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USB 2 PCI card for Powermac G4 advice

B

bigbird

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 17, 2007
381
0
Canada
I'd like to have USB 2 on my Powermac G4 733 Digital Audio, OS 10.4.10 Any suggestions/tips on what type of USB 2 PCI card to get? Does it need to say Mac compatible, or can I grab any PCI card off ebay for $5?
TIA for any suggestions.
 
Unless it specifically says it's NOT Mac-compatible, the key specs to look for are "OHCI" & "EHCI" compliance......the majority of cards meeting those 2 specs will work in most macs running OS X, since the drivers, extensions and protocols are built into the core of the OS.

I would suggest skipping the ebay bargin bin/peecee crapola cards and just flop down about $15 for a brand new Belkin or D-Link card. No worries that way plus warranty & return possibilities too.....they are available just about everywhere, wallyworld, bustbuy, & most office supply stores too :)
 
Details

I went to Staples. $59.99 for a Belkin -----> ouch!
I went to Futureshop $59.99 for a Dynex -----> ouch!
I bought a generic no-name on eBay, $3.45 + $6 shipping -----> cheap!
I'll let you know when I receive and install it. If it works, I'm a winner. If not, no big deal. It was from an auction house in Canada. I just got really pissed off with the local retailer's prices and decided to gamble.
 
SmurfBoxMasta said:
Unless it specifically says it's NOT Mac-compatible, the key specs to look for are "OHCI" & "EHCI" compliance......the majority of cards meeting those 2 specs will work in most macs running OS X, since the drivers, extensions and protocols are built into the core of the OS.

I would suggest skipping the ebay bargin bin/peecee crapola cards and just flop down about $15 for a brand new Belkin or D-Link card. No worries that way plus warranty & return possibilities too.....they are available just about everywhere, wallyworld, bustbuy, & most office supply stores too :)
Click to expand...

thanks smurf for taht info. i was about to create a thread jsut like this. guess i don't have to now. i was wanting the same thing and i found one on ebay as well, a 6 port with 2 of them internal, one for my bluetooth adapter and the other for the usb network adapter.
Specifications:
USB 2.0 compliant Host Card
Supports high speed (480Mbits/sec.), full speed (12Mbits/sec.), and low speed (1.5Mbits/sec.)
Supports legacy keyboard and mouse
Compliance with PCI specifications revision 2.2
Supports 32-bits host interface and 33MHz PCI Bus clock
High performance PCI bus master

will be waiting for bigbird's progress.
 
Please let me know what you ended up getting and if it worked, as I am in the same scenario. I just bought one, said it would work with a mac and it had no documentation. Online it said to download a driver that didn't exist anymore.

The next one I got says on the box that it is mac safe, but online says it is pc only. What a nightmare.

Good luck!
 
Just my update, but I bought an ADS USB 2.0 cardbus adapter, has 4 USB 2.0 ports.

Worked like a charm. Put it in, attached my iphone and worked great.

Previous two didn't, one was a macsense and the other was a different brand (can't remember).

Set me back 28.
 
Update

Got my generic no-name USB2 PCI card today. I installed it into PCI slot 5 of my PowerMac G4 in about 30s. It worked perfectly after restarting, no drivers needed, and now I've got USB2. The best $3.50 I've ever spent on a computer part.
 
bigbird said:
Got my generic no-name USB2 PCI card today. I installed it into PCI slot 5 of my PowerMac G4 in about 30s. It worked perfectly after restarting, no drivers needed, and now I've got USB2. The best $3.50 I've ever spent on a computer part.
Click to expand...

cool, now just keep your fingers crossed & hope it lasts more than a few months and/or doesn't start causing strange system errors :D
 
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