Internal USB 2.0 header adapter for old system

[OgreVorbis]

So I've got an older (almost retro comp) with a Pentium III in it. (This question is not retro specific though, so it fits here OK.)

Anyway, the point is, the motherboard only has USB 1.1 so I have a USB 2.0 PCI card in it.

 

The USB PCI card doesn't have an internal header connector, so my front USB card reader is attached to the low speed USB on motherboard. The strange thing is this USB card has a normal USB port on the inside. I need an adapter that converts normal USB into a male header and I'm having trouble finding it. Also, does anyone know if this is a normal USB port on the inside or something weird that couldn't just get adapted to a header? I could just get a new card, but meh.

 

https://www.newegg.com/syba-model-sd-v2-5u-pci-to-usb-card/p/N82E16815124008

Here's what the card looks like:

[Bitter]

22 minutes ago, OgreVorbis said:

So I've got an older (almost retro comp) with a Pentium III in it. (This question is not retro specific though, so it fits here OK.)

Anyway, the point is, the motherboard only has USB 1.1 so I have a USB 2.0 PCI card in it.

 

The USB PCI card doesn't have an internal header connector, so my front USB card reader is attached to the low speed USB on motherboard. The strange thing is this USB card has a normal USB port on the inside. I need an adapter that converts normal USB into a male header and I'm having trouble finding it. Also, does anyone know if this is a normal USB port on the inside or something weird that couldn't just get adapted to a header? I could just get a new card, but meh.

 

https://www.newegg.com/syba-model-sd-v2-5u-pci-to-usb-card/p/N82E16815124008

Here's what the card looks like:

 

https://www.amazon.com/9-Pin-Motherboard-Header-Single-7-8inch/dp/B08Q2TLWGV/L

Is that what you need?

[Radium_Angel]

2 minutes ago, Bitter said:

https://www.amazon.com/9-Pin-Motherboard-Header-Single-7-8inch/dp/B08Q2TLWGV/L

Is that what you need?

Ha, I was about to post the exact same thing.

Nicely done.

[OgreVorbis]

1 minute ago, Bitter said:

https://www.amazon.com/9-Pin-Motherboard-Header-Single-7-8inch/dp/B08Q2TLWGV/L

Is that what you need?

Yes. Thanks a lot!

It says something about only the bottom 5 pins are wired. Not sure if that's an issue. I'm looking at the connector here and it uses the bottom 5 AND two of the top pins (but not all of them). I don't know if this means it will work or not?

[Bitter]

2 minutes ago, OgreVorbis said:

Yes. Thanks a lot!

It says something about only the bottom 5 pins are wired. Not sure if that's an issue. I'm looking at the connector here and it uses the bottom 5 AND two of the top pins (but not all of them). I don't know if this means it will work or not?

That's because a 9 pin header services 2 ports on a PC, but going backward from a single A port it would only be able to connect to ONE side of the 9 pin header. You'd need one with a double A to a 9 pin to get all 9 pins connected. If you're connecting a card reader...I'm not sure it uses all 9 pins or both ports. You might need a different USB PCI card with a 9 pin header or 2 A ports on it.

[OgreVorbis]

5 minutes ago, Bitter said:

That's because a 9 pin header services 2 ports on a PC, but going backward from a single A port it would only be able to connect to ONE side of the 9 pin header. You'd need one with a double A to a 9 pin to get all 9 pins connected. If you're connecting a card reader...I'm not sure it uses all 9 pins or both ports. You might need a different USB PCI card with a 9 pin header or 2 A ports on it.

Hmm. OK, so I found this diagram. On my connector I have bottom 5 and the top two for power and ground. So... I guess it's just looking for extra power. USB 1.1 I think has less power, so maybe it just uses that for compatibility or maybe it really needs extra. What do you think? I might just go for it and see what happens. I could get another card later.

[Bitter]

13 minutes ago, OgreVorbis said:

Hmm. OK, so I found this diagram. On my connector I have bottom 5 and the top two for power and ground. So... I guess it's just looking for extra power. USB 1.1 I think has less power, so maybe it just uses that for compatibility or maybe it really needs extra. What do you think? I might just go for it and see what happens. I could get another card later.

I think there's only two ways to test it out.

#1 depin those two pins and see if the device works on 1.0 still (it may not)

#2 buy it and try it. you might be able to jumper those two pins across from one side to the other to give them power and might be OK.

#3 Buy this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/392888046422 No idea how good or bad the drivers are for it.

Another one with an internal header https://www.ebay.com/itm/174660087769

You can also get internal USB hubs to split out a single header into a pair of headers, I have a couple of those in an old case that I needed more internal USB than I had headers for.

[OgreVorbis]

I went with the cable option. After looking at the USB card closely, I saw that all the power rails were connected together. So using two ports shouldn't actually give it any extra power unless they are independent. I may still have to jumper the other power wire pin though. It may still not work cause the card says 500mA. Interestingly, also the cards power rail is connected directly to several PCI pins. It's not going through any chips or anything, so I think it's whatever the PCI will supply it actually.

[OgreVorbis]

In case anyone else is wondering in the future. The adapter worked perfectly with no jumpers or anything. Just plugged it in. Turns out, it's only got one data line, but it's got power for both ports. So it seems like the card reader was able to get enough power. I got about 16 MB/s transferring to an SD card. Which I guess isn't excellent, but it's far better than the USB 1.1 speed topping out at 1.5 MB/s.

I also did a fun test. I figured, what's the most power hungry thing you can plug into an SD/CF card reader? An old Microdrive. I didn't even know these mini hard drives existed until recently, so I got a super cheap one on ebay (they generally go for a lot, but the seller must have been clueless). Anyway, the microdrive works great. It's kind of slow compared to SD or CF card. It's 13 MB/s sequential, but random is only 200 KB/s. They are pointless these days cause they top out around 6GB in size, but it's still very cool to have one of the smallest hdd ever made.