USB question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joseph J Hayden
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Joseph J Hayden

Is there any way to upgrade or change the USB capabilities of an old system
(pre 1999 on an Asus-P2B-LS)? This system has USB ports but because of its
age must be USB 1.1. I would like to use a USB 2.0 external USB wireless-G
USB adapter to incorporate this box into my network but fear it will choke
the dataflow on the Asus down to low Mbps. (my network is 802.11-g)
Probable a lost cause but maybe someone here knows of a work-around.
 
Joseph said:
Is there any way to upgrade or change the USB capabilities of an old system
(pre 1999 on an Asus-P2B-LS)? This system has USB ports but because of its
age must be USB 1.1. I would like to use a USB 2.0 external USB wireless-G
USB adapter to incorporate this box into my network but fear it will choke
the dataflow on the Asus down to low Mbps. (my network is 802.11-g)
Probable a lost cause but maybe someone here knows of a work-around.
Click to expand...

On the surface of it, there appear to be a couple of ways to solve the
problem. The problem is with a motherboard of that era, and what the
BIOS is happy to deal with.

There have been some people, who have plugged certain card types into
the olf 440BX boards, and not got the card recognized properly. So
whatever solution you decide upon, you may want to research
further, and check PCI compatibility. In cases in the past, we
couldn't see what was preventing certain cards from working.
(It was not a voltage issue, more likely to be the BIOS not
liking something in the enumeration info from the card.)

If you want WiFi, you could plug a PCI based WiFi into the
machine. The problem is, whether the BIOS would be happy to
see the card or not. WiFi did not exist when the P2B-LS was designed.

The second solution, is to plug a USB2 PCI card into the machine.
For such a card, if you aren't using a modern OS, like WinXP, then
make sure the product comes with a driver CD. The driver CD would
need something like an Orangeware USB driver, to add USB2 to something
like Win98/WinME. In examples of PCI USB2 cards on Newegg, you can
see pictures of the product, and check the picture to see if a
driver CD is included. So-called "OEM" or white box cards, sans
driver disk, are a much bigger gamble.

With the USB2 card in place, then you'd go shopping for the USB2 WiFi
adapter. Again, making sure that there were drivers for the OS you
are using. Some OSes are better than others.

I haven't had any trouble with my P2B-S motherboard, but I've only
used things like Promise IDE cards or cheap NIC cards in it. I've
never tried WiFi.

Paul
 
You could add a USB2 card to the system as already suggested but if you have
a free USB1.1 port you already have the option of using a backwards
compatible USB WiFi adapter. I've got one computer of similar vintage to
yours (1999 ASUS 900Mhz P3) connected wirelessly with a Dlink DWL-G122
wireless adapter on a USB1.1 port. It also worked well with a DLink DWL-G132
Extreme G adapter. To avoid connectivity issues use the same brand of USB
WiFi adapter as your access point/router if possible... some chipsets or
encryption implementations don't play well together. In my case even the
DWL-G132 adapter was a better match for the Extreme-G router than then DWL
G-122.

The WiFi adapter needs to be the only device on the USB port (whether USB2
or USB1) because it WILL use up all of the available power of that port
(bandwidth also if USB1.1). The trade-off in using a USB 1.1 connection is
that the 802.11g WiFi adapter will not be able to reach its full data
transfer speed. Though the WiFi adapter itself may connect to the wireless
access point/router at 54mbps the USB 1.1 connection will only allow
12-13mbps data flow through the port.
 
Thanks for the replies.......
It appears that adding a PCI USB2 card is my best route in this problem as I
do want the high speed data transfer speed. The next step is choosing a card
compatible with this 440BX AGPset and PCI controller and BIOS. Any idea
where I could research this? I'm afraid much of this is over my old!! head.
 
I would go on the principle that unless it is stated otherwise on the
adapter's box, just about any USB2 PCI card should work in your computer.
PCI slot 1 might be problematic to use because it typically shares the IRQ
with the VGA card or on-board video but that's only a "maybe" issue.

The card drivers load with Windows so BIOS shouldn't come into it unless you
find you need to disable the onboard USB. Also any mouse or keyboard plugged
into the USB2 card will not function at all until Windows loads the USB2
card drivers ... so there's no access to BIOS or Windows Safe Mode from
those USB ports.
 
RalfG said:
I would go on the principle that unless it is stated otherwise on the
adapter's box, just about any USB2 PCI card should work in your computer.
PCI slot 1 might be problematic to use because it typically shares the IRQ
with the VGA card or on-board video but that's only a "maybe" issue.

The card drivers load with Windows so BIOS shouldn't come into it unless you
find you need to disable the onboard USB. Also any mouse or keyboard plugged
into the USB2 card will not function at all until Windows loads the USB2
card drivers ... so there's no access to BIOS or Windows Safe Mode from
those USB ports.
Click to expand...

Belkin USB 2.0 PCI card didn't work here.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&[email protected]
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&[email protected]

A VIA based card didn't work here:
http://groups.google.ca/group/de.co..._frm/thread/510a6dbf856348ed/ed210152c8c02f8d

No idea why, though.

Paul
 
Sometimes it's just a matter of moving cards around in the slots until you
get a combination that works.
I had one motherboard where PCI Slot1 shared the IRQ with the VGA slot and
Slot 4 shared the IRQ with the onboard USB and some other system board
devices. Putting my SBLive card into Slot1 created a conflict with the video
card that left the computer unusable. Putting the sound card in Slot 4
resulted in an annoying static crackle from the speakers. My PCI ADSL card
didn't like Slot 4 either and remained in a constant error state when
inserted there. By moving cards around I did manage to get everything to
coexist in the end.
 
Thanks all. I now have enough info to really screw up. :-)
BTW... thank google for the translator.
 
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