Firewire issue affecting all the Dell Core Duo notebooks

[abcd12345]

UPDATE I: I confirm that T.C. Electronic Konnekt sound cards work with the built-in firewire port of Dell laptops, but make sure not to use it with I8KFanGUI (a third-party fan control software).

UPDATE II: Possible solution; Disable the CD/DVD drive from the device manager (right click on My Computer --> Hardware --> Device Manager)

Hi all,

I didn't want to create a chaos so I'm letting you know the issue a little bit late. Also if you don't use the Firewire port of your core duo laptop you don't have to read the rest of the post.

I got my M90 in May for music production purposes and I wanted to use it with my M-Audio Firewire Audiophile sound card. So when I received the laptop I installed the sound card and Bang! The sound card would freeze after 4-5 minutes of playing MP3s and it would freeze after 4-5 seconds of recording.

So I called M-Audio. They blamed Dell and their firewire chipset and suggested to use a PCMCIA / Expresscard firewire device. I ordered the SIIG Firewire 2-port Expresscard and it took the retailer over one month to send it to me. When I received the Expresscard I realized that not only the computer won't boot up with the Expresscard plug-ed in, my external sound card won't even work for the 4-5 seconds that it would with the built-in 1394 port.

I then called Dell, and told them I'm experiecing any of these problems with my friends Inspiron 630m and my previous Inspiron 5150. The support guy suggested a Motherboard and Expresscard reader exchange and it took the technician / parts over 3 weeks to come to my place. Please keep in mind that I have the Next Day Onsite Complete Care warranty!

Anyways, the new parts didn't help and for the second time we went through the stupid 'Is the Firewire cable pluged-in?!' procedure!

Finally, on July the 5th (exactly two months after I found the problem) my case was escalated to the Dell Server and Workstation Escalation department and not surprisingly we had to got through the stupid troubleshooting procedure for the 3rd time! (have you the latest drivers installed?!) Finally I suggested the escalation analyst to send me an airbill so I can send him my sound card and Expresscard for them to test. Again I waited over 3 weeks for him to find a way to send an airbill from US to Canada (not his fault, crappy Dell management). At last I got so frustrated that sent him my devices on my own cost! ($70) He promised me a compensation package though.

At last on July 26th he confirmed the issue and said it's not exclusive to M90 but all the laptops with the 945 chipset, and not just my sound card but pretty much everything he pluged-in the firewire port (Hard dirve, Camera etc.). Still I prefered not to return the laptop (during the whole 3 months I was always seconds from giving up and either killing myself or returing the laptop and then killing myself!) and asked him to escalate the issue to the engineering department and see if there is a possible fix and if so, when.

And today, almost a month later that day, he called me and said that there is a BIOS update in tesing that hopefully will fix the issue. He said that it should be released in a couple of weeks.

Overall, I'm really satisfied with the people I had to deal with, but not the system and the company. The two support guys that I dealt with did everything the could, and they were as frustrated as me by the roadblocks. It seems that Dell hadn't thought through the 'Next Day Onsite' support before selling it, and they never think that there is a problem with their product!

Sam

UPDATE I: I confirm that T.C. Electronic Konnekt sound cards work with the built-in firewire port of Dell laptops, but make sure not to use it with I8KFanGUI (a third-party fan control software).

UPDATE II: Possible solution; Disable the CD/DVD drive from the device manager (right click on the My Computer icon --> Hardware)

[xbandaidx]

Well sorry to hear about the stuff you had to go through, and how much time it took. I was surprised that it took 3 weeks for that technician and stuff.

Hope the new bios fixes it for you, I hope you update this thread when it comes out, i'd like to see the outcome.

[abcd12345]

Thanks. I will update the thread as soon as I hear from Dell.

Sam

[dudesdudets]

I have the same issue with the expresscard on my E1505.
However I do not share the same firewire problem you have. I use Presonus Firebox and it's working like a dream with my built-in firewire port.(Doesn't work at all through a firewire expansion card).
I believe M-audio drivers only work with Texas Instruments chipset. One fast and cheap solution might be Ideal Driver by CEntrance;
http://www.centrance.com/products/
I use it for my Firebox and it's super stable.
Also make sure you don't have Dell Wireless Card and I8kFangui. They cause audio dropouts.

[abcd12345]

Well, that's good to hear. I guess Ideal Driver doesn't support Firewire Audiophile, in the list of compatible hardwares it only mentions Firewire Solo.

Yeah, I bought the SIIG expresscard for it's TI chipset but as you have experienced it's much worse!

I use both Dell Wireless card and I8kfangui, but they are causing the problem. I got the same behaviour on fresh install of XP too.

[dudesdudets]

Oops sorry about that...
I should of checked the compability list before recommending.

One thing I think I should mention though, is that the expresscard problem does not seem to be an isolated problem on Dell Laptops. I tested it with my friend's A105 and DV8000t and neither of them had a success with Firewire Expresscard(Tv Tuner and SATA2 expresscards work great). It seems like there is a problem with pci express technology+Napa Platform+Firewire. I also bought firewire expresscard by xterasys and the result was the same.

[abcd12345]

Yeah, there is something really wrong with the firewire section of these laptops and I'm almost positive that it's in the driver level. I once installed the M-Audio sound card without installing the chipset drivers of M90 and in worked like a charm, but just for a couple of hours! I haven't been able to reproduce that since.

By the way, I have tried the Edirol FA-66 and it's much worse than the M-Audio one.

I just hope that the new BIOS fixes something. Either the expresscard or the built-in firewire port. I just need one firewire port.

Sam

[dudesdudets]

What about getting the docking station from Ebay?
It has a low profile PCI slot so you can add an expansion card there.
It will cost you like $80 for the docking station and 30 bucks for a nice firewire card.

[abcd12345]

That's a pretty good idea, if the firewire works though! and I can get those from Dell for free (as part of the compensation package). But I still hope that the BIOS update solves the problem.

By the way, if you don't need that much I/O, give the Asio4All a shot. I found it a couple of days ago and it's pretty amazing. (It adds low latency Asio driver to your laptop without any hardwares).

Sam

[sav]

Prolly should use an Apple laptop... Firewire works great on them.