PCI USB /Firewire card troubles

spookyspooky
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I recently purchased the usb firewire combo card listed below (from geniality maple technology):



USB 1.1 + IEEE 1394 Combo Card



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Parts No¡G



GMUIP-04

Specification & Feature¡G



1.32Bit PCI Rev2.1 Bus interface

2.Support OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface)

3.Support Plug and play and Hot swappable.

4.Each port over current protection.

FireWire

(1) Compliant with IEEE 1394-1995 & P1394a standards

(2) Two 6-pin FireWire root ports

(3) Maximum 400Mbps data transfer rates

(4) Maximum 4.5meters cable length

USB

(1) Compliant USB (Universal Serial Bus) 1.1 standards

(2) Two USB root ports

(3) Support full speed (12Mbps) and low speed(1.5Mbps) data transfer rates

(4) Provides 500MA output current per port

(5) Maximum 5 meters USB cable length.

Operating System Support:

Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP

Mac OS 8.6 or higher



From the web site I was lead to belive that the card is functional with macintosh computers (the manufacturers have since confirmed this). I have an apple powermac 9500/200 running mac os 9.1 which has all the latest drivers and fully meets the usb/ firewire criteria.



However, when I plug in a usb zip 250 drive from work to test the card it fails to work at all. The drive turns on and accepts disks but the device simply does not mount on the desktop.



Apple system profiler reports the card in the pci slot as:



card type: pci

card name: pci bridge

card model: not avialable

card rom#: not available

card revision: 1

card vendor ID: 104c



Is there something about zip drives that prevent them from working with usb pci adapters? Apple's web site states that external storage devices



"Only devices that are compliant with the USB Mass Storage Class specifications will work with this software. Some compliant devices may have unique features beyond what is defined in the USB Mass Storage Class specifications and require additional software provided by the manufacturer."



the software being discussed is the apple usb adapter card support 1.4.1.



does the zip 250 usb comply with this requirement?





Anyone have any experience with this or any other types of cards? I'm gonna borrow some bits from work next week and try them out to see if the problem is with the card or the zip drive.



Iomega as usual are of no help

thanx

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    pesipesi Posts: 424member
    i'm not sure if zip drives will mount automatically under OS 9. i seem to remember that particular iomega extensions need to be present.



    have you tried downloading and installing those?
  • Reply 2 of 8
    spookyspooky Posts: 504member
    Hi pesi,



    So far I have:



    1) tried the card in different slots : no joy



    2) downloaded the latest iomegaware drivers and software : no no joy



    3) downloaded apple's USB adapter card software 1.4.1 : still no joy



    The only thing that concerns me is that the card is PCI 2.1 compliant and someone told me that the powermac 9500/200 is only PCI 2.0 compliant. Would that be the cause of probs do you think?



    thanx
  • Reply 3 of 8
    pesipesi Posts: 424member
    [quote]Originally posted by spooky:

    <strong>

    The only thing that concerns me is that the card is PCI 2.1 compliant and someone told me that the powermac 9500/200 is only PCI 2.0 compliant. Would that be the cause of probs do you think?



    thanx</strong><hr></blockquote>

    i'm not sure what the difference between the PCI 2.0 and 2.1 specs are, but that could very well be the problem.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    spookyspooky Posts: 504member
    You wouldn't happen to know a web site that deals with the PCI specification would you? :cool:
  • Reply 5 of 8
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    Return the card and get it from a different brand, hate to say it but that is what is wrong...



    I couldn't get any firewire device to mount in X on my Iogear combo card (was recognized in system profiler), returned it and got one from Orange micro and works fine now.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    spookyspooky Posts: 504member
    Hi chych,



    how would one tell a good brand from a not so good brand? Is there anything I should look out for?



    thanx



    This comob card thing is getting weirder! I took a VST USB smartdisk and a Lacie Firewire CDRW home from work today to test out the firewire ports. The VST smart disk failed to work at all on the usb ports and did not even show up on the system profiler. However, the Firewre CDRW worked a treat - even though it did not show up on the System profiler! I managed to burn a cd with no problems! This is sooo weird. I really don't know what to do now. Do you think there is any chance that the USB ports on this combo might be damaged/nonworking?



    Or maybe I just happen to be trying the USB devices that just don't work with PCI adapters?



    thanx



    spooky



    [ 08-19-2002: Message edited by: spooky ]</p>
  • Reply 7 of 8
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    Things to try:
    • Zap the PRAM? (cmd+option+p+r on booting your Mac; you'll have to reset some settings).

    • not enough power form the card for the USB devices?

    • reinstall Firewire, USB and individual device drivers?

    • Is PCi rev 2.1 backwards compatible with 2.0?

    I though about getting a combo USB+1394 card because I have a 6400 with only two slots, but I'm not so sure now :eek: .
  • Reply 8 of 8
    spookyspooky Posts: 504member
    [quote]Originally posted by Stoo:

    <strong>Things to try:
    • Zap the PRAM? (cmd+option+p+r on booting your Mac; you'll have to reset some settings).

    • not enough power form the card for the USB devices?

    • reinstall Firewire, USB and individual device drivers?

    • Is PCi rev 2.1 backwards compatible with 2.0?

    I though about getting a combo USB+1394 card because I have a 6400 with only two slots, but I'm not so sure now :eek: .</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Hi stoo,



    I've tried the first 2 to no effect - I've tried connecting the card direct to the powersupply and removing all other devices except for the startup drive. As for the 2.1 versus 2.0 issue I can't really find any concrete info on it. Having said that the firewire ports seem to work with my lacie cdrw so I guess the pci 2.0 bus is adequate.



    Still stumped!!
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