Connecting to older Macs without USB 2.0

Please use this thread to post successful methods of connecting 5G iPods to older Macs that do not have built-in USB 2.0.

The problem: The 5G iPods have dropped support for Firewire. You can connect them using USB 1.1, but this is painfully slow (USB 1.1 is 40 times slower than USB 2.0).

One solution: I own a PowerMac G4 that does not have built-in USB 2.0. I had previously installed an ADS Tech USB 2.0 card that claims to be compatible with OS X, but when I tried to use it to connect up my iPod, iTunes would lock up and I would have to force a reboot of my computer to kill it. Not a pretty sight. Apparently, Apple's USB drivers are not compatible with the majority of USB 2.0 cards out there. From other topics in this forum I read that the Belkin F5B220 USB 2.0 card will work. Luckily, Fry's let me return my old USB 2.0 card and I instead purchased the Belkin card, and it works great.

Why am I creating a new topic? To help other people who have the same problem, please post other ways to solve this problem. Please, let's not complain about the problem in this topic, just solutions, please.

Other people have said that the Belkin 3 port USB Hub (F5B219) also works, but I have not tried it myself. Can anyone verify?

I have also read that any USB 2.0 card with the NEC chip on it should work. When I was at Fry's, I saw a few other PCI cards that use the NEC chip (in particular, one from IOGear), but I have not tried any of them. Has anyone been able to connect an iPod using one of these boards?

Finally, are there any solutions for owners of older Macs without PCI card slots? For Powerbooks and iBooks that have PC card (PCMCIA) slots, which USB 2.0 interface cards work with the iPod?

Even worse, if you own a 12 inch Powerbook or an iMac that doesn't have built-in USB 2.0, is there any solution that will allow you to connect a 5G iPod, other than using (very slow) USB 1.1?

Posted on Nov 3, 2005 9:35 AM

91 replies

Dec 27, 2005 11:08 PM in response to AJ Brace

What are the chances that they're even listening to this? It's a serious lack of vision for the hundreds of thousands of Mac 1.1 +iPod users now left out. All it would take is for a reliable standalone 1394USB 2.0 adapter to fix this transitional issue. They keep the user base and make more money selling the adapter.

Dec 28, 2005 7:51 AM in response to William Leler

I have a 800MHz G4 Powerbook (DVI) running 10.4.3. I decided on the Belkin USB 2.0 notebook card mentioned earlier in the thread, purchased through CompUSA.

I tried it last night. My powerbook picked it up as soon as I plugged it in. I tested it with my digital camera, a D70, and it worked very nicely (though the D70 doesn't work at true USB 2.0 speeds). When my 5G 30GB iPod arrived this morning, I plugged it in.

I only have about 203 songs and one purchased television episode in my iTunes (haven't started digitalizing my CDs yet). It synched in what seemed like seconds. Now it's charging. You know? The video doesn't look half bad in that little window.

If I ever run into problems, I'll update to this thread, but it sure seems to work nicely. And I'll be able to use the notebook card on my Windows/Linux laptop, as well as my other original TiBook.

As for going USB 2.0, this was inevitable: most peripherals are only coming out with a USB 2.0 interface.

Dec 28, 2005 8:02 AM in response to wilmaflintstone

I don't particularly see myself as loyal to any vendor. I appreciate my Powerbooks primarily because of the underlying Unix environment and some of the interesting tweaky things. But I also have a Dell laptop running Ubuntu and Windows 2000.

You cannot use the new 5G video iPods with your machine, or is it that you don't want to extend the machine to add USB 2.0? Regardless, your machine works fine without the iPod. Exactly why is it you feel your loyalty misplaced because you can't spend a few hundred dollars on the latest Apple toy?

Now, if Mac OS 10.5 (***** Cat), wouldn't work on your 2 year old iMac, I could see your umbrage. But not the iPod -- it's a peripherial, and not a necessary one either.

Dec 28, 2005 8:11 PM in response to Roger Gunson

Adaptec makes a USB2 PCMCIA card that works just fine on my 1st gen 17" Powerbook w/ usb 1.1 and fw 400 & 800 porst that are of no use.
Dropping firewire was stupid, Apple has a way of being their own worst enemy!

Dec 28, 2005 8:32 PM in response to William Leler

I have an iMac 17" flat panel G4 800mHz. What is the best way for me to be able to add USB 2.0? Do I have a PCI card slot?

[omen]

Level 1

15 points

Dec 29, 2005 4:53 PM in response to William Leler

I just wanted to inform you all that the Adaptec "USB2Connect High-speed 4-port USB 2.0 card" is working for me. Product # 2033200. Puchased at CompUSA for $39.95.

I'm on a Dual 1 GHz PowerMac G4, running 10.4.2. I purchased it after talking to one of the Apple techs at CompUSA. He suggested the Adaptec card, saying "This is the one to get" after I told him I needed it to drive the new 5G iPod. I originally went in with the intent of buying the Belkin F5U220 5 port USB 2.0 Card or the Sonnet Allegro USB 2.0 Card, but decided to take this guy's advice when they didn't have either in stock.

After installing the card, the iPod took about a minute to mount, which felt a little sluggish. The iPod was originally formatted for Windows, so I decided to wipe it and reformat it. I downloaded the latest iPod Software Updater and iTunes from apple and installed them, then "Restored" the iPod to it's original factory settings.

All subsequent mountings were very quick. It transfers files at the full USB 2.0 high speed. It opens in iTunes without a problem and I was able to transfer a cool 12 GB of music to it in around 20 min or so without a problem. 🙂

Thanks to all for the insight in this thread! I hope this info is helpful to some other folks!

Dual 1 GHz G4 Mac OS X (10.4.2) 1.25 GB DDR SDRAM

Dec 29, 2005 5:14 PM in response to William Leler

Has anyone tried the IOMEGA 160GB firewire/usb external hard drive for connecting to an older iMac 800mHz thus giving you a USB 2.0 port? Or, as I sadly suspect, is there some reason this will not work? Thanks for the help.

cbuford

Level 1

10 points

Dec 29, 2005 9:46 PM in response to Peter Kempe

You can use firewire disk mode and a new mac with usb 2.0 to "bridge" between your system and your 5G iPod.

there is one trick tho. Once you've booted your machine with your itunes library into target disk mode and hooked it up to a machine with USB 2.0, you need to go into System preferences and select YOUR system on what is now showing up as a firewire drive and reboot. This will run your system (and therefore your itunes library) on the USB 2.0. machine.

I did this with my old G4 desktop and my girlfriends USB2 powerbook and it worked great for the initial transfer.

Dec 29, 2005 10:17 PM in response to William Leler

I have had no success getting my brand new iPod Video to work with my TiBook 1GHz through a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card. I had a card that worked with other USB 2.0 perhipherals, but not the iPod. I went to CompUSA and spent $50 on another PC card that was Mac OSX compatible. Not compatible with the iPod, though. I tried using USB 1.1, but it was too slow and the iPod kept getting hung up after transferring a few songs. I have NEVER been this disappointed with an Apple product. I can't imagine which brainless moron at Apple made the decision to eliminate Firewire support from the iPod.

I am done with the whole iPod thing after this. I know Mac won't miss my small contribution to their coffers, but as a Mac user since 1992, I am flat out ****** that I can't use this on a laptop that is just 3 years old.

Dec 29, 2005 11:21 PM in response to Chris Meyer1

I must apologize for my previous post, which really was nothing more than a rant and offered nothing helpful. I don't really think I'm "done" with the whole iPod thing, but after 6+ hours of fussing with this iPod Video and a PCMCIA USB 2.0 solution to the rather poor decision to drop hardware support for older Macs, I certainly am frustrated. I'll devote more time to this tomorrow. Maybe I'll hit upon a solution and will be able to provide some more useful input to this thread.

Dec 30, 2005 9:13 PM in response to wilmaflintstone

If you decide to try this please let us all know what happens.

Martin S.

Level 3

712 points

Dec 30, 2005 10:08 PM in response to wilmaflintstone

These sort of peripherals, offering both USB-2 and FW connectivity, unfortunately don't act as a bridge. I have an external DVD/CD burner, connected via FW to the Mac, but any devices plugged into the burner's USB-2 port are not recognised by the Mac at all.

Sorry.

Martin

Jan 1, 2006 5:12 PM in response to Burningbird

I have the same Powerbook & OS. I was about to purchase a 5G iPod, but now I'm not so sure... I have not had good luck using the Belkin USB 2.0 PC Card mentioned earlier with USB 2.0 devices.

I have tried to use a Sandisk media card reader and a Kingston flash drive with the Belkin card - neither are even found. However, both devices do work with the Adaptec USB 2.0 PC Card for laptops - but no one seems to have had any luck with this Adaptec card and the video iPod.

Is there a PC Card out there that will work reliably for many USB devices as well as the 5G iPod?

Thanks,
Matthew

IMO - Unfortunately, the superior Firewire is on it's way out. It's not as common with newer peripherals, and by using USB 2.0, Apple can build single devices/cables that will work on all (new) Macs and PCs without FW. Also, storage devices, for which FW was originally created, now boast Ethernet and Fiber channel connections more suited for serious developers. Anyone else can use USB. Bravo to Apple for creating FW and bringing it mainstream, but it's terribly sad to see FW abandoned in the name of their bottom line. Buy AAPL.

Untmdsprt

Level 2

397 points

Feb 3, 2006 2:14 PM in response to William Leler

As my life is an ironic twist with everything that happens to me, my USB card works with my new video iPod. I have a CompUSA 4 USB, 2 firewire PCI card with the ALi chipset (M5271 0417 TS05). It does charge the iPod, and synced around 2600 songs in about 15 min. I have also bought an Adaptec USB card with the NEC chipset. BTW, the Ali card works great with Tiger only. It had issues going into deep sleep mode with Panther. I never had to install drivers.

My perception is firewire was faster when I had my 40GB. Can anyone tell me if my speed was acceptable or not? Would a different chipset make a difference? I haven't opened the Adaptec card, and still have the receipt. I'd like to know if I should take it back, or would it be faster?

Here is the stats of the iPod and port:

USB High-Speed Bus:

Host Controller Location: Expansion Slot
Host Controller Driver: AppleUSBEHCI
PCI Device ID: 0x5239
PCI Revision ID: 0x0001
PCI Vendor ID: 0x10b9
Bus Number: 0x75

iPod:

Capacity: 27.94 GB
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk3
Version: 0.01
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Apple
OS9 Drivers: No
Product ID: 0x1209
Serial Number:
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Vendor ID: 0x05ac (Apple Computer, Inc.)
Volumes:

Martin S.

Level 3

712 points

Feb 3, 2006 2:32 PM in response to Demetrios Kaiafas

Demetrios,

sorry, but there's no way for the time being to add USB 2 to your iMac. I have the same Mac and have posted the same question on various online forums, but to no avail.

You can use a 5G iPod but the transfer speed will be very, very slow.

Cheers Martin

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Connecting to older Macs without USB 2.0