Home > Consumer Reviews > Adaptec AUA-1420 USB 2.0 2 Port CardBus

1st tip: logon to adaptec.com and get the latest drivers for this card. Chances are the ones included on the installation disk are not the latest. 2nd tip: Follow the directions provided on how to override XP from installing it's own drivers and install the adaptec drivers. Do these 2 tips and you will have a FAST!, trouble-free usb2 card on your notebook.

I bought this card for a Toshiba 6100 Satellite Pro. I intended it to work with a Maxtor USB 2.0 portable external hard drive which it does very well.

One thing of interest - I found XP Pro with service pack 1 has a driver for it and there's no need to install Adaptec's. In fact, Adaptec's doesn't install successfully as per their instructions, I'm assuming because of XP service pack 1. No matter, Windows XP's driver works great and at USB 2 speed.

I have a Sony 2.0 G VAIO with Windows XP. Under this environment it was just a matter of plugging it in and the drivers installed themselves automatically. I did not even have to open up the driver CD that accompanied the CardBus. Very impressive if you ask me. I am backing up my files as I am typing this with no problem onto my 160 G external hard drive using the fast USB 2.0 technology.

Because this card DOES NOT come with a power adapter (the Belkin Cardbus card does, and I'm ordering one after I send this one back) it would not work with my flash drives. One it would not see at all, and the other it would see but not access.
I assume it works O.K. with low or non power devices such as USB keyboards or Mice, or with devices that have their own power supply such as an External USB hard drive, but I've tested neither. I just know this one is 15 dollars more, then you need to turn around and buy the adapter, which is not even listed on Amazon?
Also, the driver installation was a pain because after Windows XP installs its drivers, you have to disable all the USB controllers on the card, download the Adaptec driver, then it will install the Adapted drivers. That took me about an hour to find on the Adaptec website. I'm a technician and I do this kind of thing all day; it should not be this hard.
Avoid this one.

I bought this adapter to improve the data transfer rate to an external USB2 hard drive and as such it works quite well. Data transfer rate is 6 MB/s, about 10 times as fast as with USB1. Your mileage may vary.

I use the card exclusively under Linux; a recent kernel (2.4.21 or 2.5.5*) is necessary to get it to work reliably using updated EHCI drivers.