[finknottle]

My friend has a Packard Bell Laptop with 4 USB 1.1 ports.. I convinced him to buy an ipod 40GB (instead of an iriver - yuk!).
Will the ipod work with USB 1.1 (I know it will be slow!!). He has a free PCM1A slot. If he gets USB2/Firwire card for that will it charge the ipod?
Thanks

[Wiskedjak]

Tell him to get a good quality firewire card (adaptec, for example). I've tried the ipod through usb 1 and 2 on several pc's and have about 60% success. Seems to be a factor of the usb bridge quality. Best success has been on pc clones with asus and intel mother boards, sony machines and pc laptops. Least success has been with Dell desktops. Never tried an HP, but my guess will be that their internal components will be of similar quality to a Dell.

Firewire all the way ... though the new iPods will be charged through both USB and Firewire.

[finknottle]

Thanks for your input. I advised him to get the card! Does anybody know whether this card by Startech is any good?
Thanks very much for your help!

[finknottle]

Oh I just wanted to say....when I talked to my friend on the phone I said I would find out about the USB issue and get back to him..
Well as usual you guys were on the ball and I rang him back an hour later with the answer. He said "Where did you find out at 10PM?" and I said "own a mac and you get free tech support from the mac community @macnn!!". He was very impressed and said it made his mind up that his next desktop will be a G5