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

Feb 5, 2006 5:44 AM in response to William Leler

I've just purchased a 30gig 5th gen ipod, however the songs are transferring over dreadfully slowly, I've had it running for hours and only done around half my 4000 song. So now I'm terrified by the realisation that I might not have USB 2. Either that or surely something is wrong, because this is taking far too long..

I have a 1ghz G4 eMac Superdrive, I think it's the 'early 2004 model'. It was from when they shipped with 256RAM and were still available to the public, but I dont know exactly when it was bought. Is this model supposed to come with USB 2.0? I certainly thought I had it but this is actually the first time I've really used usb for more than a few MB.

System profiler has this information under the USB section:

USB Bus:

Host Controller Location: Built In USB
Host Controller Driver: AppleUSBOHCI
PCI Device ID: 0x0019
PCI Revision ID: 0x0001
PCI Vendor ID: 0x106b
Bus Number: 0x18

iPod:

Capacity: 27.94 GB
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk1
Version: 0.01
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Apple
OS9 Drivers: No
Product ID: 0x1209
Serial Number: 000A270014CDBC00
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Vendor ID: 0x05ac (Apple Computer, Inc.)
Volumes:

Can anyone tell me what's happening?

Untmdsprt

Level 2

397 points

Feb 5, 2006 9:21 AM in response to Ambitious Lemon

iPod:
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec

You have USB 1.1. Compare my speed to yours, and you'll see that I have 2.0 while you don't.

Are you going through the keyboard or a direct USB port off the computer?

Feb 5, 2006 10:08 AM in response to Untmdsprt

I'm going direct off the computer not the keyboard. I know the keyboard is usb 1.1, but I was sure my actual usb ports were the real deal..
Can anyone tell me if this is some kind of fault or did this emac line never ship with usb2?

Feb 5, 2006 1:54 PM in response to William Leler

Just got home with my wifes' and my new ipods. Apple, you just lost two very, very loyal customers in the span of 30 minutes. I have spent thousands of dollars on your technology for 4+ years...I've converted most of my friends and family...I talk up the user-friendliness and especially the longevity of your products to everyone I know and meet. In the span of one very stupid move, you've ensured I will never, ever buy a product of yours again. I'm on my way back to the Apple Store now to return these two products and directly over to Best Buy to purchase a new Windows laptop and two MP3 players.

I will never use one of your products again. Goodbye Apple.

Feb 5, 2006 2:10 PM in response to Scott Howe

And NO I'm NOT a troller...NO I'm not some idiot. I'm head of the Mac division in my job as Technology Specialist at the company I work for. It's mind-numbing to me that Apple snuck this right through the backdoor and under everyone's noses. There should be a huge disclosure sign somewhere at the Apple Store and/or on this website. I agree with the poster above...Apple won't care one bit if I remove my measly monetary support...big deal right? Well I'm in charge of buying equipment at my job where we spend close to a million bucks per year on Apple and Apple related products. You can bet I'm meeting with the CEO tomorrow...He'll be more than happy to hear me say "Let's go Windows..." after my insistence on sticking with Apple for four years. Very happy indeed...

Untmdsprt

Level 2

397 points

Feb 5, 2006 7:01 PM in response to Scott Howe

You can bet I'm

meeting with the CEO tomorrow...He'll be more than
happy to hear me say "Let's go Windows..." after my
insistence on sticking with Apple for four years.
Very happy indeed...

You've got to be joking! You're switching to Windows after some lousy thing as not being able to sync an iPod?!? I'm forced to use Windows at work and I'm glad to come home to a Mac. At least it works right!!!! I've had to stop working because my hard drive crashed 3x, viruses threatened the network at least 5x where I had to shut down the computer until the all clear. I've had to wait at least a week or so before I could get a zip file from a state lottery because of viruses. Not to mention that I have to have a pa$$word on everything I do at work. Let's see how happy your CEO will be when a virus shuts down the company as soon as you install peecees.

Ok Apple, p a s s word is NOT dirty!!!!

Feb 5, 2006 10:32 PM in response to Aaron D

Actually, according to Chris Breen, heard on Your Mac Life, the main chip on the 5G iPod natively includes USB 2.0 support, but not firewire. On prior iPods, Firewire support was provided by another chip. Not enough room on the circuit board with the thin case, battery, hard disk, larger screen, etc. and the Firewire chip got the axe.

I bought a USB2.0 card (a cheapo one off ebay...everything 1.1 works fine on it, but the iPod doesn't show up reliably) for my Quicksilver G4 thinking I'd be all set. Got it to show up ONCE in the System Profiler but never made it past there. At the moment, am syncing it (looks like it's going to be an overnight ordeal) on one of the on-board USB ports at 1.1 speeds and thus why I'm here.

Looks like more money out the window for a Belkin or other NEC based USB card for me when I get a chance to go shopping.

<sigh>

At least I'm glad to have the opportunity to expand the computer's capabilities. My heart goes out to all those who can't get anything higher than 12Mbit speeds to sync their video...

Jon

Feb 7, 2006 1:26 AM in response to Untmdsprt

Has anyone seen this?

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1680463#1680463

This appears to be a true translator, NOT just a dual hub. Humm....

Feb 8, 2006 6:47 PM in response to Jeff Staigh

Is this the item you refer to? Anyone try this yet? Would like to use it for my girlfriend's old iMac DV.

http://www.pixela-1.com/captycable/
Firewire to USB 2.0 DV Transfer Cable with ImageMixer 2.0
(Estimated delivery date of March 2006, currently out of stock)

From their website:

It's the Only One Like It in the World!

Pixela's new IEEE1394 to USB 2.0 DV Transfer Cable uses patented micro chip technology within the cable itself to transfer data from a IEEE 1394 firewire to USB 2.0. connection.

Dual 2GHz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Untmdsprt

Level 2

397 points

Feb 9, 2006 7:18 PM in response to Jeff Staigh

We all have our issues don't we?

Feb 11, 2006 6:03 PM in response to Jimmy McGue

Is this the item you refer to? Anyone try this yet?
Would like to use it for my girlfriend's old iMac
DV.

http://www.pixela-1.com/captycable/
Firewire to USB 2.0 DV Transfer Cable with ImageMixer
2.0
(Estimated delivery date of March 2006, currently out
of stock)

From their website:

It's the Only One Like It in the World!

Pixela's new IEEE1394 to USB 2.0 DV Transfer Cable
uses patented micro chip technology within the cable
itself to transfer data from a IEEE 1394 firewire to
USB 2.0. connection.

Dual 2GHz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Uh, that looks like an answered prayer to a lot of people with older Macs, but if you check out the system requirements, it's only for Win-DOS. 😟

Feb 11, 2006 6:37 PM in response to William Leler

The bulk of the posts I've seen about people finding USB 2 PCI cards to work with the video iPod have had system information showing Tiger as their OS.

Anyone have a list of known good cards for Panther 10.3.9?

I just found my 2-port IOGear model GIC22OU USB card boasting USB 1 and USB 2 support under Panther and Tiger didn't work with my brand new video iPod. All the ugliest symptoms mentioned on this thread.

Past luck with PCI cards in my klunker has really odd results:
The factory Firewire module ran slower than USB 1 to a LaCie Porsche Firewire HD, which my older CRT iMac ran just fine so I got an Adaptec FireConnect card which worked just fine with it and my MiniDV camcorder, but was slower than the factory FW for my 3G iPod, which started stalling mid-update on the Adaptec once I added a PCI HD controller with my boot volume on it.

Considering that experience, I tried putting a second installation of Panther on my fourth HD, installed as a slave drive on the on-board ATA port. That seemed to be working on my new G5 iPod, but stalled on the second podcast on my update to crash iTunes beyond a force-quit and again I had to force-reset to get out of the mess it landed me in.

Not looking forward to putting between 8 and 10 Gigs of content onto this Pod via USB 1. Hopefully I can have it doing most of that while I sleep tonight.

Untmdsprt

Level 2

397 points

Feb 12, 2006 9:02 AM in response to Jimmy McGue

Looks like it has a 4 pin firewire end used only with DV cameras.

Feb 12, 2006 11:54 AM in response to [omen]

I've installed the Belkin 5 port USB 2 card in my mirrored drive G4 (FW800 - HA!) and it works fine with USB 1.1 and ... it works just find with my wife's valentines day present - a brand new iPod nano (4GB).

Now why can't apple just tell people - get a Belkin! IMHO they have handled this very, very, very badly.

Good luck to the rest of you, I may invest in a new iPod video, if I get over being mad at apple. Not yet though.

Feb 12, 2006 3:15 PM in response to Ambitious Lemon

No, that's the deal with most lower end Macs.

USB on most but the newest Macs has been strictly USB 1.1. Firewire has been the Apple way up until this latest iPod. That's why it's so problematic for us all.

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Connecting to older Macs without USB 2.0