Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
Q (From another forum - nothing to do with computers - where I hang out from time to time.)
I didn't know I had firewire. I've since found my motherboard manual and it says there are three IEEE 1394 "by cable". What does this mean? How can I tell which ports are firewire as I can't see three similar ports at the back?
A (Just because it was a good rant and I thought you guys might enjoy it too.)
Motherboard manuals are always wrong. Never, ever believe a motherboard manual.
Apart from being filled with vast amounts of utterly useless information that you (a) don't need to know, and (b) could find out elsewhere in any case - e.g., the exact pin out of the parallel port, which is never wired any way other than the way every other parallel port has been wired since Adam was a boy and Commodore 64s were sexy - apart from that, motherboard manuals hardly ever include any of the practical and useful stuff - such as where is the clear CMOS jumper, or what CPU revisions does it support, or how have they wired up the USB connectors.
Forget the manual.
When they designed the motherboard, they probably ordered 200,000 manuals from the printers (because it's cheaper if you buy lots at one in one big print run), and (because printing houses have long lead times) they ordered them a couple of months before they were actually ready to start production.The manual, in other words, describes the prototype board, not the one that comes off the production line. And it will have at least three errors in it anyway, because no-one checked it as they were too busy sorting out the bugs in the prototype board itself.
Then, after the first 5,000 rolled off the line, they make some changes because there were still some bugs to sort out. After another 15,000 boards they run out of a key component and switch to a different brand with different characteristics, meanwhile making another couple of changes to fix yet more bugs. 30,000 boards later, they switch to revision 1.1b of the PCB as it's easier to manufacture. 12,000 boards later, they swap out another couple of components because a supplier offered them a better deal. Meanwhile, they have a special order from a major OEM and run off a special batch which (to save money for the penny-pinching OEM) leaves several bits out. There goes the Firewire port, or the Gigabit ethernet, or whatever it is that is not required. Seeing as they are already making it this way, they run another 30,000 boards down the line and, though they have a completely different feature set, sell them under the same model number. At this point, someone realises that the demand for SATA connectors has increased in the market, so they add another couple of those in, which also necessitates changing over to a different brand of controller chip, thus invalidating another three pages of the manual.
But apart from the 96.4% of the manual that is irrelevant, trivial, obvious, not applicable in your market, or just plain wong, the rest of the manual is just fine, provided you know how to read it - and reading motherboard manuals is itself a highly developed art. In your case, Lima, they mean (if the manual is actually the correct one for your revision of your board - and it might be, stranger things have happened) that the board itself has the electronics to provide 3 Firewire ports. Or at least, that it either once had that facility which it may or may not still have in the currently-shipping version, or else that someone roughed out the design for that feature but they haven't actually gone to the trouble and expense of soldering the appropriate part onto any of the boards. You see, in this industry, people make a short-list on feature-set (so the manufacturers load the board design up with every feature they can think of) and then make a purchasing decision based on price (so the board with as many features as possible left out at the last moment to save another 4.37 cents-per-unit is the one that actually sells in volume).
But let's assume that your manual is correct. If we translate it into plain English, it's saying that the board had the electronic ability to provide 3 Firewire ports. From here on, only three things stand in your way. (a) You need to find out if the manufacturer has actually fitted the connector onto the main board, or left it out to save 1.6 cents-per-unit. (b) You need to figure out how they have wired up the pin-out. (Look in the manual if you like. Who knows, it might be in there. If it is, it is quite possibly correct.) And (c) you need the appropriate cable to connect onto their pin header. I'll bet you London to a brick that this cable is an optional extra, and that although the importer brought in 3,000 motherboards, they didn't bother ordering any of the cables for them. (In any case, they are probably a "manufacturing option", which means you can have as many of them as you like, provided you order 3 months in advance with a minimum order of 8,000 pcs.)
Throw the manual away, or else take it to a very small room near the back of your house, where an appropriate use for it will doubtless occur to you. Then have a look at the connectors on a motherboard that you know has Firewire ports (try looking for an upmarket board - these usually have them). Then, armed with the knowledge of what the connector on this other mainboard looks like, have a look at your own board to see it it has one the same. If it does, all you need now is a cable. With any luck, it will be wired the same way as your board is wired, and you now have a Firewire port.
Who said owning a computer was difficult?
I didn't know I had firewire. I've since found my motherboard manual and it says there are three IEEE 1394 "by cable". What does this mean? How can I tell which ports are firewire as I can't see three similar ports at the back?
A (Just because it was a good rant and I thought you guys might enjoy it too.)
Motherboard manuals are always wrong. Never, ever believe a motherboard manual.
Apart from being filled with vast amounts of utterly useless information that you (a) don't need to know, and (b) could find out elsewhere in any case - e.g., the exact pin out of the parallel port, which is never wired any way other than the way every other parallel port has been wired since Adam was a boy and Commodore 64s were sexy - apart from that, motherboard manuals hardly ever include any of the practical and useful stuff - such as where is the clear CMOS jumper, or what CPU revisions does it support, or how have they wired up the USB connectors.
Forget the manual.
When they designed the motherboard, they probably ordered 200,000 manuals from the printers (because it's cheaper if you buy lots at one in one big print run), and (because printing houses have long lead times) they ordered them a couple of months before they were actually ready to start production.The manual, in other words, describes the prototype board, not the one that comes off the production line. And it will have at least three errors in it anyway, because no-one checked it as they were too busy sorting out the bugs in the prototype board itself.
Then, after the first 5,000 rolled off the line, they make some changes because there were still some bugs to sort out. After another 15,000 boards they run out of a key component and switch to a different brand with different characteristics, meanwhile making another couple of changes to fix yet more bugs. 30,000 boards later, they switch to revision 1.1b of the PCB as it's easier to manufacture. 12,000 boards later, they swap out another couple of components because a supplier offered them a better deal. Meanwhile, they have a special order from a major OEM and run off a special batch which (to save money for the penny-pinching OEM) leaves several bits out. There goes the Firewire port, or the Gigabit ethernet, or whatever it is that is not required. Seeing as they are already making it this way, they run another 30,000 boards down the line and, though they have a completely different feature set, sell them under the same model number. At this point, someone realises that the demand for SATA connectors has increased in the market, so they add another couple of those in, which also necessitates changing over to a different brand of controller chip, thus invalidating another three pages of the manual.
But apart from the 96.4% of the manual that is irrelevant, trivial, obvious, not applicable in your market, or just plain wong, the rest of the manual is just fine, provided you know how to read it - and reading motherboard manuals is itself a highly developed art. In your case, Lima, they mean (if the manual is actually the correct one for your revision of your board - and it might be, stranger things have happened) that the board itself has the electronics to provide 3 Firewire ports. Or at least, that it either once had that facility which it may or may not still have in the currently-shipping version, or else that someone roughed out the design for that feature but they haven't actually gone to the trouble and expense of soldering the appropriate part onto any of the boards. You see, in this industry, people make a short-list on feature-set (so the manufacturers load the board design up with every feature they can think of) and then make a purchasing decision based on price (so the board with as many features as possible left out at the last moment to save another 4.37 cents-per-unit is the one that actually sells in volume).
But let's assume that your manual is correct. If we translate it into plain English, it's saying that the board had the electronic ability to provide 3 Firewire ports. From here on, only three things stand in your way. (a) You need to find out if the manufacturer has actually fitted the connector onto the main board, or left it out to save 1.6 cents-per-unit. (b) You need to figure out how they have wired up the pin-out. (Look in the manual if you like. Who knows, it might be in there. If it is, it is quite possibly correct.) And (c) you need the appropriate cable to connect onto their pin header. I'll bet you London to a brick that this cable is an optional extra, and that although the importer brought in 3,000 motherboards, they didn't bother ordering any of the cables for them. (In any case, they are probably a "manufacturing option", which means you can have as many of them as you like, provided you order 3 months in advance with a minimum order of 8,000 pcs.)
Throw the manual away, or else take it to a very small room near the back of your house, where an appropriate use for it will doubtless occur to you. Then have a look at the connectors on a motherboard that you know has Firewire ports (try looking for an upmarket board - these usually have them). Then, armed with the knowledge of what the connector on this other mainboard looks like, have a look at your own board to see it it has one the same. If it does, all you need now is a cable. With any luck, it will be wired the same way as your board is wired, and you now have a Firewire port.
Who said owning a computer was difficult?
