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Which USB 2.0 cards for old motherboards

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First post, by swaaye

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What cards have you guys used that work reliably on old boards? I have a card with a VIA controller and it isn't even detected by 440BX or AMD 750. It does work on newer chipsets like KT266 though.

Last edited by DosFreak on 2021-01-31, 13:41. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 304, by smeezekitty

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swaaye wrote:

What cards have you guys used that work reliably on old boards? I have a card with a VIA controller and it isn't even detected by 440BX or AMD 750. It does work on newer chipsets like KT266 though.

I am surprised even on my 486 board both opti 82c261 and VIA vt83c572 are both picked up. I cannot verify functionality because Win95 has terrible USB support
but once I upgrade the RAM I can test it. A P2/P3 era chipset should have no problems with USB cards

Reply 2 of 304, by keropi

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Back when I tested usb2.0 cards on my ss7 machine I had better luck with ALi cards... Opti were OK too.
VIA ones were a hit-and-miss and NEC cards (that are supposed to be quality ones) never worked on my ss7 machine

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Reply 3 of 304, by Mau1wurf1977

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The onboard USB ports always worked well with Windows 98 SE.

What is the benefit of using USB card? Do they work in Windows 95?

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Reply 4 of 304, by Zup

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Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

The onboard USB ports always worked well with Windows 98 SE.

What is the benefit of using USB card? Do they work in Windows 95?

- Upgrade USB 1.x computers to USB 2.0.
- Having more USB ports available
- Some firewire cards are firewire/USB combo cards, so people using firewire may want to have the USB part working.

I had some VIA based USB and USB/firewire cards. They were reliable, but keep in mind that you must install the VIA drivers always (even on XP).

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Reply 5 of 304, by GeorgeMan

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swaaye wrote:

What cards have you guys used that work reliably on old boards? I have a card with a VIA controller and it isn't even detected by 440BX or AMD 750. It does work on newer chipsets like KT266 though.

You need a card with NEC chip, not VIA. Some old computers refused to boot with the card installed and some others didn't recognise the card at all. 😊
I bought 3 different VIA based pci cards from ebay before finding out...

1. Athlon XP 3200+ | ASUS A7V600 | Radeon 9500 @ Pro | SB Audigy 2 ZS | 80GB IDE, 500GB SSD IDE2Sata, 2x1TB HDDs | Win 98SE, XP, Vista
2. Pentium MMX 266| Qdi Titanium IIIB | Hercules graphics & Amber monitor | 1 + 10GB HDDs | DOS 6.22, Win 3.1, 95C

Reply 7 of 304, by gerwin

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I would also have preferred a NEC branded PCI USB 2.0 card, but back then I got a VIA model.
It always worked fine on a Soyo i440BX motherboard though, with windows 98 SE installed. Chipset is VIA VT6212L. PCB date is Week 32 2007.
Updating the MP3 player got a lot faster.

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Reply 8 of 304, by swaaye

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I just want to use it for storage. USB 1.1 is so slow. Can you guys post photos of your cards that do work on 1997-1999 boards?

The card that I have is some ultra cheapie with a VIA VT6212L but it simply doesn't work on chipsets before 2000-2001. My guess is the controller isn't the problem, the card's construction is.

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Reply 9 of 304, by GeorgeMan

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Just buy an ultra cheapie card from ebay that is guaranteed to have a nec chip. 😀

1. Athlon XP 3200+ | ASUS A7V600 | Radeon 9500 @ Pro | SB Audigy 2 ZS | 80GB IDE, 500GB SSD IDE2Sata, 2x1TB HDDs | Win 98SE, XP, Vista
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Reply 10 of 304, by swaaye

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I thought the problem might be PCI 2.2 requirement but AMD 751 supports PCI 2.2. 440BX is definitely PCI 2.1 however.

The NEC cards seem to specify PCI 2.1 support so I will grab one of those and try it.

Reply 11 of 304, by gerwin

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This is the one I was talking about, Which served me well when attached to a SY-6BA+III i440BX Motherboard.
A totally unremarkable piece of hardware...

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Reply 12 of 304, by GeorgeMan

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gerwin wrote:

This is the one I was talking about, Which served me well when attached to a SY-6BA+III i440BX Motherboard.
A totally unremarkable piece of hardware...

It's an old design, probably it was still compatible with PCI 2.1 back then.

1. Athlon XP 3200+ | ASUS A7V600 | Radeon 9500 @ Pro | SB Audigy 2 ZS | 80GB IDE, 500GB SSD IDE2Sata, 2x1TB HDDs | Win 98SE, XP, Vista
2. Pentium MMX 266| Qdi Titanium IIIB | Hercules graphics & Amber monitor | 1 + 10GB HDDs | DOS 6.22, Win 3.1, 95C

Reply 13 of 304, by Half-Saint

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I have at least 4 cards with different controllers but no drivers - would have to search for them online.

If you want, I can test them tomorrow just tell me which platform you want me to try them on 😀

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Reply 14 of 304, by feipoa

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http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEC-4-1-port-PCI-High- … e332274e&_uhb=1

I have had the best luck with NEC-based USB 2.0 cards on 440BX. Mine look like the one in this ebay link.

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Reply 15 of 304, by swaaye

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Half-Saint wrote:

I have at least 4 cards with different controllers but no drivers - would have to search for them online.

If you want, I can test them tomorrow just tell me which platform you want me to try them on 😀

Any boards from 1999 or earlier. I am using an Abit 440BX board and a ASUS AMD 750 board.

Reply 16 of 304, by swaaye

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feipoa wrote:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEC-4-1-port-PCI-High- … e332274e&_uhb=1

I have had the best luck with NEC-based USB 2.0 cards on 440BX. Mine look like the one in this ebay link.

I've ordered a Belkin card with a NEC chip. It claims PCI 2.1 support so hopefully it will work.

Reply 18 of 304, by zyga64

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swaaye wrote:

I just want to use it for storage. USB 1.1 is so slow. Can you guys post photos of your cards that do work on 1997-1999 boards?

The card that I have is some ultra cheapie with a VIA VT6212L but it simply doesn't work on chipsets before 2000-2001. My guess is the controller isn't the problem, the card's construction is.

I have exactly the same card. Working without problems on Intel SE440BX-2 (third slot - counting from AGP). System is Windows 98SE
Driver from here: http://download.viatech.com/DownloadDriverSvl?driver_id=2105

1) VLSI SCAMP /286@20 /4M /CL-GD5422 /CMI8330
2) i420EX /486DX33 /16M /TGUI9440 /GUS+ALS100+MT32PI
3) i430FX /K6-2@400 /64M /Rage Pro PCI /ES1370+YMF718
4) i440BX /P!!!750 /256M /MX440 /SBLive!
5) iB75 /3470s /4G /HD7750 /HDA

Reply 19 of 304, by swaaye

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zyga64 wrote:

I have exactly the same card. Working without problems on Intel SE440BX-2 (third slot - counting from AGP). System is Windows 98SE
Driver from here: http://download.viatech.com/DownloadDriverSvl?driver_id=2105

Interesting. I couldn't get either board I tested it on to even detect that the card was installed. I did try every PCI slot too. Maybe the card is broken.

The thing is - in the past I had another one of these and I remember having this problem then too. But it worked ok in a KT266A board that I had at the time.