USB2'ing a laptop: a little help please!

Bri

Hi there,

Want to buy a USB2 card for my laptop to speed up the connection to my external harddrive...
There are two I've found on elara - here and here .

Why does one say it's a PCIMCA card and the other a Cardbus adaptor - they look the same to me and the PCIMCA says it need a cardbus slot?!
Also, why is the Belkin one more expensive (it has a plug for some reason)?

Lastly, how exactly do I find out if I have a type II CardBus slot...the other model doesn't specifiy what type of cardbus is needed.

Thanks in advance.

daywalker

1.CardBus and PCMCIA are the one and the same, just different names for the same thing

2.Type 2 PCMCIA/CARDBUS Slots are standard on laptops that are more than 3-4 years old, Type 1 was for 16-bit cards, whereas type 2 refers to 32-bit.

3.The difference in price is probably due to the extra adaptor provided by belkin and possibly brand name. Belkin provide the extra adaptor as some devices work from Power provided on the USB Bus, and laptops generally dont provide the needed power, due to their portable nature, and so the apator can give the extra power if needed.

Bri

Thanks for the reply!

Given the Belkin name and the additional feature would you pay the extra 5er?

Just to clarify: If Type 2's are standard on 3-4+ year old laptops, what's standard now...or do you mean from about 3 years onwards? Type 1 would be older right? My Presario is about 2 years old. Is there no way to check the specs for sure through device manager or some such thing?

daywalker

Bri wrote:

Thanks for the reply!

Given the Belkin name and the additional feature would you pay the extra 5er?

Just to clarify: If Type 2's are standard on 3-4+ year old laptops, what's standard now? Type 1 would be older right? My Presario is about 2 years old. Is there no way to check the specs for sure through device manager or some such thing?

sorry meant to say on laptops less than 3-4 year years old, you could try using belarc advisor or sisoft sandra just to be sure. www.sisoftware.co.uk.

as for the belkin, only if any of the devices that you are using dont already have an external power source.

Bri

Ah ok that makes sense. I'll have a look at Sisoft now thanks.

Well...(sorry for all the questions!) my USB peripherals are a Maxtor HD which has it's own, a wireless house (hardly needs its own plug or even USB2?!), a card reader, etc. All seems fine. Even if I was to buy a digital DJ mixer in the near future it'll have its own socket...hmmm.

If I save the fiver and then buy some needy hardware is it a case of it just won't work without buying a new USB2 card?

Appreciate the help.

daywalker

It may or may not work, in the case of a portable hard drive(without external power), found case where it would appear in my computer but could not be accessed without providing extra power, same with portable scanners.

Bri

Grand so I'm going for the Belkin one

Thanks for all the help!

Bri

Actually...

Having installed Sandra I'm quite confused :rolleyes: .

Have a look at this screenshot and tell me what you think...I know I've a Cardbus slot because I'm using it right now.

Meh, even if you don't have time to look I'll probably just go with the Belkin given the 'youth' of my laptop. Ironically enough both Elara & Belkin never mentioned the plug anywhere but in the picture. I havn't got a word back from Elara from my e-mail so I'll ring tomorrow.

Ta.

daywalker

Look at the interface version it says 2.10, which means a type II interface

Bri

Makes sense - although how it says nothing connected beats me.

Ah screw it time to just go buy!

Thanks again.

Splinter

sorry just a quick one,id advise ya to use the power source supplied cause i had the horrible experience of a usb device blowing my motherboard,just a heads up for ya

Bri

Really?!

It seems a bit of a pain to have a to have yet another cable permanently coming from the laptop...

daywalker

splinter wrote:

sorry just a quick one,id advise ya to use the power source supplied cause i had the horrible experience of a usb device blowing my motherboard,just a heads up for ya

usually if a usb device attempts to draw too much power through the port then the computer will disable all the ports, requiring a restart to re-enable.

Bri

Well after all that the stupid Belkin card doesn't come with a plug despite the picture on Elara and Belkin.co.uk.

Great!

Dunno what I'll do now...tempted to just buy it out of lazyness but I know I should look elsewhere. I should probably at least toddle off to Komplett and compare

Bri

And worse still, Komplett's USB2 card seem to need an external power source that isn't supplied!

I'm all the more cautious because my precious laptop went kaput a year ago with a firewire card plugged in...techy guy told me that despite the laptops 'newness' it just couldn't handle the card.

daywalker

i seem to remember when i worked in PC World the belkin usb2 laptop cards came with the power supply in the blister pack, you could check there first before ordering from the net?

Bri

Good idea. Elara checked with their supplier for me.

Thanks (once again).