Windows 7 - 5xusb- 3x1394 pci card ? :-)

Asked By RJK

21-Sep-07 06:42 AM

Hello, I bought this one, :-
http://tekgems.com/Products/la-pci13.htm  (not from here btw)

...and thought I'd do a  little research, and a restore point ! , before
fitting it.
...partly because I have a card reader in a 3 1/4" drive bay connected to a
motherboard USB pin header - drive letters I:\ through L:\ atm
...2 IDE hd's on IDE1 - drives C:\ through H:\
...2 dvd/cd rewriters - drives X:\ and Z:\  (because I got fed up with them
moving around.)
...a USB pen drive that always seems to appear as drive O:\   for some
reason.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=via+usb+firewire+pci+card+vt6306+vt6214l&meta=
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=3&CatID=1260&SubCatID=122
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/peripherals/usb/vt6214/
...above links seem to indicate that the two Via VT6306 and VT6214L chips
are already supported in XP (...mine is SP2 updated),

...driver cd that came with it seems to be for something else !
...anyone know what the 2x4 / 8 pin header "JP3" near the internal firewire
port is for ?  ...and what the 5 pin header next to the internal USB port is
for :-)  !

any tips appreciated:-
TIA

regards, Richard

21-Sep-07 06:49 AM

...after further reading, particularly
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/peripherals/usb/vt6214/
it looks like both Via chips are already supported in XP ?

regards, Richard

21-Sep-07 07:49 AM

External PC drive bays are 5.25" or 3.5".

There is a USB 2.0 driver for the chipset on the driver CD per your first
link.

Due to size of pictures, I am unable to determine where JP3 is on the card.
Maybe someone else will have better luck.
Dave

21-Sep-07 08:06 AM

Thanks for your response, comments inserted ....



hair splitter ! <vbg>  (I'm getting old !)


I did look carefully through what's on the cd, and theres drivers for Via
chips 6202 and 6212 which didn't seem to match up with the 6306 and 6214L
ic's on the card.


Ebay item no. 330167036203 has a good picture ?  ...This particular card
seems to be avialable in millions !

regards, Richard

21-Sep-07 08:11 AM

ps
Whilst reading up on the thing, I found lots of discussions where people
were having trouble installing this card, and after taking an initial look
around the driver cd that came with it, and noticing that the VIA  VT* chip
no's on the driver cd didn't match up with those on the pci card, I though
I'd do a  bit more rummaging and post here as well.

regards, Richard

21-Sep-07 08:26 AM

http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.aspx?catid=16&threadid=71000&enterthread=y

...was interesting, ..i.e. lets Windows go onto the web to find driver, if
there is no native driver !
...forgot about that, ...again !!

regards, richard

21-Sep-07 07:26 PM

After further hunting:-
It looks like the card & USB driver is this one:-
http://it.us.syba.com/support_download/download/73-0108-1.html
...and the 1394 VIA chip driver XP knows all about :-)

regards, Richard

21-Sep-07 07:51 PM

...scratch that, ...looks like an old SP1 job !

regards, Richard

21-Sep-07 08:28 PM

Oh well for anyone that's following this mostly one-sided conversation !

I've just put my tester (continuity) on the card.  The pin header
immediately behind the internal USB port is, (surprise surprise), an
internal USB pin header.   ... the 8 pin header  JP3 is, (surprise
surprise), an internal firewire pin header i.e. 6 contacts inside the
internal firewire socket each connect to six of the eight pins on the JP3
pin header.  Now, buried deep in my hd somewhere is pin-out diagram for a
firewire plug !

...and I've read even more, on the web, from LOTS of people that are having
problems with this card in XP SP2 machines !
apparantly the 1394 part is detected by XP and works okay but, the USB side
is problematic.
...I think I may plug it in and see what happens  !
...wouldn't it have been nice if it had come with some instructions, and the
correct drivers if required, ...maybe they are the correct drivers !

regards, Richard