Part 1 - The Bad USB Card (Busby 2-port USB card)

Member Name: rob_writer

Product:	Busby 2-port USB card
Date:	23/03/02 (300 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It could be used as an ornament

Disadvantages: But not as a USB card

What do you do if your PC hasn't got any USB ports and you need some? Get a new PC? Of course not, simply add a USB PCI card and get upgrade your PC to the modern world of USB plug and play.

The card in question here is made by Busby, and while you may think that they would all be pretty much of a muchness, think again, because this one is rather crap!

It's a PCI card, so plugs in to the shortish white slots on your motherboard. Installation is easy, simply turn off and open up your PC (using an anti-static wristband is a good idea). Locate a free PCI slot (the white ones) and remove the blanking plate (the bit of metal that covers the slot where the card goes). Slot the USB card in the hole, make sure it is firmly inserted, then re-assemble your PC, turn it on and Windows will do the rest (it may ask for the Windows CD). The drivers are built in to windows as all USB cards use of of a few chipsets, made by people such as Via, Opti and Intel. This card just happens to have a Via chipset, which is where my problem with the card lies.

It turns out (from research on a number of websites) that when Via implemented USB they got it rather wrong. Most things will work fine, infact I'm sure the vast majority of USB devices have no complaints at all. But some devices malfunction when attached to a Via USB controller, something to do with timing issues. Via try to fob this off as not being a problem, but it is, and it struck me when I tried to use my new Lexmark Z13 printer with the card. Basically it didn't work, it would print half the page then stop. Whatever anyone says, I bought a new card with the OPTI chipset and the printer worked fine. You don't need Sherlock Holmes like intuition to decide that the Via chipset was at fault.

In it's defence it did work OK with my sidewinder joypad, so depending on what USB devices you have you may get away with using this card. I wouldn't recommend you buy it though, fa
r more sensible to pay the same price for a card with either an Intel or Opti chipset.

The card cost me around £10 from Yahoo auctions, but I bought it from a retailer who sells the card for the same price on their website.

Anyway, incase you care, the card has 2 USB ports each of which is supplied with 500mA. It's (supposed to be) USB 1 compliant and can work in 12Mps (full) and 1.5Mps (low) speed modes. You need to have a Pentium PC with Windows 98 (Or I'm sure 95B would do) and a spare PCI slot.

Um, so that's about it - bit short I know, but what else can I say? It's a PCI, you plug it in and then you have USB ports. Except it's crap. Don't get this, get an Opti one, they work well!

Summary: