I think you're confusing yourself, or not understanding what I'm saying.
I have tried all FireWire ports (three) and another FireWire cable which I have from Lacie external Hard disk (but the cable is thiner)... and scanner still is not seen in Device Manager. I will try to buy new FireWire cable and check it again. I have checked also the properties by right clicking on both controlles and I got twice info: "Device works properly". I downloaded 64-bit VueScan version.
As I've said numerous times, if all the FireWIre ports are not working, then there is an issue with either the scanner, cable or PC. However since Device Manager is showing the ports to be in working order, I can only assume the cable or scanner is bad. But you can...
1 - You can check this by running Vuescan. If Vuescan doesn't see the scanner... there is an issue.
2 -The other thing you can do/try is find something that uses a FireWire connection, for example, a printer, and see if the item is seen by the computer or works. If it does, you know the FireWire ports are working and have now narrowed your problem do to either the cable, or scanner
It's not clear for me. Do you say if WireWire card is seen in Device Manager and recognized by Win 64bit and there is no reported issues there, it means simultaneously that this card is proper to work with Win7 64-bit?
YES!
But we know my Ratoc FireWire card supports only 32-bit OC system, not Win7 64-bit at all. Last driver update for this card was made in 2005.
How do you reconcile it?
So what really does it mean: "Device works properly" and the fact that FireWire 32-bit IEEE 1394 cards are seen in Device Manager
Because Windows has found a generic 64-bit driver for it which allows it to work under Windows 7 x64. If it didn't you would have that exclaimation mark I was asking about.
You also told me you checked the properties page and the items were working properly...
I have checked also the properties by right clicking on both controlles and I got twice info: "Device works properly".
Bottom line is device manage sees the ports and say they work. If you don't trust that, you can find a FireWire device that you
KNOW works and try it on those ports as suggested above.
Do that and you'll know for sure if those ports work or not and you can move from there. I'm fairly certain they work (provided the info you gave me is correct).
Good luck.
As a side note, 32-bit programs can and do work under a 64-bit OS. This is called
WoW64 (Windows 32 on Windows 64). However drivers are usually a different matter. However you don't need to worry about that because Windows will let you know if there is an issue.