USB PCI card has ali chipset. Thinking of trying VIA?

[Darren]

Hi and thanks

My kids' mobo is a GA-6VX7 with Celeron 433

I purchased a too cheap, ***ali chipset*** 4 port PCI USB card that Windows
sees but can
****only connect an USB mouse****. (I've seen others have this problem.)

Tried different slots and BIOS settings. ****Won't detect any other
peripheral****. Not even by swearing.

I thought I'd try a Kouwell USB PCI card, which has a different chipset,
***'VIA'***.

Any chipset better than another here? Or just give it a go?

Thanks again

Darren

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

Any chipset better than another here? Or just give it a go?

Everybody, including the experts at www.usbman.com and
www.everythingusb.com, seems to consider NEC chipsets to be the best.
They're used in Belkin and Adaptec cards, but you should be able to
find some dealers at www.pricewatch.com offering NEC cards for $10-15,
although some advertise NEC but ship VIA.

The VIA VT6212 chip seems to be better than the VT6202, and according
to www.xbitlabs.com it's also much faster, almost as fast as NEC and
Intel.

 

[Darren]

Well done guys.

You get the respect you deserve.

I ended up buying a VIA VT6212 chip based card, as there were no NEC based
cards to be found at the shop today.

The card is a Kouwell KW-2580E4, USB2 PCI card. 4 ports external and 1
internal.

Everything worked first time and the difference between this card, (that
works), and the previous, (which minimally worked and randomly at that), is
very pleasing.

Extra info if interested...
Instructions were great, except for a mistake that mentioned using the
'2580E' folder, not the '2580E4' folder, for the drivers.

Installed to 98SE and XP SP2 very well.

One happy chap here, thanks to you three.

Many thanks

Darren