I'm puzzled - Firewire Problems, need help Please.

[Lonnie]

Ok, I've got a WD External Firewire drive that seems to be malfunctioning.
Now Western Digital Support is telling me that the Firewire Drive is plug &
play and that windows should already have the driver for it. HUH, since when
did Firewire become plug & play? I've got Yellow Exclamation marks in device
manager. Doesn't that mean that there isn't a proper device driver installed
for the drive?


Thank you for any comments/suggestions/clarifications.



I'm thinking WD support is giving me the run around and need answers as soon
as possible before my warranty runs out. Thank you very much for any
assistance.

 

[GHalleck]

Ok, I've got a WD External Firewire drive that seems to be malfunctioning.
Now Western Digital Support is telling me that the Firewire Drive is plug &
play and that windows should already have the driver for it. HUH, since when
did Firewire become plug & play? I've got Yellow Exclamation marks in device
manager. Doesn't that mean that there isn't a proper device driver installed
for the drive?

Thank you for any comments/suggestions/clarifications.

I'm thinking WD support is giving me the run around and need answers as soon
as possible before my warranty runs out. Thank you very much for any
assistance.

The yellow exclamation icon in Device Manager usually means that
a driver is missing or faulty. Firewire drivers are supplied by
the maker of the Firewire peripheral card (e.g., Adaptec). Or the
drivers is supplied by the maker of the motherboard for on-board
Firewire. If the cdrom containing the Firewire drivers cannot be
found, visit the website of the peripheral card maker or the
motherboard maker or even the Firewire chipset maker. All of the
information can be found in the Device Manager listing.

 

[Lonnie]

Thanks for the reply.


The exclamation mark (yellow) shows up only after plugging in the firewire
drive. Prior to plugging it in, I can see a listing of the firewire port, so
it seems as though the Device is what's causing the exclamation mark and not
the lack of a driver for the port. So what do you think is going on? Any
more suggestions/comments will be appreciated.

 

[Mistoffolees]

Thanks for the reply.


The exclamation mark (yellow) shows up only after plugging in the firewire
drive. Prior to plugging it in, I can see a listing of the firewire port, so
it seems as though the Device is what's causing the exclamation mark and not
the lack of a driver for the port. So what do you think is going on? Any
more suggestions/comments will be appreciated.

Is this the first time that the Firewire port is being used? Or
has it been used successfully with other Firewire devices? Also,
test with a different Firewire cable.

 

[Lonnie]

Yes it is. I've had the blasted computer for years, and just recently
decided to go with an external drive, and this happens. Funny thing about
this is, although I get that yellow exclamation mark, I can use the drive.
Isn't that a little weird? When I plugged it in for the first time on this
system, windows said it found new hardware, but because I didn't have a
driver installed for it (nor could the system find any driver), that it may
not function properly. I purchased this darn thing for backup purposes BUT
because of what is going on right now, I do NOT trust it enough to hold my
important files .. full system backup etc.


In regards to it possibly being the cable, well, the fact that I can use the
drive (but I don't trust it) would mean to me that the cable is fine. Oh I
just remembered, I've used the firewire port before with my Sony Camcorder -
I never had any yellow exclamation marks.


I don't think I'll EVER purchase another external firewire drive.

Thanks for the reply. Any further suggestions/comments will be appreciated.

 

[M.I.5¾]

Ok, I've got a WD External Firewire drive that seems to be malfunctioning.
Now Western Digital Support is telling me that the Firewire Drive is plug
&
play and that windows should already have the driver for it. HUH, since
when
did Firewire become plug & play? I've got Yellow Exclamation marks in
device
manager. Doesn't that mean that there isn't a proper device driver
installed
for the drive?

Firewire is most certainly plug and play and no other drivers should be
required under XP. If the firewire device has a yellow ! over it, something
is not quite right - but it doesn't usually mean that there is no driver
(That scenario would generally report the drive as an 'unknown device').
First thing to try is to right click the device and uninstall it. Now
reboot windows and allow it to rediscover the drive and install it. If that
doesn't work try it on another PC just to check that it isn't the drive.

 

[Lonnie]

Thanks for the reply.

I just don't understand this then if "No other driver(s) are needed". I
went ahead and tried what you suggested about uninstalling the device. The
New Hardware Wizard started and everything, I told the wizard to look at the
windows update site....etc, so it did, and it looked all over my hard drive &
also I decided to put in the system disc just in case .... and all it did was
tell me the hardware couldn't be installed and that it may not work properly.
It is shown in Device Manager under "Other devices", which you probably
already know has a yellow ?, and then it is listed as "WD External HDD Button
& Lights", and this is the type of drive it is, but AGAIN, there is a yellow
!. As mentioned in my other posts, I can see the drive, I can view
contents, I can copy to/from, but I DO NOT TRUST IT because Windows tells me
it may not function properly because of NO DRIVER.

Any other thoughts/comments/suggestions are welcomed. I appreciate
everyones help on this, I just wish I could get it resolved. Thanks again.

 

[smlunatick]

Thanks for the reply.

I just don't understand this then if "No other driver(s) are needed".  I
went ahead and tried what you suggested about uninstalling the device.  The
New Hardware Wizard started and everything, I told the wizard to look at the
windows update site....etc, so it did, and it looked all over my hard drive &
also I decided to put in the system disc just in case .... and all it did was
tell me the hardware couldn't be installed and that it may not work properly.
 It is shown in Device Manager under "Other devices", which you probably
already know has a yellow ?, and then it is listed as "WD External HDD Button
& Lights", and this is the type of drive it is, but AGAIN, there is a yellow
!.   As mentioned in my other posts, I can see the drive, I can view
contents, I can copy to/from, but I DO NOT TRUST IT because Windows tells me
it may not function properly because of NO DRIVER.

Any other thoughts/comments/suggestions are welcomed.  I appreciate
everyones help on this, I just wish I could get it resolved.  Thanks again.






- Show quoted text -

Firewire "hosts" drivers appear to be "built-in" XP thus the rason why
"no other driver" required. However, this does not mean that the
driver files can not be "damaged" since these are still standard XP
files. You can try to run "sfc /scannow" to try to have XP repair
these files.

 

[Lonnie]

Thanks for the reply.


Ok, I don't know what's going on but I certainly appreciate everyones help.
I'm getting a little tired of nothing working. I think it's a little weird
that the drive is "Technically" recognized, but I still have a yellow ? and
!. Smlunatick, I gave your suggestion a try sfc /scannow and it seemed to
pull a lot of stuff off of the original systems disc, but after rebooting,
there was still no changes.

To me this is very puzzling, but I'm not going to continue to dwell on it
soooo much. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this drive though. I'm
surely NOT going to buy another external drive - too much of a darn headache.

 

[M.I.5¾]

Thanks for the reply.


Ok, I don't know what's going on but I certainly appreciate everyones
help.
I'm getting a little tired of nothing working. I think it's a little
weird
that the drive is "Technically" recognized, but I still have a yellow ?
and
!. Smlunatick, I gave your suggestion a try sfc /scannow and it seemed to
pull a lot of stuff off of the original systems disc, but after rebooting,
there was still no changes.

To me this is very puzzling, but I'm not going to continue to dwell on it
soooo much. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this drive though.
I'm
surely NOT going to buy another external drive - too much of a darn
headache.

Have you tried the drive on another PC? This will at least tell you if the
drive or the PC is the problem.

 

[Lonnie]

No I haven't tried it on another pc. The reason for that though is that I
have no other pc with a firewire port. It looks like I'm stuck with a drive
that I cannot trust...Oh well, such is life.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Lil' Dave]

Ok, I've got a WD External Firewire drive that seems to be malfunctioning.
Now Western Digital Support is telling me that the Firewire Drive is plug
&
play and that windows should already have the driver for it. HUH, since
when
did Firewire become plug & play? I've got Yellow Exclamation marks in
device
manager. Doesn't that mean that there isn't a proper device driver
installed
for the drive?


Thank you for any comments/suggestions/clarifications.



I'm thinking WD support is giving me the run around and need answers as
soon
as possible before my warranty runs out. Thank you very much for any
assistance.

Could be a 4 wire to 6 wire thing, if you have a laptop for instance. Some
of the older laptops with firewire put the 4 wire port on it.

Or, possibly, XP has no drivers for the firewire interface chip inside the
Firewire case for the WD drive. But, the chip is still talking firewire.
So, it works. Just don't play nice.

 

[Lonnie]

The # of wires is always possible I guess. I know for example that the
firewire port on the desktop is smaller than the one at the back of the
drive, although I have no idea how many pins/wires there are on either one of
them so I'll have to take your word for the # of them . I am inclined
however to believe the latter of your listed possibilities, windows not
having the proper driver for the current chipset within the drive. I
appreciate your thoughts/reply on this subject. I wonder if this type of
thing can also happen with an internal drive? I ask this, as I'm thinking of
getting and internal 1TB drive and use it strictly as a backup.


Thanks again for your reply.

 

[Lonnie]

Well I was able to find another computer in the house (my wifes Sony laptop)
that has a firewire port on it. I plugged the drive into her laptop and the
EXACT same thing happens on her system. Windows looks for a driver, can't
find one, and tells me that it may not function properly. What a DRAG!!!!

 

[M.I.5¾]

No I haven't tried it on another pc. The reason for that though is that I
have no other pc with a firewire port. It looks like I'm stuck with a
drive
that I cannot trust...Oh well, such is life.

Thanks for the reply.

Do you not have any friends who have PCs with Firewire ports?

 

[Lonnie]

My last post on the 15th indicated that I found one, my wifes Laptop. It
does the exact same thing.

 

[smlunatick]

Thanks for the reply.

Ok, I don't know what's going on but I certainly appreciate everyones help..  
I'm getting a little tired of nothing working.  I think it's a little weird
that the drive is "Technically" recognized, but I still have a yellow ? and
!.  Smlunatick, I gave your suggestion a try sfc /scannow and it seemed to
pull a lot of stuff off of the original systems disc, but after rebooting,
there was still no changes.  

To me this is very puzzling, but I'm not going to continue to dwell on it
soooo much.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this drive though.  I'm
surely NOT going to buy another external drive - too much of a darn headache.






- Show quoted text -

Does your unit have additional ports? Several models come with
multiple different type of connectors (Firewire, eSATA or USB?)

 

[Lonnie]

I'm going to assume that you're talking about the drive since you use the
word "unit". Yes, it has a USB port on it as well, and using the drive with
that port doesn't cause me any trouble at all (meaning no errors in the event
viewer) and it shows up without any yellow exclamation marks in Device
Manager. However I purchased the drive for its firewire capabilities (much
faster than USB). Man I hate to think how long it would take to backup 10G +
via USB.


Really weird, in my opinion. With the so called driver from WD installed,
the yellow exclamation mark disapears, but then I get the errors in event
viewer and drive becomes unusable. Uninstall the driver and the yellow
exclamation mark re-appears but I don't get the errors in the event viewer
and I retain access to the drive - but I get a message from Windows that the
drive may not work properly without the driver....I feel like I'm in an
"Endless Loop" here. :-(



Thank you for your reply.

 

[smlunatick]

I'm going to assume that you're talking about the drive since you use the
word "unit".  Yes, it has a USB port on it as well, and using the drive with
that port doesn't cause me any trouble at all (meaning no errors in the event
viewer) and it shows up without any yellow exclamation marks in Device
Manager.  However I purchased the drive for its firewire capabilities (much
faster than USB).  Man I hate to think how long it would take to backup 10G +
via USB.

Really weird, in my opinion.  With the so called driver from WD installed,
the yellow exclamation mark disapears, but then I get the errors in event
viewer and drive becomes unusable.  Uninstall the driver and the yellow
exclamation mark re-appears but I don't get the errors in the event viewer
and I retain access to the drive - but I get a message from Windows that the
drive may not work properly without the driver....I feel like I'm in an
"Endless Loop" here.   :-(

Thank you for your reply.






- Show quoted text -

The yellow excalimation mark shows up when the "connection" fails.
When using different ports, including different Firewire and USB
ports, will re-detect the "hardware id" for each device and re-
establish a connection to this device. Doing this "last" test gave
you the results that the drive works correctly.

 

[Lonnie]

"The yellow marks show up when connection fails." I'm sorry, but that is
just not the case. I say this because although I have the yellow exclamation
marks in device manager, I can still access the drive (which means there is a
connection). It's been my experience that the yellow marks show up when
there are no proper drivers for a device.


Thank you for your reply.