1394 Fireiwre Question

I have a Nikon coolscan 9000 scanner that requires a firewire connection. On my desktop, the connection is a 6 pin to 6 pin cable.

I am trying to hook it up to my laptop but it has a 4 pin receptical. I have a cable that is 6 pin on one end and 4 pin on the other but the laptop does not recognize that the scanner is there. Nikon says I can use this configuration but not sure the responder was correct. This is my first exposure to firewire.

My question is 1) what is the main differences between the 6 pin and 4 pin (other then 2 pins) and does anyone have a similar situation using firewire?

If this configuration really should work, maybe the laptop firewire slot is not working or turned on ( it is a new laptop)
Thanks for any help.

Six-pin Firewire can provide a considerable amount of current and power many devices. The only difference with four-pin cables and connectors is that they are lacking the pins for power.

You can still communicate with devices using a 4-to-4 or 4-to-6 pin Firewire cable, but you cannot deliver power. If your scanner has a separate power supply it should work with a 4-pin connector/cable, but if it is powered using the Firewire bus, you'll have to get a powered Firewire hub so that the hub can power the scanner.

It does have power. should I see the scanner on the My Computer page (Vista)?
As of now I do not. Can this slot be turned on and off?

Have you installed the most recent driver and software package?

With my firewire hard drives no driver is required but with my Epson USB flatbed scanner I need their software to access the scanner.

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Newsy FZ20 user
http://newsy.smugmug.com

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Software is up to date and driver is installed.

erndog said:

Software is up to date and driver is installed.

Click to expand...

I don't know details about your laptop but you may check the BIOS to see if it requires the Firewire to be Enabled in order to be operational.
Perhaps your Manual will have details regarding BIOS configuration(s).
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Vernon...