laptop firewire compatibility

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sean_mur88

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quick question about firewire cards ... i've read on here that it's best to get a firewire card with a TI chipset, but are there any compatibility issues about matching a firewire card to my laptop? I have a gateway PC (2x1.3 Ghz), not sure of exact specs of motherboard etc, but it is about 2 years old and runs XP.

Also, do all major interfaces come with a wall wart adapter (ie none of them rely on 6 pin firewire for power)? Thanks for the help,

-Sean
 
Look in device manager at your firewire dapter, it should tell you the chipset it is.

You cannot power anything over firewire with a notebook, period.
 
I wouldn't do it unless you don't care if your device plus your fw port get fried. Being a Mac repair shop Ive seen plenty of this. So I stick with my statement.
 
sean_mur88 said:
I have a gateway PC (2x1.3 Ghz), not sure of exact specs of motherboard etc, but it is about 2 years old and runs XP....
Click to expand...


Check your device manager and you can still look up the specs of Gateway machines on their website.

I have a Gateway M520 2.8Ghz P4 laptop and chose it specifically because it had a firewire chipset (I checked before buying...) and have had ZERO problems.

Most of the other Gateway laptops I've looked at recently also have TI firewire chipsets.
But ALWAYS check the specs.... every manufacturer can put out any hardware they want...
 
Hard2Hear said:
Look in device manager at your firewire dapter, it should tell you the chipset it is.

You cannot power anything over firewire with a notebook, period.
Click to expand...

sorry, I wasn't being clear ... I'm looking to buy a card for my laptop ... all I have is a slot right now ... so my question is: when I buy a firewire card, are there certain ones that are compatible with certain computers? or am I good to go out and buy any card with a TI chipset?

I also realize that I won't be able to power anything with a 4 pin firewire card, I was asking if there were any audio interfaces that I should steer clear of because they would require the power through firewire. I hope that clarifies my question, thanks
 
Hard2Hear said:
I wouldn't do it unless you don't care if your device plus your fw port get fried. Being a Mac repair shop Ive seen plenty of this. So I stick with my statement.
Click to expand...

With MacBooks? Really? The MacBook and MacBook Pro have some fairly substantial inrush protection that should prevent that from happening. I'd love to know what somebody could do to a FireWire port that could torch the PHY on one of those.... Do they plug the cables in backwards or something?
 
sean_mur88 said:
sorry, I wasn't being clear ... I'm looking to buy a card for my laptop ... all I have is a slot right now ... so my question is: when I buy a firewire card, are there certain ones that are compatible with certain computers? or am I good to go out and buy any card with a TI chipset?
Click to expand...

The second one.


sean_mur88 said:
I also realize that I won't be able to power anything with a 4 pin firewire card, I was asking if there were any audio interfaces that I should steer clear of because they would require the power through firewire. I hope that clarifies my question, thanks
Click to expand...

I would hope that anything bus powered would also come with a wall wart power adapter, but you never know, I suppose.
 
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