Hi catweazle
Great, can you tell me please how you are testing the speed of your USB sticks? And how do you know that these sticks are working slow? Have you any references what makes a fast USB stick? Would be nice when you could share your knowledge about that with us at GSF

But there are too many open problems which need to get sorted out.
When you believe the USB slot of your card reader is working slow, try to use an USB port at the rear side of your computer. Repeat your tests with all USB sticks please. What about the results? Any increases of the peed which can be noticed?
Regards on the card reader itself and the several medias, it can read. I am sure there isn't any test program available which can cover all media slots of card readers. So the only way to clearify that is doing tests by using a CF/MD, MS, SD, MMC media each.
BU