Thinkpads Forum

I purchased a Firewire CF card reader to read CF cards from my cameras. My T61 has a IEEE1394 port on the front of it, I think it's called a 4 pin. (I have zero experience with Firewire.) So, the card reader shows up and has odd connectors that I believe are called 6 pin which, of course, won't fit my T61. So, I purchased a 6 pin to 4 pin cable and figured I was home free. No such luck. Am I attempting the impossible? Is there anything I can do to get this card reader running?

In Device Mgr I see the following:

IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers
OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller

and

Network adapters
1394 Net Adapter


Everything is enabled, I get absolutely no repsonse when the card reader is plugged into the T61. I've checked with Lexar and they say a driver isn't required Have I been had by Apple?

Thanks for any tips.

Check that firewire/1394 is enabled in the BIOS and in Device Manager.
I think it also needs to be enabled via Fn-F5.

Everything is cool in Device Manager.

I checked in the BIOS the other day but couldn't really ID what the device would be called.

My Fn-F5 only has options for the WLAN radio and BT.

Thanks!

The problem here is in supplying power to card reader.
4-pin firewire connector can't supply any power (it's signal interface only).

If your card reader has additional separate power input - use it.
If not, only solution is to buy ExpressCard 54 firewire adapter with 6-pin outputs.

RealBlackStuff wrote:I think it also needs to be enabled via Fn-F5.

It can't be enabled/disabled via Fn-F5, only in BIOS.

I agree with tporter's diagnosis. AFAIK, only Apple notebooks come equipped with 6-pin firewire ports. All other makes (Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba, etc.) use 4-pin.

Personally, I would use a CF to PC Card adapter. Compact Flash and PC Card signals are compatible. It takes only a (inexpensive) passive adapter to interface the two.

Guys, can you tell me what the device is called in the BIOS? I'll have another look.

This card reader certainly isn't powered so I guess I'm stuck.

I do have this oddball PCMCIA cardus adapter that has several USB, Firewire 6 pin and 4 pin ports. I've tried it and had no luck. It may be time to put a halt to all of this - - it isn't critical. I've got a couple of CF card readers that are USB 2. I'll just stick with them. I was hoping to pickup the faster transfer rate available with Firewire.

Thanks, I do appreciate the comments.

The T61 comes with firewire. Why do you need/want to add a card to deploy two connections? Also for W7, there are some issues with firewire. Forgot how to fix but took some time to install drivers etc.

I have an R52 with Firewire, but don't see any option in the BIOS anywhere.

I recently tried to do the same thing you did with my W700, and like you, I found that it wouldn't work.
As mentioned above, the problem is that 4 pin won't power the 6 pin CF reader. So, you're outa luck.

What I ended up doing was purchasing a Dynex USB CF reader, which seems to work fine.

Can't say this is the -best- USB CF reader, but I didn't want to wait on mail order, so I went down to Best Buy and picked up this baby. $20-30, if I remember correctly.

I'm running it through a powered USB hub, and it appears to do the job.

Unless you're out for the absolute fastest performance, etc., I'd recommend not messing with a 6 pin firewire setup on a separate card; more money, takes up a card slot, etc.

Thanks. Yeah, I'm not pursuing this any further. I'll just stick with one of my old card readers and be happy with it.