my 72yr old father is using my old IBM p166 desktop mostly for word processing and  simple emails..... im planning to give him my slightly used kodak cx6230 digital camera with a USB 2.0 interface, it was able to run the said camera's sofware.. the problem is....the system has no USB port. my question is...

- can i intall a USB 2.0 PCI Adapter card to a pentium166 system?
- the p166 still has 2 vacant PCI slots.
- If not, what option do i have?- my dad nor I will not certainly buy a new desktop system just to run a a digital camera. I guess download speed is not a factor as long as it downloads the pictures. for personalized editing.

-should i give my camera to my sister? who has a more capable system. I really want to introduce my dad the convinience, flexibility , and probably economy of  digital photography


 sparrow...Do a BIT of research on the MOBO thats in your Dads pc ......if its USB ready ( compatible) then you should be able to put in the USB pci card .

Let us know

dl65  gee guys, icant find anything that will give an idea of the kind of motherboard this system has (where should i look?). Its an IBM aptiva pentium166 (model 2176-y31) running on win98SE. I still have all the original recovery softwares and Manual. but nothing i can find that will give me the name and specs of the motherboard.  How do suggest I go about in finding out the USB compatibility of the motherboard or at least the name/specs of the motherboard……..do you think think  IBM website can help?  This is a ten years old system.  Thanks!If it's PCI, IBM says it should work.  
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&q1=2176-y31&q2=USB&uid=psg1GCOR-38ZJYG&loc=en_US&cs=utf-8&cc=us&lang=enthanks commando for giving me the IBM link; its very incouraging....maybe i should try intalling a usb PCI adapter card on my dads aptiva, maybe i would go to the trial and error method and just try to re-sell the  adapter card if it doesn't work.  I got this two PCI adapters in consideration.

http://www.ivmm.com/eio/products_usb20.html

and

http://www.starmount.co.uk/usb_upg1.htm

i will still appreciate any opinion coming from you guys regarding this adapter cards. now my problem is availability of this cards( even other types and brands) in my local computer store. :-)  thanks....

1st link is USB 2.0, 2nd link is USB 1.1
since were dealing with an old system here, maybe ill lean my preferences with the usb 1.1 adapter card. but will a usb 2.0 device(digital camera) work or at least fit with a usb 1.1 port ? with the assumption that the aptiva system  accepted the 1.1 usb card. :-/USB is backwards compatible.  USB 2.0 devices will plug-in and operate in USB 1.1 ports at 1.1 speed.  For downloading pictures from the camera to the computer, USB 1.1 is fast enough.  If downloading video (not stills), USB 2.0 is preferable because the files are much larger.Hi here is an update with the USB-PCI card instalation on  an IBM aptiva P166 system. Well got a USB 2.0-PCI 4+1 port  adapter card, first thing I did was to put the card to the vacant PCI slot on the PC and then tried to activate the USB support in win98se by the Control panel/ Install new hardware function  in  SETTINGS.  Well it seem that WIN98SE wont recognized the USB Driver activation. I also tried to install the driver ttaht came with the Card ; well, after install, a message will pop out  NO USB DEVICE.  I cant seem to make the USB icon appear on the device manager window. Also WIN98se always boot on SAFE MODE  and  will only boot on NORMAL MODE only when I REMOVE the USB CARD from the PCI slot after turning off and restarting the computer. I’ve read in the APTIVA manual about conflicts with I/O addresses in the MWAVE adapter card in the Aptiva and the the necesity to adjust some jumper settings,  I have yet to try this option; I want to read some comments first in response to this post before I start messing around with the jumpers on the  MWAVE modem adapter card of the Aptiva. The USB -PCI card (VIA Tech) has no jumpers. Sorry guys. i really wished I could  make this post shorter.... HELP?You could try swapping cards to different PCI slots.  Sometimes that works.

BTW, IBM link above goes nowhere.  It now says:

Our apologies
There is a problem retrieving the document GCOR-38ZJYG.

Yup commando, I already tried changing PCI slots, with the same result. But I did try the jumper changing option in the Mwave card; and windows started recognizing the The USB drivers !!! the Photos and a quicktime movie did start Downloading from the camera! To a file in MY DOCUMENTS.
But there are drawbacks;  the sound and volume controls  DISAPPEARED  and stopped functioning , the printer lose connection and a blue screen  WICH says, MWAVE ERROR: VX D005 NO DSP BOARD FOUND IN SYSTEM, PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE. Appears everytime start the system.  
My only  question now is to teach my dad how  to remove the CPU COVER  and change the Jumper setting everytime he needs to download and edit photos from the computer……hehehe, so much for digital convinience and flexibility.
thanks guysss!!


After a few more tinkering around and by trial and error I found a page in the aptiva manual about resetting the RELOAD DEVICE DRIVER at the UTILITIES SETUP .  I set the setting to disable and wallah!!! Every thing  started working again; the printer ,the volume control, and the Camera started downloading pictures to the PC buy simply  just connecting to the newly installed USB port and turning it on! I really want to thank you guys for  your hints and tips.  I like to apologize for my long and dorky yakity-yak questions, thanks for helping me resolve this hardware installation....  One little obscure setting in the BIOS can make all the difference.  Good to hear you figured it out.hey guys, while looking for the USB PCI card, i came across this store that sell old Cheap computers and old computer parts (knock downs). saw their line up of old processors like the socket 7 pentium 233mmx. Im wondering, do you think  I can upgrade the Aptiva 166 with the 233mmx processor? The aptiva 166 is a socket 7 processor. im thinking, if its just a matter of putting the 233mmx to the processor tray why the heck not do it! if it can add processing power to the old Aptiva do you have a thread topic That tackles processor upgrades? to save you guys from answering the same questions all over again.   or maybe i put on a new  forum topic..... Look at this:  http://www.geek.com/procspec/procspec.htm

See this table:
http://www.geek.com/procspec/intel/p5mmx.htm

It looks as if it will work if both CPUs are MMX (2.8V).  If your 166 is not MMX (3.3V) it will only work if the motherboard has jumpers to set and you know which ones to change.