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From: Robert L. Altic Jr. on 19 Mar 2010 14:01
Hi All,
I am not real familar with firewire, so here goes. I have 2 Western
Digital external hard drives. One is attached to my XPS 410 via one
of the firewire ports on the back of the computer. When I attach the
other drive via firewire cable to the empty port, it is not
recognized, so it is attached via USB. Are both firewire ports
supposed to be active? Do I need to go into the setup to turn on the
port? Or can I connect the drives by the firewire cable to each other
so that the first is attached via the firewire port on the computer
and the second is daisy chained to it? Thanks in advance......Bob
From: Christopher Muto on 19 Mar 2010 14:18
Robert L. Altic Jr. wrote:
> Hi All,
> I am not real familar with firewire, so here goes. I have 2 Western
> Digital external hard drives. One is attached to my XPS 410 via one
> of the firewire ports on the back of the computer. When I attach the
> other drive via firewire cable to the empty port, it is not
> recognized, so it is attached via USB. Are both firewire ports
> supposed to be active? Do I need to go into the setup to turn on the
> port? Or can I connect the drives by the firewire cable to each other
> so that the first is attached via the firewire port on the computer
> and the second is daisy chained to it? Thanks in advance......Bob

does the second firewire drive work when connected to the first firewire
port? that would tell you if it is a driver problem or a port problem.
if you look under network connections do you see a firewire network
port? if so you can try disabling it (right click and then click on
disable) as it could be what is using the second firewire port.
From: William R. Walsh on 19 Mar 2010 17:43
Hi!

> Are both firewire ports supposed to be active?

Yes. Both Firewire ports ought to be active and usable with no further
action required.

It's likely that the port which does not work has simply gone bad.
Multiple Firewire ports are handled by the one controller (inside the
computer) so that's all you would see installed.

There are a couple of things that can happen to break Firewire ports:

1. Firewire ports are fused. The fuse is supposed to reset itself but
it may not in the face of a sufficiently catastrophic failure.

2. Firewire cables can be plugged in the wrong way round by mistake.
Power and data wires get swapped by doing this, and the usual result
is damage to either the device (most likely outcome) or the port and
PHY (inside the computer) to which it is connected. (I didn't believe
it either until I'd done it! And then there was a Fire at the end of
the wire.)

Maybe it never worked?

You can daisy chain Firewire devices, but anything beyond six or seven
devices on one port may be problematic, especially with longer cables.
(Shorter cables usually work fine.) If you don't have that many
devices, you will generally be OK as long as your cables are good and
work normally with just one device.

William
From: Robert L. Altic Jr. on 19 Mar 2010 17:51
Hi Christopher,
I haven't tried the second drive in the firewire port that I know is
working yet, good idea though. I am using XP Home edition, and in the
device manager, at the bottom there is an icon that looks like a
capital G (sorta) that has the WD My book listed. It only shows one
port, even though there are two on the back of the computer. I am a
little leary of disabling the port that is active, fearing that I will
lose it also. When I right click on it under properties, it says that
it is working properly. Any other suggestions??? Thanks for the
help. I am used to USB not firewire. Best, Bob




On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:18:46 -0400, Christopher Muto
<muto(a)worldnet.att.net> wrote:

>Robert L. Altic Jr. wrote:
>> Hi All,
>> I am not real familar with firewire, so here goes. I have 2 Western
>> Digital external hard drives. One is attached to my XPS 410 via one
>> of the firewire ports on the back of the computer. When I attach the
>> other drive via firewire cable to the empty port, it is not
>> recognized, so it is attached via USB. Are both firewire ports
>> supposed to be active? Do I need to go into the setup to turn on the
>> port? Or can I connect the drives by the firewire cable to each other
>> so that the first is attached via the firewire port on the computer
>> and the second is daisy chained to it? Thanks in advance......Bob
>
>does the second firewire drive work when connected to the first firewire
>port? that would tell you if it is a driver problem or a port problem.
> if you look under network connections do you see a firewire network
>port? if so you can try disabling it (right click and then click on
>disable) as it could be what is using the second firewire port.
From: Robert L. Altic Jr. on 20 Mar 2010 09:24
Hi William,

I switched ports for the WD external drive that is working and both
ports work with it. I am thinking that it must be the cable that is
the problem. The other drive works fine with USB. I didn't try the
cable that is currently in use on the second drive. I'll do that the
next time that I boot up. For now, I guess I will continue to use the
second WD external as a USB. Thanks for the help. Oh, one other
thing, the cable that I was trying to use has IEEE 1394 stamped on it.
That is a firewire cable correct? It has the correct plugs on the
ends. Best, Bob




On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:43:04 -0700 (PDT), "William R. Walsh"
<wm_walsh(a)hotmail.com> wrote:

>Hi!
>
>> Are both firewire ports supposed to be active?
>
>Yes. Both Firewire ports ought to be active and usable with no further
>action required.
>
>It's likely that the port which does not work has simply gone bad.
>Multiple Firewire ports are handled by the one controller (inside the
>computer) so that's all you would see installed.
>
>There are a couple of things that can happen to break Firewire ports:
>
>1. Firewire ports are fused. The fuse is supposed to reset itself but
>it may not in the face of a sufficiently catastrophic failure.
>
>2. Firewire cables can be plugged in the wrong way round by mistake.
>Power and data wires get swapped by doing this, and the usual result
>is damage to either the device (most likely outcome) or the port and
>PHY (inside the computer) to which it is connected. (I didn't believe
>it either until I'd done it! And then there was a Fire at the end of
>the wire.)
>
>Maybe it never worked?
>
>You can daisy chain Firewire devices, but anything beyond six or seven
>devices on one port may be problematic, especially with longer cables.
>(Shorter cables usually work fine.) If you don't have that many
>devices, you will generally be OK as long as your cables are good and
>work normally with just one device.
>
>William
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