StarTech.com 2 Port ExpressCard 1394b FireWire Laptop Adapter Card - Texas Instruments FireWire Card - ExpressCard FireWire 800 (EC1394B2)

My HP laptop has a built in firewire port but it is a firewire to USB adapter internally installed in the laptop. The Flex Radio needs a fast firewire and the conversion to USB adds many wait stated and pauses in the flow of data. The laptop has an Express card slot and the firewire adapter connects directally to the PCI buss in the laptop. This is very fast and there are no pauses of wait states.

I have tried this card in two different laptops: a first gen HP ZBook 17 inch workstaion as well as a Lenovo Thinkpad T420 and it works on both. The problem I have is that I paid nearly $60 for a new card and obviously recieved one that had been used and returned. The card arrived bouncing around loose in the box, the reason, I found was because it had been removed from the anti-static bag. The included image shows how I found it when I open the box. The device could not have slipped out of the bag because the length of the bag and how it was folded would prevent it from doing so. There is also a yellow sticker used to keep the bag closed; upon inspection I found that part of its adhesive side had torn off and remained on the part of the bag it had been applied to. Reading reviews I note that I am not the only one to have recieved a used/returned item. At first the Z Book (i7 4000 series) didnt seem to acknowledge the card; there was no tone or chime from the PC that it had been inserted. Ultimately it was a hard reset, holding down the power button until the PC rebooted, that solved the problem. I have since used it to transfer video from my old Sony Digital 8 camera without issue. The Lenovo T420 is even more ancient by todays standards with an early i5 2500 series processor. The reason I have kept it is because it came with a factory installed firewire port which made it invaluable for my video transfers. Unfortunetly that port isnt as reliable anymore and lately I was having issues with connectivity. I got this card for the HP Z-Book, but tried it in the T420 as well and, after a little driver issue, it worked fine. The problem with the drivers came about while it was checking and installing whatever components it needed. After I installed the card in the slot the T420 laptop chimed to let me know it saw it was there, then there was a dialog box saying it was ready - but it wasnt. When I repeated the process and clicked on the dialog box for more info it showed that there were actually two more driver/components it was attempting to check and or install; this took a good 5 minites to complete. Afterwards the card worked fine. Knowing that it works on both devices I'm almost tempted to purchase a second card but I dont know if I can trust the seller. Kudos on the functionality of the card, Shame Shame on the seller pawning off used cards as new. I needed the card ASAP and that is the only reason I didn't return it.

Parfait pour moi et très utile.

Aucun problème

I use this adapter card to make the link between my HP 8560P (win 7 pro) laptop and my Flex Radio 5000a. The adapter card is easily slid into place on the 8560p and was quickly recognized and its drivers loaded by Windows 7 Pro. There appears to be no latency issues at this time albeit I do not use the virtual audio paths that the FlexRadio is capable of (I do hardware audio for now).