Firewire cardbus SIIG

anyone on this issue please?

Any hint please?

I am also having problems with my SIIG NN-PC2012 cardbus adapter. I have a 600m with Windows XP Professional and an O2Micro OZ711EC1 SmartCardBus Controller PCMCIA adapter.

The installation manual says that Windows XP will install the device automatically when I insert it, but nothing happened when I first put it in the PCMCIA slot. I restarted the computer with it in the slot, but Windows still did not detect it. I then uninstalled the CardBus drivers and restarted with the card in place, and this time it installed a generic firewire adapter driver. I wanted to remove the card to see if it would detect it when I inserted again, so I used the 'Safely Remove Hardware' program in Windows XP. Now no matter what I do Windows does not see the device.

I know the device works because I put it in a friend's machine and Windows automatically installed the driver and set it up perfectly.

I am trying to remove the driver for the card in hopes that it will reinstall itself, but since the device does not show up in Device Manager, I don't know how.

Can anyone offer any help?

~Michael

Well you did get one of the most sophisticated machines, however, not all hardware is compatible with your computer, there's no way that Dell (or any other manufacturer) can insure that any kind of PCMCIA card you insert will work 100% (or at all) Reason being is that not everyone follows protocols and standards exactly to spec, and even if they are, there's still no guarantee that it will work, it SHOULD work, but in this case, it doesn't.

You could try contacting Dell, but it looks like a hardware incompatibility with your PCMCIA controller and your PCMCIA firewire card.

Thank you fo your answer. You should be right if that was the only problem.

You can easy verify by this busy forum that a lot of people is having problems with dell.

When i just got my pc i noticed these problems:

track stick buttons

no way to resume from standby

incompatibility with my (always worked) firewire cardbus

 

Far a brand new PC is not acceptable, i can understand incompatibility problems, but not so many.

Did anyone advise me when i spent 3000€ that some cardbus should not work? Or the track stick are defective?

Fidelite,
thanks again for your interest, btw i've contacted the SIIG support and they are sending me a new card, hopfully working.

What I menat before is that with a brand new pc, high-ended user, i expect something very near perfection, i'm troubling with it since i got it.

Do you have any suggestion for the stanby issue? With the pc in standby mode, when i press the power button to resume, i randomly get a blu screen error, a black screen with all the leds on and I have to power off the pc.

Thanks

The problems you encountered are unfortunate, I have not had the same experience, actually the only problem I have with my Dell (600m) is the intake design, which is a little dumb being on the bottom of the unit, which means I have to ensure that they get air (which means I can't use it on my bed easily) other than that, I think it's a great laptop, and from a compadibility standpoint (thus far) I would say that it's a very decent unit. (I'm not sure about your particular model) I would sooner call Dell and ask them which IEEE 1394 card would work with your unit, point in case is a Linksys "Instant Wireless" card I used with my old Sony Vaio 505 series, locked up the whole machine when I put it in, but worked flawlessly in my other Toshiba. (What I'm trying to get across here is, that even with a "high end" laptop, there are still compadibility problems) What I would suggest you do is, e-bay your old card, buy a new card with a return warranty, and try another card, if that doesn't work, swap it out with another one (you usually have 7 days to return/replace) It's not the best solution in the whole world, but it is a solution none the less.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, and good luck!

Curious, but did you install WinXP pro yourself? or did that come with the unit? You may want to try the Dell site to see if there are any updated drivers for your hardware (could be, one of them isn't resuming properly) other than that, check your BIOS, there may be some options in there that you could look to (sorry, I haven't really messed with my BIOS, but I'd gladly take a look around for you, but I'm at work atm) I think there was some options with regard to not powering down certain devices in standby (yea, that would probably eat battery power though, but at least you would know which part was causing the problem)

Sounds like I have a very similar problem.  I have a 600m with XP Pro, but with no Firewire port.  So I purchased a SIIG 1394 2-Port CardBus and plugged it in.  It was recognized and worked fine for importing Digital Video on to the hard drive.  But it really messed up the network.  I could no longer use TCP/IP to go to any other machine or the Internet.  The system hung when I rebooted.  I had to run System Restore to uninstall the CardBus device.

I have sent a message to SIIG support but no response yet.  I am guessing that the PCMCIA adapters are at fault.  Or it could be one of the Network adapters.  Or it could be the way I have my network set up (VPN and Gateways).  Or it could be the card itself.  Dell installed XP and most of the software in November 2003.

Has anyone overcome this problem?  Any suggestions as to what needs to be upgraded?  Or should I return the CardBus and try a different approach to completing the Inspiron 600m?

-- RockBobbie

If possible, try to get one from another brand and model and see if it's the same.

BTW there's a PC Card forum so you guys having problem may like to check it out.

what about the integrated Firewire?

Unfortunately, the Inspiron 600m does not have an integrated Firewire port.  I didn't realize that until after I purchased the system and started using it.  I might have made a different decision if I had realized that it was missing.

What about the customer with the i8600?

Dear mrdat,

the integrated firewire port is fine, but:
is not powered
has a 4pin plug (firewire 800 is out yet!)
and i need more firewire ports, even if it is possible to chain them

Above all, do you think it is a standard of Dell to a have a pcmcia port non-compatible withe some (who knows?) cards?

I think that everything on a laptop have to work, and not some devices with some peripherals, and never it has to happen that the users have to find workarounds to make their PCs work.

Like a previous poster said.. it's hard to test every single device on their systems. I hope the replacement card works. Have you looked at any brands that Dell does Certify for this system?