Installing a USB 2.0 PCI card

I'm looking to install a USB 2.0 PCI card in my Power Mac G4 867 mhz.
I've heard of problems doing this, and was looking for advice or suggestions for specific cards.
Thank you.

Hi-
To get optimal results from a USB 2.0 PCI card, get a card that has the NEC chipset. Via and Ali chipsets are problematic, and should be avoided.
Some USB 2.0 cards that have the NEC chipset are:
Adaptec 3100LP
BAFO BF-460
Belkin F5U220
GWC UC-160
IOGear GIC250U
Keyspan U2PCI-5
O'toLink U2-C2B
O'toLink U2-C2A
O'toLink U2-P20N
O'toLink U2-P50
Ratoc PCIU5
USBWholesale UII-PCIP
Even if the card isn't stated to be Mac compatible, OS X has NEC chipset support, and can use the card. I have two different cards bought from PC stores, that work great. And, they're alot cheaper than mac specific cards.
One of the biggest problem areas of USB 2.0 in a G4 is connection of an external harddrive, or other mass storage device. These devices invariably (with few, erratic exceptions) cause sleep freeze, even with a NEC chipset card.
For external harddrives, on a G4, USB 2.0 is not a convenient option.
For more on other user experiences with various USB cards, see Xlr8yourMac.

Similar Messages

Kernel panic after installing a USB 3.0 PCIe card

Hello everybody,
I have a recent issue with my Mac Pro (early 2008). I just bought a USB 3.0 PCIe card from eBay for my Mac Pro and as the seller mentioned there are drivers for Mountain Lion. After installing the cards drivers that the seller sent me and plugged the PCIe card, whenever I connect a USB 3.0 device (I have only one) the Mac Pro is forced to reboot. If I leave the drive connected after the reboot I get a kernel panic message during the "Grey Apple Boot Screen" and the computer continues to reboot again and again. I have no issues with USB 2.0 devices at the same card. The kernel I get is the following. Does anyone have any idea? it seems like the kext installed with the card {net.osx86.kexts.VLIUSBXHCI(1.2.4)} causes the problem but the seller told me he has sold a lot of them, and i 'm the first with such a problem.
Thank you in advance.
Tue Aug 27 10:58:35 2013
panic(cpu 3 caller 0xffffff800a4b8655): Kernel trap at 0xffffff7f8aa00cf8, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x000000008001003b, CR2: 0x0000000000000000, CR3: 0x000000000c9a4000, CR4: 0x0000000000000660
RAX: 0x000000000b1cb000, RBX: 0xffffff8019bbee00, RCX: 0xffffff801981b010, RDX: 0x0000000000000000
RSP: 0xffffff80bba3b650, RBP: 0xffffff80bba3b690, RSI: 0x0000000000000000, RDI: 0xffffff8019bba630
R8: 0xffffff80bba3b570, R9: 0x0000000000000200, R10: 0xffffff8019bba630, R11: 0xffffff8019bba600
R12: 0x0000000000000000, R13: 0x0000000000000200, R14: 0xffffff80c1c7e000, R15: 0xffffff801981b000
RFL: 0x0000000000010206, RIP: 0xffffff7f8aa00cf8, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000000
Fault CR2: 0x0000000000000000, Error code: 0x0000000000000002, Fault CPU: 0x3
Backtrace (CPU 3), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff80bba3b2f0 : 0xffffff800a41d626
0xffffff80bba3b360 : 0xffffff800a4b8655
0xffffff80bba3b530 : 0xffffff800a4ce17d
0xffffff80bba3b550 : 0xffffff7f8aa00cf8
0xffffff80bba3b690 : 0xffffff7f8aa0a625
0xffffff80bba3b6c0 : 0xffffff7f8aa0a2a9
0xffffff80bba3b770 : 0xffffff7f8aa09f1a
0xffffff80bba3b7d0 : 0xffffff7f8aa036f3
0xffffff80bba3b7f0 : 0xffffff7f8a9b3591
0xffffff80bba3b850 : 0xffffff800a84907a
0xffffff80bba3b8b0 : 0xffffff7f8a9c400e
0xffffff80bba3b910 : 0xffffff7f8a9c41dd
0xffffff80bba3b970 : 0xffffff7f8a9a2eec
0xffffff80bba3b9a0 : 0xffffff7f8a9a1bbf
0xffffff80bba3b9e0 : 0xffffff800a83085b
0xffffff80bba3ba40 : 0xffffff7f8a9a1b09
0xffffff80bba3ba70 : 0xffffff800a84907a
0xffffff80bba3bad0 : 0xffffff7f8a9a1a74
0xffffff80bba3bb10 : 0xffffff7f8aeaa195
0xffffff80bba3bb40 : 0xffffff800a83194b
0xffffff80bba3bb80 : 0xffffff800a83146e
0xffffff80bba3bc10 : 0xffffff800a82d400
0xffffff80bba3bc50 : 0xffffff800a82d10f
0xffffff80bba3bc90 : 0xffffff800a82cfc4
0xffffff80bba3bcd0 : 0xffffff7f8a9ad2bd
0xffffff80bba3bd00 : 0xffffff7f8a9adb68
0xffffff80bba3bda0 : 0xffffff7f8ae08b47
0xffffff80bba3bdd0 : 0xffffff7f8ae085b9
0xffffff80bba3be40 : 0xffffff7f8ae07f6c
0xffffff80bba3be60 : 0xffffff800a83194b
0xffffff80bba3bea0 : 0xffffff800a83146e
0xffffff80bba3bf30 : 0xffffff800a82d400
0xffffff80bba3bf70 : 0xffffff800a831fc9
0xffffff80bba3bfb0 : 0xffffff800a4b3137
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(5.6)[065077C5-A49E-3C52-BDC0-60169E293563]@0xffffff 7f8a997000->0xffffff7f8a9f2fff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.7.3)[1D668879-BEF8-3C58-ABFE-FAC6B3E9A292]@0xffff ff7f8a96e000
         net.osx86.kexts.VLIUSBXHCI(1.2.4)[00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000]@0xfffff f7f8a9ff000->0xffffff7f8aa17fff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(5.6.0)[065077C5-A49E-3C52-BDC0-60169E293563]@0xffff ff7f8a997000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.7.3)[1D668879-BEF8-3C58-ABFE-FAC6B3E9A292]@0xffff ff7f8a96e000
         com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite(5.2.5)[E52D4507-6DB1-392E-B46B-FC7107573D4C] @0xffffff7f8ae07000->0xffffff7f8ae0dfff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(5.6.0)[065077C5-A49E-3C52-BDC0-60169E293563]@0xffff ff7f8a997000
         com.apple.iokit.IOUSBAttachedSCSI(1.0.3)[1EBCBF6E-4BB8-341D-8B0B-D35C69425E67]@ 0xffffff7f8aea6000->0xffffff7f8aeadfff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(5.6.0)[065077C5-A49E-3C52-BDC0-60169E293563]@0xffff ff7f8a997000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily(1.8)[5BA4CD36-E96D-3A9E-ADFF-A863BBD63BC7]@0xff ffff7f8aa96000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily(3.5.5)[DCE95F6E-F7D4-33D8-9515-FB C4FF5B1AB4]@0xffffff7f8ab65000
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Mac OS version:
Not yet set
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 12.4.0: Wed May 1 17:57:12 PDT 2013; root:xnu-2050.24.15~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 896CB1E3-AB79-3DF1-B595-549DFFDF3D36
Kernel slide:     0x000000000a200000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff800a400000
System model name: MacPro3,1 (Mac-F42C88C8)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 1372235172
last loaded kext at 1219506626: com.apple.driver.CSRHIDTransitionDriver          4.1.4f2 (addr 0xffffff7f8b24a000, size 16384)
loaded kexts:
com.rogueamoeba.InstantOn          6.0.2
net.osx86.kexts.VLIUSBXHCI          1.2.4
com.apple.driver.CSRHIDTransitionDriver          4.1.4f2
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBAttachedSCSI          1.0.3
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient          3.5.5
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter          404
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage          2.3.1
com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver          3.0.1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless          1.0.0d1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib          1.0.0d1
com.apple.BootCache          34
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBXHCI          5.6.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub          5.5.5
com.apple.driver.AppleIntel8254XEthernet          3.1.1b1
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort          2.5.2
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI          4.9.6
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPIIXATA          2.5.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI          5.5.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI          5.2.5
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM          1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons          1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET          1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC          1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS          1.9
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC          1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC          1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient          196.0.0
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall          4.0.39
com.apple.security.quarantine          2.1
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement          196.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDKeyboard          170.2
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard          170.2
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver          5.2.5
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice          3.5.5
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass          3.5.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub          5.5.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite          5.2.5
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice          3.5.5
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily          1.7
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily          1.7.1
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily          1.7.1
com.apple.iokit.IOATAPIProtocolTransport          3.5.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily          3.5.5
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily          3.0
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient          5.5.5
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily          2.3.1
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily          4.5.5
com.apple.iokit.IOATAFamily          2.5.1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily          5.6.0
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily          1.8.1
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime          1.7
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily          1.1
com.apple.security.sandbox          220.3
com.apple.kext.AppleMatch          1.0.0d1
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet          7
com.apple.driver.DiskImages          345
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily          1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore          28.21
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform          1.7
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily          2.7.3
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily          1.4
com.apple.kec.corecrypto          1.0

That card appears to be a Via Labs VL800 and Via has no Mac drivers, so gosh only knows where that kext came from. I'd highly recommend you remove it and consider getting a card from Sonnet where you can get proper Mac support:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/allegrousb3pcie.html
To me it's not worth saving a few bucks from some generic card/driver pair to risk problems and perhaps even malware.
Regards.

Rev. A Beige G3 DT compatible with USB 2.0 PCI cards?

Having had a lot of luck upgrading and updating some old Sawtooth G4s I decided to try my hand at something more interesting - an old Rev. A Beige G3 that fortuitously dropped into my lap.
I tried installing a 5-port USB 2.0 card with an NEC chipset, since apparently NEC's chipsets are the most compatible chipsets with the Mac. However, I've been getting Type 11 errors on startup everytime. Curiously, an older 2-port USB card works fine.
So my main question is: has anyone else seen this occurring? Have other successfully used NEC-based USB 2.0 PCI cards on their Rev. A Beige G3s?

Sorry for the inordinately long time it took me to reply. The OS running on the G3 is 9.2.2.
After doing some digging around I discovered a trick with replacing the OS 9 USB adapter card extensions with those from the installer for USB Adapter Card 1.4.1 updater. What I did was that I took out of my extensions folder the following files: USB Authoring Support, USB Device Extension, USB Software Locator, and USBAppleMonitor. I then ran the 1.4.1 update, and everything seems to work - the computer recognized the card and USB mice and hard drives were detected by the system.
I'm normally not one for mixing and matching extensions, but I'm glad the card now works.

USB 2.0 PCI cards

I've got an old Power Mac G4 Quicksilver, which means I don't have USB 2.0 ports. I'm not sure the new printer I'm getting supports anything older than USB 2.0, so I'm looking at some of the USB 2.0 PCI cards. I'm finding them for, like, $12, which seems like no big deal.
My machine's obviously nowhere near new, tho', so I want to make sure these PCI cards are compatible. The cards' specs say "Compliant with PCI specification 2.2," for example, but I can't find any Apple specs that would tell me whether that means they would work in my Quicksilver. Any ideas?

Thanks -- that's good to know (about the USB 1.1/2.0 backwards compatibility). Some printers I'd seen listed only USB 2.0 compatibility, others listed 1.0 and 2.0, so I wasn't sure. I'll wait and try out the new printer before I start worrying about other options.
Now, should push come to shove, the PCI card I'd been looking at was definitely Mac compatible (listed as such, available through Macmall.com). And as I went on safari though Apple's support site, I did finally find the "Setting up your Mac" manual for my Quicksilver.
Hidden on Page 80 of that I found instructions to "install only expansion cards that come with Macintosh driver software and that comply with the PCI 2.1 standard." If I'm finding cards that comply with the PCI 2.2 standard, suppose I should expect them to work in my machine?

USB 2.0 PCI card VT6202 chipset?

Hi there,
I own a QS 733 and want to put get a bit more life out of the machine, so thought I would install a USB 2.0 card. Trawling through eBay, the inexpensive cards all seem to be based on the VIA VT6202 chipset. The Via website claims to have Mac drivers for this set:http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=23&CatID=2470&SubCatID=122 but unfortunately I get a time out when I try to get the linked file.
Does anyone have experience with these cards on a Mac?
Many thanks in advance for your help!
All the best,
Dan

Hi-
The linked PCI card with the NEC chip-set will be better than a VIA or ALI chip-set card. It should work, and you don't need to worry about drivers- all you need is within Tiger.
So, as far as issues with sleep, either not sleeping, or, the most common problem, not waking from sleep. VIA and ALI chip-sets can cause problems with no device attached at all. NEC chip-sets allow the card to reside nicely in the computer (no conflicts), but the connected device may cause problems.
Memory writing USB hardware, or, as I like to say, mass storage devices, can be used on the USB 2.0, but, to keep from having sleep problems, especially if they are USB powered (like the iPod, and some card readers), the device must be ejected, and disconnected, before sleeping the computer.
Other devices, printers, scanners, cameras, some card readers, and such, are on a case by case basis. If the device has it's own power supply, often times they won't cause any problems. If, the device does cause a sleep problem while connected to the PCI card, often times a powered USB 2.0 hub between the device and the USB card will take care of the problem.
Real world results- I have a Logicool QCam Ultra, a powered mouse-pad, a Wacom tablet, and a HP All-in-one printer connected to my USB 2.0 card. All devices work without causing sleep problems. I also have a 30gb iPod. If I leave the iPod connected when I command sleep, or if the computer goes to sleep while the iPod is connected, I cannot wake the machine. It requires a hard restart (holding the power button for 5 seconds) to bring the machine back. As long as I eject and disconnect the ipod, all is fine with sleep. To aid in the connect/disconnect, I leave the iPod cable connected to the PCI card, and leave the cable where it is easily accessed.
Many people will inquire as to external USB hard drives-I say, firewire is better, period. USB HDD's and USB 2.0 PCI cards are the most common culprits with USB 2.0 incompatibilities. If you want headaches, use USB HDD'S and USB 2.0 PCI cards.
Testing each USB 2.0 device, individually, will soon confirm whether or not special needs are required. I realize that most all of us are "plug it and leave it" conditioned, but, with some modification of habits, USB 2.0 can work, and work well, on non USB 2.0 native machines.

IPod 30GB will not work with 3rd party USB 2.0 PCI card

I've had an IOGear PCI USB 2.0 card (GIC220U-BIO) in my Sawtooth for some time now, and have been using it flawlessly with my Canon i860 printer, and Canon LiDE 30 Scanner.
Just recently I received a Video iPod (30GB) and wanted to take advantage the high speed USB bus offered on that card to sync my iPod. The problem is, when I plug in the iPod to the USB port on that card, I get the transparent gray box telling me that I need to restart my mac by pushing the reset switch, or holding the power button for several seconds (in other words, freezes).
The iPod works fine with the built-in USB ports (albeit slow), as well as the high speed port on my iBook G4. Why am I getting this error? There are no drivers or firmware updates for this PCI card available.
Is there a solution?

Yes, use a different USB 2.0 PCI card, like from Sonnet. I use a Sonnet in a G5 and it works great. There are (at least) 2 USB chipsets and I find the TI ones are great and the other not so great.
The fact it works on 1.1 and the 2.0 on the G4 at least tells you it is not the iPod and a USB 2 card is $20 or $30 at the most.

What is the correct USB 3.0 PCIE card for Z800?

I'm looking to buy the correct USB 3.0 PCIe card for a Z800, but I cant find any thru HP. Any have any info> There's 12 and 60 dollar HP cards on EBAY, but I don't know if those are correct ones.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi,
Based on the following specs, the machine has plenty of options:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13278_na/13278_na.PDF
You can buy 1-port card, 2-port card, 3-port card or even 4-port card such as:
http://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/USB-3.0/Cards/2-Port-PCI-Express-SuperSpeed-USB-3-Card-Adapte...
You need to check the slot to get the right bracket for the card.
Regards.
ps eBay is a different story, you can buy few dollars card.
BH
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Pb with X200, NEC based USB 3.0 PCI card and external USB 3.0 HD

Hello, I ordered a USB 3.0 Express Card based on the NEC chipset. I am using a Lenovo X200 under XP SP3 and I have an external Buffalo Ministation USB3.0 HD. No problem to install the Express Card driver, the card is recognized but the HD won't mount. I have the USB connection beep and in the next 10 sec the USD disconnection beep. This is not a low power issue, I connected to the Express Card a power supply and have the same issue. In addition, this config, Express Card and Ministation Buffalo just work fine on a T60 under Windows 7. Any idea? Many thanks ! Tom

craig stewart wrote:
I would like to add IO to my Mac Pro Details of it are below
I have looked at several options and would be happy to go with either eSata or USB 3.0. I have heard some bad reviews about the USB 3.0 PCI offerings out there though.
On the one hand, I have an unused eSata enclosure so I would not have to buy one, on the other hand a few USB 3.0 ports on the machine would allow grerater expandability with a USB 3.0 hub hung off the back. ( can you get eSata hubs? never thought of that until just now)
The nearest thing to an eSATA hub is a 'SATA port-multiplier'. This allows connecting up to 4 SATA drives to a single SATA port.
Note: Not all SATA or eSATA cards support 'port-multiplier' functionality. The CalDigit card says it does support port-multiplier enclosures, what this means is that a single eSATA cable can be connected to an external box containing multiple SATA drives and see and use them all.

IPod touch will not work with USB 2.0 PCI Card?

I have a dual processor PowerMac G4 that has USB 2.0 via a PCI card. When I plug in the iPod nothing at all happens. I haven't read anything about PCI cards not being compatible with the touch. Is anyone else having this problem?

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents...I've got the same problem...I've had a Keyspan USB 2.0 5 port card in my Dual MDD G4 for years and it's worked fine. Well, until a few days ago when I tried updating some stuff on our iPods. It would initially start working then lose connection. Now nothing at all with 5 iPods. It won't even show up on the desktop under Disk Mode. I did the same and it works fine under the old stock USB 1.0 but slooooooowwww. Is this yet another problem with Leopard? I've searched the Keyspan site and they don't have any updated drivers. Guess I'll look for a Belkin as well...ugh!!! Leopard is horrible! First no printer drivers, then no iSub support, now this!

Which slot should I install my Blackmagic Intensity Pro PCIe card?

Hi there,
I just purchased myself a Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro capture card. It's a x1 lane PCIe card and according to the manual, it should work in any PCIe slot on the Mac Pro. However, in the readme file, it states, "If using a Mac Pro, it is recommended to use PCIe slot 4 for Intensity capture cards."
What exactly does this mean? Does this mean it's recommended to use the x4 lane slot? Or the 4th slot in the Mac Pro? I'm a little confused.
Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from someone soon.
Regards,
Daniel

Depends when it was written, and for which Mac Pro.
Does it support 16x slots? maybe. But slots 3&4 are 4x and #4 refers to the top most just under the hard drives.
Some cards use to run best in 8x slot which was slot #4 on early Mac Pro but which was also PCIe 1.1.
Mac Pro 2008 and later, doesn't matter.
Apple had trouble with their own Fibre Channel card not working correctly in 2008, and not working to full bandwidth.
I passed answering before because you just need to look at what your PCIe slots provide.

Can i install a usb 3.0 pci express card in a mac pro 2008

Can I install a PCI express USB 3.0 card in my Mac Pro 2008? Will it support the higher speed?

No.

Poweredge R710 USB 3.0 pcie card boot drive

Is it at all possible to boot the R710 from a pcie USB 3.0 card to have that as the boot up drive? And if thats possible which riser does it need to be installed in? Riser 1 or riser 2?
Reason for me asking is because i want all 6 3.5" drives dedicated to storage RAID only and have the boot OS on something else other than the 6 drives.
I know the R710 comes with a dedicated USB socket but that's 2.0 so that's too slow for my liking.
Any help to this question would be great!
This topic first appeared in the Spiceworks Community

Is it at all possible to boot the R710 from a pcie USB 3.0 card to have that as the boot up drive? And if thats possible which riser does it need to be installed in? Riser 1 or riser 2?
Reason for me asking is because i want all 6 3.5" drives dedicated to storage RAID only and have the boot OS on something else other than the 6 drives.
I know the R710 comes with a dedicated USB socket but that's 2.0 so that's too slow for my liking.
Any help to this question would be great!
This topic first appeared in the Spiceworks Community

New IPad2,connected to my upgraded G4 10.5.8 via USB 2.0 PCI card, latest version of iTunes, signed in to mobil me acct and attempted to sync. Altho I waited nothing seemed to happen. Eventually changed to sync via cable and all is well.

Altho I checked "sync via mobil me", nothing ever happened. Tech support then advised unchecking that and syncing instead via computer/cable and iTunes
So, why not able to sync wirelessly with mobil me? Has anyone been able to?

Thanks Mike.
Actually nothing seemed to be synced, altho I'm not sure whether I looked everywhere. In particular, no iTunes content was sent to the iPad, no Safari bookmarks, no Yahoo or Gmail contacts etc. Shouldn't some of this have been synced, or is it only content in Mobil Me, i.e my Apple Mail contacts etc?

USB 2.0 on PCI card no longer supported?

Curious as to whether anyone else has experienced the same problem I had trying to update via a USB 2.0 port on a PCI card. I just updated to 1.1.1 yesterday, and while connected to a USB 2.0 port on my PCI card (my old Mac never had built-in 2.0 ports), all **** broke loose after the download was complete and ready to be installed. I've never had problems syncing via the PCI card's USB 2.0 port up to now, but during the "preparing iPhone for . . ." process, my iPhone would not respond to the installer, resulting in an error message. After repeated attempts, I switched over to a built-in USB 1.1 port and then had to do a complete restore (which took several hours), but was successful. Oddly though, after the restore, if I try to use the USB 2.0 port on the PCI card again to sync, I get an error message saying that the contents of the iPhone cannot be read, and that I'll have to restore again (even though the phone is fully functional). If I switch back to the built-in USB 1.1 port, everything is fine and I'm not asked to restore the phone. Looks like I can no longer use my USB 2.0 ports (on the PCI card), which worked fine prior to 1.1.1. I know that my weeks/months are numbered with this older Mac (doesn't appear that Leopard will be supported on this Mac), but I just wasn't planning to purchase a new Mac just yet. Perhaps Apple is now checking for "built-in" USB 2.0 during these updates and not supporting USB 2.0 via a PCI card? Would sort of make sense, given the number of users who continue to have problems just trying to get iTunes to recognize their phone (i.e., eliminate the 3rd-party PCI cards). I doubt I'll attempt another update to my iPhone with this Mac. Let me know if you've had a similar experience using a PCI card rather than "built-in" USB ports. Thanks.

Thanks everyone for the great info!
I had an issue with my wife's Powermac G4 Sawtooth and went out and got a Belkin USB 2.0 PCI card to replace the less compatible usb 2.0 pci card. It looks a card with the NEC chipset definitely does the trick.
Her iPhone now syncs pretty much perfectly on the Belkin card. Yaaay!
Of course, it doesn't help that there is another syncing issue going on right now, which kind of threw me:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1311405&tstart=0
But that's temporary. Thanks again!
Message was edited by: John Chu

Upgraded to USB 2.0 with pci card...works 1 out of 10 times????

Hi,
Anyone having this problem? I installed a pci card with usb 2.0
The high-speed bus is recognized in my "about this mac". However, if I hook up my ipod or any device for that matter, it doesn't recognize it. Do I just need to wait longer? When I first installed the car I did have it connect a few times. But it's very inconsistent. I'm running 10.3.9 and I'm about to upgrade to 10.4. Might this help?
Thanks in advance
Pete

What brand/model card did you install. Not all USB 2.0 PCI cards work in a Mac. Your best bet is any card with a NEC PD720100 or PD720101 chipset (xlr8yourmac results recommend the same). Read this for more feedback: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/firewire/fwusb_card_deepsleep.html
Stick with the NEC chip, and try NOT to use drivers, OS X doesn't need the drivers.
All of these Cards are NEC chipset based
Adaptec 3100LP
BAFO BF-460
Belkin F5U220
GWC UC-160
IOGear GIC250U & GIC251U
Keyspan U2PCI-5
O'toLink U2-C2A, U2-C2B, U2-P20N & U2-P50
Ratoc PCIU5
USBWholesale UII-PCIP
I recently installed an IOGear GIC251U. Was plug & play.
If you plug your mouse imto the card, does the mouse work?
 Cheers, Tom

Installing a USB 2.0 PCI card

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