Recommended USB 2.0 PCI card for VA503+?

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I'm thinking of getting an external USB 2.0 CD-RW/DVD-RW+ enclosure for my
VA503+ and NF7s v2.0. Any thoughts/recommendations on either?

Does Kyle Brant still frequent this newsgroup? Merry Christmas Kyle!
-Bill (remove "botizer" to reply via email)

 

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Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.fic (More info?)

Wblane wrote:
> I'm thinking of getting an external USB 2.0 CD-RW/DVD-RW+ enclosure
for my
> VA503+ and NF7s v2.0. Any thoughts/recommendations on either?

AFAIK there are four brands of USB 2.0 chips found on PCI cards: NEC,
ALi, SiS, and VIA, with NEC being the best. Adaptec and Belkin USB 2.0
cards use NEC chips, but so do some of the $8-15 generics listed at
www.pricewatch.com. However some of the dealers there advertise NEC
cards but deliver VIA-based cards instead, so you may want to ask
before ordering.

The NEC chips are square, large (1" across), and have 160 pins. ALi
chips are also square but smaller (about 5/8" across) and have 64 pins.
I don't know what the SiS chips look like, but the VIA chips are
oblong and have 128 pins. The ALi chips require Windows 98SE or newer
to work at USB 2.0 speeds. The instructions for many VIA-based USB
cards say the same, but it's not true for them.

Only one USB 2.0 card wouldn't work with my VA-503+, a Soyo model based
on the VIA VT6202 chip and included with their BayOne Professional
front panel USB kit. It caused the screen to stay blank and prevented
booting. OTOH it worked fine with the predecessor to the VA-503+, the
PA-2007 (same south bridge chip), and every other mobo except an old
486 one. I also tried a generic USB card based on the newer VA VT6212
chip (www.xbitlabs.com said it was faster than the VT6202), and it
worked fine with the VA-503+.

 

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Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.fic (More info?)

I have tried a Belkin USB 2.0 card, albeit quite sometime ago. It had
4 or 5 ports, I never could get it to work. Someone told me that the
mobo saw it as a hub but was unable to supply the power to it that it
needed as a hub. Has the situation changed with different chip sets or
was the info I recieved wrong?

 

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Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.fic (More info?)

David Rhodes wrote:

> I have tried a Belkin USB 2.0 card, albeit quite sometime ago. It had
> 4 or 5 ports, I never could get it to work. Someone told me that the
> mobo saw it as a hub but was unable to supply the power to it that it
> needed as a hub. Has the situation changed with different chip sets
or
> was the info I recieved wrong?

With one USB card, not NEC-based, I had to remove the card, boot to
Safe Mode, remove all mentions of it in the Device Manager (not just
the USB 2.0 parts but also the USB 1.1 parts), and reboot to reinstall
the driver before reinstalling the card. I've never had installation
problems with NEC-type USB 2.0 cards, both I/O Gear and Maxtor brands,
which used the same driver software, but they did require booting Win
98 and 98SE twice before all their ports would be recognized.

One of my I/O Gear cards blew a USB port when its tiny LM3526 chip
failed, and one maker of this chip, www.national.com, indicated that
the capacitors used on the card were inadequate, both too small and the
wrong type. I did notice that similar capacitors on my Maxtor USB card
were twice the rating. This chip controls the power to the USB ports,
so maybe it failed on your Belkin card, too.