Firewire Ports Stopped Working

[Guest]

I have a 1 year old system that I've frequently used the firewire ports (2)
to connect to an external hard drive. I got a new drive and since I
connected it neither of the ports will work. I tried re-installing the
driver, using two different cables and using two different drives in both
ports and nothing seems to help. I called the manufacturer and they sent me
a new firewire card. I put this in and I even tried switching to a different
slot, still no luck.
Device Manager shows the device being there, and when I installed the new
card it said "New hardware found" for this. Both drives I am trying work ok
when hooked up to USB ports.
Two strange things happened when I think the problem occurred:

1. When I installed the new drive windows started the new hardware wizard
and it failed with some kind of error I can't remember.

2. In trying this repeated times immediately after the problem started I
had a strange power issue, where I could not turn on either of the drives.
The power light just came on then turned off. After leaving both drives
alone for several minutes then then powered on successfully, but still not
working.

The manufacturer says to re-install the operating system, but my business
can't afford to be down that long. I have a media-center pc that involved a
lot of setup, and I had to re-install the operating system in December for
another problem and it took me over a week to get everything back the way it
was.
Is there anything I can try to fix this?

 

[Rock]

I have a 1 year old system that I've frequently used the firewire ports (2)
to connect to an external hard drive. I got a new drive and since I
connected it neither of the ports will work. I tried re-installing the
driver, using two different cables and using two different drives in both
ports and nothing seems to help. I called the manufacturer and they sent
me
a new firewire card. I put this in and I even tried switching to a
different
slot, still no luck.
Device Manager shows the device being there, and when I installed the new
card it said "New hardware found" for this. Both drives I am trying work
ok
when hooked up to USB ports.
Two strange things happened when I think the problem occurred:

1. When I installed the new drive windows started the new hardware wizard
and it failed with some kind of error I can't remember.

2. In trying this repeated times immediately after the problem started I
had a strange power issue, where I could not turn on either of the drives.
The power light just came on then turned off. After leaving both drives
alone for several minutes then then powered on successfully, but still not
working.

The manufacturer says to re-install the operating system, but my business
can't afford to be down that long. I have a media-center pc that involved
a
lot of setup, and I had to re-install the operating system in December for
another problem and it took me over a week to get everything back the way
it
was.
Is there anything I can try to fix this?

I don't know if any of the articles here can help you:

http://support.microsoft.com/search...0&ast=1,2,3,4,7,10,12&mode=a&adv=1&range=1-30

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...windows xp&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wg

 

[mikeyhsd]

since you had a failure during hardwire wizard.
try uninstalling the firewire from device manager.
shut down computer for 3-5 minutes.
power up and allow to find and attempt to install device(s).
if error comes up , write it down and try google for it.




(e-mail address removed)



I have a 1 year old system that I've frequently used the firewire ports (2)
to connect to an external hard drive. I got a new drive and since I
connected it neither of the ports will work. I tried re-installing the
driver, using two different cables and using two different drives in both
ports and nothing seems to help. I called the manufacturer and they sent me
a new firewire card. I put this in and I even tried switching to a different
slot, still no luck.
Device Manager shows the device being there, and when I installed the new
card it said "New hardware found" for this. Both drives I am trying work ok
when hooked up to USB ports.
Two strange things happened when I think the problem occurred:

1. When I installed the new drive windows started the new hardware wizard
and it failed with some kind of error I can't remember.

2. In trying this repeated times immediately after the problem started I
had a strange power issue, where I could not turn on either of the drives.
The power light just came on then turned off. After leaving both drives
alone for several minutes then then powered on successfully, but still not
working.

The manufacturer says to re-install the operating system, but my business
can't afford to be down that long. I have a media-center pc that involved a
lot of setup, and I had to re-install the operating system in December for
another problem and it took me over a week to get everything back the way it
was.
Is there anything I can try to fix this?

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I have a 1 year old system that I've frequently used the firewire ports (2)
to connect to an external hard drive. I got a new drive and since I
connected it neither of the ports will work. I tried re-installing the
driver, using two different cables and using two different drives in both
ports and nothing seems to help. I called the manufacturer and they sent
me
a new firewire card. I put this in and I even tried switching to a
different
slot, still no luck.
Device Manager shows the device being there, and when I installed the new
card it said "New hardware found" for this. Both drives I am trying work
ok
when hooked up to USB ports.
Two strange things happened when I think the problem occurred:

1. When I installed the new drive windows started the new hardware wizard
and it failed with some kind of error I can't remember.

2. In trying this repeated times immediately after the problem started I
had a strange power issue, where I could not turn on either of the drives.
The power light just came on then turned off. After leaving both drives
alone for several minutes then then powered on successfully, but still not
working.

The manufacturer says to re-install the operating system, but my business
can't afford to be down that long. I have a media-center pc that involved
a
lot of setup, and I had to re-install the operating system in December for
another problem and it took me over a week to get everything back the way
it
was.
Is there anything I can try to fix this?

The FireWire circuitry may be damaged on either port, PC or external. This
isn't unknown.

Don't hot-plug FireWire devices; this is officially supported but can lead
to device damage. Some manufacturers warn against ever hot-plugging their
hardware.

Power everything down before connecting the cables, after they are secure
power up the external devices then the PC. Power it all down before
disconnecting cables.

But if the ports are blown now, they can't be healed. Check that they work
on other systems. Fortunately, external drive cases are cheap and what
counts, the drive inside, can be easily moved.

You're in luck that the USB ports are still working. While you may be in
a situation where the bandwidth of Firewire is helpful, USB is much more
reliable. Also, you might consider external SATA connections with a SATA
card if you need more than USB2.

HTH
-pk

 

[Lil' Dave]

The FireWire circuitry may be damaged on either port, PC or external.
This isn't unknown.

Don't hot-plug FireWire devices; this is officially supported but can lead
to device damage. Some manufacturers warn against ever hot-plugging
their hardware.

Power everything down before connecting the cables, after they are secure
power up the external devices then the PC. Power it all down before
disconnecting cables.

But if the ports are blown now, they can't be healed. Check that they
work on other systems. Fortunately, external drive cases are cheap and
what counts, the drive inside, can be easily moved.

You're in luck that the USB ports are still working. While you may be
in a situation where the bandwidth of Firewire is helpful, USB is much
more reliable. Also, you might consider external SATA connections with a
SATA card if you need more than USB2.

HTH
-pk

Wow. Didn't know about plugging in a firewire box hard drive that's lit off
prior to. Have been using a firewire box with hard drive for 2 years now.
Use it the way designed to be used. Leave the firewire cable connected.
Turn the enclosure on when windows is finished booting. Turn it off before
I restart or shutdown.

Didn't know firewire or attached device were unreliable. Take that with big
cube of salt.
Dave

 

[Guest]

I did this. The results were that it finds the ports, runs the Hardware
Found wizard, and says "device has been successfully installed". But it's
still not working. Could something be wrong with the drives and/or cables?
I'm trying two different external hard drives, with two different firewire
cables, and trying in both ports. The drives work ok if I hook them by USB,
and both the drives and cables worked previously.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.