donone wrote:Are the other two variable or do they have to be given instructions to switch to higher speed?
No (there's only one EHCI controller that works for all ports, see also
Wikipedia).
donone wrote:One of the sockets accepts a WD Passport Essentials disk drive but not my wireless mouse or other devices, simply says USB device not recognised.
The other devises work in the other two sockets.
I'd try to delete the drivers for the devices in the device manager. If that doesn't work, maybe your Windows doesn't accept any (!) new USB device (i.e., that has never been connected before)? I had that problem once. You should do a hardware reset (see hardware FAQ), that may solve the problem.
donone wrote:I do not get any message about speed though the option is set to inform if a device could work faster.
Why do you think USB 2.0 doesn't work? Are data transfers too slow (how slow?)?
Regards
Aaron