l e o wrote:
Scott Schuckert wrote:
In article . com,
wrote:

BTW, we also lost the Firewire connection on the motherboard of our
main video editing computer. As far as I am concerned, Firewire does
not seem to be very robust as far as hardware is concerned :-(

It doesn't seem that way, does it? It's reasonably common to have a
component destroyed by a bad cable or bridge board.
One big issue is loose specs and less than stellar design of the
connector itself. It's surprisingly easy to insert a 6-pin connector
backwards, and this will almost always blow something, as the power
lines get connected to signal. A bad cable can do the same thing;
4-to-4 pin connections are safe, but 4-to-6 and 6-to-6 cables pose a
similar risk.

Since the number of devices actually powered from the FireWire
connector is quite small, I've taken to using specialty cables which
MAY have 6 pin physical connectors at one or both ends, but never have
more than 4 pins or lines actually present. I also (though the
interface is rated plug-and-play) no longer connect or disconnect when
anything is powered up.

I've had the experience of a bad FireWire-to-ATA bridge board (in an
Imation tape drive) taking out three motherboard FireWire circuits
before I caught on.

On the plus side, once you get it connected, it works MUCH better than
any flavor of USB.


apple's firewire is a horror! my maxtor drive with firewire port doesn't
recognized at time and I have to turn the drive off - disconnect the
cab;e - turn the drive on - reconnect the cable. also, my canon
camocorder's firewire port was fired. it was my fault but WHO designed a
port that is so fragile?


Why would you blame Apple??? I found out the hard way the the chipset
driving the Firewire port can make or break the whole experience. I
don't know what chip set your Maxtor uses but Maxtor chose it and Apple
did not provide it. I hear glowing references to the Oxford's interface
and declining opinions of all other contenders. Similar for your fried
port on your camcorder.

There are cheap connectors and expensive connectors - if Canon chose one
that is too weak for their consumers' needs then those consumers suffer.
Apple can't control crappy implementation but maybe you should buy
more robust stuff. -Guy