Need USB card with enough power for external hard drive

I have an HT-Link Cardbus/PCMCIA USB 2.0 2-port card (NEC / 32-bit).
My external hard drive w/USB adapter won't work with it, and it will
work plugged directly into a USB port on a different laptop. (My USB
ports got fried.) I got the card off E-Bay. My MP3 player works
plugged into that card. The drivers for the card say "Known
limitations: High Speed Isochronus, USB Composite Devices." (No other
details provided.) I don't know if the hard drive adapter is
"isochronous" or "composite." I've read there are problems with too
little power being supplied to the drive. The cable to the drive has
two USB plugs on one end, and it doesn't make any difference if I plug
both of them into the Cardbus card.

What card should I get? I see many different brands on E-Bay. I need
one that supplies sufficient power for an external hard drive, and
doesn't have any "known limitations" in the way.

On 23/05/2010 16:58, Carl wrote:
I have an HT-Link Cardbus/PCMCIA USB 2.0 2-port card (NEC / 32-bit).
My external hard drive w/USB adapter won't work with it, and it will
work plugged directly into a USB port on a different laptop. (My USB
ports got fried.) I got the card off E-Bay. My MP3 player works
plugged into that card. The drivers for the card say "Known
limitations: High Speed Isochronus, USB Composite Devices." (No other
details provided.) I don't know if the hard drive adapter is
"isochronous" or "composite." I've read there are problems with too
little power being supplied to the drive. The cable to the drive has
two USB plugs on one end, and it doesn't make any difference if I plug
both of them into the Cardbus card.

What card should I get? I see many different brands on E-Bay. I need
one that supplies sufficient power for an external hard drive, and
doesn't have any "known limitations" in the way.


The cardbus card probably *can't* supply enough power unless there's a
way of getting power to it from another source. I have a 4 x USB2 port
cardbus card made by Pluscom which has a little power socket on the
front in addition to the USB ports. It comes with a lead which plugs
into a normal USB port just for the purpose of supplying power to the card.

Do you have any other source of power for USB devices, such as a
USB-based mobile phone charger? If so, you could try plugging one of the
drive's plugs into *that* - which may solve the problem.
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

Carl wrote:
I have an HT-Link Cardbus/PCMCIA USB 2.0 2-port card (NEC / 32-bit).
My external hard drive w/USB adapter won't work with it, and it will
work plugged directly into a USB port on a different laptop. (My USB
ports got fried.) I got the card off E-Bay. My MP3 player works
plugged into that card. The drivers for the card say "Known
limitations: High Speed Isochronus, USB Composite Devices." (No other
details provided.) I don't know if the hard drive adapter is
"isochronous" or "composite." I've read there are problems with too
little power being supplied to the drive. The cable to the drive has
two USB plugs on one end, and it doesn't make any difference if I plug
both of them into the Cardbus card.

What card should I get? I see many different brands on E-Bay. I need
one that supplies sufficient power for an external hard drive, and
doesn't have any "known limitations" in the way.


If you used an external 3.5" USB drive enclosure, they come
with their own power adapter. That is another way to solve the
problem.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/22-152-230-Z05?$S640W$

Paul

On May 23, 12:37*pm, Roger Mills wrote:
On 23/05/2010 16:58, Carl wrote:



I have an HT-Link Cardbus/PCMCIA USB 2.0 2-port card (NEC / 32-bit).
My external hard drive w/USB adapter won't work with it, and it will
work plugged directly into a USB port on a different laptop. (My USB
ports got fried.) I got the card off E-Bay. My MP3 player works
plugged into that card. The drivers for the card say "Known
limitations: High Speed Isochronus, USB Composite Devices." (No other
details provided.) I don't know if the hard drive adapter is
"isochronous" or "composite." I've read there are problems with too
little power being supplied to the drive. The cable to the drive has
two USB plugs on one end, and it doesn't make any difference if I plug
both of them into the Cardbus card.

What card should I get? I see many different brands on E-Bay. I need
one that supplies sufficient power for an external hard drive, and
doesn't have any "known limitations" in the way.

The cardbus card probably *can't* supply enough power unless there's a
way of getting power to it from another source. I have a 4 x USB2 port
cardbus card made by Pluscom which has a little power socket on the
front in addition to the USB ports. It comes with a lead which plugs
into a normal USB port just for the purpose of supplying power to the card.

Do you have any other source of power for USB devices, such as a
USB-based mobile phone charger? If so, you could try plugging one of the
drive's plugs into *that* - which may solve the problem.
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

The card has a hole in between the two USB port for a plug, but the
card didn't come with a cable. I checked E-bay. I could get a new
card that comes with a cable for the same price as just a cable.

On May 23, 1:27*pm, Paul wrote:
Carl wrote:
I have an HT-Link Cardbus/PCMCIA USB 2.0 2-port card (NEC / 32-bit).
My external hard drive w/USB adapter won't work with it, and it will
work plugged directly into a USB port on a different laptop. (My USB
ports got fried.) I got the card off E-Bay. My MP3 player works
plugged into that card. The drivers for the card say "Known
limitations: High Speed Isochronus, USB Composite Devices." (No other
details provided.) I don't know if the hard drive adapter is
"isochronous" or "composite." I've read there are problems with too
little power being supplied to the drive. The cable to the drive has
two USB plugs on one end, and it doesn't make any difference if I plug
both of them into the Cardbus card.

What card should I get? I see many different brands on E-Bay. I need
one that supplies sufficient power for an external hard drive, and
doesn't have any "known limitations" in the way.

If you used an external 3.5" USB drive enclosure, they come
with their own power adapter. That is another way to solve the
problem.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/22-152-230-Z05?$S640W$

* * Paul

It's a 2.5" USB drive enclosure. It doesn't have a plug for a power
adapter.

"Carl" wrote in message
...

I have an HT-Link Cardbus/PCMCIA USB 2.0 2-port card (NEC / 32-bit).
My external hard drive w/USB adapter won't work with it, and it will
work plugged directly into a USB port on a different laptop. (My USB
ports got fried.) I got the card off E-Bay. My MP3 player works
plugged into that card. The drivers for the card say "Known
limitations: High Speed Isochronus, USB Composite Devices." (No other
details provided.) I don't know if the hard drive adapter is
"isochronous" or "composite." I've read there are problems with too
little power being supplied to the drive. The cable to the drive has
two USB plugs on one end, and it doesn't make any difference if I plug
both of them into the Cardbus card.

What card should I get?

The alternative is to get an enclosure for the ext. hard
drive. The Samba brands include a transformer to
supply drive power separately from the USB port.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

"Carl" wrote in message
...
On May 23, 1:27 pm, Paul wrote:
Carl wrote:
I have an HT-Link Cardbus/PCMCIA USB 2.0 2-port card (NEC / 32-bit).
My external hard drive w/USB adapter won't work with it, and it will
work plugged directly into a USB port on a different laptop. (My USB
ports got fried.) I got the card off E-Bay. My MP3 player works
plugged into that card. The drivers for the card say "Known
limitations: High Speed Isochronus, USB Composite Devices." (No other
details provided.) I don't know if the hard drive adapter is
"isochronous" or "composite." I've read there are problems with too
little power being supplied to the drive. The cable to the drive has
two USB plugs on one end, and it doesn't make any difference if I plug
both of them into the Cardbus card.

What card should I get? I see many different brands on E-Bay. I need
one that supplies sufficient power for an external hard drive, and
doesn't have any "known limitations" in the way.

If you used an external 3.5" USB drive enclosure, they come
with their own power adapter. That is another way to solve the
problem.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/22-152-230-Z05?$S640W$

Paul

It's a 2.5" USB drive enclosure. It doesn't have a plug for a power
adapter.

In that case move the hdd to an external drive case that has an additional
power plug recepticle on it. Make sure you find out what the internal
connector is for your 2.5" hdd (IDE or SATA)

As an example. With these drives you would need to purchase an additional
power to USB cable, but it should certainly work if you have two USB ports
available and one to use for a mouse. This one has an internal SATA
connection.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145329


--
Jan Alter

On May 24, 12:41 am, "Don Phillipson" wrote:
"Carl" wrote in message

...

I have an HT-Link Cardbus/PCMCIA USB 2.0 2-port card (NEC / 32-bit).
My external hard drive w/USB adapter won't work with it, and it will
work plugged directly into a USB port on a different laptop. (My USB
ports got fried.) I got the card off E-Bay. My MP3 player works
plugged into that card. The drivers for the card say "Known
limitations: High Speed Isochronus, USB Composite Devices." (No other
details provided.) I don't know if the hard drive adapter is
"isochronous" or "composite." I've read there are problems with too
little power being supplied to the drive. The cable to the drive has
two USB plugs on one end, and it doesn't make any difference if I plug
both of them into the Cardbus card.

What card should I get?

The alternative is to get an enclosure for the ext. hard
drive. The Samba brands include a transformer to
supply drive power separately from the USB port.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Some 2.5 inch ext drives cables are y-shaped, with one arm of the "y"
much longer--this gets into the gadget. The shorter arm contains Vcc
and GND only, no data. I've thought all along if you have device not
being detected properly because of insufficient power you could double
the shorter "y" arm and plug it into adjacent unused USB port to boost
the Vcc to gadget.

On Sun, 23 May 2010 22:24:01 -0400, Jan Alter wrote:
In that case move the hdd to an external drive case that has an
additional power plug recepticle on it. Make sure you find out what the
internal connector is for your 2.5" hdd (IDE or SATA)

Good advice, but if the PC has an eSATA connector, then even better,
get an external case with an eSATA connection.

USB 2 allows transfer speeds of up to 480 MBytes per second.

eSATA allows transfer speeds of up to 3 GBytes per second.

It's a 2.5" USB drive enclosure. It doesn't have a plug for a power
adapter.

In that case move the hdd to an external drive case that has an additional
power plug recepticle on it. Make sure you find out what the internal
connector is for your 2.5" hdd (IDE or SATA)

As an example. With these drives you would need to purchase an additional
power to USB cable, but it should certainly work if you have two USB ports
available and one to use for a mouse. This one has an internal SATA
connection.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145329

--
Jan Alter


That page says "There's no external power necessary either, since the
drive gets its power from your computer." I already have an external
drive case - that's how I'm accessing my 2.5 " IDE drive via a USB
port.

I don't see any listing on E-Bay matching "wall wart USB socket" as
someone else here suggested (0 listings), and I don't see anything
relevant when searching for "power usb cable." What EXACTLY is it
called - a transformer you plug in the wall, and it has a cable with a
USB socket on the end of it. Thanks.