Patience is the key 😀, I'm seeing plenty at the flea market. Also try getting better cards. Ports should each have a buffer cap.

Oh wise one, please please share some tech details ?!
Example/picture/link of such a card and how it should look ? 😲

There are no such fleamarkets in my corner of the world, but at least I'll know better what to look for on fleabay... 😀

Hi, i have the following card:

But it's a D720101GJ and i never testet it.

greetings

McBierle wrote:

Hi, i have the following card: […]
Show full quote

Hi, i have the following card:

WP_20181106_014.jpg

But it's a D720101GJ and i never testet it.

greetings

PLEASE sell it to him and send him a VIA based card!!! 🤣 🤣 🤣

bestemor wrote:

... There are no such fleamarkets in my corner of the world, ...

But what is your corner of the world?

Anyway, maybe look for an Adaptec AUA-4000B instead. These use NEC chips (albeit the D720101GJ) and are of higher-quality than any of those cheap clone cards.

I have received the NEC-based USB 2.0 card from these sellers within the last month,
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192690240415
https://www.ebay.com/itm/282547132171

One is the typical one that has been produced for the past 10+ years, while the second one is BGA and low profile. I tested both. The low profile one cam with the oscillator with a dent in it, but the card seems to work nonetheless.

Hmmm, I ordered a couple of the USB 2.0 cards off ebay like the picture in the OP, and they certainly do seem to be NEC cards when they turn up.

They work properly and do use NEC drivers.

I've personally found the NEC USB 2.0 cards to be the most trouble-free of the PCI USB 2.0 add-on cards. I've had some based on a VIA chipset and have had so many problems, e.g. they seem to work in one board and not the other, or they seem to work one moment, then not the next. The NEC-based cards never caused such frustration. Is your experience similar and is this why you don't want the VIA-based cards?

Thankyou for all your input !

Well, I live relatively close the North Pole(but not Canada, heh...), and no real fleamarkets actually exist here. There are some goodwill stores, but none offer any computer related electronics. And the local versions of Craigslist/ebay etc ususally never have such lowly and 'useless' items for sale.

- Goal is to have USB 2.0 ports, on a card that most likely will work with windows98.
And is relatively cheap as well. Forgot to mention that earlier... (was hoping for $5ish INCL postage)

I chose this one with the 'bump' at the end(as pictured), vs the flat low profile one in the link from feipoa, as I read someone had confirmed it worked with win98.

And as for VIA, the things I've read about VIA cards have made me want to avoid them completly.
But hands-on experience, I've only actually tried with PCI SATA controller cards, and I don't recall any of them being able to boot from disk (which was a crucial function for me)...

Have now looked at the suggested Adaptec cards, thanks for the tip!, but... they all seem to carry such monstrous shipping costs, regardless of what the card itself sell for... too bad. But I'll keep them on the list...
(I know, I'm cheap, but was planning on stocking up some spares as well...)

I tried my first linked card in Win98SE; worked without incident. Like you, I too didn't want to spend more than $5, which is why I bought the item in the second link ($4.41). Wanting a backup incase the smaller card didn't work, I also bought the $17 card because I've had tremendous success with them.

meljor wrote:

McBierle wrote:

Hi, i have the following card: […]
Show full quote

Hi, i have the following card:

WP_20181106_014.jpg

But it's a D720101GJ and i never testet it.

greetings

PLEASE sell it to him and send him a VIA based card!!! 🤣 🤣 🤣

Well actually i think i would send really that card, as i don't need it. But your idea would be fun... 😊

feipoa wrote:

I have received the NEC-based USB 2.0 card from these sellers within the last month,
https://www.ebay.com/itm/282547132171

The second one is BGA and low profile. I tested both. The low profile one cam with the oscillator with a dent in it, but the card seems to work nonetheless.

So I actually ordered the exact same one as you.... arrived today.
In just a friggin non-padded plastic bag no less, with virtually no protection. 😵
Funny how ALL the 3 previous VIA cards came in a proper cardboard box 🤣 🤣 🤣
On the plus side, it came with a NEC chip(still attached to it!), hurrah...

But... I can not see any electrolyte capacitator !
There were also no such thing (loose) in the bag.

Did yours look like the listing picture(1 cap), or did you as well have one with NO caps ? Should apparantly be a single one installed, but zero is my number... 😒
There is just a vacant soldering spot where it is supposed to sit.

Huh, NEC USB controller cards are rare now ? 😳
I knew they were useful for upgrading Power Macs, but I had no idea they're that sought after.

What about Renesas' USB controller cards ? Aren't they compatible to NEC cards, too ?
I had one of these early USB 3.0 cards with chips from NEC..
Later on, I got drivers for it that were Renesas-labeled.

This makes me belive that Renesas continued to produce these NEC USB 3.0 chips under their own name.
Also, my old USB 3.0 NEC card appeared as an USB 2.0 controller prior driver installation,
so I guess it still had a legacy block (USB2.0; USB 1.x) built-in.

If that's the case, it might be kind of compatible to older NEC cards.
Maybe some of these USB 3.0 PCI (not PCIe) cards from NEC/Renesas might also work in Macs
ot Win 9x systems as USB 1.x/2.0 controllers ?

🤣! Perhaps these cards are B stock? Mine came with a dent in the crystal can, but I do have an electrolytic capacitor at C25. It is 16V, 22uF. I'm sure you can find one of these from any piece of dead hardware and solder it on. This adapter is so cheap that such difficiencies don't bother. This is my spare USB 2.0 card for test systems.

One aspect about USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 add-on cards that I find really annoying is that they do not have dual internal USB headers for connecting to your cases front USB ports. At best, there may be a single USB port or single USB header on the add-on card. I end up having to butcher a USB cable to connect the internal USB port on the add-on card to the cases front USB connector. But still, that's only one port and most cases have 2 front USB ports.

Jo22 wrote:

... What about Renesas' USB controller cards ? Aren't they compatible to NEC cards, too ? ... […]
Show full quote

... What about Renesas' USB controller cards ? Aren't they compatible to NEC cards, too ? ...

[...]

If that's the case, it might be kind of compatible to older NEC cards.
Maybe some of these USB 3.0 PCI (not PCIe) cards from NEC/Renesas might also work in Macs
ot Win 9x systems as USB 1.x/2.0 controllers ?

Renesas basically acquired NEC's semiconductor operations, and are continuing their product line and design team(s) under the Renesas name.

Also, there does not exist a USB 3.0 chipset made by NEC/Renesas that supports Conventional PCI instead of PCIe. Any PCI NEC/Renesas-based USB 3.0 card you will find is using a PCIe-to-PCI bridge chip, which might introduce compatibility problems of its own even if the USB 3.0 chips themselves are backwards compatible in some way with those USB <3.0-only designs.

Ah, I see. It's good if they at least do include some backwards compatibility IMHO..
Intel goes another route, I think and dropped any pre-USB3 support in their chips altogether.
Here, an internal USB hub does the hard work to keep up compatibility with legacy peripherals.
That's also partly why there's so much trouble in getting Win7 install discs to recoginze these controllers.
Edit: Did I say something wong ? Since recently, people seem to stop writing whenever I reply.. 😕

I bought a Logilink USB 2.0 card from a retailer. It said "NEC-chip" in the product page image, but I got a VIA based card anyways. Fortunately the retailer allowed me to swap it for a NEC one. The seller wrote: seemingly two types are in stock, but adminstration does not consider them different items. Before returning the VIA card I made a photo of both items. As you can see the boxes are very similar. VIA has code PC0028 (Was hard to read) whilst NEC has PC0041.
This particular NEC chip is quite large?

Something similar happened to me a few years ago, but the cards I wanted were Acer not NEC. I got two VIA cards instead. I assume from all this that VIA chips are cheaper than the others?

I sent them right back. By boat, to save postage. They took a month to arrive. I got a full refund.

I have like three Belkin F5U220 USB 2.0 PCI cards: one Rev. 3, and two Rev. 6 (?) units. They all (should) have the NEC D720101GJ chip, and I would double check to confirm that, but... true to form, I misplaced the cards. 🤣 They also don't make them anymore, so I should find them eventually...

Strangely, I never had any issues with USB 2.0 cards that used a VIA chipset, except one I had years ago would eventually short Dad's old Acer machine if a device was plugged in one of the USB ports after years of trouble-free operation. Had to retire the card!

--

For the OP: I have never encountered that NEC D720101F1 chip revision, just the GJ variant; even managed to install the drivers for them in Win98 First Edition, but that was years ago (in 2011), so I don't remember how.

Edit: Found the 3 PCI cards in question, and they do indeed have the NEC D720101GJ variant chipset.