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Laurence · Oct 14, 2003, 11:34 PM

I recently read somewhere that preliminary support for USB2 has been added to 10.2.8 and Panther. I think I understand that this will enable those USB2 chipsets in the current PowerMacs, but has anyone tried installing a standard PC USB2 card and seeing if it will work with the built-in drivers? I realize that there are USB2 cards with custom mac drivers, but most are close to $100 and I can find any number of Wintel USB2 PCI cards for $10-20 and would prefer to go that route. I really don't need USB2 ports, just some more USB 1.0 ports as I really hate using a hub with all the extra cables and such.

Any news on this front?

digital_dreamer · Oct 15, 2003, 01:41 AM

Last year (2002), I bought a Koutech Firewire/USB 2.0 card for my Dual 500Mhz G4 to replace its blown out firewire ports. It has worked great ever since, except I never got "High Speed" USB 2.0 (480Mbps) speeds, only USB 1.1 speeds.

With the latest system update (10.2.8), I suddenly got USB 2.0 speeds.

I can't speak for every Firewire/USB card out there, but generally speaking, it should work right out of the box. And, with X.2.8, USB 2.0 speeds should be supported.

regards,
MAJ

P.S. Koutech's info on site says 'no Firewire support in Macs'. Wrong. Old and outdated, perhaps. My Firewire drives, scanner, and DV converter wouldn't be working without it.

Laurence · Oct 15, 2003, 11:08 AM

Well, I went out and bought a cheap Wintel PCI USB2 card (4 external, 1 internal port) and plugged it in and system profiler shows it as a "high speed" USB bus so it seemed to be working properly. I then plugged in a printer and it was not recognized in the system profiler. I also tried a SmartMedia card reader. It didn't work either. Both of these devices work fine on the built in USB ports.

I'm at work right now and I can't remember the chipset the card uses, but whatever it is it doesn't work in 10.2.8 or Panther.

Does anyone know what chipsets the Apple drivers support? It is possible that the card I purchased is just defective, but it does seem to be recognized partially.

tr · Oct 15, 2003, 01:03 PM

check out this page:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/firewire/....html#storytop

it seems that people have been having success with PC cards if they use the NEC chipset; people have also suggested installing the Orange Micro driver.

check it out, lots of reports.

tr

Cadaver · Oct 15, 2003, 02:14 PM

Dual G5, 10.2.8, Adaptec 4-port PCI USB 2.0 card... works fine for me (including deep sleep).