--- title: Giving A Power Mac G4 A USB Upgrade, For Free! | daily.dev description: A hardware enthusiast discovered that the Power Mac G4 shipped with an NEC USB 2.0 controller that Apple deliberately limited to USB 1.1 speeds via the BIOS... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/giving-a-power-mac-g4-a-usb-upgrade-for-free--3fegvy1ax twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Giving A Power Mac G4 A USB Upgrade, For Free! | daily.dev og:description: A hardware enthusiast discovered that the Power Mac G4 shipped with an NEC USB 2.0 controller that Apple deliberately limited to USB 1.1 speeds via the BIOS... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/giving-a-power-mac-g4-a-usb-upgrade-for-free--3fegvy1ax og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/3FEGvY1Ax.png og:image:alt: Giving A Power Mac G4 A USB Upgrade, For Free! og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Giving A Power Mac G4 A USB Upgrade, For Free! **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A hardware enthusiast discovered that the Power Mac G4 shipped with an NEC USB 2.0 controller that Apple deliberately limited to USB 1.1 speeds via the BIOS ROM. By replacing the ROM with an image from a G4 model without FireWire 800, the full USB 2.0 capability is unlocked — though the modification is reportedly irreversible. A PowerPC Linux distro could already use the controller at USB 2.0 speeds, confirming the hardware was always capable. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [FireWire ran external hard drives at full speed when USB physically couldn't, but it still lost](https://daily.dev/posts/firewire-ran-external-hard-drives-at-full-speed-when-usb-physically-couldn-t-but-it-still-lost-ejacj3rpc) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Linux Patches Updated For Apple Silicon USB3 Support](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-patches-updated-for-apple-silicon-usb3-support-1hcbjlyfj) · Phoronix · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Upgrading An Old Macbook With An Old Processor](https://daily.dev/posts/upgrading-an-old-macbook-with-an-old-processor-ivy0c6wnc) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#firmware](https://daily.dev/tags/firmware) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/giving-a-power-mac-g4-a-usb-upgrade-for-free--3fegvy1ax) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Giving A Power Mac G4 A USB Upgrade, For Free!","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/giving-a-power-mac-g4-a-usb-upgrade-for-free--3fegvy1ax","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/giving-a-power-mac-g4-a-usb-upgrade-for-free--3fegvy1ax"},"datePublished":"2026-06-10T08:26:14.589Z","dateModified":"2026-06-10T08:26:34.134Z","description":"A hardware enthusiast discovered that the Power Mac G4 shipped with an NEC USB 2.0 controller that Apple deliberately limited to USB 1.1 speeds via the BIOS...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/27097b60a427e7aa577b30c548ed6483?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/27097b60a427e7aa577b30c548ed6483?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hackaday","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hackaday","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--JhDfhy70--/f_auto,q_auto/v1767541814/logos/hackaday","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/giving-a-power-mac-g4-a-usb-upgrade-for-free--3fegvy1ax","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"hardware,firmware","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hackaday","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Giving A Power Mac G4 A USB Upgrade, For Free!"}]} ```