Upgrading to USB 2.0

D

DGDevin

I have a 3-year-old PC (Asus A7V333 board and XP Pro) that a friend built
for me. How do I determine if it has USB 1 or USB 2 (I'm guessing the lack
of mention of USB 2.0 in the motherboard manual is a major clue)? Is it
practical to upgrade existing USB ports to USB 2.0 when putting in a USB 2.0
card or is it just way easier to get a card with ports on a drive-bay panel?
I like the looks of this setup but I suspect I don't have the ACPI BIOS it
requires. Thanks for any help.

http://www.usbman.com/Reviews/ratoc_usb_20_5.htm
 
J

JAD

DGDevin said:
I have a 3-year-old PC (Asus A7V333 board and XP Pro) that a friend built
for me. How do I determine if it has USB 1 or USB 2 (I'm guessing the lack
of mention of USB 2.0 in the motherboard manual is a major clue)? Is it
practical to upgrade existing USB ports to USB 2.0 when putting in a USB 2.0
card or is it just way easier to get a card with ports on a drive-bay panel?
I like the looks of this setup but I suspect I don't have the ACPI BIOS it
requires. Thanks for any help.

http://www.usbman.com/Reviews/ratoc_usb_20_5.htm

nice setup, Unless you bought a real dinosaur 3 years ago, that setup should
work in your rig. Give the specs of the MB and I could tell you for certain.
 
B

beenthere

DGDevin said:
I have a 3-year-old PC (Asus A7V333 board and XP Pro) that a friend built
for me. How do I determine if it has USB 1 or USB 2 (I'm guessing the lack
of mention of USB 2.0 in the motherboard manual is a major clue)? Is it
practical to upgrade existing USB ports to USB 2.0 when putting in a USB
2.0 card or is it just way easier to get a card with ports on a drive-bay
panel? I like the looks of this setup but I suspect I don't have the ACPI
BIOS it requires. Thanks for any help.

http://www.usbman.com/Reviews/ratoc_usb_20_5.htm
Funny, according to this write up, you`ve already got USB2.
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/asus/a7v333/a7v333p1.htm
Read the Intro paragraph.
Anyway, if you go into Device Manager you should find
Enhanced USB controller.
 
J

JAD

JAD said:
nice setup, Unless you bought a real dinosaur 3 years ago, that setup should
work in your rig. Give the specs of the MB and I could tell you for certain.

heheheh i totally missed the first line of text....yeah, you should have
2.0 at least on one set of headers.
 
S

spodosaurus

DGDevin said:
I have a 3-year-old PC (Asus A7V333 board and XP Pro) that a friend built
for me. How do I determine if it has USB 1 or USB 2 (I'm guessing the lack
of mention of USB 2.0 in the motherboard manual is a major clue)?

What manual are you looking in? It's mentioned all over the place,
including a jumper (set to on by default) for activating/deactivating
usb 2. It has four USB 2 ports (the two next to the sound jacks are one
pair). The other two usb 2 ports are available as a header on the baord
and a backplate should have come with the board for accessing these from
the start. The usb ports next to the ps/2 ports (mouse+keyboard) are usb
1.1 (there's another header on the board that's for an extra 2 usb 1.1
ports).
Is it
practical to upgrade existing USB ports to USB 2.0 when putting in a USB 2.0

What? The only way that could be accomplished, assuming they are on the
motherboard, is with a enw motherboard.
card or is it just way easier to get a card with ports on a drive-bay panel?

generally two separate items.
I like the looks of this setup but I suspect I don't have the ACPI BIOS it
requires.

I think you're incorrect there. Here's a link that tells you what that
means:
http://kb.iu.edu/data/ahvl.html


Ah, it's a 'kit' that combines two items.

Regards,

Ari


--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
D

DGDevin

spodosaurus said:
What manual are you looking in? It's mentioned all over the place,
including a jumper (set to on by default) for activating/deactivating usb
2. It has four USB 2 ports (the two next to the sound jacks are one pair).
The other two usb 2 ports are available as a header on the baord and a
backplate should have come with the board for accessing these from the
start. The usb ports next to the ps/2 ports (mouse+keyboard) are usb 1.1
(there's another header on the board that's for an extra 2 usb 1.1 ports).

Well that's why I came to a place where guys who know what they're talking
about hang out. I looked in the manual index for mentions of USB 2.0 and
didn't see anything, didn't see USB 2.0 mentioned in Device Manager either,
but now that it's been pointed out to me I see it, e.g. I didn't realize
"enhanced" meant USB 2.0 and the USB 2.0 connections are mentioned in the
manual even if the index doesn't point to them. ;^)
What? The only way that could be accomplished, assuming they are on the
motherboard, is with a enw motherboard.

I meant is there such a thing as a USB 2.0 card (which I now realize I don't
need) that has internal connections that can be wired up to existing USB
ports to upgrade them. And yes, I'm wandering in the dark here, just
replacing a cratered hard drive last week is the upper limit of my
achievements in this area.

Thanks to you and the other folks for the helpful tips.
 
B

Bob Knowlden

The latest downloadable version of the A7V333 manual:

http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socka/kt333/a7v333/e1010_a7v333.pdf

claims that the USB ports are USB 2.0 capable. If memory serves, SP1 or
newer may be required to get built-in USB2 support.

As another poster remarked, the word "enhanced" should appear in your list
of USB devices under Device Manager, if you have USB2 controllers.


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
 
F

Falco98

DGDevin said:
I have a 3-year-old PC (Asus A7V333 board and XP Pro) that a friend built
for me. How do I determine if it has USB 1 or USB 2 (I'm guessing the lack
of mention of USB 2.0 in the motherboard manual is a major clue)? Is it
practical to upgrade existing USB ports to USB 2.0 when putting in a USB 2.0
card or is it just way easier to get a card with ports on a drive-bay panel?
I like the looks of this setup but I suspect I don't have the ACPI BIOS it
requires. Thanks for any help.

http://www.usbman.com/Reviews/ratoc_usb_20_5.htm

if, in fact, you do decide to use a PCI usb 2.0 card to make your
upgrade (even though others here believe you might not need to), I would
redirect you towards Newegg.com, where you can find hardware at less
than 1/4 the price of the product that seems to be available at your
link. I'll even give you specific links if you ask.
 

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