How can I check Firewire port?

[Rik Bean]

I'm running XP Pro SP1. I have 8 USB2 ports and one Firewire, provided
by the Creative Audigy 2 ZS sound card. I have a couple of external HDs
which I use for backup, usually through USB. One of them, however, has a
dual interface, so I could use the Firewire option. Thinking this would
be a better way to conserve the USB bandwidth, I connected the drive
up. XP recognised it immediately, Device Manager was happy with the
connection.

I then ran Nero's speed test on the drive and found a 2-5 times
improvement. I copied files from it with no problems. However, when I
started to write to it, Windows stopped the device, saying it couldn't
complete the write and there might be data corruption. There wasn't,
and putting it back to the USB interface it worked without problems.

As I only have this one device with a Firewire interface, I'm trying to
think of a way to establish whether the problem lays with the drive or
the Creative port.

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

 

[Treeman]

Hi Rik,
If you have SP1 installed it shouldn't be a problem. SP2 on the other
hand, jeez what can I say. The drivers totally dork up firewire.
(In device manager SP2 say's everything is honky-dory)
But just try to plug in your DV camera, ext. firewire drive, etc.
Tell me, are you getting "delayed write errors?"
The problem can be one of many things. Windows has a tendency to write
more than typical 128K of data to the I/O port for firewire. Actually,
the size can sometimes rocket up to 512K and cause the firewire device
to lock up and have delayed write errors.
I do believe the chipset on the Audigy for firewire is a Via chipset.
What kind of chipset controller is on your motherboard?
Post back more info so I can help you out.
Download EVEREST Home Edition @ 'Lavalys' (http://tinyurl.com/39d24)
It will tell you what's under the hood of your computer.
Best,
Treeman