Firewire Interfaces and Laptops

  • Thread starter Thread starter ido1957
  • Start date Start date
ido1957

ido1957

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My friend has a variety of problems with his firewire connection from Alesis io26 to his laptop (HP + XP SP2). He has no problems with his desktop though - bit of a mystery really.

Anyone have any opinions on laptops and firewire?

Also is there any problem connecting 6 pin firewire interface to 4 pin laptop using a converter? The interface has its own power.
 
The 2 extra pins ONLY carry power and are ignored if you already have a power supply going on the interface. They DO NOT matter to the data; dont worry about it. (Been using a 6-to-4pin cable on my setup for years.)

Biggest thing with ALL firewire interfaces: You NEED to use a firewire card with TexasInstruments chips.
They are the gold standard and REQUIRED by nearly every interface manufacturer for the interfaces to work properly.
You can always add a pcmcia or Expresscard with TI chips to nearly any laptop. Belkin and SIIG make respected ones for reasonable prices.

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Been running a Motu828mkII daisy-chained to a Glyph firewire drive on my 2.8Ghz P4 laptop
(a Gateway with built-in TI firewire chips) with XP/sp2 for years with >>ZERO PROBLEMS<<.
 
well what exactly are the variety of problems he's having? If it works fine on his desktop then it could be as simple as the laptop firewire is bad or going bad
 
Not sure of the problems exactly - I'll ask him this weekend when I see him. His HP laptop does not have a Texas Instrument firewire chipset.
Anyone know where you can buy a TI chip PCMCIA Card? I looked on eBay but they don't specify which chipset the cards have...
:confused:
 
ido1957 said:
Not sure of the problems exactly - I'll ask him this weekend when I see him. His HP laptop does not have a Texas Instrument firewire chipset.
Anyone know where you can buy a TI chip PCMCIA Card? I looked on eBay but they don't specify which chipset the cards have...
:confused:
Click to expand...
Google for PCMCIA cards with TI chipsets... then look for those cards on ebay
 
Yep - I did that and all I got were other people looking for PCMCIA cards with TI Chipsets on other forums....:D
 
Thanks guys - I've passed all the info to my buddy and he's ordering a card today based on your recommendations....
 
Just a bump to say thanks for the info here. I (will) have the same problem with my Dell Inspiron 1525 and a Ricoh firewire chipset. I'm going to get one of these PCMCIA firewire cards and hopefully things will be smooth sailing.

Thanks again.
 
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