USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 on Asus P4PE with Win98se

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

On my P4PE the USB system show up as 3 USB 1.1 controllers/hubs and 1
USB 2.0 controller/hub (even though all ports should have USB 2.0).

All devices show up on the USB 1.1 devices (if you check power
consumption etc) and I guess that's what it should look like.

But is there a way to see if a connected device use 1.1 or 2.0?

And - does the P4PE have real USB 2.0 HighSpeed (480 Mbps)?
Or should I get a FireWire drive for an external harddisk?

 

[Paul]

On my P4PE the USB system show up as 3 USB 1.1 controllers/hubs and 1
USB 2.0 controller/hub (even though all ports should have USB 2.0).

All devices show up on the USB 1.1 devices (if you check power
consumption etc) and I guess that's what it should look like.

But is there a way to see if a connected device use 1.1 or 2.0?

And - does the P4PE have real USB 2.0 HighSpeed (480 Mbps)?
Or should I get a FireWire drive for an external harddisk?

I'm having a lot of trouble finding info about Firewire on
Win98SE. Maybe there is an OHCI driver in Win98SE but not
Win98 - I haven't been able to verify that. If you do go with
Firewire, this may help. It is a patch for Safe Removal, for
disconnecting a Firewire device while the computer is powered.
Later versions of Windows do this by disabling cacheing in the
path to the drive, so the plug can be pulled without a problem.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/contents/WURecommended/S_WUFeatured/1394/Default.asp

Either solution could have performance problems. I tried a Firewire
enclosure last year, and it seemed to be limited to 33MB/sec from
the IDE interface connector. And, if daisy-chaining Firewire drives,
the last drive on the chain gets less bandwidth than the first on the
chain - it seems the Firewire packets are stored and forwarded when
drives are connected in a chain. That is all I can figure.

Whether you use USB2 or Firewire, performance will depend on the
bridge chip used to convert from IDE to USB or Firewire. You will
need to read some reviews on the various enclosures and which bridge
chip they use (Oxford chips are sometimes used for Firewire). I think
the best I could do with the enclosures I tried was about 30MB/sec.

In any case, Win98SE is going to present a challenge to making this
project work. It may in fact be better to buy a PCI card with either
Firewire or USB on it, in case the product comes with better support
for Win98SE than the P4PE has got. In searching for info for your
question, I found a lot of dead ends, so the information end of the
project will be the limiting factor.

Good luck,
Paul

 

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

Paul skrev:

I'm having a lot of trouble finding info about Firewire on
Win98SE. Maybe there is an OHCI driver in Win98SE but not

I just installed the Intel INF update Utility, rebooted and the
Firewire port was setup correctly (is it a part of the Intel chipset,
or is it allreday included in Win98se, USB2.0 was not included, needed
separate drivers from Orangeware to get the USB2.0 controller setup)

Either solution could have performance problems. I tried a Firewire
enclosure last year, and it seemed to be limited to 33MB/sec from

The firewire box is MUCH more expensive, so if the USB2.0 on P4PE
really is high-speed (480) that's a better solution for me. I'll use
the external drive for backup anyway. So speed is not THAT important.

Firewire or USB on it, in case the product comes with better support
for Win98SE than the P4PE has got. In searching for info for your

I have Win98se driver for all chips on my P4PE. No problems so far.
Besides, I'll soon install WinXP so the problem will disappear