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Question

Firewire ExpressCard34 Not Outputting

Mar 30, 2017 6:16AM PDT

I am trying to use a firewire audio interface (I've tried two from different manufacturers) with my laptop for music production. The laptop has a Firewire ExpressCard slot. I've tried two different adapters in the slot, installed and reinstalled the latest drivers for the hardware, selected the Windows Legacy driver in Device Manager and made sure that nothing is connected or disconnected with the laptop running. Both interfaces work fine with the same setup on my desktop PC which has an internal PCI-e card. They light up during startup and remain on until the PC is powered down.
In the laptop, Device Manager indicates that the ExpressCard adapter is working properly. I have run
something called TCAT OHCI 1394 TOOL which scans and analyses firewire hardware. It gives the status of the card as active and indicates that the card is: "compatible, no known issues". I've tried different firewire cables as well as two different ExpressCards Whatever I try, I get no lights or connection indications from either interface. I've seen a couple of posts which refer to enabling or configuring the ExpressCard slot in the BIOS, however, the VAIO laptop BIOS is pretty simple and doesn't seem to have options for making those changes. If there's anyone out there who may be able to offer a solution to this, I'd be very grateful.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Sad news here.
Mar 30, 2017 8:17AM PDT

The last time I got into that we had to obtain a laptop that had firewire built-in to get it all working. Support has vanished for the cards you noted.

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Response appreciated
Mar 30, 2017 11:32AM PDT

From the extensive research which I've done, it's certainly looking like a lost cause. I thought I'd have one last attempt at finding a possible solution.

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tried it with USB device yet?
Mar 30, 2017 12:39PM PDT

NT

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Decades later.
Mar 30, 2017 12:51PM PDT

I've yet to see any USB to Firewire cable or thing work.

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That Seems To Be The Case
Mar 30, 2017 1:10PM PDT

Thanks. I've looked into that and it does seem that there's no such thing as a Firewire to USB adapter/converter. If there was, it would defeat the object of trying to utilise the extra bandwidth provided by firewire. I simply would like to connect a firewire audio interface to my laptop using a working firewire connection.