Adding USB adapter card to P2B?

[jbclem]

I have a P2B motherboard with a PIII 1000mHz processor. I've never used USB and I'd
like to find a way to add it to my system. Is there a PCI adapter card that I can use
and what Bios upgrade will I need to get USB 2.0 to work?

John

 

[jbclem]

Forgot to add that I have Bios version 1014 beta 001.

John

 

[Paul]

I have a P2B motherboard with a PIII 1000mHz processor. I've
never used USB and I'd like to find a way to add it to my system.
Is there a PCI adapter card that I can use and what Bios upgrade
will I need to get USB 2.0 to work?

John

As I understand it, the BIOS will examine the card, during
startup. The BIOS will record info about the card in the
DMI and ESCD storage areas. In some cases, the BIOS may
even hang, while examining a card type that did not exist
when the BIOS was written. But, whether the card does
anything useful, really depends on support in the OS, and
on the proper drivers being installed (or already existing
in the OS). In the case of USB, drivers are integrated into
WinXP and Win2K - but to get USB2 rates to work would require
some minimum service pack. WinXP SP1 and Win2K SP4 are
minimums for USB2, according to this page:

http://www.usbman.com/USB 2 News.htm

Stuff a card in there, let Windows discover it, and
see if the Device Manager has an "Enhanced" USB entry.
That would mean a USB2 device entry has been found.
This page shows some samples of Device Manager appearance,
where the word "Enhanced" appears.

http://www.usbman.com/Guides/checking_for_usb_2.htm

If Windows shows some USB entries, but not as many as
you expected, there is this recipe:

http://www.usbman.com/Guides/Cleanup Device Manager Safe Mode.htm

If using older OSes, you had better do a lot more
research. Some cards come with Orangeware drivers
(ousb2.inf, ousb2hub.sys, ousbehci.sys etc) for
use with older OSes. If using older OSes, don't
buy the card, unless you can download the drivers
from the manufacturer (i.e. if you lose the CD
or floppy that comes with the card, or the card
is an "OEM" version in a bag with no docs, you'll want
access to a download site). I would think a minimum
OS would be Win98SE, but I'm not sure.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Stephan Grossklass]

I have a P2B motherboard with a PIII 1000mHz processor. I've never used USB and I'd
like to find a way to add it to my system. Is there a PCI adapter card that I can use
and what Bios upgrade will I need to get USB 2.0 to work?

These older boards are a bit critical when it comes to USB2 card
selection; I suggest to use something based on a NEC chip, even then not
all of the cards may work. IIRC the Longshine model (LCS-8033H) works on
a P3B-F, that would be worth a try. Google Groups may find other
suggestions for working cards here.

Stephan

 

[Brad Clarke]

I added a Vantec UGT-PC205 5-port USB 2.0 PCI card to an old (socket 7)
AOpen MX59 Pro II board (BIOS is from July 2000), and it works like a
charm.

I just added the card to the PC, booted it up and XP (SP1 or SP2)
picked up the card and it works great. W2K SP4 will also work with the
card "out of the box".

The reason I chose the Vantec is becuase it uses the NEC USB 2.0
chipset, which is the cream of the crop for USB 2.0.

http://www.vantecusa.com/product-peripheral.html

Brad

 

[jbclem]

Thanks all for the good information, just what I needed. I have Win2000 SP4 and I'll
look for the NEC chip, so I'm halfway there.

John

 

[Balck Pete]

I know this is a little late, but I have a couple of P2B-B
motherboards and they have USB built right into the motherboard. All
you need to do is get the little adapter that fits in one of the
backplane slots and plug it into the motherboard. Now this is not USB
2.0 but for a P2B motherboard it works just fine. My understanding is
that all P2B motherboards are pretty much the same so they should all
have the USB chip built in. The P2B-B is just a P2B that fits in an AT
case. Check your BIOS. See if the USB ports appear there. I am sure
that there are some of those little adapters floating around on Ebay.