Upgrade to usb 2.0 with my titanium powerbook?

Question

If I add a USB 2.0 card to the pci slot in my titanium powerbook, is it bad to often disconnect it and reconnect it? I say this because I want my new ipod touch to work, and it wont right now...but I dont want a big thing sticking out of the side of my computer when I am carrying it around. So could I just connect the card whenever I wanted to sync the ipod? thanks.

Answer 1

Hi, bsgroup. Yes, you can remove a USB 2.0 adapter from your PCMCIA slot whenever you aren't using it. There will be no ill effects at all. Just don't remove it while a USB device is connected to it.
However, you should make sure your iPod Touch, about which I know nothing, does not require a built-in USB 2.0 port. The ports on a USB 2.0 adapter card can't supply as much power to connected, bus-powered USB devices as your Powerbook's built-in ports can. I'm not an iPod owner, but it's my understanding that when an iPod is connected to a computer's USB port, it draws its power from the computer rather than from its own battery, and the computer simultaneously charges the iPod's battery. If too little power is available from the port, the iPod won't function properly or its battery won't charge, or both. I don't know enough to tell you what will happen when you connect your iPod to an adapter card. You should post in the appropriate iPod forum and ask others who are more familiar with your iPod model whether any of them have used one with a USB adapter card in a Powerbook that doesn't have built-in USB 2.
I recently bought a USB 2 portable hard drive enclosure and a USB 2 adapter card of the kind you're considering. I was careful to buy a drive enclosure that came with two cables: a USB data cable and a usb power cable, so the drive is able to connect to two USB ports: one for both power and data, and the second for additional power only. When I connect both cables to the two USB 2 ports on my adapter card, my drive (the original 60GB drive mechanism from my Tibook, which I recently replaced with a 120GB internal drive) doesn't get enough power to spin up and can't be used. If I connect the drive's data cable to one of the ports on the card, and the auxiliary power cable to one of my built-in USB 1.1 ports, the drive works perfectly. An iPod can't draw power from two ports, so it has to get whatever it requires from just one. That may or may not be possible using an adapter card. Go into the experiment with your eyes open, and please let us know how it works out for you.
I might mention that the card I bought cost me about $12-13 at a nearby CompUSA store, and bore the store's brand name. CompUSA is about to go out of business nationwide, and if there's a store near you, you might find some very attractive prices there.