PCI USB2/Firewire 400 card. Need help!

[Dunepilot]

Hi guys,

I recently bought a PCI card comprising several firewire400 ports and several USB2 ports to add to my Powermac MDD Dual-867. I have been feeling the need to add more USB ports for a while, and don't really like hubs (using up an extra plug socket is a pain), so I thought I'd kill 2 birds with one stone and add more of both types of port, and also support USB2 into the bargain (which doesn't currently exist on that generation of Powermac).

So, I got the card through the post (from the ebay seller in Hong Kong), and although the card advertises OS X support on the packaging, it doesn't work with the supplied Mac drivers (called 'USB2EHCI_V1075I' and 'USB2EHCI_V3_0').

The card is clearly powering up (I can charge my iPod via its firewire ports), but it won't mount anything via either the USB2 ports or the firewire ports. However, the existence of the new ports is correctly detected by System Profiler.

I've read the xlr8yourmac.com discussion on this, and noone has any clear answers. However, if it's of any use, the card is based on a VIA chipset.

Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Dunepilot

 

[caveman_uk]

AFIAK Mac OS X supports USB2 cards with NEC chipsets. My USB2 card has one of these. Anything else and you're on your own looking for drivers. It's a similar situation to third party wireless G cards where it's broadcom or nothing.

I tried using a third party firewire card and got much the same as you. The power was on but that was as far as it got. I can't recall what chipset the card was though. It too claimed OS X compatibility - which was a lie.

Buy a card from OWC. They're cheap anyway and you'll know it works.

 

[Dunepilot]

AFIAK Mac OS X supports USB2 cards with NEC chipsets. My USB2 card has one of these. Anything else and you're on your own looking for drivers. It's a similar situation to third party wireless G cards where it's broadcom or nothing.

I tried using a third party firewire card and got much the same as you. The power was on but that was as far as it got. I can't recall what chipset the card was though. It too claimed OS X compatibility - which was a lie.

Buy a card from OWC. They're cheap anyway and you'll know it works.

Thanks for the advice - I had a look at OWC yesterday, but I'd get hammered on the shipping, so it wouldn't end up being good value for money.

I'm now bidding on an Orange Micro card on ebay, which I hope will do the trick, and I'll probably have to resell the other one as a PC card (which, annoyingly, has twice the number of firewire and twice the number of USB 2 ports!). Though is anybody else has a way I can get this thing to work, I'd be most grateful.

Cheers
Dune

 

[caveman_uk]

With shipping this card is about $49 (£26). It's a bit steep for a USB2 card but last year I bought that exact same card (yes it does work) for £35 in the UK. It makes sense if you want other cards as a firewire card would be $10 and a SATA card $60. You could have a USB2 card and a firewire card delivered for a bit over thirty quid which isn't too bad. It's certainly a lot easier (and maybe cheaper) than buggering about with unknown cards from ebay.

 

[Dunepilot]

With shipping this card is about $49 (£26). It's a bit steep for a USB2 card but last year I bought that exact same card (yes it does work) for £35 in the UK. It makes sense if you want other cards as a firewire card would be $10 and a SATA card $60. You could have a USB2 card and a firewire card delivered for a bit over thirty quid which isn't too bad. It's certainly a lot easier (and maybe cheaper) than buggering about with unknown cards from ebay.

I know what you mean, but it's my fault that I can't resist a bargain! That, and the fact that I'd like to leave some of those oh-so-precious PCI slots to spare for the future.

I'll see how I get on with the Orange Micro card, and if there's no joy with that, I'll look into your recommended card. Thanks for your advice anyway.

Dune