have more usb ports.

azX32 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 19, 2012 12:08 pm

davidlg16 wrote:

Happens to me also, whenever I restart with the expresscard inserted, my x220 goes nuts!

I have the AKE 54mm USB 3.0 Express card in my X220 and have never had a problem with it, whether rebooting or resuming from suspend or hibernate.

kpevav · **Posted:** Sat Apr 07, 2012 8:56 am

Does this AKE 54mm USB 3.0 card fit flush in the X220? Does it need any sort of adapter?

azX32 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:31 pm

kpevav wrote:

Does this AKE 54mm USB 3.0 card fit flush in the X220?

When it is pushed into the slot and engaged, it's actually very slightly recessed from the edge.

kpevav wrote:

Does it need any sort of adapter?

No.

kpevav · **Posted:** Sun Apr 08, 2012 7:44 am

Thanks for the responses. I will order one as I have a couple of external hard drives that are USB 3.0 and I might as well get a bit more speed from them.

Guppy · **Posted:** Wed Apr 11, 2012 10:48 pm

I just received my AKE USB 3.0 & eSATA combo Expresscard (from eBay). A couple of observations:

Windows was unable to automatically locate the correct drivers, but found them quickly once I directed it to search the driver CD. It needed to install in two separate steps (first USB Host Controller, then Root USB Hub) before working correctly.
USB 3.0 chipset is the ASMedia ASM1042. No drivers I can find on the manufacturer's website, but there seems to be some updated firmware/drivers posted on third-party driver sites.
My MS wireless mouse wouldn't work in the USB 3.0 port until I opened up the Device Manager and hit "Update" on the entries listing the Nano-transceiver. For some reason, the single transceiver had two entries listed.
Like the other AKE cards, it is too tight to eject normally, and has to be pried out (ended up scratching the plastic).
It gets rather warm during use (wondering how much of a load it'll be on the battery).
It comes with a cable that plugs in the center hole, to grab extra power from a USB 2.0 port if needed.

JPH · **Posted:** Thu Apr 12, 2012 4:19 pm

I have 2 of the AKE dual eSATA/USB 3.0 Expresscards and they both do not work properly with eSATA drives urging me to reformat the hard drive! Do you have any problem with the eSATA part of the Expresscard?

Alicatt · **Posted:** Sat Apr 14, 2012 12:52 am

By heavens that is a tight fitting card. had to use a pair of pliers as well as the eject button on my X201T to get the card out, apart from that it seems to work.

Guppy · **Posted:** Sat Apr 14, 2012 11:37 am

JPH wrote:

I have 2 of the AKE dual eSATA/USB 3.0 Expresscards and they both do not work properly with eSATA drives urging me to reformat the hard drive! Do you have any problem with the eSATA part of the Expresscard?

Just tested it the eSATA port out earlier today, mine is not working either. First time I plugged it in, it found my external drive and I was able to navigate through the directories a bit. Now it's not recognizing the drive at all, or asking to format it.

I can't quite tell, but looking at the end of the card, it seems like something's wrong with the pins in the eSATA socket -- one of them looks damaged and not sitting flush with the plastic (but I'm not quite sure if I'm actually looking at a defect or not). In any case, I'll have to see if the eBay merchant I got it from can offer any tech support, or will take it back.

Edit: Found the manufacturer's website:
http://www.ake-nb.com

Edit: Yup, my card's eSATA connector was damaged. Seller replaced it, works fine now (and the replacement fits properly without being too tight in the socket, too).

hurdadurda · **Posted:** Thu Jun 07, 2012 12:03 pm

For people that had problems with the AKE 54 card getting stuck. Peel off the label and CAREFULLY clean the glue residue with solvent (acetone) and once it's cleaned you will get a very good fit.
The 54 mm card works better than the 34 (too small will wobble). Check amazon messages for where to get the renesas driver for it. Works well for me so far, mechanically and functionally (sleep is ok too).

brixvold · **Posted:** Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:52 am

As usual I can depend upon this forum for guidance, just ordered an AKE card from china.
Thank you.

SeanBond123 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:29 am

Just got mine today, it is much looser and can be pulled out with the USB. I wish it was tighter!

benzas · **Posted:** Thu Sep 13, 2012 8:30 pm

anyone tried this ? good idea to have both, esata and usb3 on 1 card
Superspeed Laptop 54mm ExpressCard Express Card to USB 3.0 & eSATA Adapter 5Gbps
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Superspeed-La ... 4ab95a6189

is 54mm the right size for x201 ?

JPH · **Posted:** Fri Sep 14, 2012 2:04 am

I have it too - actually 2 cards like that - and the USB3 works well (ASM1042 chipset) but the eSATA always brings up errors asking me to reformat the eSATA drive being connected. So I gave up using the eSATA/USB3 combo card.

crashnburn · **Posted:** Wed Oct 10, 2012 3:19 pm

Interesting. Maybe I should get the Dual USB 3.0 Card instead of this eSata-USB Combo (which as an idea is killer/ perfect).

crashnburn · **Posted:** Sat Feb 02, 2013 5:49 am

JPH wrote:

I have it too - actually 2 cards like that - and the USB3 works well (ASM1042 chipset) but the eSATA always brings up errors asking me to reformat the eSATA drive being connected. So I gave up using the eSATA/USB3 combo card.

I just got one of these. Any one found a suitable Driver package? The CD that came with it is not readable.

Core Share · **Posted:** Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:59 pm

Anybody have experience of this USB 3.0 Express Card?

Condor MP7202ECB USB 3.0 Expansion Card 2x USB 3.0 Port
http://www.mwave.com.au/product/sku-aa0 ... sb_30_port

Quote:

Condor MP7202ECB USB 3.0 Expansion Card - 2x USB 3.0 Port - PCIe 2.0

- Supports PCI Express Base Specification Revision 2.0.
- Single-lane ( x1) PCI Express throughput rates up to 5 Gbps
- Compliant with Universal Serial Bus 3.0 specification Revision 1.0.
- Compliant with xHCI(eXtensibleHost Controller Interface) specifications Revision 0.95.
- Supports simultaneous operation of multiple USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 devices
- Supports USB data transfer rate of 1.5/12/480/5000 Mbps.
- Expands two external USB3.0 Super-Speed ports on the system.
- Each USB port supplies maximum +5V / 900mA power output to USB device.
- Built-in 4-pin power connector for receiving extra power supply from system.
- Hot-swapping feature allows you to connect/disconnect devices without powering down the system.

I could not find the manufacturer's website.

automobus · **Posted:** Tue Feb 05, 2013 11:38 pm

Core Share wrote:

Anybody have experience of Condor MP7202ECB
I could not find the manufacturer's website.

The sticker on the pictured card suggests from eMegatech (EMT-7202ECB). I do not know what consumer electronics costs in Australia, but, I guess that price is too high. If you are going to buy a new device, then you might as well get a modern one. NEC μPD720200 is old.

No, I do not have experience of that card, nor any other USB xHCI cards.

Core Share · **Posted:** Wed Feb 06, 2013 1:06 am

@automobus: thank you.

I have an X220 with an i7-2620M processor. I am looking, ideally, for a Express Card USB 3.0 Adapter, that also provides fully powered ports, such as for external USB 3.0 HD, for instance.

I realize the express card specs will not really allow fully USB 3.0 speeds, but, it is an improvement.

Reliability is more important than price.

This looks of interest:

StarTech.com 2-Port Flush Mount ExpressCard 54mm SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Card Adapter (ECUSB3S254F)
http://www.amazon.com//dp/B00535CMEE/
http://intrl.startech.com/Cards-Adapter ... CUSB3S254F

PS: I noticed it is a Renesas/NEC - µPD720200 card; what would you recommend that is more recent? - thank you.

X220 (and X201, X200) USB 3.0 Expresscard

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