Dynex DX-UC202 USB 2.0 PCMCIA Laptop Card

List Price: $29.99

Features:

• Adds 2 high-speed USB 2.0 ports
• 480 Mbps maximum data transfer rate
• Easy plug-and-play installation into any 32-bit PCMCIA Type II slot; hot-swapping capability

Customer Reviews:

handy, but doesn't seem to work very well [Posted on 2005-09-14]
I got it to power my mouse, but nothing more. The listing does not mention that it requires external power to run pretty much anything. It comes with a power adapter that plugs into your other usb port (or you can buy an ac adapter separately). In any event, even with the power adapter plugged in to my existing usb 1.1 port, I could not get enough power to run a wireless 802.11g usb adapter through the dynex card--it turned on, but kept losing the signal. So now I've still got my wireless connection running on the slower usb 1.1 port. But if I ever need a place to plug in another mouse (which is the only thing I could get to run successfully through the dynex usb 2.0 port) then I suppose I'm all set.

Fast, but external power may be troublesome. [Posted on 2007-01-04]
I got this card to connect my external HDD to my older USB 1.0 laptop. So far, the card is working just fine, and transfers files just as fast as my new laptop which has USB 2.0 as original equipment.

However, there is a caveat.... if any of your peripherals require USB power, like thumb drives, mice, etc. there is a special cable that must be used. It's a pass though USB plug that has a cable coming off of it that powers the USB 2.0 PCMCIA card. This way, a USB 1.0 port provides power to the 2.0 card's ports. I had a little bit of difficulty with it because of the way my laptops USB ports are arranged (HP Pavilion ZE5185). If I used the laptop's side port the power plug's cable points down and is too tall for the laptop's thickness, and if I use the rear USB ports the cable is right up against the laptop's power cord. It's able to fit there, but it has some pressure on it.

For what it's worth, the supplied USB power plug is setup so if you look at your computer's USB port and the "tongue" with the contacts on it is at the bottom, the adapter's power cord will come out on the right side.

The manual also notes that if your USB device requires a lot of power like a floppy drive, high speed USB powered hard drive, etc. the supplied cable doesn't provide enough juice and you'll need to purchace some special AC adapter.

I don't know if all the USB PCMCIA cards have this problem, this is the only one I have ever used.

Anyhow, it doesn't much matter to me because my external HDD has it's own power supply and works fine without the USB bus being powered. My card is working great, and now I can speedily transfer files. What takes an hour with USB 1.0 takes only a few minutes with the 2.0, well worth it. And I purchased this card for much less than the other's I've seen.

Not Compatible with Standby [Posted on 2007-02-21]
If you use Standby in Windows XP the card will not be recognized when you resume from Standby. This means that in order for any connected USB devices to work after resuming, you must first pull out the PCMCIA card, reinsert it, and wait for it (and your connected devices) to reload. If you leave your computer on all the time, or if you shut down all the time, this card works great. Dynex free support was completely unhelpful, but they do offer fee-based support for their products to those who don't mind spending more money.

AC power cord needed for anything [Posted on 2007-12-28]
Works great if you're not doing anything with it.

If you need to plug something, like a USB device, into it you need an external power adapter which is not included.

In addition, nowhere on the box does it mention this - only on the manual inside the packaging - that you need this crazy 1.5A 5V ac adapter of specific size that you can get "from any local electronics accessory shop".

See that hole in the front between the USB ports? That's where you plug in extra power. Crazy. Forget using a USB hard drive for anything mobile and not in range of an AC outlet because not using the power adaptor will literally power off your whole system when it draws too much.

I wouldn't care if they said it on the box and included the adapter, but doing neither is deceitful and that is why I give this a 1 star review.

Looking around, looks like similar USB 2.0 PCMCIA cards do the same thing, but at least they COME with the adaptor instead of saying "go find mystery adaptor X from _somewhere"

When I find it, I'll update the review to let you know how the actual card works.

OK for low-power devices, but AC power needed for anything else [Posted on 2008-01-17]
I bought this device last summer (and, in retrospect, paid a lot more than I should have) because my Thinkpad T30 doesn't have built-in USB 2.0, just USB 1.1. It works OK with low-power devices like scanners and flash drives. However, to run a high-power device (especially one that doesn't already have an AC power adapter of its own, such as Seagate's FreeAgent Go external hard drives), you need to obtain the AC power adapter (available separately) for this card. I don't know, myself, where to get one, so I'm going to find another USB PC Card that does have a power adapter included. Avoid unless you have power adapters on hand for all your high-power-using USB devices.

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