PC Card-to-USB adaptor for Hitachgi laptop

**mikeys** · July 12th, 2003, 11:46 AM

This is a message for NooNoo.

You may remember me. I queried the forum a while ago about a problem I was having getting USB to run on my old Hiatchi Visionbook 4100X laptop. It turned out that there was no way to do it, as the Hitachi never did support USB 1.1 or 2.0 with WIN95, and even now that it's upgraded to WIN98, it won't access the Hitachi USB port.

Anyway, you suggested to me that I get a PCMCIA card USB adaptor. Well, I located one at a good price: the Univ. Buslink Corp UII-BC4 4-port PC Card adaptor.

The trouble is, tech support for Buslink told me that the adaptor won't run under the 133 Mhz Pentium MMX CPU in my Hitachi. He also said he didn't think any of the other adaptors on the market would work either.

Do you think that's true? It's not always easy to get an authoritative answer from the manufacturers, and I wouldn't want to try a hit-and-miss approach to these adaptors, as there are about fifteen of them on the market, and returning them can be a problem.

Any idea if there's one that will run on my computer?

**NooNoo** · July 12th, 2003, 01:14 PM

hmmmmm will have to do some digging

Anyone else have any idea?

Edit: These people sell 3 different usb2.0 pcmcia cards and offer a technical service. None of their faqs show a minimum requirement for a processor... soo I would email their tech support and see what they say.

**kwagner07** · July 14th, 2003, 07:06 AM

I believe that the reason the PCMCIA card won't work is because most newer cards ar "CardBus" compliant. I rean into this problem several weeks ago also on an older IBM ThinkPad. I installed 2 different PCMCIA USB adaptors and neither were identified by the O/S. I believe the older laptops don't have a CardBus compliant chipset.

**mikeys** · July 14th, 2003, 07:49 AM

kwagner07-

I assumed that PCMCIA Type II was cardbus compliant, but maybe not.

What exactly is cardbus, if it's different from PCMCIA Type II?

Is there some way to test for cardbus compliance in Windows98SE?

**NooNoo** · July 14th, 2003, 08:02 AM

From the same site as I quoted before... how to tell

**mikeys** · July 14th, 2003, 08:20 AM

I used the Syncrotech info sheet to check, and my laptop does have a cardbus controller, so that's apparently not the problem.

The tech guy at Univ. Buslink Corp. thought the problem was the CPU speed, although I don't see why a USB adaptor would work under a Pentium 266 and not under a Pentium 133, except maybe run a little slower.

Anyway, if you can find out anything about this I'd surely appreciate it. My Hitachi laptop is a really fine machine that I use for a special application, and adding USB to it would be a godsend.

**Kineda** · July 14th, 2003, 08:37 AM

I have that same card and it runs beautiful on my fujitsu 150...no problems at all, the laptop is running 98 and it installed fine. I noticed the compatibility specs after i bought it and was sweating that i would have problems returning it since it was open, but it worked fine! by the way i have an old visionbook that is in pieces if you need any parts...

**mikeys** · July 14th, 2003, 05:17 PM

Kineda: what's the CPU speed in your Fujitsu 150?

I got the following reply this afternoon from tech support at Adaptec:

"It's not that it would run slower it's that the chipset that controlls USB
2.0 required a minimum speed to function at all. Unfortunately this minimum
speed for USB 2.0 chipsets is pretty standard across the industry. We have
actually had customers with a 233MHz Pentium and they can't get the card to
work, but a 266MHz runs fine."

(Thanks for the Visionbook parts offer. Actually, my screen is out and I am using a monitor. But I haven't a clue how to replace the screen. I'll let you know if I figure it out...)

**Kineda** · July 15th, 2003, 09:26 AM

hmmm, i don't think i actually hooked up anything usb 2.0 to the cardbus, but everything usb 1.1 is working fine, the laptop is a pentium 150. personally imo for $65 take the chance if it doesnt work throw it on another laptop, return it, or ebay it!

if you decide you want to endeavor to replace that lcd let me know i still have the screen!

**confus-ed** · July 15th, 2003, 11:47 AM

Originally posted by mikeys
..... I was having getting USB to run on my old Hiatchi Visionbook 4100X laptop. It turned out that there was no way to do it, as the Hitachi never did support USB 1.1 or 2.0 with WIN95, and even now that it's upgraded to WIN98, it won't access the Hitachi USB port...

I'm confus-ed again !!

...

...

We have a great long thread about getting an addittional cardbus usb 2.0 card to work in a laptop that seems to have a usb port anyway ... WHY ? - surely Hitachi didn't just add a usb port to look nice ???

Anyways I thought it was pretty simple with cardbus & pcmcia cards .... the first is 32 bit & has one type of slot, the second is 16 bit and has another fractionally different slot ... Why does cpu have anything at all to do with this ? If the card fits correctly its compliant ...?

**nunob** · July 17th, 2003, 10:26 AM

Here is a shortcut to a file that will test win 98 and win 98se machines for hardware and software compatibility for running usb. Hope it helps

**NooNoo** · July 17th, 2003, 10:29 AM

Nice util... I assume thats for 1.1?

**nunob** · July 17th, 2003, 10:47 AM

I believe so NooNoo. The page really doesnt brag about it being for usb 2.0.

**mikeys** · July 18th, 2003, 08:36 PM

I've now had replies from tech support for five different PC Card-to-USB adaptor manufacturers, all claiming that their cards won't work on anything as slow as a 133 Mhz CPU. Some of them said that you can't run USB 2.0 under a Pentium I, that it must be a Pentium II or better. Some also said that the USB 2.0 adaptor chipsets (NEC?) aren't compatible with Pentium I or MMX chipsets.

A hodge-podge of responses, but generally indicating that I'm outta luck.

OTOH, there are other cards whose manufacturers didn't have the answer, and suggested i just try them. A rather dangerous undertaking, as i will be up the proverbial creek if I knock out my Op. Sys.

Kineda said he got an oldFujitsu laptop to run a USB card that got his USB 1.1 devices working, but I still don't know what the processor speed is on his machine, as Fujitsu claims they never made a model 150, and I don't know what a Pentium 150 is. Can anyone help here?

Also, what's the difference if you only connect USB 1.1 devices? The card chipset, and presumably the drivers for it, will be the same regardless of what device is connected, won't they?

I'm trying to juggle all this info, and haven't given up yet. I've downloaded the USB utility (thanks, nunob!) and will run it tonight.

**mikeys** · July 18th, 2003, 09:10 PM

I ran usbready.exe. The results were:
Software: Full USB suport.
Hardware: Does not have USB support.
Drivers: USB driver connection not operating properly.

Not much help, really, because I already knew I have no USB hardware or proper drivers (that's what the PC Card is for, no?).

What I need is a utility that will test my processor for compatibility with USB II card chipsets and drivers. Anyone know where I can get such a program? (I tried Intel's Chipset Identification Utility - chiputil.exe - so I'd at least know what's running this laptop, but it gives an error message saying it can't find all the components!)

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