-I’m having issues making firewire cards working on the TB31PCIEX16 with my Laptop with Thunderbolt 3.
-I’ve tried 2 cards, one firewire 400 and one firewire 800.
-Windows 11 no longer comes with firewire drivers so I installed the 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller.
-I’ve verified that my laptop has thunderbolt 3 ports.
-I’ve verified thunderbolt drivers are latest revision.
-On the firewire 400 card. StarTech PEX1394A2V2 the card was recognized by windows however I have a freezing issue when trying to use it with my UAD-2 Satellite as it is not a supported firewire card. It won’t even work with one plug in. I suspect bandwidth issue however unplugging Dell doc and only running TB31PCIEX16 didn’t help. UA meter and control says 53% available bandwidth however DAW launches and disables authorized plugin immediately. I think there is not enough bandwidth being allocated to the card.
-On the Firewire 800 Card. SIIG NNFW0012-S1 card is not recognized by windows and freezes computer immediately. Card has 2A power port on it. I’ve tried connecting and not connecting the power to the card from the TB31PCIEX16, same computer freezing. It could be that card needs more than TB31PCIEX16 can output from power supply or its trying to pull it from thunderbolt instead of from TB31PCIEX16 power. Can the TB31PCIEX16 output the 2A sourced from wall adapter on case? When connected my computer starts making a lot of fan noise. I haven’t been able to connect any devices to firewire 800 card because it always freeze my computer. The SIIG NNFW0012-S1 is a recommended card by universal audio to use with interface.
Hello @MicheliDE,
Thank you for taking the time to ask your question about this Thunderbolt 3 expansion chassis on the StarTech.com Community page.
I am sorry to hear about the trouble getting your UAD Satellite Firewire DSP up and running. There seems to be of different clues. The recognition issues sound strange, and the bandwidth, freezing, and fan noise are all rather puzzling too. We can outline some steps to help you investigate and find a solution that will work.
Windows 10 had a legacy driver installation available for Firewire, however I have found that this is no longer needed in Windows 11. I suggest uninstalling any drivers and test the Firewire drivers included the Windows installation or installed from Windows Update in Windows 11.
Thank you for confirming that your laptop has Thunderbolt 3 ports and the latest Thunderbolt resources installed. Just be sure that the latest updates are applied from your laptop manufacturer’s support website.
Since you have tested with multiple Firewire cards already I might suggest trying a few more tests to isolate what is happening. Bench testing is a great way to help isolate the issues. Based on my understanding of your equipment, I can suggest some ideas:
- confirm the TB31PCIEX16 is used with the originally Thunderbolt 3 cable, or test another another Thunderbolt 3 cable
- test a different PCIe card in the TB31PCIEX16 chassis
- test the TB31PCIEX16 chassis on a different computer with Thunderbolt 3
- try the PEX1394A2V2 or the SIIG NNFW0012-S1 in an other computer with an available native PCIe slot
If any of these tests are possible, can you share the results here?
Would you be able to share some more information with us?
- Has the TB31PCIEX16 chassis worked correctly for you before? When and where was it purchased?
- What is the make and model of your laptop?
- What is the model of the Dell dock?
I will also note that while I would not normally expect any issues with the PEX1394A2V2 on the TB31PCIEX16, the recommended Firewire adapter for this chassis is Product ID: PEX1394B3 https://www.startech.com/en-us/cards-adapters/pex1394b3
Please reply with any detail you can and the results of tests and we can certainly take some time to investigate further.
Sincerely,
Hi DavidF,
Responses:
All tests responses made without computer dock attached to second thunderbolt 3 port:
-
confirm the TB31PCIEX16 is used with the originally Thunderbolt 3 cable, or test another another Thunderbolt 3 cable
-Case without card displays similar behavior with provided TB3 cable and TB4 cable I bought from amazon. -
test a different PCIe card in the TB31PCIEX16 chassis
-FW400 card shows up in device manager with limited bandwidth and is not usable, FW800 Card Freezes computer immediately. -
test the TB31PCIEX16 chassis on a different computer with Thunderbolt 3
No other computer available to test -
try the PEX1394A2V2 or the SIIG NNFW0012-S1 in an other computer with an available native PCIe slot
none available to test
I don’t believe that PEX1394B3 is a supported firewire card by Universal Audio. The firewire 800 card I got was one of two listed and the other card was not commercially available. Could you send me a PEX1394B3 card to try I’ve already bought 2 cards 
?
I’ve removed the 1394 driver I installed onto windows.
In retesting both cards:
Yes without the driver I installed windows did automatically find a driver for the PEX1394A2V2 FW400 card. Card now makes computer use more fan than before. If I plug in FW400 cable. UAD-2 is recognized and FB bandwith shows as 100%. This is an improvement. Laptop fan did calm down eventually. Trading thunderbolt cable yielded not working! Even though firewire 400 card at 100% as soon as I try to use an authorized UAD-2 plug in Studio One 6 DAW I get an error code and plugin gets disabled. All plugins then need reauthorization. Likely card incompatibility. Card still reads as FWB 100% after plugins disabled.
I then tried to install the NNFW0012-S1 with the good thunderbolt cable still attached. No UAD-2 connected. No Firewire 800 Cable connected. No 2A Power connected to Card. Instantly froze my computer when power plug inserted into TB31PCIEX16. Retested with 2A power plug to NNFW0012-S1. Computer did not Freeze! Card is not showing up at 1394 device or any other device that I can find. Pluged in firewire 800 cable no freeze. Powered up UAD-2. UAD not recognized.
It seems that adding 2A power to card prevents computer from freezing but also prevents card from being recognized.
Hello @MicheliDE,
Thank you for attempting some of these tests.
If available, I might suggest testing the TB31PCIEX16 chassis with a different type of PCIe card. Any other technology may be worth testing, for example a network card, USB controller, serial adapter, or parallel adapter. While I agree that we may be seeing some incompatibility going on, this kind of test might just help to rule out another issue with the devices.
Sadly, I do not currently have the PEX1394B3 available to me to send. If the PEX1394A2V2 is still within the return period, you may be able to return it and purchase the PEX1394B3 from your reseller. One of the reasons I suggest this adapter is because it is a simpler design.
Based on your testing so far, I agree, this sounds like it may be some sort of compatibility trouble. I might suggest checking with Universal Audio directly to confirm, if possible. The PEX1394B3 may make the connectivity less complex which could help, but it could depend on the authorization requirements.
Please let me know if you are able to investigate further or if you discover anything new, and we can review further.
Sincerely,
Hi David,
How many amps can the TB31PCIEX16 put into a card from its power supply with the provided cable in the enclosure? Can it do 3V, 2A?
If the TB31PCIEX16 has powered the device from the power supplycable and not from the PCIe slot itself does it detect that the card is present if the card is powered properly?
Regards,
Dean
Hello Dean,
I have looked further into the power capabilities and I see that it does support the 25 Watt PCIe slot spec. I found some specific references to 5V and 12V power rails, but no references to a 3V rail, unfortunately.
Based on the information so far, I am not immediately expecting a power issue, since the TB31PCIEX16 will work with standard PCIe cards. Of course testing with other standard PCIe cards, might help us narrow that down too.
I hope that this information helps!
Sincerely,
25W = 5V*5A. The NNFW0012-S1 card says 3V-some voltage on it(its under the power connector on the card so I can’t read it without desoldering).
Would 25W be only from the PCIE slot?
What about if I use the power connector on the TB31PCIEX16 via cable instead to the NNFW0012-S1 power connector which reads 3V-some voltage
?
I have USB PCIE card on the way to test in the slot. I already have plenty of USB so firewire for one device is the only useful card I can think of to use this box with. The display port is working, I tested it with a monitor.
Hello Dean,
Thank you for taking a photo! I misunderstood earlier but this definitely helps me get on the same page.
I see that you are working with the 4-pin power on the SIIG card. There is the LP4 connection on the Thunderbolt chassis with separate power capabilities from the power on PCIe slot itself. I have looked into the power capabilities of this port before as well. here are the results of that inquiry.
The LP4 port on the other side of the TB31PCIEX16 PCB supports up to 30W between the 12V and 5V rails.
- 12V can go up to 2.5A
- 5V can go up to 6A
Sadly, no 3V or 3.3V power is mentioned. This means more possibility for compatibility trouble.
I tried to find out some more details about the power on the SIIG card without luck in my brief search, but I want share one other detail. The NN-FW0012-S1 appears to use the same chipset that we use in the PEX1394B3. While we appear to have implemented it differently, I am less optimistic that this card will work for you now that I have found this information. The PEX1394B3 is recommended for use with the TB31PCIEX16, so it still may be worth trying, but this issue may yet fall to a compatibility with the audio adapter.
I apologize for the trouble getting this up and running so far. I am curious how the testing with the PCIe USB controller goes.
Please keep us with your test results, and we will be happy to investigate further.
Sincerely,
Hi David,
So I recevied the USB controller part number UP4210 with FL1100 controller
I plug it into the TB31PCIEX16. Drivers recognize ok in devicemanager. When I plug in brand new card and card reader into port drive shows up as USB drive in devices and drives. I went to make a transfer of 76GB to the 256GB card and its going at 17MB/s at the highest. its going to take over an hour to transfer 76GB over USB 3! Bandwidth severely limited to PCIE card.
I contacted SIIG about the card working with the TB31PCIEX16.
Why is this card slot so limited? I have no monitors or any other items plugged in to the TB31PCIEX16 except that one card reader and that one transfer going.
Hello @MicheliDE,
Thank you for taking the time to try that other card. While there could be other factors, something does not seem right.
After searching some more about the TB31PCIEX16, I did not see this kind of issue come up before.
There are a couple of ways to proceed from here. One option may be to consider returning the TB31PCIEX16 from the place of purchase, either to be replaced or to try a different Thunderbolt enclosure.
The other option may be to consider reaching out to our Technical advisory team directly to consider direct troubleshooting and other options.
Please let me know how you wish to proceed and we will do our best to help in any way we can.
Sincerely,
@DavidF