2.0 Usb Card on Powermac g4 MDD

[pochopsp]

I have never changed a component in my powermac since i have it... but now the slowness of transfering files is really annoying me. What card would i have to buy for it? i am not so expert on these things.
I am attaching a picture with the specifications of my mac, thanks in advance.

 

[bunnspecial]

If you want to be sure, buy a Sonnet.

Aside from that, I think I've yet to find a USB 2.0 card that isn't plug and play in Tiger or Leopard-basically just every random card I've picked up has worked. There are specific chipsets to look for(and the exact ones escape me at the moment), and one pick advantage to them is reliable sleep as well as plug and play OS 9 compatibility(albeit at 1.1 speeds).

 

[pochopsp]

If you want to be sure, buy a Sonnet.

Aside from that, I think I've yet to find a USB 2.0 card that isn't plug and play in Tiger or Leopard-basically just every random card I've picked up has worked. There are specific chipsets to look for(and the exact ones escape me at the moment), and one pick advantage to them is reliable sleep as well as plug and play OS 9 compatibility(albeit at 1.1 speeds).

Thank you for your reply but I don't even know what a sonnet is. So as you say i can buy every kind of usb card and it will work? I mean on old computers there were other ports different from the recent ones, and this is actually an old computer.

 

[bunnspecial]

Sonnet is a company that has built a strong business of supplying aftermarket upgrades specific to Macintosh computers.

Basically what I'm saying is that most any PCI USB 2.0 card will fit and work if you are running Tiger or Leopard. Some USB 2.0 cards introduce sleep issues, and buying cards with specific chipsets will usually avoid those. If you ever boot directly into OS 9, you might also have issues with the card working, although even if it does you will only get USB 1.1 speeds.

If you want to take out any guesswork, get this card

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/allegro_usb2.html

Or this card

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tango_2.html

Otherwise, just find a PCI USB 2.0 or USB/FW combo card on Ebay and put it in.

 

[jbarley]

^^^
Good advice, as always...

 

[for this]

Look for one with an NEC chip. IME, they are generally the most Mac-compatible, easy to find on eBay and cheap.
Like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-Port-High...320530?hash=item20fcaf9b92:g:Vq0AAOSwhMFXk-43

Pros:
- Works with Tiger, Leopard, and OS 9
- Supports deep sleep in Tiger and Leopard
- Plug & play, no driver needed

Cons:
- USB 1.1 speed in OS 9
- Doesn't support deep sleep in OS 9
- May have deep sleep issue in Tiger if a Bluetooth dongle is plugged into one of its ports (use one of the Mac's ports instead)

PS: I'm surprised Sonnet's Allegro doesn't support deep sleep under 10.4 and 10.3. May be they are fine with 10.4.11?

 

[pochopsp]

thank you to all guys, i will buy a standar pci 2.0 usb card and i will let you know!

 

[0248294]

I can vouch for NEC cards. I use two of these orange NEC cards, one in the MDD, one in the QS, never had a single issue with it. Got both at the thrift from their little PCI/AGP card box, always check if there are any more. They only charge a buck for a PCI card, so it's definitely been worth the money for me!

 

[128keaton]

I can vouch for NEC cards. I use two of these orange NEC cards, one in the MDD, one in the QS, never had a single issue with it. Got both at the thrift from their little PCI/AGP card box, always check if there are any more. They only charge a buck for a PCI card, so it's definitely been worth the money for me!

Thats easily $10 at our thrift store, and we're lucky if we have anything remotely that useable.

 

[pochopsp]

Finally here! I paid 10€ but it seems pretty solid and will give a speed increasement to my MDD!

 

[micahgartman]

I installed a Lacie Sismo USB + Firewire 800 drive in my non-FW800 MDD. It was expensive, hard to find and I love it.

http://a.co/cm1MkvB

If you can find one—and are willing to drop the loot—I'd highly recommend one.

 

[1042686]

Finally here! I paid 10€ but it seems pretty solid and will give a speed increasement to my MDD!

That's very similar to the card I have in my quicksilver G4. Works great. The internal USB port is handy and it was cheap. I think mine was $5 shipped off of eBay.

 

[pochopsp]

Works great.

That's not my case. I had to tuck it on the port on the motherboard because they are different, my MDD seemed to recognise it and I was able to read a USB stick and to copy from it, but very slowly, and my powermac started to slow down. A lot of beach balls, dock crashes, finder crashes, and if I boot to tiger it ask me to reboot the system. I'm very disappointed

 

[1042686]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. If it makes you feel any better, I ordered a Sata controller card for my g4 and it bricked the machine - would't even chime lol. These older powermac boxes are finicky. Anyhow, the usb2.0 PCI card I purchased was this one. It's mac OS compatible from 8.6 forward & is cheap - $4.15 shipped. It took a while to get here as the seller is from China (about a month) but it is indeed mac compatible and is working great in my powermac g4 QS.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/311338279033?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

Good luck.

 

[MisterKeeks]

Newegg had VIA USB PCI cards (4+1) type for free after rebate a few weeks ago, I'm looking forward to testing one of those. However, NEC is typically the best bet. I would try the one linked above.

 

[pochopsp]

Thanks guys. My MDD does still work. I removed the USB PCI card but even after doing that, my Mac is extremely slow to boot up, does not load the dock, it crashes if i try to open an application trough spotlight... The only one which works is system preferences. What can I do? My leopard installation was fine until yesterday.

 

[Bug-Creator]

Sound like an issue not related to the USB card.

Did you check if all RAM, GFX-card and CPU module are firmly seated ? Might have shaken something loose while installing the USB.

 

[pochopsp]

Sound like an issue not related to the USB card.

Did you check if all RAM, GFX-card and CPU module are firmly seated ? Might have shaken something loose while installing the USB.

In tiger everything works ok, so I don't think it is an hardware problem

EDIT: i tried to see if there was something wrong with Disk Utility. I have three partitions on the hard drive in which I have my leopard installation. One is for leopard, and the other two are for storage. Disk Utility says that the partition in which I have leopard has an error in the filesystem and that it cannot be repaired. Solutions?

Please don't tell me that I have to install leopard again. It is very hard to do as I do not own a leopard DVD and I have to format hard drives and then put the leopard image to them.... In short it's a mess

 

[for this]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. If it makes you feel any better, I ordered a Sata controller card for my g4 and it bricked the machine - would't even chime lol. These older powermac boxes are finicky. Anyhow, the usb2.0 PCI card I purchased was this one. It's mac OS compatible from 8.6 forward & is cheap - $4.15 shipped. It took a while to get here as the seller is from China (about a month) but it is indeed mac compatible and is working great in my powermac g4 QS.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/311338279033?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

View attachment 679645

Good luck.

The picture shows VIA chip but the seller's description says NEC chip. I don't know what is the chip in your card.

VIA can work. I had one but if I remember it right, it needs a driver to work with OS X (OS 9 is not supported). It's not available on VIA's web site anymore but I have it backed up on a DVD and I think you can try downloading it from http://support.dynamode.com/test/drivers/controllers/usb-4pci-2.0/ (VIAMACUSB_160_G4_p1.pkg.zip).

The ones with NEC chip are more compatible/reliable with Mac, real plug & play for Mac.

PS. From http://gmb.nl/item.aspx?id=1852
The OP's card uses a VIA chip.

 

[chibiterasu]

So I'm very confused, as they seem to be stamped opposite to what we are all saying the OP in he's photo looks like it's stamped NEC like in this listing http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-High-...971903?hash=item282109a47f:g:1w0AAOSwPCVX5SYo but even though it has NEC on the board in the description says VIA, like the same in the previous links.

The one stamped VIA http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321818378916 as seen in the link and previous links all say NEC in the title and descriptions, how strange.

I'm also looking for a USB 2.0 PCI for the G5, so same issue the OP.

(MOD: Links are for example only, they are not mine)

 

[for this]

Hmmm, I forgot the photo might be taken by the OP.. If he took that photo himself, then he's got one with what looks like an NEC chip (it's not clear in the photo).

 

[pochopsp]

Yeah i have the one with the NEC chip on it. If I had known that it would have damaged my Mac file system I would have kept my slow 1.1 USB ports.

 

[ziggy29]

I installed a Lacie Sismo USB + Firewire 800 drive in my non-FW800 MDD. It was expensive, hard to find and I love it.

If you can find one—and are willing to drop the loot—I'd highly recommend one.

Apparently someone lucked out and dropped all of US$8.99 (including shipping) for one on eBay less than a month ago.

 

[0248294]

Yeah i have the one with the NEC chip on it. If I had known that it would have damaged my Mac file system I would have kept my slow 1.1 USB ports.

I seriously doubt the hard drive's file system was affected by a PCI card. Most likely your hard drive was already having issues and they just popped up at the time the PCI card was added. Bad add-on cards damaging a hard drive's file system is something I've yet to see.

 

[for this]

There are many suspects when it comes to an old computer. IME, dust is a huge issue, especially fine fiber dust. It could short circuit a board or interfere with functions.

Some months ago my MDD's ATA-100 connector looked dusty so I blew it with a lens blower. But that made it worse because there was a huge issue afterwards, the Mac didn't see the HDD connected to the connector. After hours of troubleshooting, I cleaned the connector real good and the problem was solved.