I recently upgraded to a new HP a6700f system with Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP1 installed. I have been having continuing problems with Firewire devices which were previously connected to my old system running XP SP2.
I have a four-bay enclosure that accepts IDE devices and converts to Firewire connections via a converter board. I had several extra Western Digital HDDs and a dvd drive installed in this enclosure and had no problems operating under Win XP Pro with SP2 for four years.
However, I have had problems getting this setup to work with Vista. My dvd drive is okay but my HDDs will not start. They are recognized in Device Manager but have the yellow dot with an ! symbol. If I right click on the drive listing in DM an select Properties, I get the message that Vista could not load the drivers properly. If I let Vista search for a solution, and click on View Details it comes back with the message that Vista loaded the driver properly but encountered a problem (which is not specified) when the driver software tried to run.
I have verified extensively that all my hardware is operating properly, all drivers are the latest up to date versions, all physical connections are secure, all cables are working. I have even modified the registry per Microsoft's Hotfixes and Techncial Support....that has solved the original problem with the dvd drive not working, but the HDDs still do not work under Firewire. Each of the drives will operate via USB, but I have $600 worth of Firewire hardware I cannot afford to replace.
Western Digital Tech Support has been no help. They say it is a Vista problem.
HP Tech Support has been equally unhelpful. I don't think they understand what the problem is, so they are clueless as to how to solve it. They keep implying it is a hardare problem.
Microsoft Tech Support has been helping but so far their suggestions have not worked and I have not heard from them in several days. BTW, because my system was pre-loaded with Vista, MS support is not free
Anyone know how to get Vista and Firewire working properly together?
I have a four-bay enclosure that accepts IDE devices and converts to Firewire connections via a converter board. I had several extra Western Digital HDDs and a dvd drive installed in this enclosure and had no problems operating under Win XP Pro with SP2 for four years.
However, I have had problems getting this setup to work with Vista. My dvd drive is okay but my HDDs will not start. They are recognized in Device Manager but have the yellow dot with an ! symbol. If I right click on the drive listing in DM an select Properties, I get the message that Vista could not load the drivers properly. If I let Vista search for a solution, and click on View Details it comes back with the message that Vista loaded the driver properly but encountered a problem (which is not specified) when the driver software tried to run.
I have verified extensively that all my hardware is operating properly, all drivers are the latest up to date versions, all physical connections are secure, all cables are working. I have even modified the registry per Microsoft's Hotfixes and Techncial Support....that has solved the original problem with the dvd drive not working, but the HDDs still do not work under Firewire. Each of the drives will operate via USB, but I have $600 worth of Firewire hardware I cannot afford to replace.
Western Digital Tech Support has been no help. They say it is a Vista problem.
HP Tech Support has been equally unhelpful. I don't think they understand what the problem is, so they are clueless as to how to solve it. They keep implying it is a hardare problem.
Microsoft Tech Support has been helping but so far their suggestions have not worked and I have not heard from them in several days. BTW, because my system was pre-loaded with Vista, MS support is not free
Anyone know how to get Vista and Firewire working properly together?
My Computer
System One
-
- Manufacturer/Model
- HP a6700f
- CPU
- AMD Phenom x4
- Memory
- 4 gb
- Sound Card
- nVidia
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Acer
- Hard Drives
- Hitachi 500 GB Western Digital WD2000JB Western Digital WD3000JB Western Digital WD5000AAKB
- Mouse
- Microsoft Comfort 3000
- Keyboard
- Microsoft Curved Comfort 2000
- Internet Speed
- unknown cable connection
- Other Info
- 4 bay enclosure case for IDE-to-IEEE 1394 Firewire connectivity Addtitional 3-port IEEE 1394 PCI board HP dvd1040I Lightscribe drive installed in enclosure case