PCI Slots in a 400Mhz G4 Tower for a Wireless Card?

[Greencardman]

Alright, so I'm trying to hook up an old G4 tower (running Panther) to a wireless network, so I thought I'd buy a wireless card. I checked a few forums, and settled on the Belkin F57000 PCI card, and brought it home, and well, it doesn't fit. The Belkin card is short, and all the slots on the mac are long. So I went about reading about PCI slots, and supposedly they're white in color, and the older ISA slots are black. Well, these are a sort of tan color, and they're long. So what gives? What kind of slots do I have, and what kind of card can I buy that will fix the problem (besides an airport card). The PCI card did fit into the slot, leaving a big empty part on the end, but the Mac didn't recognize that anything was there. Any suggestions? The Mac is a 400Mhz G4 thats gray in color.
Greencardman

 

[RGunner]

Not a problem...

PCI Slots were 32 bit early on.. they then converted to 64 bit in the later PC's and Macs.

Generally, if it fits, and has Mac OS driver support, it wont be a problem.

Now, if you have a Yikes or a B&W and try to put a 33MHZ card (no not bits) into slot A (1) you could damage things.

Of course it gets more complicated with the G5's, but you are fine putting what you have into slots B (2)+. It will just see it as a 32 bit card.

 

[CanadaRAM]

OK: You're not going to find any ISA slots in a Mac, so you can rule that out. The two types of slots you'll see in a G4 are PCI and on some models AGP - the AGP slot should have the video card in it, so that's out of the running too. Color is not the determining factor here.

A PCI Card can be 32-bit or 64-bit. 32-bit cards do not take up the full length of a 64-bit socket, leaving an empty portion aft of the 32/64 key (the little bridge that goes across the socket.)

If your card fits into the Mac's PCI socket and lines up properly with the back panel, then you can be reasonably assured that it is a proper PCI card.

Now, your card isn't recognized by your Mac -- Does the information that came with the card state Mac compatibility? Did it come with drivers to install? You're going to have to research this to find out if you can make it work in a Mac.

 

[Greencardman]

So what you're saying is that I may have a PCI card, it just could be that its not the type suported by Apple? Is there a way to tell? I bought a Belkin 802.11g Wireless Desktop Network Card model number F5d7000. On their website, it says supported by OS X, so I thought it was worth a shot. The mac hasn't been updated since panther was installed months ago, so do you think if I took it in and hooked it up to the web it might help? Or if anyone else knows which PCI card would work (with a Lynksys 802.11g router) for sure that is currently available at Best Buy or CompUSA, that would kinda help too. All the info I found was a little old.
All help would be appreciated

Here's the link to the Belkin website: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProd...=&Section_Id=201522&pcount=&Product_Id=136479

oh, and thanks for your help guys, its good to know I don't have ISA slots

 

[ReanimationLP]

64-Bit PCI slots will accept 32-Bit cards. Just unscrew the filler out, drop the card in, press firmly, screw it back in, attach the antenna, turn it on, insert the CD, and follow the directions from there.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Double check it is in all the way, firmly seated. They can be rather tricky to seat all the way.

If you are sure it is in ALL THE WAY, then start up the Mac and run the updates. Get the Airport updaters-- they might have drivers for your card. Its probably a good idea to instal all of the updates onto it unless you have a really good reason not to.