Firewire Problem on NP5796(M570TU)

Here's what I know:

The computer comes with the VIA VT6311S for it's firewire controller. I have a hard drive (an old lacie) that works fine on a sony vaio 4-pin 1394a (S400) connector (with an external power supply) (running vista x32 home i think) and fine on a macbook pro with a 6pin normal firewire. On my computer, it comes back with that darn "This device cannot start. (Code 10)".



Here's what I don't know:
I tried with powernotebooks for any solutions and they gave me a driver for the JMicron JMB38X Flash Media Controller. They implied this was the same as the firewire controller. Now I thought the firewire was a VIA. What gives with that?

I tried JMicron's newest driver off of their website, but that didn't help either. Anyone have any suggestions? Where can I find a driver for the VIA controller? Could that be it? (LACIE has no idea either).



Thanks for any help or suggestions!

 

is the firewire (IEEE) controller enabled in the BIOS?

and is your BIOS up to date?

 

BIOS is version 1.00.06 LS2 (pretty sure that's up to date).

Not sure where to check in the BIOS settings though for ieee. I don't see anything for it. The firewire controller *does* show up in device manager though (IEEE 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller), so I assume it's being detected properly.

Thanks!

 

if the device manager sees it, then it should be working.

when you used your firewire HDD on the Sony VAIO.... was it in XP?

because I have had issues with Vista and firewire, while my XP Pro (on a dual boot) has no issues.

you can try to disable UAC in Vista to see if that does anything.... its definitely a Vista thing though (something with hidden MS firewire drivers).

 

The vaio was running vista home basic 32 bit. I'm running vista ultimate 64 bit. Both on are SP1 I *believe* but the Vaio may not be. Was powernotebooks correct in giving me the JMicron driver for my VIA firewire controller? That's the only thing I can think of as well - the driver i'm using for the firewire is screwy.

 

its hit or miss for me in Vista.

whats the firewire controller on the Sony?

 

It's a Texas Instruments, but I can't find the actual model #. I also figured out the NP5796 does have the JMicron and not the VIA as the firewire controller. *sigh* oh well, might just be because of the crappy JMicron.

Thanks for the help.