firewire 6 pin to 4 pin question

  • Thread starter Thread starter tj29er
  • Start date Start date
T

tj29er

New member
i have a windows xp laptop with a small 4 pin 1394 port.
i am using cubase sx3.
i am connecting this to a tascam fw-1804 (6 pin firewire) with a 6 pin to 4 pin firewire cable.
is that ok to do?

the reason i ask, i am new to digital recording, and i did this but am having issues. while i'm monitoring or recording, the unit will just stop sending signal and then start sending after a few seconds. i up the latency and it still does it, but it waits longer to do it. so the higher latency, the longer it takes to mess up. the computer does not lock up...it acts as if it is going in and out of sync with the tascam.

i want to make sure it's not the cable, because i am spending a lot of time tweaking the program settings. thanks.
 
6 pin to 4 pin shouldn't matter. They both operate at the same rate,but 6 pin can provide power.

If you're giving the tascam power via its adapter then there should be no problem.

I used to run a 003 to my dell with a 6-4 pin cable, no problems.


My only educated guess is that your chipset isn't compatible. What exact laptop are you using?
 
i thought the same thing, however the owners manual recommended ONLY using the 6 pin to 6 pin firewire cable.
the laptop is a dell inspiron 8600 using an intel chipset with 1.5 gb ram.

while running it with cubase, the performance meter barely moves at all.
 
tj29er said:
the owners manual recommended ONLY using the 6 pin to 6 pin firewire cable.
Click to expand...

Hmmm,,,If that's the case, maybe they have a good reason for it.

Maybe have a google, see if you can find anyone else using 6-4pin successfully.
 
What model of laptop do you have ?

Your problem may have more to do with the firewire chipset installed on the motherboard.

Edit - I just noticed you had posted that information.
 
From what I can find, your laptop should be rocking a TI chipset (vendor 104C), which means everything should be super dooper, if not better.

Have a jeffy in system / hardware / device manager at your firewire details. You should be able to find the vendor ID in there somewhere to confirm.
 
Last edited:
I have a desktop and a laptop for audio recording. Both have VIA firewire chips. I use Presonus Firepods with both. The laptop uses 4pin to 6pin firewire cable . . . no problems.
 
sorry, i worded that badly gecko.

When i said 'should be' running a TI chip, I didn't mean it needs to be, I meant it looks like it is.

If this is the case it's not likely to be the problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top