Hi all...This is my first post. I am building my third PC ever. I bought a motherboard that I thought had onboard support for my front IEEE1394 port on my case, but it appears that it is in fact a proprietary 1394 connection for a daughter card. Now I have no way to enable my front 1394 connection unless I get a new board...not real happy about that idea. I thought I could find a 1394 PCI card that I could attach my connector to (it is a plug), but I haven't been successful in finding one. Any clues?

Thanks,

Billio

So in the absence of any firewire headers on the mobo you would ideally want a pci card with an internal header to which you could connect to you front socket. Unfortunately these seem hard to get hold of though you could either mod the cabling from a pci card's rear connector or use something like THIS (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1457&osCsid=590ed23896364e9bff6a2ed4e8429466).

Better to have the onboard ones - are you sure there are none on your mobo; which mobo by the way?

Hi Paul! Thanks for such a quick response and the GREAT information. Unfortunately, I am sure that the motherboard doesn't have a header. I bought it from newegg..it is a GIGABYTE "GA-8S648FX-L" SiS648FX Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478. Here is the newegg URL:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-223&depa=0

In the item description is says

"Onboard 1394: 3 Ports"

When I started putting the PC together I didn't see this header (at least not one that matched the plug from my case. After great frustration (and further investigation), I saw on Newegg's website something I had overlooked

"Integrated 1394 3 Ports by SiS963 via daughter card S1394, Optional"

I was looking at the link you sent for the 6 pin male header to 6 pin male cable and (forgive me I'm going to show my ignorance here) I'm confused. My wires don't match exactly. The header connector on this one is a 2x5...mine is a 2x6 with one pin in the corner blocked out...additionally, on one side my wires are orange, black, red, on the other they are blue, black, green, white...The 2x5 link you sent is orange, black, red, white, black on one side and blue, *blank*, green on the other side.

Will this work on my system?

Again, thanks much for the help.

Billio

AFAIK there are 9 wires. On my own mobo these are:-
1,2 >> A+/A- (Blue, Beige)
3,4 >> Ground (Black, Black)
5,6 >> B+/B- (Green, Red)
7,8 >> 12V (Black, White)
9 KEY Blanked Off
10 NA (Black)

I don't know how standard the colors are but I do know that the cabling on different cases for Front Connectors for USB is very non-standard (particularly with regard to a screening wire) and perhaps the same goes for Firewire.

BTW There is also a 1394 Firewire Internal Female (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/product_info.php?name=1394_Firewire_Internal_Femal e_Header_to_6-Pin_Male_Cable&products_id=1458) equivalent cable.

I also had a peep at the manual for your mobo but couldn't make head nor tail of the 23pin 1394 connector described as being between the slots for PCI1 and PCI2 - unless they are used for the daughter board, whatever that is.

BTW - the colors on my USB connectors are different (and also the voltages they carry!!) yet the arrangement of the pins is identical. I'm willing to bet that USB cables have been connected to Firewire and vice versa.

Do any firewire ports appear in Device Manager?

I had to RMA my CPU to NEWEGG so the PC won't be up and running until Tuesday. And you're right about USB being plugged into firewire and vice versa. I actually thought that cable was a USB cable at first. It wasn't labeled. It wasn't until further investigation that I was able to determine it was a firewire.

I'll need the male equivalent of that cable I just will need to know what goes where. Can you buy new plugs so that I could match that wire...If so, how easy is it to replace? Do you need special equipment (ie crimpers, etc?).

Billio

Well Paul I had major issues with the Giga-byte motherboard I was using. I won't go into all of the details here as that might bore you and all other readers severely, but after multiple attempts I was unable to get my PC going...Since I was sending it back I got an ABIT board as a replacement. This time I was sure to get a board that had the header...All is well. PC works GREAT! Unfortunately I had already ordered the male adapter cable and firewire card. I doubt that it is returnable and not really worth the time/expense to do so...I'm happy though...take care.

Billio
:cool: