Customer Reviews

Orange Micro 70USB90020 OrangeUSB 2.0 Hi-Speed Cardbus PC Card for Notebooks

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What a consolation to find a usb 2.0 pcmcia card that works so well after my disaster with the Adaptec 1420 card! (See my other review for that one if interested....)

No fuss, no difficulty in installation - simply downloaded the most recent drivers from OrangeMicro's website before buying it. Installed the drivers and then installed the card - voila! Four usb 2.0 ports!

I have a 48x24x48 Iomega external usb 2.0 burner; the card is completely backwards compatible and there is no loss of speed as far as I have been able to tell. (I am working off of XP Pro OS - no SP's installed.) And seeing as I have seven usb devices connecting to my notebook such a thing is very handy to have.

The accompanying external power supply could be a liability for those who need to travel with the card and some device or another, but I do not - mine is a desktop replacement and if I take it somewhere I unplug everything anyway before I go. So for me it is no bother.

I would highly recommend this card if you have several usb devices of both sorts (2.0 and 1.1) to your notebook if it is a desktop replacement like mine is. If you are a notebook user of the more mobile type, though, this card might not be for you.

The Orange USB 2.0 Hi Speed Cardbus by Orange Micro is a solid product that utilizes the USB 2.0 technology to enhance speeds on electronic devises that use USB 2.0 ports. My Iomega Predator external CD-RW would only reach speeds of 4X recording with the old USB 1.1 port, but now gets 24X or more (depending on what type of burning I'm doing). Some major advantages include having 4 USB ports, which is perfect for someone like me who needs to connect a scanner, printer, digital camera, and CD burner to my computer. Of course the biggest advantage that comes with having this product is the enhanced speed of USB 2.0 technology. Adding this new hardware to my notebook was fairly easy and should be no problem unless you do not have access to the Internet (you will need the internet to download the driver). The directions were a bit vague, but are not difficult to figure out. My only problem with this product is that it sticks out on the side of my notebook making it rather bulky. It also needs an external power source, which adds to my mess of wires. I searched around though, and could not find any USB 2.0 carbus that does not extend out of the notebook. Overall a good product that works well. Thanks again "..."!

I bought this as a way to upgrade my laptop so that I could run my new USB2.0 external HDD. The included CD doesn't even carry the needed software to run the card it instead directs you to Orange Micro's website to download thier latest and greatest drivers. On top of that for the past 3 weeks I have used this I still run across WinXP's warning boxes telling me that I need to reinstall the software since the drivers disappear. Finally the need to attach an external AC adapter to run anything attached to the cards ports is kind of hard to take as well. In my computer I need the AC Adapter plugged in to keep the card running or else WinXP shuts the card down since it is too much of a power drain. If you are looking for a way to upgrade your computer using a PCMIA card don't look at this one. Keep looking there have to be some better ones out there.

You've got to plug in the AC adapter if you're hoping to run a non-self-powered device from it. My mouse works with the built-in port in my laptop, but I get an error if I plug it into the cardbus port. I got it paritally cuz it's smaller than a hub which I currently need to run both my mouse and wacom. But since I gotta carry the AC adapter as well, I'm returning this product, will just go back to the hub, and will continue looking for a usb cardbus card that doesn't require an AC adapter for non-powered devices.