NEC BK168 USB Cardbus

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raoulduke

Well-known member

• Apr 24, 2015

• #2

Sorry, that should be BC168.

Reads as nothing... like an icon shows up with the name as ... "" (nothing).  Double clicking just indicates there are no drivers.  This is on OS 9.0.4 on a Kanga; I tried to install the USB Drivers 1.4.1 but it wouldn't let me (suggesting to me that 9 already has that bundled).  I found some indication that the NEC chip is supportable (certainly with OS X), but I was searching through a tethered connection on Classilla on the Kanga, so my search was slow.

Also, it didn't recognize the flash drive when the card was already inserted, but didn't recognize the card at all when inserted with the flash drive.  I thought that was interesting.

Has anyone gotten this chipset to work/know if there are drivers/drivers I can use?  It may be an OS 10.x and later issue.  One of the drivers that someone else claimed works indicated that the standards are incompatible (I think).  Sorry, this is the first time I've actually used USB with legacy Macs.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 24, 2015

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raoulduke

Well-known member

• Apr 28, 2015

• #3

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1238?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

Only 9.1 and .2 include the USB drivers, so now I'm very confused as to why they wouldn't install on my 9.0.4...  I'll upgrade and try again.

And I will do that in conjunction with the suggestions the second responder made here: http://macosx.com/threads/usb-pcmcia-card-wont-work-with-my-wallstreet-w-os9.271668/

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 28, 2015

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raoulduke

Well-known member

• May 2, 2015

• #4

(Does not work with OS 9.0.4 (International)); the int'l version won't accept the universal 9.1 update; I'll install 9.2.1 later.

Booting with the card already in with 9.0.4, it gets stuck between the Finder loading and the icons appearing on the desktop (I don't know enough to know where it's actually getting stuck, but the cursor still moves; the finder/desktop appear, but not the HD icons).

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 2, 2015

Byrd

Well-known member

• May 2, 2015

• #5

If it doesn't work with the Apple USB drivers (which you can add from OS 8.6 and up, 9.1 has them already), it's not compatible.

 

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raoulduke

Well-known member

• May 2, 2015

• #6

So what about 9.0.4? The drivers would not install. And I need to get some CD-Rs to install another 9 because it would not upgrade

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 2, 2015

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raoulduke

Well-known member

• May 4, 2015

• #7

9.2.1 Universal says it won't install on the Kanga.  That was a little unexpected.  [it gives a bomb-error message on boot]

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 4, 2015

Byrd

Well-known member

• May 4, 2015

• #8

Again, if it's not working with the generic Apple supplied drivers from OS 8.6 and up, it is incompatible with Mac OS.  9.2.1 and up needs OS9Helper to install on unsupported Macs.

 

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raoulduke

Well-known member

• May 4, 2015

• #9

I can't figure out whether it is or isn't.  Should the generic drivers be in the Extensions folder?  Because they are not, but on trying to install them, they still say they are incompatible with the Kanga (I also tried it on 9.1 on a 3400c; same error).

 

CC_333

Well-known member

• May 5, 2015

• #10

Perhaps it's because the Kanga didn't come with built-in USB?

But then, do they install OK on Wallstreets? Those don't have built-in USB either.

c

 

Gorgonops

Moderator

Staff member

• May 5, 2015

• #11

You can try the hints here:

http://people.wallawalla.edu/~Rob.Frohne/Cardbus/Cardbus.html

Note the link for the USB adapter card software is broken, but you can find that here:

http://www.alksoft.com/personal/stuff.html

The "Kanga" is just a 3400 with a PPC 740 soldered to the board instead of a 603e; Note the fine print about the physical slot not being cardbus compliant even though the controller is applies to them as well, so even *if* you have a working set of drivers there are edge cases in which the card may fail to work anyway.

 

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raoulduke

Well-known member

• May 5, 2015

• #12

Yeah.  I went back and looked at that 3400c-Cardbus site last night.  The USB drivers they had (which are no longer on that server) were apparently cracked.  I'm inferring from that that they were machine-specific.  Okay great.  I was going to break out ResEdit and refresh my memory, assuming that's how it was done.  But it looks like AlkSoft has the patched versions.

Thanks Gorgonops.

 

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raoulduke

Well-known member

• May 7, 2015

• #13

I was screwing with System Profiler in prep for trying to patch USB Card Support.  Turns out I did have 1.3.5 the whole time, so I guess the card doesn't work.  It didn't install 1.3.5 for that reason; 1.4.1 I guess must specifically not be an update, I guess.

Oh also the Alksoft link is dead, I believe.  As far as I can tell there are no copies of the patched version left on the searchable web - maybe someone here has it.

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 7, 2015

Gorgonops

Moderator

Staff member

• May 7, 2015

• #14

Plug the homepage.mac.com URL (the one on the Alksoft page) into archive.org's wayback machine.

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 7, 2015

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raoulduke

Well-known member

• May 8, 2015

• #15

Hey hey.  I've had that thought/tried a number of times with other stuff; never worked before.  Thank you.

 

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raoulduke

Well-known member

• May 8, 2015

• #16

Unfortunately on the Mac (Kanga - OS 9.0.4) it can't unzip the .hqx - I forgot to record the error a few hours ago.  When I unzip it - or unstuff it - on my desktop and email myself the .img file that won't open on the Mac either.  Am I destroying the resource fork with that second one or is the file bad?

 

Paralel

Well-known member

• May 13, 2015

• #17

.hqx is BinHex, so you need to un-BinHex it, then likely unstuff it/unzip it, then mount the IMG.

You can't unzip HQX, its not compatible with unzipping. You need to un-BinHex (HQX is the BinHex extension) then you can go from there.

You are indeed likely destroying the file's forks

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 13, 2015

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raoulduke

Well-known member

• May 14, 2015

• #18

Unzip was short-hand for using Stuffit. I grew up using PKUNZIP; sorry.

 

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raoulduke

Well-known member

• May 14, 2015

• #19

I mean it doesn't really matter since the driver doesn't work with the NEC BC168, but I get the same Stuffit -37 disk error in Sheepshaver.

 

Paralel

Well-known member

• May 14, 2015

• #20

If you're getting a StuffIt error, the file likely has issues of its own and the contents of the archive have been lost. You can mess around with various other version of StuffIt to see if its just a version issue (like most things, there is backward compatibility, and 0 forward compatibility)

 

dankcomputing

Active member

• Feb 15, 2024

• #20

These cards are everywhere, are cheap, don't stick out of the slot, and don't need dongles. Has anyone tried getting one running under 9.2.2? It's also possible to transplant the 9.2.2 USB drives into 9.1 and they'll still work, BTW.