I'd like to add some USB 2.0 ports since I now have a usb2.0 device. I know there are a ton of usb 2.0 PCI cards out there but all my PCI slots are filled already. Any ideas or am I screwed?
How to add USB 2.0 ports to computer (no PCI slots open)?
- Thread starter iluvdeal
- Start date
It depends on the device, some don't need more the USB 1.1 speeds. And depending on your PCI cards you can get either a FireWire Card or Soundcard with USB 2.0 ports on it.
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All my other PCI slots have essential cards (sound,NIC,IDE) so I can't remove them. I can't understand why they provide the PCI slots if you can't use them all, does this have to do with an IRQ conflict? I don't get any ! marks in device manager. BTW, I do have an old 56k ISA modem installed, would removing that card make any difference?
Coalfax
Senior member
- Nov 22, 2002
- 400
- 82
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Removing an old ISA card wont do squat to give you another PCI slot.. you need to remove a redundant card from the PCI slot area to give you headroom...
Which begs the question, how many slots did you have to work with in the first place? Most motherboards these days come with 4-6 of em ( depending on if they have an old ISA slot like in the case of yours or the like ) so its somewhat hard to fill all of the buggers up. ( yes, you 'can' do it if you work at it, but I am not that extreme to have 6 expansion cards.. heh )
Regardless, from the sounds of what you haver told us thus far, in order to put this in, something has to come out. If your motherboard has an onboard NIC, then your card NIC would be the first to go. I am even loathe to say this, but if you have onboard sound or graphics ( eek ) then their respecive cards can likewise be removed for what you have onboard, but the card version is -always- less of a resource hog to the system than the expansion card version.
Sorry for the bad news.
Which begs the question, how many slots did you have to work with in the first place? Most motherboards these days come with 4-6 of em ( depending on if they have an old ISA slot like in the case of yours or the like ) so its somewhat hard to fill all of the buggers up. ( yes, you 'can' do it if you work at it, but I am not that extreme to have 6 expansion cards.. heh )
Regardless, from the sounds of what you haver told us thus far, in order to put this in, something has to come out. If your motherboard has an onboard NIC, then your card NIC would be the first to go. I am even loathe to say this, but if you have onboard sound or graphics ( eek ) then their respecive cards can likewise be removed for what you have onboard, but the card version is -always- less of a resource hog to the system than the expansion card version.
Sorry for the bad news.
Coalfax, the problem isn't I don't have room for the USB card, I do its just it doesn't work right. Here's my current setup:
AGP: ATI Radeon Video Card
PCI1: (shared with AGP) empty
PCI2: IDE 100 Card
PCI3: TB Santa Cruz sounds card
PCI4: NIC
PCI5: **USB 2.0 Card**
ISA1: (shared with PCI slot) empty
ISA2: 56k modem
It's an old BX board (Abit BH6). No onboard video or NIC and no usb 2.0 headers on the mobo (usb 1.1 ports on back but I need the faster 2.0 ports). Guess I may finally have to upgrade.
AGP: ATI Radeon Video Card
PCI1: (shared with AGP) empty
PCI2: IDE 100 Card
PCI3: TB Santa Cruz sounds card
PCI4: NIC
PCI5: **USB 2.0 Card**
ISA1: (shared with PCI slot) empty
ISA2: 56k modem
It's an old BX board (Abit BH6). No onboard video or NIC and no usb 2.0 headers on the mobo (usb 1.1 ports on back but I need the faster 2.0 ports). Guess I may finally have to upgrade.
You could always get an external USB nic to replace your PCI nic and plug the USB 2.0 card into the vacated PCI slot.
There are definitely some resource sharing issues. However, some cards are better about sharing than others. If you are willing to try different configurations, you will probably find an workable arrangement.
I would try to avoid having to share on bandwidth-intensive cards like the IDE Controller and NIC. But perhaps you could try putting the NIC in PCI3, USB in PCI4, and the sound card in PCI5. (If I recall, I think PCI4 and PCI5 might also "share")
And don't be afraid to try PCI1 with something. Your BIOS and/or OS just might surprise you by figuring it out and getting it to work.
Good Luck! You're gonna need it...
I would try to avoid having to share on bandwidth-intensive cards like the IDE Controller and NIC. But perhaps you could try putting the NIC in PCI3, USB in PCI4, and the sound card in PCI5. (If I recall, I think PCI4 and PCI5 might also "share")
And don't be afraid to try PCI1 with something. Your BIOS and/or OS just might surprise you by figuring it out and getting it to work.
Good Luck! You're gonna need it...
I use PCI1 and my AGP slot and don't have any issues. I can't remember offhand what card is in there right now but I used to have a SCSI card using it.
On some BX boards the 5th PCI slot has shared IRQs with the AGP port.
Try putting the USB2 card in PCI1... it might just work.
It could also be that the ISA Modem is fouling things up. Perhaps take that out first and test. If it is indeed the culprit, you might as well just buy a cheap USB 56K modem..
Try putting the USB2 card in PCI1... it might just work.
It could also be that the ISA Modem is fouling things up. Perhaps take that out first and test. If it is indeed the culprit, you might as well just buy a cheap USB 56K modem..
Jeff7
Lifer
- Jan 4, 2001
- 41,596
- 19
- 81
BIOS update maybe?
Or in the BIOS, in the PCI or PnP setup section, look for something like reset ESCD, or Reset Device Configuration - do this when the USB card is in the PC. This might jostle the IRQ's around a little so that everything settles. Fair warning on this though - depending on what version of Windows you have, there might be some "new devices" detected. Win98 would freak out and reinstall just about every piece of hardware if I changed IRQ's. WinXP...well, WinXP does all its own IRQ adjustments, and they seem to work, at least for me. I've used WinXP only on newer hardware though (KT133A chipset and faster ones.) I've got IRQ's used up to 22 on my system now - that's something else you get with newer motherboards, more IRQ's, or something that makes Windows think there's more IRQ's, I don't remember exactly.
Speaking of which, maybe it's time for a new motherboard for you maybe? You'd need a new modem though, there are only a few special motherboards anymore with ISA slots.
Or in the BIOS, in the PCI or PnP setup section, look for something like reset ESCD, or Reset Device Configuration - do this when the USB card is in the PC. This might jostle the IRQ's around a little so that everything settles. Fair warning on this though - depending on what version of Windows you have, there might be some "new devices" detected. Win98 would freak out and reinstall just about every piece of hardware if I changed IRQ's. WinXP...well, WinXP does all its own IRQ adjustments, and they seem to work, at least for me. I've used WinXP only on newer hardware though (KT133A chipset and faster ones.) I've got IRQ's used up to 22 on my system now - that's something else you get with newer motherboards, more IRQ's, or something that makes Windows think there's more IRQ's, I don't remember exactly.
Speaking of which, maybe it's time for a new motherboard for you maybe? You'd need a new modem though, there are only a few special motherboards anymore with ISA slots.
The additional IRQs you see is actually nothing else but ACPI at work, providing additional logical IRQ adresses.
Thinking about that, you may indeed want to update the BIOS on the mainboard. I can remember that my P2B boards ACPI did not work properly when in my preferred card configuration, that was solved with a new BIOS. (This was when Win2K was just released, as soon as W2K sees any form of ACPI it tries to use it, even if it doesn't work properly - XP being based on W2K is no different, Win 9X doesn't use ACPI for managing IRQs).
Thinking about that, you may indeed want to update the BIOS on the mainboard. I can remember that my P2B boards ACPI did not work properly when in my preferred card configuration, that was solved with a new BIOS. (This was when Win2K was just released, as soon as W2K sees any form of ACPI it tries to use it, even if it doesn't work properly - XP being based on W2K is no different, Win 9X doesn't use ACPI for managing IRQs).
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