Pismo & Belkin USB 2.0 Notebook Card

[jack213]

Hello All,

I have a Powerbook Pismo (500 mhz / 1 gig RAM / 12 gig HD) running 10.3.9. I wanted to add USB 2.0 so I bought a Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Notebook Card (# F5U222). The Belkin card fits and runs in my PCMCIA slot with 500 m/amps of power (OS 10.3.9 recognized the card right away); however, it only runs at USB 1.1 speed (12 Mb/sec). My System Profiler recognizes the Belkin card as "USB High-Speed Bus / Up to 480 Mb/sec)," but the two USBs listed under the Belkin card have the same running specs as my two internal USBs (12 Mb/sec). On another site, a PC user had a similar problem and was able to correct it by downloading a newer driver from the Belkin webpage. I tried doing something similar but Belkin doesn't offer any Mac downloads for this product. I called Belkins customer support line and they offered no help.

Does anyone know if I'll be able to get the Belkin USBs to run at 2.0 speed? If so, how?

Thanks,
Jack

[DeltaMac]

Are you sure the device that you plug in to the USB 2.0 port, is a USB 2.0 device? You will not get USB 2.0 speeds to a USB 1.1 device, and your PC Card may only have a single bus connection to both ports. So, if you connect two devices, and one is not USB 2.0, then both will downgrade automatically. This is not a problem with the card, or the drivers. Connect just one device that you are certain is USB 2.0, and check the USB tab in System Profiler. You will likely see USB 2.0 (hi-speed) with that setup.

[jack213]

Hey DeltaMac,

Thanks for the reply.

I plugged a "Lexar USB 2.0 Multi-Card Reader" into one of the USB ports on the Belkin Notebook Card (the other Belkin USB port remained empty as did my two native USB ports on my Pismo ). My System Profiler recognized the Lexar for exactly what it was. When I downloaded a compact flash card (512mb Lexar card) with a couple of photos on it, it took forever (minutes, just like using my USB 1.1 ports).

I don't think plugging something into my Belkin card is the reason why I'm not getting USB 2.0 speed / recognition. Before I plug anything into the Belkin, my System Profiler reads the two Belkin ports as just being 12 Mb/sec (exactly like my native USB ports / USB 1.1).

The problem could be with my Belkin card, but that just doesn't feel like it's the problem. When I get a chance, I'll plug the Belkin into a friend's PC laptop, download the driver if necessary, and then I should have a better idea if it's the Belkin card. For some reason I think it's an OS issue that may or may not be fixable.

Any other ideas or past experiences will be greatly appreciated.