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iGary

Guest
Original poster
May 26, 2004
19,580
7
Randy's House
Yes I did a search. :D

I have a scanner and a printer I want to buy, but both are USB 2.0 only.

I have heard of problems with using these PCI cards (2.0) with Macs.

Help? :confused: Specs on what I am using below.

I want to buy, in particular, a Canon i900D printer (USB 2.0 only).

Thanks,

Gary
 
You sure it's usb 2.0 only? I've never seen a usb 2.0 only device... everything i've come across from printers, scanners, external hard-drives were always fall-back compatible with 1.1.
 
First off, all USB 2.0 devices should be backwards compatible with USB 1.1 ports. So your printer should still work with a normal USB 1.1 port. As for the 2.0 PCI card. I just installed an IO Gear USB 2.0 PCI card in my MDD G4 and it works great. One problem I had was with drivers. Couldn't startup my machine after installing the provided drivers so I had to go in and remover them manually, which was a pain. Anyways, the card works fine in OS 10.2.8 without installing anything extra.
 
Finally, after digging very deeply I found that all of these printers have both USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 out ports. Obviously, my printing wll be slower with the 1.1, but I am not interested in installing a PCI card just for a photo printer (although that is the main use of this machine; photo editing and post processing work).

I just don't want to go through with the hassle of the USB 2.0 card at this point (and the known driver issues) because I'll be upgrading this machine for a G5 later in the year.

Thanks all! :D
 
hello, I'have the same G4 1.25GHz and a EPSON RX500 with USB2 connexions. It works perfectly with the USB1 ports of the MAC BUT I'have installed a Adaptec USB2 PCI card because it works better and it offers me 3 more USB 2 ports for game device(por example) that use USB2 and now i don't need to use a external usb hub.
 
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