Review on 💻 Syba 5 Port USB 2.0 PCI Card with External & Internal Ports - VIA VT6212 Controller SD-VIA-5U by Glenn Cartwright

This review is about 2 USB 5-port PCI cards (SYBA SD-VIA-5U 5-port card and Sabrent SBT -ALI5Y 5-port card) and 3 PCs (an old Compaq 5838 with 500MHz AMD, an old HP 6465 with 433MHz Celeron and an ancient fossil computer with 166MHz Pentium I). The SYBA card was purchased with an internal 4-port SYBA hub for use with the Compaq 5838. The 5838 originally came with 4 USB 1.1 ports, which proved annoying in some situations. The Sabrent card was acquired for use in the Fossil. Initially, the Fossil had no USB ports. Both cards look very similar. The heart of both cards is the VIA chip. Neither card will work on the PC it is intended for. Computers would not boot with these cards installed. The boot process never got to the point where the operating system starts to boot, so it's not about the drivers. (?) After switching cards, the Fossil booted with the SYBA card with no problems and has been using it ever since. Turns out the SYBA hub doesn't physically fit in the Compaq, but it fits nicely in the Fossil, and now it's in the Fossil too. The Compaq 5838 also did not boot with the Sabrent card. The internal port on the SYBA card failed after about a week of use. The internal port was intended for use with an internal 4-port SYBA hub. Pity! The hub has a large cable and can be routed from the outside to one of the card's external ports. Still, that's 7 USB 2.0 ports on an old PC that didn't exist before. It's been used that way ever since, but it would be nice if this internal port worked. The epilogue to this story is that the map in question won't work on every PC, but there will be a real PC. It's impossible to say what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately, the failure of the internal port left me with a tepid impression of the card's quality. Oh, and the Compaq 5838? On a whim I bought a SYBA SD-NECU2-5E1 6-port card to try in Compaq and it worked great. The heart of this card is the NEC chip instead of the VIA chip.