You certainly do need to upgrade – a lot of work has gone into improving the firewire, especially.

USB-CF (not PC) card adaptors are widely available. Depends on where you are, of course. Amazon.com has lots of them. You will need the PCMCIA-CF adaptor that came with the unit.

We shall shortly be releasing V5.6 – not long after this a programmed card will be available from the Eventide store. Obviously this costs money, but it is a last resort.