IOGEAR 5-Port Hi-Speed USB 2.0 PCI Card GIC251U
by IOGEAR
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of IOGEAR 5-Port Hi-Speed USB 2.0 PCI Card GIC251U
Customer Review: Not Compatible With My PC's Windows Vista Home Premium OS
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this IOGEAR 5-port USB 2.0 PCI Card from Amazon.com (Seller) on 2-1-10 and it was delivered on 2-9-10 on time as promised. The PCI Card was very easy for me to install on my Dell PC with Windwos Vista Home Premium (Operating System).
After powering on the PC, Windows Vista automatically recognized the new device (USB PCI Card) and installed its drivers. My PC froze shortly after the device's drivers were installed. I shutdown and restarted Windows again but Windows would not boot, and I got an error message in a black screen:"PnP and PCI BIOS not present". I tried to diagnose the problem by running the Windows Start-Up Repair but the repair was unsuccessful. I reseated the IOGEAR USB PCI Card in the PCI slot but Windows would not still start. I then removed the IOGEAR USB PCI Card, and Windows started up normally. I then tried to manually install the PCI Card's driver from the IOGEAR CD-ROM and reinserted the PCI Card into a different PCI Slot that has been working. I then turned the PC on and Windows started successfully this time but the USB PCI Card would not work - also something strange happened: my PC's Speakers stopped working!
I was 100% confident now that the USB PCI Card was not compatible with Windows Vista Home Premium. I removed the USB PCI Card for good and called the IOGEAR Tech Support. IOGEAR did not have any solution for the problem. As a last resort, I then decided to return the USB PCI Card to Amazon for a refund. I would not recommend this IOGEAR 5-Port USB 2.0 PCI Card for a PC running Windows Vista Home Premium, as I had a terrible experience with it when installed on my PC and hence the 2-star rating because it did not crash my PC.
From the device's manual, it seems that it was manufactured in 2003. The Windows OS requirements range from Windows 98SE to Windows XP (or Later). I deduced the the following theory: The device does not work with Windows Vista because Vista was came out in the US in 2006. IOGEAR Tech Support claimed that the USB PCI Card should have worked with Windows Vista. Infact no driver are required for Windows XP. I most say that I don't know what the 1 internal USB port is for or how to use it. The requirements for Macintosh range from Mac OS v8.6 to v10.2.5 or Later.
Customer Review: Precisely What I Needed!
Summary: 5 Stars
My Hewlett-Packard desktop PC (nearly four years old) has two USB 1.1 ports, but I needed more ports and needed to upgrade to USB 2.0, so I contacted the local computer repair/maintanence shop and quickly realized that upgrading a piece of hardware was something I could probably do. After finding this product, I ordered the Iogear 5 port Hi-Speed USB 2.0 PCI card; four days later, the product came via FedEx-Ground yesterday (Jan. 31). Opening my CPU wasn't as hard as I figured it would be, but what was a bit tricky was removing the metal slot-cover of the PCI slot I chose to use--but when the cover was out, the PCI card slipped in easily and I replaced the card-holding screw. Now I know what "Plug-and-Play" really means! After only about ten minutes, my computer was back up and running. The O.S.--Windows ME--recognized the new hardware, but I had to install the drivers from the Iogear CD.
I now have four USB 2.0 ports for the three USB-powered devices I have, so I don't have to swap their cables in and out anymore.
What prompted me to do this hardware upgrade was that, for Christmas, I got a Seagate 160-gig external hard-drive; initially, the hard-drive was sluggish, due to the data-transfer limitations of USB 1.1; but now the hard-drive works great. Also, the external drive no longer bogs down my computer's processing power (766 Mhz Celeron).
What's amazing is the 40-times difference between USB 2.0 and 1.1
I'm really happy with this PCI card--it's precisely what I needed. What I'm even happier with is the fact that I saved money buy installing the card myself; I didn't have to rely on the local computer shop and be charged an extra $50 for labor ($70 was the price I'd been quoted, presuming the shop would've installed a $20 5-port USB PCI card similar to this Iogear product).
Instead of investing in a new computer (I don't care for Windows XP, anyway), I think I'll just gradually make the computer I have better.
Overall, I'm glad I made the decision to upgrade to USB 2.0 -- thanks, Iogear, for making this fairly inexpensive PCI card.
Customer Review: My old Mac loves this card!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have a G4 Quicksilver 2002 tower that I scored off eBay cheap, and have refurbished into my media center and iTunes library and absolutely love it (even got it running Leopard) - except for the clunky USB 1.1 ports that are built in.
Suffice it to say, I was a bit dubious to try just any old USB 2.0 card without some assurance that the chipset would, in fact, be recognized by OS X (I've heard some of the cheap-ies can be very unpredictable and unreliable in Mac, though generally OK with marginal driver support in x86 boxes). This one has decent reviews, including from fellow Mac folk, so I thought I'd try it.
I did have some trouble with the install (initially using the 2nd PCI slot, to give it some breathing distance from the mod-ATI9000 Pro in the AGP) and while the device would show up in the System Profiler, only the host controller would show as installed; the slots indicated a Driver Installed status of "no". Additionally while troubleshooting it, the movement of the card to the remaining PCI slots (powered down + anti-ESD, of course) and/or reboots of the system caused my impeccably stable G4 to freeze, hang, not boot, not shut down, etc. I was getting a little nervous (can anyone say "RMA"?).
Finally, I did try the PCI slot closest to the AGP (with some reluctance), and I hit pay-dirt! This card is a beauty! My iPod now happily transfers songs & albums in seconds-to-minutes, instead of minutes-to-hours (I've got a beefy sized Classic, thus my library is all in Apple Lossless, which means it takes a little longer to move the files).
Anyway, I found the included CD-ROM to be somewhat of a mystery, in that this build does not reflect what's in the install guide; however, it's a moot point for Mac.
Given that the installation issues could easily be "user error", I'm giving this thing 5 stars for great performance.
Customer Review: As stated before me, this works wonderfully...
Summary: 5 Stars
I run an external hard drive, a magicjack, a laser printer, a 4 port USB hub, and a wireless mouse and keyboard through the USB ports in my computer. I have what was at the time a top of the line, now not so much, Sony Vaio desktop computer. It has 6 - 1.1 USB ports in it that all crashed about 2 weeks ago. Actually, I think the USB memory crashed because I can still run my wireless mouse and keyboard (just electonic pulses, it doesn't require memory) but needless to say, most of my USB devices were no longer working. I hopped on amazon and like a lot of people before me, purchased this because it was so popular. Five minutes to take off the side panel of my tower, unscrew a screw, plug this in, and re-screw the screw and all my problems were solved for $20.00. The difference in speed between 2.0 ports and the 1.1's is amazing. Also, as I stated, I have an external hard drive. I use this drive exclusively for back up purposes, it never leaves my desk. I decided since there was plenty of room at the bottom of my computer for my drive, I would turn this into an internal back up drive. I plugged it into the internal port and now I have a little more room on my desk. For all those that were wondering prior to me how to use this port, here is your answer. Obviously, as you can tell by my review, I am thrilled with this very easy to install device that has run flawlessly since I installed it (I have Windows auto update turned on. It sounds to me like everyone who has problems is either running a mac or not properly updated). For anyone in a similar situation to mine, I would strongly recommend this to purchase.Customer Review: Installation problems
Summary: 4 Stars
After reading all of the reviews posted, I was very optimistic with my ability to install the product especially since I have Windows XP and so I ordered it. After installing it into one of my PCI slots, I turned on my computer and to my dismay, the computer started to restart spontaneously and giving me blue screen error messages. At certain times, the computer was able to start Windows and then sometimes, it would just give me a black screen. Needless to say, I freaked out fearing the worst! To make sure that it was in fact the newly installed card that was causing the problem, I turned off my computer, removed the card, turned the computer back on and it worked perfectly. I proceeded to call Iogear convinced that the driver was faulty. I spoke to customer service and they nicely suggested to try installing it into a different PCI slot and if that doesn't work to call Compaq (my computer's manufacturer) because apparently, they assign IRQ? numbers to the slots and if they are not compatible with what you're trying to install, that might cause a problem. So, I went ahead and tried to install the card in a different slot, and lo and behold, the card works wonderfully now! I'm really suprised that even though the slots look identical, they're really not the same and might cause issues if new hardware being installed is being attached to the 'wrong' one.