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ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe: Warning, onboard Firewire may have fried my components, details inside...
Here's my story, you draw your own conclusion. I just installed this
motherboard about a week ago. One of its selling points was onboard Firewire. I have more Firewire peripherals than most PC users, including an 80GB hard drive, DVDRAM/-R, Canon ZR10 mini-DV cam, and Apple 30GB Ipod. All these peripherals are external, and I use them on a variety of computers in my home and office. After installing my new motherboard, I could not get these peripherals working correctly. The DVD-RAM never worked with this mb. the Canon worked all the time. The external 80GB hard drive worked for several days, then stopped working. The Ipod worked for a day or two, then stopped working. Here's what I did: I took my Ipod to a local Apple store, and they confirmed that it was dead. They replaced it under the warranty. The external hard drive is in a Firewire/USB2 case. It now works with USB2. The DVD-RAM case is Firewire only, so I will have to discard it (since the problem, I have tried it on two other computers, both of which previously used this peripheral without issues). I have since disabled onboard Firewire and installed a Firewire card (with Lucent chipset, I have lots of computers and spare parts). My new Ipod now appears to work correctly, and my mini DV cam works, as it did before. I am theorizing that the camcorder never suffered because it does probably does NOT get its power from the port; instead, it gets plugged into an a/c outlet. If that assumption is correct, it is the only peripheral that was never at risk. The DVDRAM and hard drive also use external power, but their six pin Firewire cables carry power, as well. So, what do you think? Could it be that the power output from the onboard Firewire port is too high, and ruined my equipment? Any other theories or ideas would be welcomed. Post them right here so we can all join in. As the saying goes, 'a word to the wise is sufficient'. |
#2
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"steve" wrote in message ... On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 01:02:47 GMT, "Z Man" wrote: So, what do you think? Could it be that the power output from the onboard Firewire port is too high, and ruined my equipment? Any other theories or ideas would be welcomed. Post them right here so we can all join in. As the saying goes, 'a word to the wise is sufficient'. I was about to get this board, but reading this post and another above I cannot take a chance with firewire. I cannot risk my peripherals. Are you sure that camcorder is not at risk? Firewire must work. Are you guys sure about what you are observing? Maybe it is just some probability that your board is like that (if it really is the case that is) and this happens with other boards you think? I have disabled onboard Firewire, and am using a PCI Firewire card, so I feel that I am no longer at risk of damage to my peripherals. I have used my Ipod a few times with the PCI Firewire card and experienced no issues. The motherboard itself is first-rate. I have used/built lots of computers, and this one could easily be the best...except for the Firewire issue. |
#3
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On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 01:02:47 GMT, "Z Man" wrote:
So, what do you think? Could it be that the power output from the onboard Firewire port is too high, and ruined my equipment? Any other theories or ideas would be welcomed. Post them right here so we can all join in. As the saying goes, 'a word to the wise is sufficient'. I was about to get this board, but reading this post and another above I cannot take a chance with firewire. I cannot risk my peripherals. Are you sure that camcorder is not at risk? Firewire must work. Are you guys sure about what you are observing? Maybe it is just some probability that your board is like that (if it really is the case that is) and this happens with other boards you think? |
#4
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In article , "Z Man"
wrote: Here's my story, you draw your own conclusion. I just installed this motherboard about a week ago. One of its selling points was onboard Firewire. I have more Firewire peripherals than most PC users, including an 80GB hard drive, DVDRAM/-R, Canon ZR10 mini-DV cam, and Apple 30GB Ipod. All these peripherals are external, and I use them on a variety of computers in my home and office. After installing my new motherboard, I could not get these peripherals working correctly. The DVD-RAM never worked with this mb. the Canon worked all the time. The external 80GB hard drive worked for several days, then stopped working. The Ipod worked for a day or two, then stopped working. Here's what I did: I took my Ipod to a local Apple store, and they confirmed that it was dead. They replaced it under the warranty. The external hard drive is in a Firewire/USB2 case. It now works with USB2. The DVD-RAM case is Firewire only, so I will have to discard it (since the problem, I have tried it on two other computers, both of which previously used this peripheral without issues). I have since disabled onboard Firewire and installed a Firewire card (with Lucent chipset, I have lots of computers and spare parts). My new Ipod now appears to work correctly, and my mini DV cam works, as it did before. I am theorizing that the camcorder never suffered because it does probably does NOT get its power from the port; instead, it gets plugged into an a/c outlet. If that assumption is correct, it is the only peripheral that was never at risk. The DVDRAM and hard drive also use external power, but their six pin Firewire cables carry power, as well. So, what do you think? Could it be that the power output from the onboard Firewire port is too high, and ruined my equipment? Any other theories or ideas would be welcomed. Post them right here so we can all join in. As the saying goes, 'a word to the wise is sufficient'. One part of your story I'm having trouble with is the death of the Ipod. I thought the Ipod was battery powered, and recharged itself from the cable. In the stuff I read about below, I cannot think of a reason for the Ipod to die, but some other peripheral powering cases can certainly result in a dead Firewire interface. To properly answer your question would require a copy of IEEE1394-1995 specification (or any followups the IEEE published). That is a spec you can buy from the IEEE, so it is unlikely you'll find a copy floating around on the net. There is also www.1394ta.com, but like any good trade association, there is no free lunch there either. The only useful free information I can find is this Texas Instruments application note: http://focus.ti.com/lit/an/slla011/slla011.pdf (Galvanic Isolation IEEE1394) It states some of the power, grounding, and signal isolation issues with 1394. To do a Firewire interface properly, you need: * Shield termination (DC isolation) * Cable power isolation (floating power source) * Signal isolation (DC isolation between systems, between MAC and PHY) In the case of shield termination, the idea is to avoid "ground loops" in the grounds being used by the various Firewire devices. The TI document says to use a capacitor and high value resistor to join the shield of the cable to ground on the local equipment. The capacitor makes an "AC ground", so AC currents are grounded, but there is no DC path for ground potential differences to cause current to flow. The high value resistor doesn't pass any significant current, and is used to "bleed" ESD. In the case of my Antec computer case, this principle is violated by the joining of the USB ground to the Firewire ground, on the case front connector. You could have a similar violation buried somewhere in your system. The second issue is cable power isolation. The VP and VG are supposed to be powered by a transformer isolated power supply. The PC power supply joins the green "safety ground" to logic ground, so a separate DC-DC converter would be required to meet the 1394 requirement. I cannot imagine any Taiwanese manufacturer wasting their money on something like this. That means each PC has already compromised that requirement. (That means you should be especially careful doing Firewire networking between two PCs !!! If you use six pin cables, there had better be diodes on the +12V coming from the motherboard...) In terms of the voltage and current level, the TI doc says the VP/VG power supply can be 40 volts at up to 1.5 amps. An Apple computer happens to use 25 volts or so, to power Firewire devices. Every IBM PC will be using the +12V (the same supply used on the processor Vcore cct). So, the PC doesn't have too high a power output. To see an example of how powering is handled in a sample Firewire implementation, look at the schematic on page 10 in this document: http://www-s.ti.com/sc/psheets/slla153/slla153.pdf In the schematic, the Firewire design converts VP/VG using the LM2574HVM-3.3, which is a high voltage rated DC-DC stepdown converter, for converting up to 40VDC to +3.3 for local logic. So, that shows that a responsible peripheral design, if it wants to extract power to run the Firewire interface at all times, would use a high voltage part to do power conversion, and wouldn't burn out. http://www.national.com/search/searc...eywords=LM2574 While looking at that schematic page, you can see some other safety features. There is a diode and fuse, where the design connects to VP. This allows current to only flow one way, and that same diode and fuse should be used on Firewire equipped motherboards. If the diode is not present, nasty things will happen when a +25V computer connects to a +12V computer. Looking at the Firewire connectors, you can also see the use of capacitors for the isolation functions. The third thing the TI document mentions is isolating the MAC to PHY interface. Capacitive coupling is supposed to be used to allow signals to be passed from chip to chip. Since many chips are now integrating the MAC and PHY function, this feature would be hard to implement, at least to handle any reasonable voltage difference. So, given all the compromises that appear to be at hand, what can you do ? I would suggest the following: 1) Power up the peripheral before connecting it to the computer. The idea here, is to allow the peripheral to satisfy its power needs locally, with all circuitry ready to go, before firing up the computer. If you want to leave the Firewire cable in place, then power the peripheral first, following by pushing the button on the front of your PC case. If you put your computer to sleep, leave the Firewire device power switch in the ON position. Otherwise, power the Firewire device down and then disconnect the cable, before the next time your PC is awakened. 2) For extra protection in cases where you are uncertain about the isolation of the power source, only use 4 pin connectors, not 6 pin connectors. Get a 6 pin to 4 pin conversion cable, as this will stop the VP/VG cable power from flowing. Then, the powering situation when connecting a single peripheral to a PC will be a lot easier to understand. Your Ipod will no longer be recharging from the cable, but it might not die either. 3) For devices that are powered from the wall, try to plug all the devices into the same power strip. Use a quality strip that doesn't make questionable contact with the green safety ground. Another way for silicon devices to die, happens when you "hot swap" a device, and the signal contacts are the first to touch the foreign system. Then, whatever voltage difference exists between devices gets applied directly to the pins, and that can cause the device to die. In lower speed interfaces, clamp diodes can be used to limit this effect. Since Firewire runs at 400Mbs, clamp diodes would degrade the signal quality, so they cannot be used. In any case, this is not an issue, as the Firewire connector design is such that the cable shield touches first, before anything else does. So far, I haven't been able to find any more useful tech info on Firewire, so these are just the things I'll be trying when I get my Firewire enclosures (soon). As I've read about Macintosh users burning out Firewire interfaces, I think it pays to be extra careful, especially when using expensive devices like cameras. I hope someone has better luck finding some good info on Firewire than I've had. My initial impression is the Firewire industry is pretty lax. I bet you won't see any motherboard manufacturers joining the 1394TA. If these device deaths are happening after using the computer case front panel connectors, be aware that many cases have miswired connectors on the front. If using a connector on the front of the case, verify the pinout with an ohmmeter, before destroying any expensive peripherals. HTH, Paul |
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Some might find these helpful:
http://www.networktechinc.com/technote.html http://www.frontx.com/cpx105_2.html I've heard several complaints of miswired front panel connectors. On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 01:02:47 GMT, "Z Man" wrote: Here's my story, you draw your own conclusion. I just installed this motherboard about a week ago. One of its selling points was onboard Firewire. I have more Firewire peripherals than most PC users, including an 80GB hard drive, DVDRAM/-R, Canon ZR10 mini-DV cam, and Apple 30GB Ipod. All these peripherals are external, and I use them on a variety of computers in my home and office. After installing my new motherboard, I could not get these peripherals working correctly. The DVD-RAM never worked with this mb. the Canon worked all the time. The external 80GB hard drive worked for several days, then stopped working. The Ipod worked for a day or two, then stopped working. Here's what I did: I took my Ipod to a local Apple store, and they confirmed that it was dead. They replaced it under the warranty. The external hard drive is in a Firewire/USB2 case. It now works with USB2. The DVD-RAM case is Firewire only, so I will have to discard it (since the problem, I have tried it on two other computers, both of which previously used this peripheral without issues). I have since disabled onboard Firewire and installed a Firewire card (with Lucent chipset, I have lots of computers and spare parts). My new Ipod now appears to work correctly, and my mini DV cam works, as it did before. I am theorizing that the camcorder never suffered because it does probably does NOT get its power from the port; instead, it gets plugged into an a/c outlet. If that assumption is correct, it is the only peripheral that was never at risk. The DVDRAM and hard drive also use external power, but their six pin Firewire cables carry power, as well. So, what do you think? Could it be that the power output from the onboard Firewire port is too high, and ruined my equipment? Any other theories or ideas would be welcomed. Post them right here so we can all join in. As the saying goes, 'a word to the wise is sufficient'. |
#6
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Hi,
I have kind of same problem. Here is what I have done so far. Connect my DV cam (Sony) to FireWire port to capture some video. No results. Try the other port. no result either. I always got a message: no device detect or an other device is using.... Send a message to ASUS about what seems to be a problem (I am still waiting for an answer 2 weeks later...). Post a message here 2 weeks ago. No answer... Bought a FireWire cars (PCI) on the suggestion of members of the Ulead MSP newsgroup. Install it. Try to transfert. No results. So, I take back my old computer (gave it to my girlfriend). I am sure it was working OK. And it was not used at here place. Connect my DV to it: same thing happended. Got a message that another device was using the port or that there is no device. To my, there is only one explanation: the ASUS board fried something in my DV cam. I will test that this week on a computer that is working for the transfert of video by a FireWire card to see if I'm right. What do you think? Thanks Bernard "Mark" wrote in message news Some might find these helpful: http://www.networktechinc.com/technote.html http://www.frontx.com/cpx105_2.html I've heard several complaints of miswired front panel connectors. On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 01:02:47 GMT, "Z Man" wrote: Here's my story, you draw your own conclusion. I just installed this motherboard about a week ago. One of its selling points was onboard Firewire. I have more Firewire peripherals than most PC users, including an 80GB hard drive, DVDRAM/-R, Canon ZR10 mini-DV cam, and Apple 30GB Ipod. All these peripherals are external, and I use them on a variety of computers in my home and office. After installing my new motherboard, I could not get these peripherals working correctly. The DVD-RAM never worked with this mb. the Canon worked all the time. The external 80GB hard drive worked for several days, then stopped working. The Ipod worked for a day or two, then stopped working. Here's what I did: I took my Ipod to a local Apple store, and they confirmed that it was dead. They replaced it under the warranty. The external hard drive is in a Firewire/USB2 case. It now works with USB2. The DVD-RAM case is Firewire only, so I will have to discard it (since the problem, I have tried it on two other computers, both of which previously used this peripheral without issues). I have since disabled onboard Firewire and installed a Firewire card (with Lucent chipset, I have lots of computers and spare parts). My new Ipod now appears to work correctly, and my mini DV cam works, as it did before. I am theorizing that the camcorder never suffered because it does probably does NOT get its power from the port; instead, it gets plugged into an a/c outlet. If that assumption is correct, it is the only peripheral that was never at risk. The DVDRAM and hard drive also use external power, but their six pin Firewire cables carry power, as well. So, what do you think? Could it be that the power output from the onboard Firewire port is too high, and ruined my equipment? Any other theories or ideas would be welcomed. Post them right here so we can all join in. As the saying goes, 'a word to the wise is sufficient'. |
#7
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Bernard,
How do you know the pc you intend to use to test your cam is OK and has the correct drivers installed? When I first bought a DV I had many headaches trying to get it to communicate with the pc (running W98se with added pci firewire card). The manual for the cam (JVC) was no help at all. I finally worked it out by just continually chipping away at the problem til it worked. In any case I'd sure check those links & using the wiring diagrams insure that the port is correctly wired--before trying to hook up any more devices to it. Your cam probably has a tiny chip inside that is only for firewire connectivity. If the port is miswired & it fries that chip, the cam may work perfectly fine in every other way EXCEPT firewire transfer. And I bet the cost to repair would exceed the cost to replace. On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 07:35:08 -0500, "Bernard Mataigne" wrote: Hi, I have kind of same problem. Here is what I have done so far. Connect my DV cam (Sony) to FireWire port to capture some video. No results. Try the other port. no result either. I always got a message: no device detect or an other device is using.... Send a message to ASUS about what seems to be a problem (I am still waiting for an answer 2 weeks later...). Post a message here 2 weeks ago. No answer... Bought a FireWire cars (PCI) on the suggestion of members of the Ulead MSP newsgroup. Install it. Try to transfert. No results. So, I take back my old computer (gave it to my girlfriend). I am sure it was working OK. And it was not used at here place. Connect my DV to it: same thing happended. Got a message that another device was using the port or that there is no device. To my, there is only one explanation: the ASUS board fried something in my DV cam. I will test that this week on a computer that is working for the transfert of video by a FireWire card to see if I'm right. What do you think? Thanks Bernard "Mark" wrote in message news Some might find these helpful: http://www.networktechinc.com/technote.html http://www.frontx.com/cpx105_2.html I've heard several complaints of miswired front panel connectors. On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 01:02:47 GMT, "Z Man" wrote: Here's my story, you draw your own conclusion. I just installed this motherboard about a week ago. One of its selling points was onboard Firewire. I have more Firewire peripherals than most PC users, including an 80GB hard drive, DVDRAM/-R, Canon ZR10 mini-DV cam, and Apple 30GB Ipod. All these peripherals are external, and I use them on a variety of computers in my home and office. After installing my new motherboard, I could not get these peripherals working correctly. The DVD-RAM never worked with this mb. the Canon worked all the time. The external 80GB hard drive worked for several days, then stopped working. The Ipod worked for a day or two, then stopped working. Here's what I did: I took my Ipod to a local Apple store, and they confirmed that it was dead. They replaced it under the warranty. The external hard drive is in a Firewire/USB2 case. It now works with USB2. The DVD-RAM case is Firewire only, so I will have to discard it (since the problem, I have tried it on two other computers, both of which previously used this peripheral without issues). I have since disabled onboard Firewire and installed a Firewire card (with Lucent chipset, I have lots of computers and spare parts). My new Ipod now appears to work correctly, and my mini DV cam works, as it did before. I am theorizing that the camcorder never suffered because it does probably does NOT get its power from the port; instead, it gets plugged into an a/c outlet. If that assumption is correct, it is the only peripheral that was never at risk. The DVDRAM and hard drive also use external power, but their six pin Firewire cables carry power, as well. So, what do you think? Could it be that the power output from the onboard Firewire port is too high, and ruined my equipment? Any other theories or ideas would be welcomed. Post them right here so we can all join in. As the saying goes, 'a word to the wise is sufficient'. |
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Hi Mark,
I know the people who use the computer for their transfert. I spoke with that person (he is a friend of mine, head of the computer department of a school district). They use Windows systems (XP) with DV Cam (Sony) and they transfert regularly video. So I suppose that if my DV Cam don't transfert, it will be my cam that is broken. I bring my firewire cable too... By the way, my cam is working OK except for the transfert. So, as you say, it seems to be only the firewire aspect that is broken. There is something else apart from the fact that I got the message "... device is not ready" or "there is another device...", that I forgot to say. Now, when I plug my DV cam on the Asus firewire, my cam flash "DV in" (cam is in VCR mode), as if the cam was receiving a signal from the card! Strange. Never saw that before. So, I will know wednesday if the cam is fried or not... Bye Bernard "Mark" wrote in message ... Bernard, How do you know the pc you intend to use to test your cam is OK and has the correct drivers installed? When I first bought a DV I had many headaches trying to get it to communicate with the pc (running W98se with added pci firewire card). The manual for the cam (JVC) was no help at all. I finally worked it out by just continually chipping away at the problem til it worked. In any case I'd sure check those links & using the wiring diagrams insure that the port is correctly wired--before trying to hook up any more devices to it. Your cam probably has a tiny chip inside that is only for firewire connectivity. If the port is miswired & it fries that chip, the cam may work perfectly fine in every other way EXCEPT firewire transfer. And I bet the cost to repair would exceed the cost to replace. On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 07:35:08 -0500, "Bernard Mataigne" wrote: Hi, I have kind of same problem. Here is what I have done so far. Connect my DV cam (Sony) to FireWire port to capture some video. No results. Try the other port. no result either. I always got a message: no device detect or an other device is using.... Send a message to ASUS about what seems to be a problem (I am still waiting for an answer 2 weeks later...). Post a message here 2 weeks ago. No answer... Bought a FireWire cars (PCI) on the suggestion of members of the Ulead MSP newsgroup. Install it. Try to transfert. No results. So, I take back my old computer (gave it to my girlfriend). I am sure it was working OK. And it was not used at here place. Connect my DV to it: same thing happended. Got a message that another device was using the port or that there is no device. To my, there is only one explanation: the ASUS board fried something in my DV cam. I will test that this week on a computer that is working for the transfert of video by a FireWire card to see if I'm right. What do you think? Thanks Bernard "Mark" wrote in message news Some might find these helpful: http://www.networktechinc.com/technote.html http://www.frontx.com/cpx105_2.html I've heard several complaints of miswired front panel connectors. On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 01:02:47 GMT, "Z Man" wrote: Here's my story, you draw your own conclusion. I just installed this motherboard about a week ago. One of its selling points was onboard Firewire. I have more Firewire peripherals than most PC users, including an 80GB hard drive, DVDRAM/-R, Canon ZR10 mini-DV cam, and Apple 30GB Ipod. All these peripherals are external, and I use them on a variety of computers in my home and office. After installing my new motherboard, I could not get these peripherals working correctly. The DVD-RAM never worked with this mb. the Canon worked all the time. The external 80GB hard drive worked for several days, then stopped working. The Ipod worked for a day or two, then stopped working. Here's what I did: I took my Ipod to a local Apple store, and they confirmed that it was dead. They replaced it under the warranty. The external hard drive is in a Firewire/USB2 case. It now works with USB2. The DVD-RAM case is Firewire only, so I will have to discard it (since the problem, I have tried it on two other computers, both of which previously used this peripheral without issues). I have since disabled onboard Firewire and installed a Firewire card (with Lucent chipset, I have lots of computers and spare parts). My new Ipod now appears to work correctly, and my mini DV cam works, as it did before. I am theorizing that the camcorder never suffered because it does probably does NOT get its power from the port; instead, it gets plugged into an a/c outlet. If that assumption is correct, it is the only peripheral that was never at risk. The DVDRAM and hard drive also use external power, but their six pin Firewire cables carry power, as well. So, what do you think? Could it be that the power output from the onboard Firewire port is too high, and ruined my equipment? Any other theories or ideas would be welcomed. Post them right here so we can all join in. As the saying goes, 'a word to the wise is sufficient'. |
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In article , "Z Man"
wrote: Here's my story, you draw your own conclusion. I just installed this motherboard about a week ago. One of its selling points was onboard Firewire. I have more Firewire peripherals than most PC users, including an 80GB hard drive, DVDRAM/-R, Canon ZR10 mini-DV cam, and Apple 30GB Ipod. All these peripherals are external, and I use them on a variety of computers in my home and office. After installing my new motherboard, I could not get these peripherals working correctly. The DVD-RAM never worked with this mb. the Canon worked all the time. The external 80GB hard drive worked for several days, then stopped working. The Ipod worked for a day or two, then stopped working. Here's what I did: I took my Ipod to a local Apple store, and they confirmed that it was dead. They replaced it under the warranty. The external hard drive is in a Firewire/USB2 case. It now works with USB2. The DVD-RAM case is Firewire only, so I will have to discard it (since the problem, I have tried it on two other computers, both of which previously used this peripheral without issues). I have since disabled onboard Firewire and installed a Firewire card (with Lucent chipset, I have lots of computers and spare parts). My new Ipod now appears to work correctly, and my mini DV cam works, as it did before. I am theorizing that the camcorder never suffered because it does probably does NOT get its power from the port; instead, it gets plugged into an a/c outlet. If that assumption is correct, it is the only peripheral that was never at risk. The DVDRAM and hard drive also use external power, but their six pin Firewire cables carry power, as well. So, what do you think? Could it be that the power output from the onboard Firewire port is too high, and ruined my equipment? Any other theories or ideas would be welcomed. Post them right here so we can all join in. As the saying goes, 'a word to the wise is sufficient'. I got my ADS Pyro1394 (ADI-800) external enclosure yesterday and have had time for a quick test. I had no problems connecting the enclosure to my computer, except for one combination. If the computer is still operating and I kill the power switch on the enclosure, I can hear a strange sound coming from the power converter on the bridge board inside the enclosure. Also, the drive activity light on the front of the case is partially lit. It seems like the VP/VG power on the Firewire cable is somehow causing the bridge board to be partially working. Or, at least the switching converter on the bridge board (probably makes a local +3.3V for the Oxford 911 chip) is still running. Since the drive activity light is half lit, that means the circuit is under some kind of stress. This could be due to some parasitic diode path that is grounding the supply. What I'm seeing and hearing doesn't suggest a happy circuit. Now I've got to dig up some 6 to 4 pin cables and adapters, so the VP/VG from the computer cannot make it to the enclosures. When two of the enclosures are connected to one another, but not to the computer, everything is fine. (One powered enclosure will not try to power the second enclosure.) HTH, Paul |
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Power issues aside for a moment.....Did you eventually resolve your data
integrity problems with the onboard firewire? I believe you concluded that it was unreliable in an earlier post in another thread. "Paul" wrote in message ... In article , "Z Man" wrote: Here's my story, you draw your own conclusion. I just installed this motherboard about a week ago. One of its selling points was onboard Firewire. I have more Firewire peripherals than most PC users, including an 80GB hard drive, DVDRAM/-R, Canon ZR10 mini-DV cam, and Apple 30GB Ipod. All these peripherals are external, and I use them on a variety of computers in my home and office. After installing my new motherboard, I could not get these peripherals working correctly. The DVD-RAM never worked with this mb. the Canon worked all the time. The external 80GB hard drive worked for several days, then stopped working. The Ipod worked for a day or two, then stopped working. Here's what I did: I took my Ipod to a local Apple store, and they confirmed that it was dead. They replaced it under the warranty. The external hard drive is in a Firewire/USB2 case. It now works with USB2. The DVD-RAM case is Firewire only, so I will have to discard it (since the problem, I have tried it on two other computers, both of which previously used this peripheral without issues). I have since disabled onboard Firewire and installed a Firewire card (with Lucent chipset, I have lots of computers and spare parts). My new Ipod now appears to work correctly, and my mini DV cam works, as it did before. I am theorizing that the camcorder never suffered because it does probably does NOT get its power from the port; instead, it gets plugged into an a/c outlet. If that assumption is correct, it is the only peripheral that was never at risk. The DVDRAM and hard drive also use external power, but their six pin Firewire cables carry power, as well. So, what do you think? Could it be that the power output from the onboard Firewire port is too high, and ruined my equipment? Any other theories or ideas would be welcomed. Post them right here so we can all join in. As the saying goes, 'a word to the wise is sufficient'. I got my ADS Pyro1394 (ADI-800) external enclosure yesterday and have had time for a quick test. I had no problems connecting the enclosure to my computer, except for one combination. If the computer is still operating and I kill the power switch on the enclosure, I can hear a strange sound coming from the power converter on the bridge board inside the enclosure. Also, the drive activity light on the front of the case is partially lit. It seems like the VP/VG power on the Firewire cable is somehow causing the bridge board to be partially working. Or, at least the switching converter on the bridge board (probably makes a local +3.3V for the Oxford 911 chip) is still running. Since the drive activity light is half lit, that means the circuit is under some kind of stress. This could be due to some parasitic diode path that is grounding the supply. What I'm seeing and hearing doesn't suggest a happy circuit. Now I've got to dig up some 6 to 4 pin cables and adapters, so the VP/VG from the computer cannot make it to the enclosures. When two of the enclosures are connected to one another, but not to the computer, everything is fine. (One powered enclosure will not try to power the second enclosure.) HTH, Paul |
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