[Duo2400] Re: 2400 USB

[Eric L. Strobel]

somewhere near the temporal coordinates of 6/8/03 7:00 AM, the entity known
as Donald McCaig transmitted the following from McCaig at va.tds.net:

> Dear Gurus,
> Mr Hill said: "My Macally USB card worked first shot.  Mine's
> Cardbus.  I'm using 9.1, 2400/180 80/4."
> And Mr. Getz asked: "I didn't mention this the first time,but yes
> you must do the cardbus upgrade. i assumed you have done that, correct?"

Actually, if the card cage really is the same as in the 3400 (which I
thought it was), then you don't really need the CardBus "upgrade".  Now, the
card may be a tight fit, but it's worth a try before you spend $99 on an
upgrade to use a $45 card.

> 
> Cardbus is enabled. I've a segmented drive with 7.6.1, 8.6 and 9.1.
> I do most of my work with 7.6.1 because its fastest but use the other OS's
> where I must. The Onkyo that doesn't work warned that it might not work w/o
> a built-in USB (and the Onkyo needs either a power adapter (hard to find)
> or computer powered USB so I've pretty much given up on the Onkyo. But not
> being able to transfer notes from my Olympus digital recorder directly to
> the 2400 is irritating.
> What is maddening is that the USB works SOME of the time. It'll
> boot obediently on 8.6 with the card inserted or show up on the desktop
> when  card is inserted after boot on 9.1 and everything works fine. Next
> time I boot into 8.6 with the card inserted it won't boot; next time I
> insert the card after the boot with 9.1, it won't show up[ on the desktop.
> I can solve the problem by going into my extensions folder and
> Conflict Catcher and making certain all the extensions are enabled but
> sometimes the various USB extensions seem to disable themselves and I have
> to make them right before I can get the card to work again.
> I'm not trying to prove that I can get the MacCally card to work on
> my 2400 - I can. I'm trying to make the card reliable enough for everyday
> work.  Are yours? Have you minimzed extensions for an 8.6 w/USB boot? WIll
> yours work everytime you boot with it or insert it after boot?
> Donald McCaig
> 

I haven't tried w/ 9.1 (and again, my comments are based on experience w/
the 3400), but under 8.6 the behavior is VERY consistent...  You must wait
until after you've started up to load the card, else it won't be recognized.
Further, you must eject the card prior to shutdown (or you will have to
resort to 'paper clip' ejection) or restart (the card will not be recognized
on restart if it's still in during the restart).  Also, if you eject the
card for any reason, you must restart before reinserting or else the card
won't be recognized.  This is all known (although weird) behavior that's
been reported a number of times on the Powerbook list.

[Maybe the CardBus 'upgrade' would alter some of this misbehavior, I don't
know.  But it's not $99 worth of inconvenient to me.  There's nothing I need
to use that requires the presence of USB at boot time, so inserting later is
no big deal.  So the only step I really need to remember is to drag the card
to the trash prior to shutdown/restart.  No biggie.]

- Eric.

-- 

Eric Strobel (fyzycyst at NOSPAM^mailaps.org)

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