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Advice needed re my eMac and USB 2.0

O

*old-guy*

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 22, 2007
161
0
Blackburn in North West England
Hi all,
I have an old eMac running @ 1.0 GHz with 1024 MB of RAM and running Tiger. There are no problems with the machine as such and it all runs fine. My problem rears its head when my better half decides that she wants a web cam so that she can talk face to face with our oldest boy, wife and grandkids who live hundreds of miles away.
I don't have the spare cash laying about to buy a proper Mac iSight web cam so I have been looking at ordinary web cams. One that will do the job is USB 2.0 but my eMac only has 5 USB 1.1 (including the 2 in the keyboard)
So, is there any way for a Techno-Klutz like me to add USB 2.0 capability to my eMac?

Cheers,
Steve
 
Why USB 2.0? I got the EyeCam from out PS2 to work one day on my eMac.

Maybe an old camcorder with iLink or Firewire output?
 
USB Cams

I recently bought an eMac very cheap to gift to a family member and only realised after the fact that it only has USB 1.1 and not 2.0 (very slow for USB drives etc). After reading the original post I thought I'd try using my Fuji S5500 digital camera in its "WEBCAM" mode and surprise, surprise....it works in Photo Booth and Skype. It doesn't work with iMovie or iChat. So if you have a digital camera perhaps give this a try.

EDIT: I have now tried using Skype Video on my home network and although the USB camera shows up in the video preview area in Skype preferences, it won't work when a call is made. Photo Booth works fine. To use Skype video a Firewire camera is needed.
 
I would like to say i have a eMac 1.0ghz and it has usb 2.0, i just would think yours would as well. But firewire is a good choice, and most likley more compatible, i had to setup a PM g4 with a usb camera and all i had was trouble.
 
Thomasthetug said:
I would like to say i have a eMac 1.0ghz and it has usb 2.0, i just would think yours would as well.
Click to expand...

Why?

There are two models of 1.0GHz eMacs. The first models that came in 800MHz and 1GHz versions are are equipped with ATI7500 graphics. These are USB 1.0 and the some of these models are the last eMacs that can boot OS 9.

There is a second 1.0GHz eMac that is basically an education version of the 1.25 GHz eMac with ATI 9200 graphics. These are USB 2 and a few of these have bad capacitors.
 
Thomasthetug said:
I would like to say i have a eMac 1.0ghz and it has usb 2.0, i just would think yours would as well. But firewire is a good choice, and most likley more compatible, i had to setup a PM g4 with a usb camera and all i had was trouble.
Click to expand...

The eMac didn't get USB 2.0 until they switched from the old PowerMac chipset to the iMac consumer chipset.

Basically the last eMacs were being kicked out with this Intrepid2 integrated chipset, the ones with DDR memory.
 
ADent said:
Why?

There are two models of 1.0GHz eMacs. The first models that came in 800MHz and 1GHz versions are are equipped with ATI7500 graphics. These are USB 1.0 and the some of these models are the last eMacs that can boot OS 9.

There is a second 1.0GHz eMac that is basically an education version of the 1.25 GHz eMac with ATI 9200 graphics. These are USB 2 and a few of these have bad capacitors.
Click to expand...

Oh, i wasn't aware they had a 1.0ghz model before mine. My bad.
 
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