To USB or not to USB... (My Rant)

[Wing Nut]

Now when USB came out, it was supposed to be IT.  You could take a piece of equipment, plug it in, and with no muss or fuss go ahead and move on.

What the heck is with USB?  I just bought a new game pad and have to install a program to use it and it's USB.  I have bought several other pieces of equipment from Zip drives to trackballs and those had installation discs.  And don't get me started on what it takes to set up my USB 4 in 1 Printer/Scanner/Fax/Copier.  So where's the convenience?  

It's like a universal remote for your TV.  Yes you can program it to turn your TV and VCR and cable, but each piece of equipment has it's own special little thing that requires the original remote, so you end up with five or six universal remotes!  Jeez this is ridiculous!!

[Paz]

 I think that even with some USB peripheral devices you will still have to install the manufacturers device drivers, USB makes it possible to connect tons of devices to your computer without having to manually set IRQ's, DMA and such like in the old days.
 The main advantage of USB is the speed by which it tranfers data, it is much faster that the old parallel ports, especially the newer USB 2.0.

[Iroquois]

I could be wrong but I believe USB was created so that devices (Cameras, mice, etc.) could be easily compatible with other computers such as Mac and Linux. Like Paz says, it's much faster. However, I believe that "FireWire" will eventually replace USB. It's much faster and like SCSI, can be used to connect internal devices as well. FireWire is SCSI's big brother, but you don't need to daisy chain or put end caps on the last device in the chain.  

You shouldn't have a problem if you run Windows XP. I bought a USB Compact Flash Reader/Writer and it did not need drivers. Makes sure your device is plug and play, most ones today are.

[darkhorse]

With USB, you can also have up to 127 devises pluged in at the same time.  Provided you have enough ports and hubs for them all.  As for the set up, things like mice, cameras, and most game controllersare simple enough to not need the instalation disc that comes with them.  But the more advanced things like your 4 in 1 combo can have a lot of different comands that are not as common as a mouse.  And right now, USB 2.0 is the down right fastest capable between USB and Firewire.  But Firewire will continuosly operate closer to it's max speed, which makes it ideal for video streaming.  Although there are some new things comming out in the near future that are supposed to be even faster.  i think one even reverts back to a serial type connecttion, or something strange like that.

[Hogans_Alley]

>:( >:( >:(

Perhaps this article from InfiniSource (Windows-Help.NET) may help. If applicable to your PC:

Universal Serial Bus (USB) devices tha are plugged in to a computer running Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition MAY not work if your computer uses the following hardware components.

*   An AMD processor (running at 350 MHz or faster)
*   A VIA TEchnologies USB controller

This behavior occurs because there is a timing-specific problem in the Universal Host Controller dirver (Uhcd.sys), which may prevent USB devices from enumerating under specific timing conditions. To resolve this issue, download and run the appropriate file available from the Microsoft Download Center.

Ciao!

Hogans Alley