USB 2.0 PCI card and Leopard

My DP 1.25Ghz PowerMac G4 (FW800) spec;
2GB of RAM, 256MB ATI Radeon 9600 Pro (Mac/PC edition), two Seagate 320GB PATA hard disks, Apple OEM Combo drive, aftermarket SONY DVD-burner, and adaptec AUA-4000 USB 2.0 PCI card.

The USB 2.0 PCI card worked fine under Tiger and I bought it back in 2005. I am totally aware of the 'deep sleep' issue and powered down all the USB storage-class devices before putting the G4 to sleep mode.

Last Friday, I went out and bought Leopard. That night, I did a clean install. Everything went well until the USB card refuses to work upon waking from sleep mode. It works when I first powering up the machine and Apple System Profiler recognizes the card, however none of the devices will work.

I have a HP All-in-one PSC 1350 (always off), iPod USB 2.0 cable, and Creative Xmod plugged into my G4.

USB 2.0 is pretty much a necessity these days, especially hooking up an iPod and memory card reader.

Any idea? Thank you.

PowerMac G4 (FW800), PowerMac G5 (2Ghz), iBook G4, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Oct 30, 2007 8:45 PM

Reply
23 replies

Oct 31, 2007 5:19 AM in response to miniblog

Hi-

I think it may be that the cards ROM isn't fully compatible with Leopard. The Adaptec site lists compatibility only through OS 10.2x.

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/_eol/usb/adapters/AUA-4000/

I looked for the chip-set, whether it is Ali, VIA, NEC (NEC is the most desirable) or other, couldn't find any info.
Xlr8yourmac has several user reports reports on the Adaptec AUA-4000, none are very positive.

http://xlr8yourmac.com/firewire/fwusb_card_deepsleep.html

I have a System Talks (Taiwanese maker) and a Ratoc. Both are NEC chip-sets, and both work well in Tiger and Leopard. Neither is specified OS specific compatible.

One last thought, there are many reports of sleep disturbances in Leopard. It is a possibility that there is a component in Leopard that is causing the problem.
It might be best to wait for a while (say OS 10.5.1) before giving up on your current hardware.

Oct 31, 2007 8:01 AM in response to japamac

Right, xlr8yourmac.com is a better place to look for. I remembered that Apple used to have a KB with a list of recommended USB and/or FireWire add-on cards.

Meanwhile, it's interesting that you mentioned something about the ROM on the card. I have never thought about that. Just now, I changed the USB PCI card from slot 2 (one next to the AGP slot) to slot 3, but I doubt it will change the result.

Guess I will wait and see.

Nov 1, 2007 4:42 AM in response to miniblog

Hello.

I have a G4 Dual 1.42GHz (FW800) and an USB 2.0 PCI card (VIA chipset) and it also worked very fine under Tiger. Since this card is sold for the PC market it doesn't bring a driver for Mac OS X.
I went to the VIA site ( http://www.via.com.tw/), there I could found they have another site with drivers for almost any OS. This is the address: http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2

Click on the Mac OS choice in the list and then in USB to get the driver. The driver version is 1.60 and it supports G4 systems ONLY and OS versions: MAC OS X 10.2.x, MAC OS X 10.3.x, MAC OS X 10.4.x. Nothing is said about MAC OS 10.5.x.

Unfortunately it doesn't work in my G4 with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). I also tried to use the USB 2.0 PCI card before installing the driver to see if Apple could have done a driver of its own, but it also didn't work.

If your card has a VIA chipset I recommend you write an e-mail to VIA Technologies, Inc. and tell your problem and ask for the update. I did it too.

I hope they can work it out soon.

Nov 3, 2007 1:54 AM in response to miniblog

Just tried the same PCI card on my G5 and had the same problem. Clearly it's something to do with Leopard.


Everyone blames the new OS....
The card is pre-Leopard, and doesn't support Leopard, that's all. I would contact Adaptec and inquire about a driver update.

FYI, I have two, non-OS specific NEC chipset USB 2.0 PCI cards that both work in Leopard.
I would say the problem is with the firmware that Adaptec has placed on the ROM of the card.

Nov 7, 2007 6:57 PM in response to miniblog

One topic that came up over on the Leopard forum was about sleep issues and disappearing USB buses when waking from sleep. Several posts verify that leaving a USB thumb drive plugged in when sleeping was enough to keep the bus from getting "lost" after reviving from sleep, though you have to yank the thumb drive without ejecting it to jar Leopard into recognizing the bus.

-Douggo

Dec 6, 2007 4:05 PM in response to miniblog

Hello all,
Just upgraded to 10.5.1. Immediatly lost function of a Belkin PCI-e 5 port high speed USB card. Like other posts, it shows in the system profiler but no connected devices are present. No svc to Bose companion 5 system by this port. Ok in native USB ports 😟 I agree the problem is in Leopard. Called Belkin. They state they use only Apple OS drivers for this hardware(ie- no Belkin driver fix). Will need OS 10.5.2 update to fix?

John

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USB 2.0 PCI card and Leopard

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