Bad,Bad Belkin!
To finish up the hardware reconfiguration of my Quicksilver 2002 PowerMac, I went in search of a USB 2.0 card. I own an Epson Perfection 1660 Photo scanner, and it uses USB 1.1 or 2.0 to relay its scans to the computer. Obviously, I wanted USB 2.0 because of its greater transfer speeds. So, I stopped by a local Best Buy and took a look at what they had. The card that looked the most promising of the ones I could see was a Belkin 5 port USB 2.0 PCI card. Under its system requirements, it stated that it worked as USB 2.0 under Mac OS X with the following caveat: “USB 2.0 under OS X requires third party driver.”
OK. That I knew. But what exactly did that mean? They wouldn’t be dumb enough to market a card as USB 2.0 and then not supply drivers, would they? Who did they think the third party was supposed to be?
To make a long story short, obviously, it wasn’t them. The card worked great as a USB 1.1 device, but there were no OS X drivers on the enclosed CD nor were there any at the Belkin website.
After researching the other cards Best Buy had on their website and at the store I had gone to, I decided to take the Belkin card back and swap it for a 5 port SIIG USB 2.0 PCI card. Not only were there OS X drivers on the SIIG website, but the card had a $10 rebate attached to it.
The SIIG card works like a champ. To quantify the difference in performance, I scanned an 8 x 10 photograph using Epson Twain 5 drivers and Photoshop 7 using the card before the USB 2.0 drivers were installed. Under USB 1.1, it took 34 seconds for the photograph to appear on my desktop after I clicked the “Scan” button (Manual mode). After I loaded the USB 2.0 drivers and rebooted, the same scan took 19 seconds (USB 2.) to complete.
On the other hand, Belkin is being irresponsible by marketing a USB 2.0 card without USB 2.0 drivers for OS X and inferring, however confusingly, that it is Mac compatible. Frankly, unless they’re willing to provide drivers or tell you where to find ones to use, they need to remove any Mac reference from their packaging. If you’re a PowerMac owner looking for a USB 2.0 PCI card, look at SIIG, IOGEAR, or Orange Micro. Avoid Belkin at all costs.
OK. That I knew. But what exactly did that mean? They wouldn’t be dumb enough to market a card as USB 2.0 and then not supply drivers, would they? Who did they think the third party was supposed to be?
To make a long story short, obviously, it wasn’t them. The card worked great as a USB 1.1 device, but there were no OS X drivers on the enclosed CD nor were there any at the Belkin website.
After researching the other cards Best Buy had on their website and at the store I had gone to, I decided to take the Belkin card back and swap it for a 5 port SIIG USB 2.0 PCI card. Not only were there OS X drivers on the SIIG website, but the card had a $10 rebate attached to it.
The SIIG card works like a champ. To quantify the difference in performance, I scanned an 8 x 10 photograph using Epson Twain 5 drivers and Photoshop 7 using the card before the USB 2.0 drivers were installed. Under USB 1.1, it took 34 seconds for the photograph to appear on my desktop after I clicked the “Scan” button (Manual mode). After I loaded the USB 2.0 drivers and rebooted, the same scan took 19 seconds (USB 2.) to complete.
On the other hand, Belkin is being irresponsible by marketing a USB 2.0 card without USB 2.0 drivers for OS X and inferring, however confusingly, that it is Mac compatible. Frankly, unless they’re willing to provide drivers or tell you where to find ones to use, they need to remove any Mac reference from their packaging. If you’re a PowerMac owner looking for a USB 2.0 PCI card, look at SIIG, IOGEAR, or Orange Micro. Avoid Belkin at all costs.
posted by Andy Foster at
4:03 AM
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