Sleep problems with installed PCI to USB adapter cards?

[1moremac]

Before I start messing around, can anyone refresh my memory on sleep problems with installed PCI to USB adapter cards?

As best I recall, it was mostly about PCI to USB 2.0 adapter cards in G4 towers like Quicksilver or MDD.

Either they'd re-awaken right after getting to sleep, or get caught in a sleep-limbo with computer on, but screen and keyboard off or otherwise unresponsive, necessitating a power-button shut-down.

Was it intrinsic to the system (a PCI card being put to sleep before attached USB devices can acknowledge sleep instructions back through the card?) or a peculiarity of specific card manufacturers, or of a chipset (like NEC or VIA)?

(Card recommendations or warnings are welcome.)

Thanks.

 

[trag]

The advice I remember is to get a NEC chipset for USB and a TI chipset for FireWire. However, I don't remember/know any of the specific info you asked about regarding causes.

We've had a Adaptec brand USB 2 card with NEC chipset in an MDD here for several years and I have not noticed any sleep specific issues. On rare occasions the keyboard/mouse connected to the built-in USB has failed to work after sleep until it's unplugged and moved to the other built-in port, but I have no reason to suspect the USB card and the problem is very rare.

I just bought a couple of USB card's with NEC chipset from Newegg for under $10 each. They're no-name ship from China card's. We'll see...

 

[SuperToaster]

My sonnet USB 2.0 card prevents my AGP Powermac G4 from sleeping.

 

[1moremac]

Thanks for the tips.

Yeah, I'd been looking through Newegg, etc.  The "mac-associated" brand names I remember, including the ones you both mentioned above, seem to be quite a bit higher in price.  So much so that those direct from China generic cards on --bay looked mighty tempting at a total of ~ $2.95 for NEC, and $3.95 for VIA chipsets. They are not anywhere near me, but also noticed that Microcenter had a Siig "mac-compatible" 5 port card on sale this week for $30 with a $20 mail-in-rebate.

 

[trag]

The USB card I bought was Superdeals C175-151194. It doesn't't actually say it has the NEC chipset but one can make it out (barely) in the item photo. Waiting for it to arrive, so other than the price being right, I'm not certain of anything yet.

 

[trag]

Got the cards today. They sent a stinkin' Via chipset card. Doesn't match the picture. Grrr.

 

[CC_333]

Will Via cards not work on Macs?

I know this might be blasphemous, but maybe you can put them in a PC and use them there?
 

c

 

[1moremac]

Been poking around and still not sure of the precise problem(s) with these cards and Macs. Some of my search results talked about signal timing issues. Some DOS-USB hackers mentioned Via was the only one who paid to license UHCI from Intel, while NEC etc. used OHCI. Maybe OHCI plays better in older Macs? Maybe needs an additional driver? Found Via has some here for OS 10.2-10.4 (guess 10.5+ is already completely USB2.0-ified), but don't know if they make a difference.