Do not buy PCI USB 2.0 chipset with VIA and ALI

[Willard21]

It is time to examine the situation regarding problems of incompatibility or operation of PCI USB 2.0 equipped chipset VIA.

The current situation sees mitigated to a great extent the problems of the past:
the compatibility of cards has been improved so much as the electronic architecture that previously was the main cause of the non-recognition of peripherals 2.0 or because of their slow detected by the system in 1.1.

During these 3 years has lot of confusion about different brands of cards to be purchased for compatibility more or less certain and certainly still valid alternative to get good performance without problems is to choose a PCI card with NEC chipset. This was mainly due to the fact that these cards are designed to work with voltages slot pci old and new motherboards (respectively 5 and 3.3V), considerably reducing the likelihood of incompatibility.

We must also consider that most of the problems arising from these expansions are resulting in the need to add USB ports faster on systems dating. In fact, the resulting benefit is often below expectations: you are in fact implementing a technology on an old technology which will play the role of bottleneck in data speed.

Throughout the thread, the vast majority of people solve their own problems simply by replacing USB adapters VIA with NEC, the latter certainly better met by any standards. It 'also happened to bump into someone who has had the opposite problem, or malfunctioning cards with NEC then with the EIA but were sporadic incidents absolutely sure from the use of special hardware or software.

The recommendation, therefore, before buying an expansion card-PCI USB 2.0 is to consider the following information:

1. If you want to update the system already has a few years of life, add a PCI USB 2.0 will improve significantly in just the situation, because the architecture of communication (the so-called bus system) used by the amplitudes of the machine have bandwidth decidedly lower than those reached by a PCI USB 2.0 (480mbit / s = 60MB / s theoretical).
   
2. When purchasing always check the chipset they operate the business card which usually is clearly visible from the photo printed on the packaging of the product. How good is said to prefer NEC VIA chipset or other less efficient.
   
3. Another very important parameter to control (but not told that there is always) is the operational voltage card working: v 3.3 is that used in current systems, and go up to 5v for the old systems. Cards with both voltages ensure maximum compatibility on older systems (with limitations already mentioned) and new.
   
4. Who uses Windows XP SP1 (remember, usb 2.0 features were introduced in windows from this version) will not install any drivers to support the development of the device. If you experience any problems you may proceed to the installation of drivers included with the card or better still download the latest version from the site of the manufacturer.
   
5. If you have changed more PCI USB on the same system, should be carefully remove its drivers whenever try the new installation.

Thanks

[Eaton]

mine is a strange case.
I have inside of a PC with a USB 2.0 chipset on.
I must say that it works, and indeed worked well, both on hard dsik with liteon12x box outside and inside.
installation on win2k without problems.
placed inside the box usb 2.0 pioneer 106d the other hand, even if it saw the beginning, could only burn DVDRW + e-DVDRW, while both the DVDR-fortis (Maxell) that the cd media (from the web say that work) should not be .
Use black 6.3.0.
no aspi.
that the lack of ASPI?
or black?
or chip away?

[Arkad]

Surely it is the fault of the VIA chip although apparently do differences between + and - I feel a great experience ... The only way to remove the doubt would be to try your box on a card with USB NEC chipset