device manager not seeing my 1394 port

[harleynut97]

Hi, I am using windows 7 and a while ago I added a combination firewire / usb2 pci card. I needed the firewire port for an older video camcorder that only uses firewire. I know that when I installed I tested to make sure I could capture using the firewire port. But since then I have had many updates and have upgraded my video editing software. (premiere pro cs5.5). I do understand that I could have a problem with the card, but I have USB devices attached right now to the card.

I am unable to capture video (says is offline) so I started to google for troubleshooting suggestions and came upon this.... Fixing Firewire Problems in Windows 7 - David Knarr Beginning at the very top is what I was attempting to do.

The first thing they suggest is to go into device manager and "Under the Device Manager, look down the list for IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controllers and Double Click on it.

It should display something like - 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller

Note: If it has the word (Legacy) behind it, you are already setup and you can just exit out.

BUT I cannot find anywhere in device manager the device or anything related at all to 1394. If you refered to the link above what they are saying is there are some issues with the 1394 driver that comes standard with windows 7 and they suggest to change it to a legacy driver option. So here are my questions...

1) Since this is a combination USB device AND firewire card, is it possible that it is just showing up as a usb generic device in device manager?

2) I've expanded the device manager tree in every catagory and see nothing related to 1394... If windows was recognizing my firewire port would the IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controllers be in its own main catagory in the tree?

3) Would enabling USB legacy in the bios make any difference?

4) Is there anything else in the bios I should check?

Really sorry for the long post and multiple questions, but wanted to give as much info as possible. I'm in a real time crunch to capture video footage for a project.
Thanks for any help in advance. - Carl

 

[fireberd]

First, as the Firewire (1394) is not showing up at all suggests a hardware or connection problem. First step, power off the PC, open the case and "reseat" the PCI card (unplug then plug back in). Power the PC back up and see if Windows detects it (may detect new hardware and install it), in the Device Manager. If it does detect and reinstalls it, this should take care of the problem.

In reference to the "legacy" USB in the BIOS. Generally (most cases) this should be enabled so you get USB 2.0 operation. Without this in some computers you will only get USB 1.1. Check the Device Manager and the USB section, if you have an entry that includes "enhanced controller" then you have USB 2.0. If the enhanced controller is not shown then enable the legacy USB as this usually enables the enhanced controller/USB 2.0 operation. Don't ask me why "legacy" adds 2.0 but I know that is the case in many Dell's.

 

[harleynut97]

Hey fireberd... I'm beginning to think its a problem with my card... originally I posted that I had a device hooked up to a USB port on the card, but it was just a usb cord that I use for a music keyboard... the keyboard itself wasnt hooked up. So I took an external harddrive plugged it in to the USB and the drive does not show up in windows explorer. I actually went in unplugged the card from pci slot and reinserted it but nothing changed.

I havent gone into the bios yet to check if legecy in enabled... but I have certain ports that are usb3 and some that are usb2 on this computer (it is not a dell)

I did not see the enhanced controller you were referencing... attached is a screenshot of the device mgr usb section EDIT...duh I see it now under the intel chipset part it says enhanced. This is PRIOR to enabling legacyusb

So I'm off to check the legacy bios section, I suppose it could be a bad pci port on the mobo, but I doubt it. My money is now on this cheap $15.00 usb/firewire card I added awhile ago

 

[fireberd]

Yeah, you have the enhanced controller so don't do anything to the BIOS.

PCI ports on many new motherboards are a "bridged" or "pseudo" PCI port that is actually run off of the PCIe bus. Some PCI cards will not work or work correctly with these types of PCI slots. Better to have a PCIe card then there is no "bridging" being done.

The new PC that I built for my recording studio (I use Sonar) has this type of PCI slot on it. I also built a PC for a client with a different brand motherboard and an i5 CPU and it too has the "psueudo" PCI slot.

 

[harleynut97]

Unfortunately I only have one pci e slot and it is being used by my graphics card. But, I'll just get a replacement firewire card tomorrow.... thanks fireberd

 

[fireberd]

That sounds like an older motherboard. The PCI slots on your motherboard are probably full PCI.

Let us know how you make out