I am not a techie person, so please be patient.
I continue to have a pop up that says:
“Your USB composite device can perform faster if it is plugged into a high speed port”
I click to find these ports.
Up pops a tree showing: “USB Root Hub (10 ports)”
Then a list of 10 identical: “Unused Port”
What does this all mean?
I thought that we are tech support people, guess not?
Your laptop has 6 USB ports.
Devices can run at USB 1.1 speeds even when connected to a USB 2.0 port as I inferred above.
In your case I am going to guess that your 5 in 1 card reader is sharing a USB controller with two of the UPS ports. Probably the two that stand by themselves. Those ports may degrade to USB 1.1 speeds.
I have a keyboard with two USB ports built into it. The keyboard is connected to a USB 2.0 port. The two built in ports are considered to be a hub and degrade to USB 1.1 speeds. When I connect any device to the keyboard ports I get that same message. This is due to a USB CONTROLLER only having a finite amount of current available. It is shared by all the ports connected to that controller.
Normally two ports share one USB controller. However, card readers are usually piggybacked onto a controller and share with two ports. So that USB controller will degrade to USB 1.1 speeds.
Removing any memory cards from the reader MAY allow the two shared ports to then run at USB 2.0 speeds. If a device is not designed to need USB 2.0 speeds, which the two devices you mention above are not, then they will not run at USB 2.0 speeds in any event. This is by design and should not be taken as an error.
If you have been using the same two ports for more than the month your mentioned the message may have started due to the presence of a memory card in the reader or a Windows update. The reason is not important, there is nothing wrong with your laptop.