Firewire Interface Card

[TonyK]

My Dell did not come with a Firewire card, so I thought I'd add one. I got
a Via-based PCI card. But when I plug it in, XP recognizes it, apparently
installs the drivers for it, but it takes down my normal networking
operation. For example, Ping no longer works, and if I do IPCONFIG, all I
get is the header line. IPCONFIG does not display an IP addr, or DNS addr.
I called Dell tech support & they told me about bridging being enabled in XP
by default, so I turned it off I think, but it still does not work.

I'm also not sure the drivers are really being install correctly. When I go
to Device Manager, it reports that the port is not working correctly. I
have not tried to use my camera with that situation, but I suspect it will
not work. I am using the XP drivers for the card. The manufacturer does
not have any special drivers.

To get my system back working again, I uninstall the card, and go back to a
previous System Restore point.

I have a Dell XPS-400 w/ dual 2.8 GHz CPUs, 3GB RAM, XP Pro SP2. I want to
use the Firewire port to load videos from my new camera, edit them, and
write DVDs.

How can I get this card to working & also have my networking continue to
work normally?

Thanks,
Tony

 

[R. McCarty]

Firewire IEEE-1394 cards provide both external connectivity and also
a Network capability (~400 mps ). Unfortunately, you can't get just the
connectivity without the Networking interface. You can however, just
unbind all the protocols and services associated with the Firewire NIC.
( Which effectively disables it ). You do this from Network Connections
and the Properties box of the Firewire LAC ( Local Area Connection ).

Peripheral cards are designed to share IRQs. Most times you can avoid
problems if you install the PCI card into either Slot #2 or #5. ( Depends
on your motherboard ). Most PC motherboards only have one or two
slots that have an independent IRQ mapping ( not shared ). Usually the
slot numbering scheme counts incrementally from the AGP/PCIe slot
toward the bottom of the slots.

 

[TonyK]

Hey all - What can I do? I tried to install it again, but same thing
happens. XP recognizes the card, but when I select it, it says it is not
working properly. Also whatever setting I did, I do not know, but it also
does not show up in Network Connections. If I select the internal Ethernet
card, and select TCPIP, it says it is not installed. If I go to install it,
it says I must first select a network card. Well, duh, that's where I'm at.

I would like to get 1394 to work but not for networking, but I want my other
network setting to stay intact. How do I do all that?

Thanks,
Tony