USB 2.0 card on older Mac?

[DBR]

Hey folks

I have a question, or am in need of help or direction.

My Mac is getting old, and I want to bring it into the year 2007. I only really use it to print and scan stuff and surf the web, but I want to install a USB 2.0 card in it because one of my cameras uses supports 2.0, as does my Ipod, and right now I use them on PCs.

Anyway...

Mac Power 533MHz G4 (bought in 2001 or '02)
OS X 10.3.9
389 MB SDRAM
30 GB HD
(what else do you need to know?)

I have tried two brands of cards so far: an Iogear 2-port card, which supposedly works on a MAC, and a Dynex 2-port card, which does not mention working on a MAC, but I thought I'd give it a try.

The Iogear card would not work. It would show up in the system profile, but the drivers were either wrong, or did not work. After consulting with some not-very-helpful customer support people, I exchanged the card for the Dynex card, which I know have (it was the only other brand Bestbuy had.) Dynex 2.0 card doesn't even show up on the system profiler, and like I said, it doesn't even say it works on a Mac anyway, I just thought I'd try it.

So...

1.) Can I even use USB 2.0 on this particular macintosh?

2.) If so, what brand/card would someone recommend to use? Staples has a Belkin brand one, and on the manufacturer's website it says it is supported on OS X 10.3+. I might head over there later to pick it up, but I just wanted to make this post firs and see what people think.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Guartho]

I have a Belkin in my Quicksilver G4. This one in particular, although it was about $12 cheaper when I bought it.

I have another USB 2 card that works with most stuff, but not my iPod. The Belkin does. I run 10.3.9 on that machine.

 

[Deleted 2]

The main determining factor in whether a USB card works on your system is the chipset, and there are really only three or four USB chipsets out there.

The vast majority of cards use a VIA chip, with some rare cards using one made by NEC or ALI. I'm not sure, but I believe Texas Instruments made them as well.

The thing is, FreeBSD (the OS that Mac OS X borrows most of its drivers from) supports cards based on all of these very well. USB is fairly standardised, and USB 2.0 even more so.

The only thing I can advise is to ask about the brand of the chipset on any new card you purchase (It's usually printed on the largest chip on the card) and steer away from chipsets you've already tried.

The name that's printed on the cardboard box, unfortunately, says very little, and many of those manufacturers are known to use different chipsets for different production batches.

 

[DBR]

Thank you for you input, folks.

 

[TimelessTrek]

Go to lowendmac.com - usually they have workarounds for older Macs....and YES, some cards/add-ons/devices won't work on certain Macs.

 

[Irishman]

If you get any new card from Belkin or Griffin it should have the proper chipset. THEN, download a version of USB Overdrive for your version of OS X and enjoy functionality that the manufacturer's drivers don't offer.