Western Digital My Book Pro 1 TB - Firewire Problem

[SpurtSpanker]

Hopefully you all can help me.

I picked up a WD MyBook 1 TB external storage drive. This will be my second one. The first one was toasted thanks to the firmware update WD had on their website. Apparently, there is a known issue (yet WD still has the firmware on their site) that when you apply the firmware update, it renders the drive useless.

So I took it back and got a new drive. Both drives USB worked fine. Both drives firewire worked fine - the one that looks rectangular with a triangle at the end if that makes sense?

The firewire ports I am having problems with are the 800. The ones that are squareish. Neither one of those connections seems to be working. I connect it to the computer via firewire 800 and it picks it up, but it acts like it's not all there. You can't view the contents because it gives an I/O error.

WD support is a joke to say the least. I have tried a new cable, checking my card - everything. My firewire 800 card is made by SIIG and is brand new. I doubt anything is wrong with it, however I don't have any other items to check it with.

Any suggestions or ideas? I bought this thing for firewire speeds - I am stuck with USB and it sucks.

Anyone have a similar issue? Is it the card? Any other firewire 800 device I can buy to test?

Thanks!

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

What controller card do you have and what MB do you have?

 

[SpurtSpanker]

Dell Inspiron 530 (brand new) and added a SIIG 3 port firewire 800 PCI card.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Try a different cable
Try talking to Dell and see if they can tell you what chipset their MB uses.
See if SIIG has any info relating to the MB chipset.
Take your comp to a box store and have them "install" a new 1394b drive and then return the drive. An "install" often costs much less than a diagnose fee.