Member Avatar for milo

I have a Power Mac 8500 with a Sonnet Crescendo 400 Mhz G4/PSI upgrade Processor card running Mac OS 8.6. I installed a IOGear USB 2.0 PCI Card-GIC220UW1 which says it works with OS 8.6. I installed the recommended software "USB Support 1.4.1 smi " from apple.com. The card shows in the Apple System Profiler but I still cannot mount or see any USB devices when I plug them into the USB ports. I cannot see the new usb hard drive nor my small Lexor JumpDrive. The manufacturer says it should just plug and play. The card works in an IBM computer. Any ideas why it is not working or performing other tests? :rolleyes:

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Dani AI

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The symptoms you describe (card visible in System Profiler but no USB volumes or sticks mounting) usually point to a driver/chipset mismatch or a missing Apple mass-storage extension rather than a bad card slot. Apple’s old “USB Adapter Card Support” was written for OHCI (USB 1.1) controllers, and classic Mac OS relies on the mass-storage extension for USB drives — OS 8.6 in particular needs Apple’s USB Mass Storage Support (1.3.5) to see USB hard disks and sticks. (macwelt.de)

Checklist to work through (in order):

  • Confirm the card chipset from Apple System Profiler (look at the PCI entry: vendor/device or chipset name). Search that chipset — some (NEC, OPTi) were known to behave under classic MacOS; others (many VIA-based cards) were hit-or-miss. (supernature-forum.de)
  • Make sure the correct Apple USB extensions are present for your OS: USB Adapter Card Support (installed before or while the card is present) and the USB Mass Storage extension for OS 8.6 if you want disk/thumbdrive support. If those extensions were missing at install-time the OS might not activate the card properly; install the Apple package, reboot, then shut down and insert the card. (discussions.apple.com)
  • Test with a truly low-power device (USB mouse/keyboard) and check the card for an external power jack or internal power connector — some multiport cards need extra power to run bus-powered drives. (This echoes ’s suggestion.)

If the PCI board is a USB 2.0/EHCI design, classic Mac OS won’t drive its high-speed controller — you’ll be limited to 1.1 behavior (or need Mac OS X for full USB2 support). IOGear and similar makers often list Mac OS 8.6 compatibility but note that USB2 speeds require OS X. (kvm-switches-online.com)

If those steps fail: try a known-OHCI (USB 1.1) PCI card, or upgrade the system to a later OS release with newer USB extensions (OS 9 / OS X) as suggested. A small, methodical test sequence — identify chipset, confirm Apple USB and Mass Storage extensions, try a low-power device, look for required power cabling — will find where it’s failing.

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Member Avatar for yellow

Perhaps there isn't enough power being provided to the devices via the USB card? If the USB hard drive is powered only via USB, I wouldn't be shocked if it didn't show. Have you tried a simple, low powered device like a mouse?

Member Avatar for milo

No, but my jump drive is only a USB stick-no power supply. The usb hard drive has its own power supply. How do I check to see if power is being supplied to the pci slots in the mac?

Member Avatar for yellow

There should have been a power cable that plugs from the existing power supply into the PCI card.

Member Avatar for redage

MAC-OS 9/9.1/9.2 should do

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