Powermac G4 usb 2.0 card?

you can install a usb 2.0 pci card but not all cards that are mac compatible are any good. i started with a startec hunk of junk, tried a belkin piece of garbage and finally found a great card from sonnet. http://www.sonnettech.com/product/allegro_usb2.html

it's worked fantastic for years, never a hiccup. i also installed a sonnet firewire/usb 2 card in my old beige g3 and it's worked very well. stay away from startec and belkin. just my experience.

zeb

I installed a Belkin card:

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/102883

It works great with 10.3 and 10.4. Just look for the US version.

Adaptec cards will work, but there are problems with the sleep function. My G4 will not wake up once it has gone to sleep. I don't think the Sonnet cards have this problem.

Help! For some reason when my computer restarted, a black screen came up with the words Darwin/bsd.

Its asking for my login and password
and when i try to put in the password, it won't type in. I can't get beyond this screen. What do i do?

Powerbook G4

Hi all,

I just installed the Belkin F5U220VEA1 USB2.0 card and it works fine. No sleep problems or anything. Just one little question: How do I tell (other than timing the filetransfers) if the card operates at usb2.0 speeds?

grts,
Vincent

Found it already.
Just use the Apple System Profiler 🙂

Vincent

I'm having the same issues with the sleep freeze. It happened with a Belkin, PPA, and D-Link card.

Can anybody verify for sure that the Sonnet card does not have this problem?

Also, I looked for the Belkin F5U220VEA1 card that was mentioned but I can only find F5U220V1. Does anyone have any info on sleep issues with this card?

Thanks,
Bobby

PowerMac G4 Dual 1Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Try here...
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=122162

Best bet is any card with a NEC PD72101 chipset (xlr8yourmac results recommend the same).Read this for more feedback:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/firewire/fwusb_card_deepsleep.html
My card is a "who's this?" brand that I got at a PC shop (Win/mac version). Plugged in, no drivers, zero issues (don't leave usb powered devices plugged in when you sleep). Have tried ACard, Sonnet- no luck for me. Stick with the NEC chip, and try NOT to use drivers, Tiger doesn't need the drivers.

All of these Cards are NEC chipset based
Adaptec 3100LP
BAFO BF-460
Belkin F5U220
GWC UC-160
IOGear GIC250U
Keyspan U2PCI-5
O'toLink U2-C2B
O'toLink U2-C2A
O'toLink U2-P20N
O'toLink U2-P50
Ratoc PCIU5
USBWholesale UII-PCIP

Hope your search proves fruitful!

Hi, i've been using the Sonnet Allegro for nearly a year now. No sleep problems or any whatsoever. I highly recommend it... : )

For those who say they don't have any problems with "Sleep".

Do you unplug your peripherals before you put your computer to sleep? Because that to me says there is a problem. I need a card that you don't have to unplug anything for the computer to sleep properly.

There are multiple users on this computer and it would be next to impossible to get them to remember (and crawl under the desk) to unplug the periphals each time the computer goes to sleep.

Bobby

I think your going to find that the opinions and the results of use are a varied as the components that are connected. All that you can do is to buy a card, and then try your components.
-If you have primarily USB 1.1 components, and are in need of more ports, use a powered hub instead of the pci card.
-For USB 2.0 devices, self powered units such as printers, scanners, readers, etc., leaving the usb connected during shut down or sleep is possible, depending on the device.
-My HP printer connected to my pci card causes no problems. You just have to experiment.
-External hard drives, though self powered, will always pose a problem, and should not be connected to the PCI card. Use firewire, instead. This also allows the ext. drive to be a start up drive.
-USB powered devices such as iPod, card readers, keyboards, must be unplugged prior to shutdown or sleep.
Why the problem? The reason for all of this is, that when instructed to sleep or shutdown, the motherboard tells all peripherals to power down, and then powers down things attached to the motherboard, such as the pci cards (and all attached).The motherboard still waits for a signal saying "I'm asleep" from the pci devices, BUT, the pci is powered down, and no signal comes, so the system won't deep sleep and wont wake.
Bottom line, if you want to use USB 2.0 on an older Mac, you will have to experiment and ever so slightly modify YOUR behavior, so that you don't modify your Macs behavior.
By the way, did you look at this:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/firewire/fwusb_card_deepsleep.html
A lot of people have a lot of varied issues and success. You to can be successful, but to what degree depends on you and what you plug in.

G4 AGP(450)Sawtooth Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2ghzPPC,1.62gbSDRAM, ATI9000, DVR-110D,(IntHD)120&160,LaCie160,23"Cinema Display

I have just bought a generic usb 2.0 PCI card, and it kinda works... Well I primarily wanted it to use a usb webcam and turns out my cheap generic webcam now works, so not even a need to buy a new one. But when I tried plugging my other devices in the usb 2 card (USB 2.0 hub, Bluetooth1.2 dongle, mobile phone, and most importantly external hard drive in Icy Box enclosure), the sleep problems appeared.

So now I have the camera and the hub plugged into the PCI card, as I only use the hub to plug extra things brought in by my friends (flash drives, ipods etc...), I am sure to always unplug them when I'm finished. The bluetooth dongle is back on the free keyboard slot, and the external hard drive in the second native usb at the back. This hard drive contains all my music, and I only read from it, so the speed of usb 1.1 is way enough... I can live with all that now.

But, in the interest of always pushing development further (:D), I am no software developer, but I was wondering if there would be a way of writing a script or maybe some sort of software that could unmount all usb devices when the computer is trying to go to sleep mode? And then remount these devices on wake-up?

Cheers all,

Fred

Powermac G4 dual 1.42GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hi durfff-
I'm glad to hear that you found a workable solution to your needs. Might consider Firewire for your next hard drive...

The same thought crossed my mind when I was researching all the USB/sleep issues/compatibility stuff. I'm no developer either, but why not?

What it boils down to is a complete rewrite(?) of the motherboard firmware and the proper flash to all the corresponding ROM. Then, you'll still have to worry about the peripherals, which have their own onboard ROM, with firmware written to match (more or less) the firmware of all the different motherboards that they are trying to be compatible with. On top of that, you then have to include support for all of the various OS's that are possible.

In considering all of this, I began to see why the different incompatibility issues exist. This is further compounded by the fact that the USB 2.0 cards are predominantly for non USB 2.0 systems- in other words "old". Supporting old systems only goes so far in our "get me to the next new gadget" world.

But, if someone can write that software- Where do I send my check?!?

G4 AGP(450)Sawtooth Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2ghzPPC,1.62gbSDRAM, ATI9800, DVR-109,(IntHD)120&160,LaCie160,23"Cinema Display