Firewire express/34 cards on Mabook Pro?

I recently needed to add some firewire ports to my Macbook Pro, so decided to purchase a Sonnet firewire express card. It's the one with 2 Firewire 400 ports and one USB port. The card works fine, although I have a big problem with it, basically it is VERY easy for the card to be ejected by mistake, even if you nudge it very slightly. I saw a review of this card which said the same thing, but I'm wondering if this is the same for all express cards, or just this one?? If they are all the same, is there some other way to secure it so there's no chance of it pinging out? If this is meant to be a new "standard" I find it very difficult to believe the connection would be so delicate...

I also realised that I actually need a card with FW 400 and 800 ports, or a card with 2 FW 800 ports. This is because I need to connect 2 audio interfaces, it's not worth going into the details but it's a very particular setup, and they need to be on the same bus. So I CAN'T use one 400 port on the express card and then use the normal FW800 port of the Macbook Pro (the devices also cannot be daisy chained, and even if they could it would slow the 800 device down to 400, which wouldn't be acceptable).

I noticed there are three or four such cards available, including one from Sonnet. I really want to avoid Sonnet if possible, because of the loose connection issue. I also need to know, if there is a FW400 and a FW800 device connected to an express card, does the speed of the 800 device slow down to 400, or can one run at 800 and the other at 400 simultaneously??

Thanks in advance.

Macbook Pro 15" unibody (late 2008), Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on May 1, 2009 5:19 AM

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7 replies

May 1, 2009 5:54 AM in response to neuroanatomist

Thanks for the quick response! I saw the SIIG cards and they look very good. Sounds like they are secure enough from what you say, but has anybody used both the SIIG and Sonnet cards to compare? Just wondering if the card pinging out quite easily is just with Sonnet, or whether it's a "feature" of the express/34 standard! 😉

Also, does the fact the speed reduces to 400 for both devices when both FW 800 and 400 devices are connected to different ports on an express card apply to ALL cards? Is this is a limitation of the express/34 standard, or just with currently available cards? In other words using an express card with more than one Firewire port is the same as daisy chaining devices, rather than having 2 actual ports?

Message was edited by: martin1981

May 1, 2009 5:20 PM in response to martin1981

Just wondering if the card pinging out quite easily is just with Sonnet, or whether it's a "feature" of the express/34 standard!


Hi,
All of the ExpressCards I have used have the same basic shape. Apple does not provide a locking mechanism for the ExpressCard bay on the MacBook Pro. As a result, the card can easily come out if the MacBook Pro or the external hard disk is moved while the Expresscard is inserted.

I find that some MacBook Pro models suffer more from this issue than others. I am sure that Apple has replaced more than a few ExpressCard bays as a result of customer complaints about this feature 🙂

My experience tells me that B is the correct answer: "it's a "feature" of the Apple express/34 standard".

Have fun!

May 1, 2009 5:27 PM in response to mbean

mbean wrote:
Apple does not provide a locking mechanism for the ExpressCard bay on the MacBook Pro. As a result, the card can easily come out if the MacBook Pro or the external hard disk is moved while the Expresscard is inserted.


Really? Mine all lock into place. To remove an ExpressCard, it must first be pushed in slightly to unlock it, then it can be pulled out.

May 1, 2009 10:38 PM in response to neuroanatomist

Really? Mine all lock into place. To remove an ExpressCard, it must first be pushed in slightly to unlock it, then it can be pulled out.


Hi,
That is the correct way to remove the ExpressCard. However, I can remove all five ExpressCards that I have from five different manufacturers by simply pulling on them.

An accidental push of the computer or pull on an enclosure cable can cause a disconnection. I have never seen a MacBook Pro that can be pulled around the table (with any significant force) by a cable attached to the ExpressCard and maintain its connection 🙂

If the user knows that the ExpressCard connection needs care they can usually avoid a problem. Some users seem to have more trouble with this than others.

May 14, 2009 6:51 AM in response to mbean

None of my three ExpressCards locked tightly on my Unibody MBP. That was quite a problem with the TI based Firewire 400 card, because the Mac went freezing at several occassions, likely because of lose contact with the card.

That being said none of the three cards is usable either. Beside the freezing issues the FW card showed quite bad performance despite its TI chipset. And my two JMicron based eSATA cards lead to corrupted data eventhough they are very different builds (not the same card with just another sticker on it).

Not to mention that the ExpressCard slot cannot be used on Vista, just OS X and XP.

I will do some tests with PC laptops, but I already tend to think that the Apple ExpressCard slot is broken beyond usability.

May 14, 2009 8:54 AM in response to T1mur

Apologies, I was clearly wrong above - my SIIG FW adapter pulls right out (I'd honestly never tried!). I've come to the conclusion that the 'push in pull out' is merely to allow easy removal of adapters like media card readers, which fit flush with the opening of the port (that's how I always need to remove my 11-in-1 card reader, since there's nothing to 'grab' onto.

My Lenovo ThinkPad has an ExpressCard port, and adapters _do not_ lock into place there either. The SIIG FW card can be pulled right out. The PC laptop has 'buttons' next to the expansion slots that can be used to eject cards that fit flush. The clean design of the MBP avoids protuberances like that, so the Apple solution is a push-to-eject function. But, the ExpressCards do not lock into place on my MBP or on the Lenovo PC laptop.

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Firewire express/34 cards on Mabook Pro?

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