External firewire DVD burner woes

[kenmo]

Since moving my LG 4160B from the internal ide chain to an external firewire case I've been having a few problems with Windows XP sp2 recognizing the external burner....

I usually turn my external drive on after Windows boots... When I turn the external drive on, it doesn't always appear in Windows explorer... Sometimes I have to turn the external burner off and then on a few times before a drive letter appears... I wait as long as 10 minutes before rebooting the firewire case...

I moved it to firewire to free up some ide channels for a few more hard drives... I also have a Promise PCI controller as well... I have about 6 internal devices (5 hard drives and one DVD-Rom)...

Any thoughts...???

Cheers

Kenmo

[redwudz]

The two places I would look would be the Firewire card and the external case. It sounds like an interface problem.

If you post the models of both someone may have had a similar problem.

[kenmo]

Generic Firewire card NEC OHCI compliant... The firewire case is also a generic case... It does both firewire and usb...

[redwudz]

A VIA chipset on the MB can be problematic at times. Make sure you update your MB drivers to the latest versions. Your Firewire card, even though generic should be OK. I would suspect your external case, and it's chipset.

About all I can think of is to check the manufacturer of your external case and see if there is any firmware updates. Or do a Google search for both the Firewire card and the external case and see if anything comes up there.

I could be off base with this, but I still suspect a interface problem.

[InXess]

Dual FW/USB case interface may be the explanation. Some of them (dual FW/USB) combined with MB chipset compatibility.... Btw. it is recommended with FW to turn devices on before you start your PC (even though I never do it, I'm guilty of the same sin).
Plain single FW case would be better I think. That is what I use. 100% always even with my VIA.

[kenmo]

If I have the firewire device powered on before I turn on my computer, Windows displays the opening splash screen for 15 minutes or more and doesn't load....

However if the firewire case is turned off, Windows loads rather quickly...

I contacted the vendor I purchased my generic firewire i/o card from and it is branded as 'Mercury' - using the NEC chipset...

[INFRATOM]

For the 1st choice if your enclosure has USB2 use that instead of firewire. The speed is almost the same depending what chip your enclosure has it could be even slower than USB2, firewire has 3 standard speeds. But for DVD drive is all the same. For capture use firewire. Also when you connect it is detected but it may not show because you have many drives and may try to assign same drive letter, go to disk manage (right click on my computer and left on manage) and can assign a different drive letter to it so it will show up every time.

[kenmo]

I've already assigned it a drive letter of W in disk manager....thanks though for the reply...

Cheers

Kenmo

[kenmo]

Purchased another generic firecard...this one uses the Via VT6306 chipset... And I'm having the same problems as I did with the generic NEC chipset fireware car...

I even tried another firewire cable... Opened the firewire case and checked the jumpers on the DVD burner and they are set as master as per the instructions for the external case....

Any other thoughts...???

[budz]

Purchased another generic firecard...this one uses the Via VT6306 chipset... And I'm having the same problems as I did with the generic NEC chipset fireware car...

I even tried another firewire cable... Opened the firewire case and checked the jumpers on the DVD burner and they are set as master as per the instructions for the external case....

Any other thoughts...???

Return the VIA chipset firewire card and get a ADAPTEC FIREWIRE. Compusa usually has them for $20.00 when it's on sale. I use it on 3 of my computers for external hard drive enclosures. No problem with the ADAPTEC brand.

[OneSickPup]

Not sure how much this might help but here is a link to a thread on external enclosures. Has almost 700 posts in it - so be sure and grab a beer before you click the link.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=119149

[Skith]

Just a thought, but do you have the jumpers on the DVD burner set properly?

[kenmo]

Just a thought, but do you have the jumpers on the DVD burner set properly?

They're set to master as per the instructions with the firewire case, which said the drive will only worked if jumpered as master....

[BogieV]

I would second the suggestion to use the USB2 connection of your encloser.
I also have such double interface enclosure and few times my external hard drive connected via the FireWire would selfdisconnect and stop in a middle a back up process.
Your FireWire card is not the reason for sure if you are getting same problem with 2 different chipsets. And NEC is praised as the better choise especially for video work (connecting DV cams, etc.)
Check the external case again...

[kenmo]

Once my firewire DVD burner is recognized by Windows there are no problems... It stays attached and burns great...


1) replaced the NEC chipset firewire card with a Via chipset car
2) downloaded new Via 4 in 1 drivers for the Via chipset on my mobo
3) replaced the firewire cable
4) flashed the firmware on my LG4160b drive

I also made sure my DVD burner was jumpered as master as per my external cases instructions... I even tried no jumper and CS jumper...

Still the same problems...

Will try USB connection next...

[tbessie]

I've had similar problems with external firewire (and even external usb) drives under Windows XP SP2. There are all sorts of Documented-But-Microsoft-Doesn't-Acknowledge-Them problems out there regarding Firewire. My external firewire devices always worked perfectly under Linux.

I got sick of it, and eventually switched to eSATA for everything. Now I have no problems at all, ever (except that Linux support for external SATA via a PCMCIA card, as I use, isn't that great currently).

Where'd you get the enclosure? I used to buy stuff from "Cooldrives" (they've got a million web storefronts, so it might be them), but they turned out to be complete idiots, and now I'm getting stuff from Addonics, who are nicer. The stuff from Cooldrives/USBGEAR/Firewiregear, etc. never worked quite right.

- Tim

[InXess]

I'd check if you have the same behavior on a different PC and go from there, a local PC store could help ...

[kenmo]

I switched my ecnlosure to it's USB connector and I've not had any problems since... AND I actually can't see any difference in performance or reliability between firewire or USB...

I may install a firewire card in one of my two other computers and see what happens...

Cheers

Kenmo