Anything to look out for when buying a PCI USB card?
  • Acolyte of the Butterfly
    Acolyte of the Butterfly
    runequester
    Posts: 106 from 2010/1/11
    Looking to get a USB card for my G4 MDD. Any particular cards to get or cards that won't work ?

    Was looking at something like this
    http://www.amazon.com/Protronix%C2%AE-5-Port-Controller-Card-Chipset/dp/B005JE2U82/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1342755324&sr=8-3&keywords=pci+usb+2.0+card
    as it looks quite adequate and quite cheap :)

    [ Edited by runequester 20.07.2012 - 03:37 ]
    Amiga 1200 and G4 MDD MOS as my main computers.
  • »20.07.12 - 01:36
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  • Moderator
    Kronos
    Posts: 2452 from 2003/2/24
    It has a NEC-chipset so you should be good.

    VIAs are also known to work (no experience with ALI but what I remeber isn't good).

    Out of the 4 NEC cards I had all but one wotked with MorphOS in the PMac.

    The one that didn't work was the one that came with that PMac (and worked just fine in the Peg2 I sold some weeks later)  8-)
  • »20.07.12 - 11:21
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Doffo
    Posts: 508 from 2010/10/14
    From: Nevada
    Just bought one off ebay exactly like that one. Sucks that a normal MDD only has 2 USB ports, but now that I will be adding that PCI card + the 5.25 bay 4 port USB hub, my MDD will have 10 USB ports total lol.

     8-)
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  • »20.07.12 - 12:31
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  • Acolyte of the Butterfly
    Acolyte of the Butterfly
    runequester
    Posts: 106 from 2010/1/11
    Thanks guys!
    Amiga 1200 and G4 MDD MOS as my main computers.
  • »20.07.12 - 14:16
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    maurensen
    Posts: 358 from 2003/10/3
    From: Padova - Italy
    I just bought a cheap and unbranded VIA chip PCI USB 2.0 card and it works like a charm in OSX and MOS.
    So, AFAIK, go for a VIA equipped board...

    [ Edited by maurensen 22.07.2012 - 13:47 ]
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  • »22.07.12 - 10:44
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Doffo
    Posts: 508 from 2010/10/14
    From: Nevada
    Just installed the USB PCI card, and works like a charm!

    So you should be good on the one you found on Amazon. BTW, I find it very odd that this FW800 MDD has a built-on USB 2.0 though on the MDD Wiki it states it has USB 1.1.
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  • »25.07.12 - 02:25
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12408 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > I find it very odd that this FW800 MDD has a built-on USB 2.0 though
    > on the MDD Wiki it states it has USB 1.1.

    The FW800 MDD's on-board USB controller is a "silent" (as in "de facto, but not officially stated by Apple") 2.0 one.

    https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=7183&start=744
    http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10342429-263.html
  • »25.07.12 - 05:40
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Doffo
    Posts: 508 from 2010/10/14
    From: Nevada
    Ahh! K, thanks Andreas_Wolf :)
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  • »25.07.12 - 22:05
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  • Acolyte of the Butterfly
    Acolyte of the Butterfly
    runequester
    Posts: 106 from 2010/1/11
    Card arrived today in a bag printed "made in chian". Apparently quality control was taking a break that day.

    But the card works great and now I can have gamepad, mouse, keyboard and card reader all plugged in at the same time :)
    Amiga 1200 and G4 MDD MOS as my main computers.
  • »26.07.12 - 01:25
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Doffo
    Posts: 508 from 2010/10/14
    From: Nevada
    Glad it worked out for you Runequester... Mine also had Made in Chian as well... But I suppose didnt look too bad lol.. I had the front USB hub on the USB card, but for some reason when I tried transferring from my flash drive, it instantly locks up, but its fine once i put it directly to the usb pci card.

     8-)
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  • »26.07.12 - 03:32
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Doffo
    Posts: 508 from 2010/10/14
    From: Nevada
    NI!!

    Apparently there is an issue with my USB card. Whenever I go to transfer a big file, it corrupted itself along the way though it completed.

    I connected my external drive to the build-in USB port, and everything copied great.... I did the MD5 checksums and the built-in USB matched the one on the external drive, whereas my USB PCI card's transfer had a mismatched MD5. Played back the file and it was infact corrupt. :(

    Hope there ain't an issue with these USB cards.... Anyone else had this problem??
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  • »30.07.12 - 00:37
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Doffo
    Posts: 508 from 2010/10/14
    From: Nevada
    Just bought a Belkin / NEC F5U219 usb 2.0 card for $9 off ebay. I think this might of been the same USB PCI card I had on my quicksilver a few years back. Hoping it will work and not corrupt my file transfers.

    If your curious to test it out, copy a file from any USB Mass Storage device to any two partitions, and when you try to overwrite the file to another, the MD5 checksums will be totally whack.
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  • »30.07.12 - 01:44
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Doffo
    Posts: 508 from 2010/10/14
    From: Nevada
    Update:

    The Belkin USB 2.0 card worked out GREAT! No more errors in the files. My front 5.25 USB 4 port usb hub works like a charm as well. This whole time it was that cheap 2.0 card that was making things behave badly.. Either way, The Belkin usb cards can be picked up around $5 or so shipped on ebay.  8-)
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  • »04.08.12 - 21:26
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  • Acolyte of the Butterfly
    Acolyte of the Butterfly
    runequester
    Posts: 106 from 2010/1/11
    yeah, you can get these for dirt cheap nowadays. I guess they're basically not useful to most PC users anymore
    Amiga 1200 and G4 MDD MOS as my main computers.
  • »04.08.12 - 22:57
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Doffo
    Posts: 508 from 2010/10/14
    From: Nevada
    runequester,
    Quote:

    yeah, you can get these for dirt cheap nowadays. I guess they're basically not useful to most PC users anymore


    True... Just wanted to make it aware to others the first PCI USB card I picked up is a no go. Didn't want your files to become corrupted or be bad along the way.
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  • »05.08.12 - 00:32
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