PCI USB Card Compatibility Question

[asdfguy86]

Hello everyone. It's been a (very long) while since I've logged onto MacRumors, but I have a question regarding a PCI USB card.

I have a PCI USB 2.0 card that is made by NEC and has an NEC chipset in it, and I was wondering will it or should it work in a Power Mac G4 MDD model? Everywhere I have looked tells me it will work, but I installed the card and it was giving USB devices power, but that was it. The Mac didn't seem to recognize the card at all. Does it depend on the Mac OS X version I am running? The PowerMac runs OS X 10.3.0.

 

[1042686]

Huh, I don't have an answer to your problem (no powermacs running panther at the moment - all are ML), but I did find this EHCI USB2 driver support for Jaguar. I wonder if the same hurdle exists for Panther? IIRC, I had no problems with NEC or VIA usb2 pci cards with Tiger or ML.

https://www.high-rely.com/downloads/nec-pci-usb-2-0-drivers/

Good luck.

 

[skinniezinho]

I think it will work. I had a card with NEC chipset and it work on a sawtooth both under tiger and leopard.
It had some quirks, but some ports worked (not sure if it was hardware deffect or software)

 

[0248294]

If it has a NEC chipset, it generally should work. I have only tested my NEC cards on 10.4 and 10.5, and I'd recommend upgrading your MDD to atleast 10.4 anyways, as it has better software support for apps like TenFourFox, whereas 10.3 is way more abandoned. So go ahead and try upgrading, and see if the card works then. If not, you atleast have a better OS on your MDD.

 

[asdfguy86]

If it has a NEC chipset, it generally should work. I have only tested my NEC cards on 10.4 and 10.5, and I'd recommend upgrading your MDD to atleast 10.4 anyways, as it has better software support for apps like TenFourFox, whereas 10.3 is way more abandoned. So go ahead and try upgrading, and see if the card works then. If not, you atleast have a better OS on your MDD.

Gotcha. I will try upgrading to 10.4 now and then I will try installing the card again.

 

[asdfguy86]

Well I am fortunate to say that upgrading to Tiger was a success, and now the PCI USB card is working! A big thank you to everyone that helped me.

 

[for this]

Yes, I kind of remember that "for OS X", it needs Tiger and above to work. But it's interesting that, generally, an NEC chip card will work in OS 9 as well, at USB 1 speed though.

 

[bunnspecial]

As others have said, NEC cards are a safe bet.