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I have a Dell Precision 7510 with Windows 10. It has four USB A ports and a USB C port. In Device Manager, how do I determine which one of these Universal Serial Bus controllers is the USB C port?
Josh Withee
Posted 2017-12-21T16:46:04.137
Reputation: 237
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In the View menu choose Devices by connection and connect something to the USB-C port.
The new device should show under the correct entry.
Another method is to view Properties > Details for each of the devices in question. Going through the list of properties you may find features and IDs that provide clues regarding the capabilities and nature of each specific device, and you may be able to identify the USB-C port this way too.
music2myear
Posted 2017-12-21T16:46:04.137
Reputation: 34 957
What if I don't have any USB-C devices? – Josh Withee – 2017-12-21T17:29:58.660
1Then do it by process of elimination: Connect devices to each of the other ports in turn and determine the one leftover. – music2myear – 2017-12-21T17:30:51.133
I considered that but there are 7 Universal Serial Bus controllers listed and I only have a total of 5 USB ports, so it would only eliminate 4 out of 7. Can any of these Universal Serial Bus controllers be eliminated just by their name? – Josh Withee – 2017-12-21T17:34:45.677
1The remaining controllers may host internal components. More and more these days USB is being used for internal devices as well as external, so this is not exactly a rare occurrence. However, in Devices by Connection you will see what is connected to these, and so you may still find the correct port through this method of elimination. – music2myear – 2017-12-21T18:13:11.287
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Type-C port is just a connector, there is no special properties for it. It is up to system designer what to route/multiplex to this port, be it an alternative DisplayPort, or Thunderbolt, or audio accessory port, or debug port, or whatever on the top of USB 3.0. The OS will only know if there is a corresponding system controller, but the actual routing should be described in system datasheet.
To determine the port functionality experimentally, you would need to have all corresponding devices physically, Type-C USB device, Type-C DP device/adapter, etc., plug them in one by one, and see the system reaction in Device Manager. This is a "plug-and-play" port, so before a device is plugged in, nobody (besides desingners/datasheets) knows what the port will do.
Ale..chenski
Posted 2017-12-21T16:46:04.137
Reputation: 9 749
Why do you want to identify which one is the USB Type-C port? – Ramhound – 2017-12-21T18:19:22.730
I want to see what the properties/details are specifically for the USB Type-C port – Josh Withee – 2017-12-21T18:21:05.183
What problem are you trying to solve by knowing that information? Here is a news flash, the accepted answer is flawed, if you connect a USB 2 device to a USB 3.1 Type-C port ( with the appropriate cable) it will negotiate and show up as a ISB 2 device. – Ramhound – 2017-12-21T18:32:05.690
I am hoping to find information about the device that will help me determine what USB standard it supports – Josh Withee – 2017-12-21T18:36:56.363
My research indicates that the Dell Precision 7510 only has USB 3.0 ports which matches the device manger list. Use a tool designed to identify which mode a port is in.
– Ramhound – 2017-12-21T18:37:49.790Are you trying to tell if the system has Thunderbolt or DisplayPort over USB-C? These are typically specified on the system spec sheet, and are also denoted by an icon next to the USB-C port. – music2myear – 2017-12-21T21:22:14.313
@Ramhound, USB3 isn't the only protocol running over USB-C. A quick google indicates that Thunderbolt is at least an option on this device, which is most likely to happen over the USB-C connector if his system has it. USB-C is, sadly, a connector type and there are already quite a pile of possible (and possibly incompatible) protocols running over it. Thunderbolt tends to be top of the heap, with DisplayPort 2nd, and then the specified USB standard (which could be USB2.0, actually, and isn't required to be 3 or 3.1). – music2myear – 2017-12-21T21:26:45.537
@music2myear I realize that. I looked up the technical information and it doesn’t list USB Type-C only USB 3.0 – Ramhound – 2017-12-21T23:14:10.607
But it also lists Thunderbolt, which runs USB3.1 plus the Thunderbolt protocols over a USB-C port. I believe the only current USB-C features a Thunderbolt port does not support is DisplayPort, and this laptop has a discrete mini-DP port in addition to the other ports. – music2myear – 2017-12-21T23:49:28.410