Question 1

what size drive bay does it fit?

Accepted Answer

The drive fits in a 5 1/4" slot.  The ECR501 also accommodates 2 x SSDs so you actually get the benefit of USB and 6-in-1 card readers as well as space for two SSD drives in the same 5 1/4" space.

Question 2

Would this connect with the same cable as a disk or hard drive would? People are saying USB slots on the motherboard but i'm not sure what that means.

Accepted Answer

on your motherboard there are headers for the front panel USB connectors, one is a 20 or 19 pin connection which you would plug the larger plug into which controls the usb 3.0 port and the flash cards on your enrermax unit you are about to buy, the other connector is a smaller header, I believe 8 pin, which also connects to the motherboard, the connector on the motherboard is for your front USB 2.0 and on the enermax unit as well.  99% of the motherboards out there have these connectors, usually if you have USB ports on the front of your computer, follow the wires to motherboard and you will see the connectors.  I am not sure how much you know about your motherboard, but if you have a manual for your board it will show it, you can always go online to find the info as well. The unit is made very well and I do recommend it.  it also has a 3.0 usb port for charging IPhones and other items like that.  but you have to hook up all connections.  This would be the correct way to hook it up.  another way would be to get usb extensions and plug them directly into the enermax unit, you can't miss the ports and run them through your computer out to the back and just plug it into your USB ports in the rear.  Make sure you use 3.0 and 2.0 extension if you go this route.  I hope this is helpful to you, you may contact me if you need additional help.

Question 3

Does this fit in  a 5.25 drive bay?like a dvd drive?

Accepted Answer

Yes ...  fits fine  ...  hole alignment in my case wasn't perfect but it's secure & works great.  From my experience you can't go wrong with this; it's the 3rd one I tried & the ONLY one that I can say that about.  Good luck

Question 4

If my motherboard does not have a USB 3.0 port what features will not work?

Accepted Answer

Jeremy,
The single USB 3.0 port and the card reader ports will not work since they are all wired via a USB 3 20-1 pin connector for a compatible motherboard. That leaves the USB 2.0, eSata and USB charging ports.
If you need USB 3.0 and your motherboard will not support it, you might consider a PCI expansion card which I used with great success on my previous computer.

Question 5

Would this connect with the same cable as a disk or hard drive would? People are saying USB slots on the motherboard but i'm not sure what that means.

Accepted Answer

You usually have 2, 9 or 10 pin connecting points on your motherboard that you probably have a cables plugged into one for a usb port on your computer. The other one may be open. These you can use for the USB 2.0 ports, the USB 3.0 ports and all the card readers you will need a USB 3.0 port on your motherboard. These are less common on older motherboards. I needed to buy a card to plug into a pci express slot to give me a internal USB 3.0 port. This is the card it worked well 1 x Silverstone PCI Express Card with USB 3.0 Internal Connector Model SST-EC01-P. I hope this helped

Question 6

Is this card reader compatible with windows 7?

Accepted Answer

I have never been able to make this card reader functional under windows 7.  However, there might be a problem with my current motherboard.  I am in the process of of building a new system, and I plan to try to install the reader in the new machine, but that will be running windows 10.

Question 7

How does it connect to the motherboard?

Accepted Answer

P4 connector hooks up to power supply. USB 2.0 connector hooks up to USB 2.0 port on mainboard, USB 3.0 connector hooks up to USB 3.0 port on mainboard. (MUST HAVE AVAILABLE CONNECTIONS ON MAINBOARD)

Question 8

Should the charge port not work when the computer is off. The other usb's will still stay on when the PC is off, but the charge port only works when the PC is on. Is this normal or a defect?

Accepted Answer

First, the power port:
1) Molex power cord (large 4-pin) is plugged into power supply unit (PSU) I expect it should be on when the power switch is on, even if the computer is off. Mine is plugged into PSU, but it is off when computer is off. I think this is because the card reader unit turns it off when the computer is off. This would be a question to clarify with Enermax.
2) Molex is plugged into a motherboard power port (not all MOBOs have these). It will only be on when the computer is on.

Second, the USB ports and Card Readers (USB3):
If everything is plugged in correctly and all the MOBO and Operating System drivers are installed, they should always work, and only work when the computer is on.
1) They must be plugged firmly into the USB ports
2) The system BIOS must have these ports activated (they are usually activated by default.
3) The MOBO and/or the operating system must have the drivers for these ports (virtually all new MOBO and OS have the drivers pre-installed).

Summary: All ports, power, USB3, USB2, Card Reader should work anytime the computer is on, when everything is installed correctly. I thought the power port would work when the computer is off, but it appears they all are off when the computer is off.

Bright point: The power port DOES NOT connect your device to the Operating system, so if you DO NOT want your computer and your phone interacting, the powerful yellow port will charge your phone or your guest's phone, and the two will be entirely separate.

Question 9

I have This in a custom Build of mine, but in my Event log it has a Event ID 158 which states the 1 or more "disks" have the same identifiers. this only happens when i have this plugged in. ive also pulled up the Disk partition in the command prompt and with the card reader plugged in it adds 5 new disks to the list. this corresponds to the 5 "slots" that the card reader uses. as well as this reader trips a kernel security check failure during boot up after an extended amount of time its powered off. has anyone else experienced this?

Accepted Answer

I have had mine for a year.  Mine only shows a disk when something is inserted in the card reader slot.  I am using this with Windows 10 and went online to Enermax for all appropriate current drivers.  Since this is a card reader instead of a storage device, I could only see this problem occurring if someone were trying to plug in and leave plugged in MULTIPLE storage devices.  If that is the case, then the operating system would come back with an error of different storage devices (disks) having the same ID.

Question 10

Will this fit in a floppy bay?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it will fit.
It also has room for 2 x 2.5" SSDs and 1 x 3.5" HD if you want .

Questions & Answers