Pentium IV running XP home. Is there any way to add an external drive
for DVD capability, etc.? (Microsoft Flight Simulator needs a DVD
drive.)

On 4/23/2011 11:53 AM, Steve Giannoni wrote:
> Pentium IV running XP home. Is there any way to add an external drive
> for DVD capability, etc.? (Microsoft Flight Simulator needs a DVD
> drive.)

That depends. Does your computer have an available USB2 port? Do you have
$40 or thereabouts to buy one of the ubiquitous drives? (try googling for
'external dvd drive') Are you up to plugging the drive in and possibly
installing a driver? If you can answer yes to all three of these then it
should certainly be possible.

You should know that you will never get top performance from an external.
For most applications I'd suggest that someone with a computer which will
support one install an internal drive which is both cheaper and
better-performing but loads of people who own skinny laptops and netbooks
are getting along with external drives for lightweight applications (no
fast burning of huge data files and the like) so gameplaying will probably
work just fine.

How would I know if the free USB port is USB2 ?

On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:30:25 -0400, John McGaw <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>On 4/23/2011 11:53 AM, Steve Giannoni wrote:
>> Pentium IV running XP home. Is there any way to add an external drive
>> for DVD capability, etc.? (Microsoft Flight Simulator needs a DVD
>> drive.)
>
>That depends. Does your computer have an available USB2 port? Do you have
>$40 or thereabouts to buy one of the ubiquitous drives? (try googling for
>'external dvd drive') Are you up to plugging the drive in and possibly
>installing a driver? If you can answer yes to all three of these then it
>should certainly be possible.
>
>You should know that you will never get top performance from an external.
>For most applications I'd suggest that someone with a computer which will
>support one install an internal drive which is both cheaper and
>better-performing but loads of people who own skinny laptops and netbooks
>are getting along with external drives for lightweight applications (no
>fast burning of huge data files and the like) so gameplaying will probably
>work just fine.

"Steve Giannoni" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...


> How would I know if the free USB port is USB2 ?

Go to the Control Panel, Click on the System folder, hardware tab then
Device Manager, and scroll down to look for Universal Serial Bus Contollers.
Expand that selection and look for "Enhanced Host Controller" or USB2
Enhanced Host Controller. If you see it you got it. If you don't see the
word "Enhanced" anywhere you don't have USB 2 on that computer.

--
Jan Alter
(E-Mail Removed)

I've got :

Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444
Iomega USB Bus Powered Zip 250
NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub

11 items and only one says "Enhanced"

Comments ? ...

On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:13:03 -0400, "Jan Alter" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>
>
>"Steve Giannoni" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
>> How would I know if the free USB port is USB2 ?
>
>Go to the Control Panel, Click on the System folder, hardware tab then
>Device Manager, and scroll down to look for Universal Serial Bus Contollers.
>Expand that selection and look for "Enhanced Host Controller" or USB2
>Enhanced Host Controller. If you see it you got it. If you don't see the
>word "Enhanced" anywhere you don't have USB 2 on that computer.

On 04/23/2011 02:21 PM, Steve Giannoni wrote:
> I've got :
>
> Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
> Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444
> Iomega USB Bus Powered Zip 250
> NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)
> NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
> NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
> USB Root Hub
> USB Root Hub
> USB Root Hub
> USB Root Hub
> USB Root Hub
>
> 11 items and only one says "Enhanced"
>
> Comments ? ...
>
> On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:13:03 -0400, "Jan Alter"<(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> "Steve Giannoni"<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>>
>>> How would I know if the free USB port is USB2 ?
>>
>> Go to the Control Panel, Click on the System folder, hardware tab then
>> Device Manager, and scroll down to look for Universal Serial Bus Contollers.
>> Expand that selection and look for "Enhanced Host Controller" or USB2
>> Enhanced Host Controller. If you see it you got it. If you don't see the
>> word "Enhanced" anywhere you don't have USB 2 on that computer.



You are all set

one of these in the $30+ range should do the job

http://www.newegg.com/store/SubCateg...external%20dvd

Steve Giannoni wrote:
>
> Pentium IV running XP home. Is there any way to add an external drive
> for DVD capability, etc.? (Microsoft Flight Simulator needs a DVD drive.)

If your mobo doesn't have USB 2.0 hardware, get a PCI USB 2.0 card
based on either an NEC or VIA brand chip.

Do you have room for an internal DVD drive? PATA (parallel) IDE DVD
drives are harder to find but still available. Newegg sells them for <
$30, delivered:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...CE&PageSize=20

If your mobo doesn't have SATA ports, you probably want a PATA DVD
drive because PCI SATA controller cards don't support optical drives
very well at all. Oddly, USB DVD drives seem to work better in this
case.

Steve Giannoni wrote:
> I've got :
>
> Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
> Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444
> Iomega USB Bus Powered Zip 250
> NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)
> NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
> NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
> USB Root Hub
> USB Root Hub
> USB Root Hub
> USB Root Hub
> USB Root Hub
>
> 11 items and only one says "Enhanced"
>
> Comments ? ...

I would agree with Philo. You're good to go.

I would add a small caveat though. Your motherboard is possibly a
"crossover" board. USB2 existed at that time, but it was not
available immediately from Intel. Your Southbridge chip is
ICH2, and USB2 was introduced with ICH4 Southbridge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I/O_Controller_Hub

To help out, some motherboard manufacturers added the NEC USB2 chip.
This is similar to the situation today, where NEC did the USB3 host,
before it was available on chipsets. Back in the day, a NEC USB2
chip was one of the first to host USB2 ports. A motherboard manufacturer,
wishing to add USB2 to the feature list, would include a NEC
chip on the motherboard, to take up the slack from the missing
feature on the Intel chipset.

When you look at the USB ports on the computer, some will
be connected to the NEC chip, and some will be connected
to the Intel ICH2. For best performance, you'll want to
use the NEC connector. This may be addressed in the documentation
for the computer. (They wouldn't think of actually labeling them.
For today's USB3, the connector color is used as a hint. But back
then, nada.)

A USB 1.1 connection will manage about 1 MB/sec transfer rate.
An external USB2 enclosure on a USB2 connection will manage slightly
better than 30MB/sec (versus the 60MB/sec promised by the bit
rate on the cable, which is never achieved in practice).

It's possible to use a program like UVCView, to evaluate what kind
of connection was negotiated. But it's a pain to find a copy of UVCView,
and a nuisance to describe how to interpret the config data in the right
hand pane. The Device Manager, as far as I know, doesn't show the
present connection speed. But you may get a dialog box presented by
the OS at some point, telling you that additional performance could
be achieved if you connect to a USB2 port. You may have to rely on that,
to distinguish one port from another.

I seem to remember one Asus board, may have mixed a NEC connector
and an Intel connector on the same "stack" on the back of the computer.
So you can't even rely on the stack arrangement, to pair together
"like" things.

Paul

>
> On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:13:03 -0400, "Jan Alter" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> "Steve Giannoni" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>>
>>> How would I know if the free USB port is USB2 ?
>> Go to the Control Panel, Click on the System folder, hardware tab then
>> Device Manager, and scroll down to look for Universal Serial Bus Contollers.
>> Expand that selection and look for "Enhanced Host Controller" or USB2
>> Enhanced Host Controller. If you see it you got it. If you don't see the
>> word "Enhanced" anywhere you don't have USB 2 on that computer.

In article <iovd4t$dho$(E-Mail Removed)>, philo <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>On 04/23/2011 02:21 PM, Steve Giannoni wrote:
>> I've got :
>>
>> Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
>> Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444
>> Iomega USB Bus Powered Zip 250
>> NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)
>> NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
>> NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
>> USB Root Hub
>> USB Root Hub
>> USB Root Hub
>> USB Root Hub
>> USB Root Hub
>>
>> 11 items and only one says "Enhanced"
>>
>> Comments ? ...
>>
>> On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:13:03 -0400, "Jan Alter"<(E-Mail Removed)>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "Steve Giannoni"<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>
>>>
>>>> How would I know if the free USB port is USB2 ?
>>>
>>> Go to the Control Panel, Click on the System folder, hardware tab then
>>> Device Manager, and scroll down to look for Universal Serial Bus Contollers.
>>> Expand that selection and look for "Enhanced Host Controller" or USB2
>>> Enhanced Host Controller. If you see it you got it. If you don't see the
>>> word "Enhanced" anywhere you don't have USB 2 on that computer.
>
>
>
>You are all set
>
>one of these in the $30+ range should do the job
>
>http://www.newegg.com/store/SubCateg...external%20dvd
>%20drive|dvd%20drive|external%20dvd


I still dont understand why the OP doesnt just install an internal one in
place of the CD drive?????

Just a bit lazy and lacking in technical expertise. Would the internal
DVD read and write as good as the native drive? The external drive is
shipping so I'm kind of committed at this point. Thanks for comment in
any case ...

On Sun, 24 Apr 2011 20:29:38 GMT, (E-Mail Removed)
(GMAN) wrote:

>In article <iovd4t$dho$(E-Mail Removed)>, philo <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>On 04/23/2011 02:21 PM, Steve Giannoni wrote:
>>> I've got :
>>>
>>> Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
>>> Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444
>>> Iomega USB Bus Powered Zip 250
>>> NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)
>>> NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
>>> NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
>>> USB Root Hub
>>> USB Root Hub
>>> USB Root Hub
>>> USB Root Hub
>>> USB Root Hub
>>>
>>> 11 items and only one says "Enhanced"
>>>
>>> Comments ? ...
>>>
>>> On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:13:03 -0400, "Jan Alter"<(E-Mail Removed)>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "Steve Giannoni"<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> How would I know if the free USB port is USB2 ?
>>>>
>>>> Go to the Control Panel, Click on the System folder, hardware tab then
>>>> Device Manager, and scroll down to look for Universal Serial Bus Contollers.
>>>> Expand that selection and look for "Enhanced Host Controller" or USB2
>>>> Enhanced Host Controller. If you see it you got it. If you don't see the
>>>> word "Enhanced" anywhere you don't have USB 2 on that computer.
>>
>>
>>
>>You are all set
>>
>>one of these in the $30+ range should do the job
>>
>>http://www.newegg.com/store/SubCateg...external%20dvd
>>%20drive|dvd%20drive|external%20dvd
>
>
>I still dont understand why the OP doesnt just install an internal one in
>place of the CD drive?????