[DRB55]

I need some hardware upgrade advice. My Dell Dimension 8200 computer is equipped with an IEEE 1394 PCI card (original equipment) and USB 1.1 ports on the motherboard and front panel. I would like to add USB 2 ports but I don’t have a free PCI slot. Therefore, my plan is to remove the old IEEE 1394 PCI card and replace it with a new card that contains both IEEE 1394 ports and USB 2 ports. I will use the new IEEE 1394 ports to capture video from my camcorder by firewire (as I do now with the old IEEE 1394 card). I will use the USB 2 ports for an MP3 player and an external hard drive. I have several questions:

1. Any advice on good brands of cards I should consider?
2. Am I asking for trouble with this plan? Might the Roxio EMC9 capture program not recognize or be incompatible with the new IEEE 1394 port? Could this require an EMC9 reinstallation?
3. Before swapping the cards, do I need to uninstall any software or drivers? I don’t see anything in “Add or Remove Programs that refers to my current IEEE 1394 PCI card.
4. Before swapping the cards, do I need to uninstall anything in Device Manager? I see entries like “Network Adapters > 1394 Net Adapter” and “IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers > Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller.”
5. Do I need to worry about any conflicts between my old USB 1.1 ports on the motherboard and front panel and the new USB 2 ports on the new PCI card?

I would appreciate any advice from those more knowledgeable than I on this subject.

[REDWAGON]

Certainly not trying to avoid your questions, but have you talked with Dell Tech support about what you would like to do ? You definitely will need your Firewire (!EEE1394) port for capturing video using EMC and a few more USB 2.0 ports will definitely be a good addage.

Check on the internet (suggest newegg.com as a starter) as there are many websites that offer a combo card that has both Firewire and USB 2.0 ports. As a matter of fact there are several that have that plus slots for your digital camera memory chip for downloading photos.

Any new Firewire port you add that the computer recognizes should also be recognized by EMC with the proper drivers. If you want to disable or uninstall any hardware drivers, open up the Device Manager and clcik properties on the hardware you want to change.

Frank...

[james_hardin]

I bought one Saturday night for $20 at a local computer store. It is a no-name with 2, 1394 ports and 2, USB2 ports.

Did nothing other than remove the old one and install the new one. – Came with a driver CD but if you are running XP, SP2 don't ever use included drivers unless the device fails to function!