Customer Reviews

Keyspan 2.0 Cardbus 2port USB 2.0 Cardbus Mac/PC

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thought I'd write this up, since there were no other reviews
as 11/2003 (and because I found other's reviews extremely
helpful).

The Keyspan 2.0 Cardbus 2port USB 2.0 card installed
perfectly on my Dell Inspiron 4100, running Windows XP.
Windows found all drivers necessary; I did not have to
install drivers from the included CD-ROM.

Data seemed to transfer at a fine rate to/from my new
Lexar Media 2.0 JumpDrive Pro.
I do not have the tools to benchmark performance,
but it seemed to exceed the performance of my old
SCSI Jaz drive attached to a 16-bit SCSI PCMCIA card.

So far so good! If it toasts I'll review this review!

I bought this from amazon.com with great expectations. After installing it, however, I found to my dismay that it didn't work with USB 2.0 devices - the system would lock up every time it tried to send data to my USB 2 device (Lexar USB2 Multi-Card Reader)! My old mouse based on USB 1.1 worked just fine, but not the USB 2 card reader. After 3 hours of struggling and research online I finally found the problem. Apparently, windows xp originally does not support USB 2.0, only in Service Pack 1 this becomes available. Since I was running XP without SP1, I had to rely on the drivers that came with this card. However, these drivers for the NEC chipset (on which this card is based) are v.2.0.7, and they appear to be buggy. After a lengthy search online I found the drivers v.2.0.8 - installed them and now the card works just great. It clocks ~3.1MB/s download and ~2.8MB/s upload with my Lexar Multi-Card reader. Unfortunately, this is the only device I have to test its speed with, but it works great so far! I'm giving it 4 stars, because the installation was so long and complicated - besides, Keyspan's website did not have the updated drivers, which is a shame...

So if you buy this card and if you're running WinXP without SP1, make sure you download v.2.0.8 drivers for NEC USB 2.0 chipsets. Here's a link: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/allcam/drivers/necusb2.exe

FYI: I'm running WinXP on HP OmniBook XE3, 256RAM, 1066Mhz Pentium III.

I have a 1 year old IBM T series laptop that came with the old USB 1.1 ports. After recently acquiring an iPod, I needed to upgrade the USB capability in order to speed up the downloads from iTunes as well as charge the unit. After doing a great deal of online shopping for Cadbus USB cards, I decided on this model for its affordability as well as the fact it came with an A/C adapter in case I needed the additional juice to power and charge the iPod. So far I haven't needed to use it, but it's nice to know I have it just in case. (I usually use the wall charger, but if you own/buy a mini iPod, you should know they no longer come with the A/C adapter.)

People, the issue with all the problems I'm seeing on these cards are coming from two issues. One: You should buy a card with NEC technology - they are much more compatible with Windows. Two: You must update your computer constantly with the Microsoft updates. In my case, I have XP SP2 and had no installation problems and didn't even need to use the enclosed CD ROM.

I am rating it 4 stars versus 5 because it appears to be a little flimsy compared to Netgear or IBM branded products. Hey, you get what you pay for.

I would recommend it... but be certain you have the updates on your PC before plugging it in.