After spending two weeks fighting with this, I'v

[ewangr]

After spending two weeks fighting with this, I've been able to determine that the root problem is my Toshiba (Portege 3500). I've tried four different Firewire Harddrives and Two different PC Card Firewire adapters, and am continually running into instabilities.

The symptom is that I will be copying a number of files either from the Toshiba to a Firewire Drive or from one Firewire Drive to another linked to the Toshiba. After a bit I get a "Delayed Write Failed" error and then the entire 1394 card and attached device or devices disappear.

I have updated the BIOS to the most recent version on the Toshiba site, and have loaded all the Windows Updates I can find. I have tried setting up attached drives as "Optomized" for Performance or for Quick Removal with no discernable change. I have tried using the Advanced Windows setup to try and give Programs or Background Tasks precedence with no discernable difference based on settings. I've tried setting the Swap file to a fixed, large file rather than System Managed, but that hasn't seemed to help either.

My "guess" is that either there's a WinXP setting I've missed somewhere, or the Toshiba's CardBus implementation isn't up to snuff, or some combination of the two.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ewan

[WNewquay]

Ewan,

Sorry that you are having trouble.

When I had a 3500 I used an Orange Micro firewire card to a generic external firewire enclosure to a 120gig Maxtor drive.

Lots of backups, file transfers back and forth, never had a problem, and didn't have to change any of the "factory" settings. Just plugged it in and it all worked.

Just letting you know that it *is* possible.

WN

quote:Originally posted by ewangr

After spending two weeks fighting with this, I've been able to determine that the root problem is my Toshiba (Portege 3500). I've tried four different Firewire Harddrives and Two different PC Card Firewire adapters, and am continually running into instabilities.

The symptom is that I will be copying a number of files either from the Toshiba to a Firewire Drive or from one Firewire Drive to another linked to the Toshiba. After a bit I get a "Delayed Write Failed" error and then the entire 1394 card and attached device or devices disappear.

I have updated the BIOS to the most recent version on the Toshiba site, and have loaded all the Windows Updates I can find. I have tried setting up attached drives as "Optomized" for Performance or for Quick Removal with no discernable change. I have tried using the Advanced Windows setup to try and give Programs or Background Tasks precedence with no discernable difference based on settings. I've tried setting the Swap file to a fixed, large file rather than System Managed, but that hasn't seemed to help either.

My "guess" is that either there's a WinXP setting I've missed somewhere, or the Toshiba's CardBus implementation isn't up to snuff, or some combination of the two.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ewan

[WNewquay]

Ewan,

Sorry that you are having trouble.

When I had a 3500 I used an Orange Micro firewire card to a generic external firewire enclosure to a 120gig Maxtor drive.

Lots of backups, file transfers back and forth, never had a problem, and didn't have to change any of the "factory" settings. Just plugged it in and it all worked.

Just letting you know that it *is* possible.

WN

quote:Originally posted by ewangr

After spending two weeks fighting with this, I've been able to determine that the root problem is my Toshiba (Portege 3500). I've tried four different Firewire Harddrives and Two different PC Card Firewire adapters, and am continually running into instabilities.

The symptom is that I will be copying a number of files either from the Toshiba to a Firewire Drive or from one Firewire Drive to another linked to the Toshiba. After a bit I get a "Delayed Write Failed" error and then the entire 1394 card and attached device or devices disappear.

I have updated the BIOS to the most recent version on the Toshiba site, and have loaded all the Windows Updates I can find. I have tried setting up attached drives as "Optomized" for Performance or for Quick Removal with no discernable change. I have tried using the Advanced Windows setup to try and give Programs or Background Tasks precedence with no discernable difference based on settings. I've tried setting the Swap file to a fixed, large file rather than System Managed, but that hasn't seemed to help either.

My "guess" is that either there's a WinXP setting I've missed somewhere, or the Toshiba's CardBus implementation isn't up to snuff, or some combination of the two.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ewan

[WNewquay]

Ewan,

Sorry that you are having trouble.

When I had a 3500 I used an Orange Micro firewire card to a generic external firewire enclosure to a 120gig Maxtor drive.

Lots of backups, file transfers back and forth, never had a problem, and didn't have to change any of the "factory" settings. Just plugged it in and it all worked.

Just letting you know that it *is* possible.

WN

quote:Originally posted by ewangr

After spending two weeks fighting with this, I've been able to determine that the root problem is my Toshiba (Portege 3500). I've tried four different Firewire Harddrives and Two different PC Card Firewire adapters, and am continually running into instabilities.

The symptom is that I will be copying a number of files either from the Toshiba to a Firewire Drive or from one Firewire Drive to another linked to the Toshiba. After a bit I get a "Delayed Write Failed" error and then the entire 1394 card and attached device or devices disappear.

I have updated the BIOS to the most recent version on the Toshiba site, and have loaded all the Windows Updates I can find. I have tried setting up attached drives as "Optomized" for Performance or for Quick Removal with no discernable change. I have tried using the Advanced Windows setup to try and give Programs or Background Tasks precedence with no discernable difference based on settings. I've tried setting the Swap file to a fixed, large file rather than System Managed, but that hasn't seemed to help either.

My "guess" is that either there's a WinXP setting I've missed somewhere, or the Toshiba's CardBus implementation isn't up to snuff, or some combination of the two.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ewan

[WNewquay]

Ewan,

Sorry that you are having trouble.

When I had a 3500 I used an Orange Micro firewire card to a generic external firewire enclosure to a 120gig Maxtor drive.

Lots of backups, file transfers back and forth, never had a problem, and didn't have to change any of the "factory" settings. Just plugged it in and it all worked.

Just letting you know that it *is* possible.

WN

quote:Originally posted by ewangr

After spending two weeks fighting with this, I've been able to determine that the root problem is my Toshiba (Portege 3500). I've tried four different Firewire Harddrives and Two different PC Card Firewire adapters, and am continually running into instabilities.

The symptom is that I will be copying a number of files either from the Toshiba to a Firewire Drive or from one Firewire Drive to another linked to the Toshiba. After a bit I get a "Delayed Write Failed" error and then the entire 1394 card and attached device or devices disappear.

I have updated the BIOS to the most recent version on the Toshiba site, and have loaded all the Windows Updates I can find. I have tried setting up attached drives as "Optomized" for Performance or for Quick Removal with no discernable change. I have tried using the Advanced Windows setup to try and give Programs or Background Tasks precedence with no discernable difference based on settings. I've tried setting the Swap file to a fixed, large file rather than System Managed, but that hasn't seemed to help either.

My "guess" is that either there's a WinXP setting I've missed somewhere, or the Toshiba's CardBus implementation isn't up to snuff, or some combination of the two.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ewan

[swrdfghtr]

I've been using an ADS Pyro 1394 card with a very cheap external FW drive enclosure and have had zero issues... once I got a good FW cable. And you'd be surprised how many "good" brands aren't good cables.

I used to have dropped files and all kinds of problems until I bought an Apple FW cable. THEY know how to make them and all my problems went away. I used to have issues syncing my iPod, too, which is what made me try the Apple cable instead. Problem solved. This might not be your issue, but it's a cheap enough thing to try out.

[swrdfghtr]

I've been using an ADS Pyro 1394 card with a very cheap external FW drive enclosure and have had zero issues... once I got a good FW cable. And you'd be surprised how many "good" brands aren't good cables.

I used to have dropped files and all kinds of problems until I bought an Apple FW cable. THEY know how to make them and all my problems went away. I used to have issues syncing my iPod, too, which is what made me try the Apple cable instead. Problem solved. This might not be your issue, but it's a cheap enough thing to try out.

[swrdfghtr]

I've been using an ADS Pyro 1394 card with a very cheap external FW drive enclosure and have had zero issues... once I got a good FW cable. And you'd be surprised how many "good" brands aren't good cables.

I used to have dropped files and all kinds of problems until I bought an Apple FW cable. THEY know how to make them and all my problems went away. I used to have issues syncing my iPod, too, which is what made me try the Apple cable instead. Problem solved. This might not be your issue, but it's a cheap enough thing to try out.

[swrdfghtr]

I've been using an ADS Pyro 1394 card with a very cheap external FW drive enclosure and have had zero issues... once I got a good FW cable. And you'd be surprised how many "good" brands aren't good cables.

I used to have dropped files and all kinds of problems until I bought an Apple FW cable. THEY know how to make them and all my problems went away. I used to have issues syncing my iPod, too, which is what made me try the Apple cable instead. Problem solved. This might not be your issue, but it's a cheap enough thing to try out.

[ewangr]

Well, I think the one poster hit the nail on the head when he said "factory settings".

It turns out that I've had very little trouble ever since I turned my graphics card back to the factory 16-bit settings rather than the "high" 32-bit setting. My guess is that since the graphics subsystem uses shared RAM for video, that there was some strangeness in the interaction between the firewire, the PCMCIA, and the memory bridge...

Guess the lesson learned is to pay more attention to the graphics subsystem in the future...