USB 3 Wi-Fi adapter always shows as USB 2 on Windows, tried everything
Hi everyone,
I’m trying to figure out why my TP-Link USB Wi-Fi adapter (Realtek chipset, USB 3 capable) always connects as USB 2.0 / High-Speed (480 Mbps) on Windows, even when plugged into USB 3 ports.
The adapter works fine, but it never switches to SuperSpeed, so I’m wondering if this is just a driver limitation or if I’m missing something obvious.
My setup
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Windows (fully updated)
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MSI H410M-A PRO motherboard
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Using rear motherboard USB 3 ports only
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Latest official TP-Link / Realtek driver
Things I already tried
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Rear USB ports only (no front panel, no hubs, no monitor USB)
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Disabled USB power saving / selective suspend in Windows
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Disabled power saving for USB Root Hub in Device Manager
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Forced 5 GHz Wi-Fi only (Preferred Band = 5 GHz, Wireless Mode = 802.11a/n/ac)
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Unplugged / replugged after connecting to Wi-Fi
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Uninstalled the driver completely, rebooted, reinstalled TP-Link driver
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Checked BIOS:
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USB 3 / XHCI handled automatically
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Fast Boot disabled
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Legacy USB enabled
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Checked with USB inspection tools:
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Device is SuperSpeed capable
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But always connects at High-Speed
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Result
No matter what I do, it always shows as USB 2.0 on Windows.
I've checked all of these topics solutions with no luck
https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/584856
https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/744350
https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/741150
https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/275074
https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/257168
Question
Is this expected behavior on Windows with Realtek drivers?
Is USB 3 mode disabled for stability reasons, or is there any newer/beta driver or known workaround?
If anyone with the same adapter managed to get USB 3 working on Windows, I’d love to know how.
Thanks!
Hi,
Some of the driver versions provided via Windows Update do apparently not switch the Realtek USB Wi-Fi dongles to USB 3 mode.
Nobody knows for sure whether that is intentional or not, but it would certainly be understandable if Microsoft preferred stability over maximum speed.
Recently someone posted a link to some useful information here in the forum.
https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/846924
From that information the "ForcedUsbMode" option is of particular interest here. I have an Archer T4U V3 Wi-Fi adapter that should use the same Wi-Fi chip as your Archer T3U Plus and by setting "ForcedUsbMode" to 2 (refer to picture below) I can indeed force the driver to switch to USB 3 mode.
Note that in case you do manage to get the Archer T3U Plus to switch to USB 3 mode, then you should really test if it's working stable. Best would be to copy some very large files over your Wi-Fi network between the computer and another local client device.
Common symptoms of stability issues with these Realtek Wi-Fi dongles would be (from least bad to worst): transfer rate suddenly drops to almost zero; network connection is lost; you hear the remove device/plug-in device sound from Windows; computer sort of stalls and then blue-screens after a while.
