My system doesn't recognize new hardware

thanks very much for the suggestions.

does defective hardware mean that it is faulty? or does it mean that my PC just doesn't support this type of hardware? sorry i'm sort of a newbie here.

hmmm. i've also tried the other pci slot beside the original one i put it in and still to no avail. i don't think uninstalling the modem drivers will do any good either (although i've yet to restart the computer and find out).

@LookinAround: you said to check my BIOS to see if there's any settings that might enable/disable any relevant PCI slots or hardware. Could you show me how to go about doing this? (sorry i don't know how!)

does defective hardware mean that it is faulty?

Click to expand...

Yes, it does.

hmmm.. something tells me i should return this piece of equipment back to the shop i got it from and get a replacement. what do you think?

I mean, honestly, when you looked at my specs, it's high performance windows XP, the PC is fairly new, the latest drivers and updates installed for everything, my system SHOULD be able to detect something thats inserted into the PCI slot of the motherboard, should it not?

The problem is the firewire port, not my system. am i right?

1) The problem wouldn't be with the firewire port on the card, but the fact that the card isn't working so Windows can't detect it on the PCI bus (when it's inserted in the PCI slot)

That very most likely is because it's a defective card (and not likely to be a problem with your system)

2) Re: BIOS
It's still most likely the card is defective, but it's easy to also check BIOS and i've sometimes seen where Dell allows to disable different PCI stuff in BIOS. So, since is easy to take a quick look, may as well before you return it

To enter BIOS, you have to restart your computer. As soon as computer starts powering on start tapping the F2 key like once a second. Immediately after the Dell flash screen (and before the Windows start screen) you should see the BIOS menu. If you see the Windows start screen, you're too late. Restart and start tapping F2 again.

The BIOS menu should tell you how to move through the menu (usually up/down arrows, sometimes Page Up and Down, etc). Look for anything about enabling/disabling PCI slots. If you see something you think might be relevant feel free to post back here with the name you see before you enable it (if, in fact, it's turned off or disabled)

In any case, is most likely you're going to end up needing to return the card i think

ok, i think i'll be bringing this thing back to the shop today at some point.

One last question.

Could it be that there aren't any firewire drivers pre-installed on my pc and this is what i need to download in order for my pc to detect the hardware. Was mentioning the problem i had to a buddy and he suggested that. You see, when i bought my PC (Dell Dimension E521) back in 2006, there was no firewire connection in it, so it could be that my system isn't familiar with firewire and needs the drivers to detect the hardware???

Could it be that there aren't any firewire drivers pre-installed on my pc and this is what i need to download in order for my pc to detect the hardware.

Click to expand...

No. Windows doesn't require drivers to detect hardware. It only needs the drivers use the hardware's functionality (e.g. it can detect a modem card but can't use it until it finds a driver). That's essentially how Plug and Play works where
> Windows detects hardware
> Hardware sends Windows a cryptic looking Plug and Play ID string (e.g. something like PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_05E2&SUBSYS_058510DE&REV_A1\4&13D46659&0&0020
> Windows searches through all its available drivers to find one that matches the ID string and then loads the driver

Except for some occasional low level software bugs, detection fails if
> The device is defective
> The device has no power (in this case, power is available via the PCI slot)
> A device or PCI slot is disabled in BIOS

A second way to check:
Open Device Manager and (for XP) carefully look for any device with a yellow or red icon. (Especially look if an Other device category listed). A detected device with no driver will usually be listed under Other devices and/or appear in DevMgr with a yellow icon

Oh! One more thought....

Before returning the card you should try "re-seating" it. Shutdown the computer and remove the card. Then firmly and evenly reinsert it into the slot. Make sure it's evenly inserted all the way. Also, there might be a plastic or wire clip you may need to gently! push/pull or lift to slide the card in all the way (the clip will then snap in place to help secure the card in the slot)

If card isn't inserted all the way can also be a cause of the "not detected" problem

Problem Solved!

oh my gentle jesus you were right!

JUST when i was packing everything all up to take it back to the shop, i took one more look at the motherboard. this time i did some manual improvising. usually when i seated the card in, i did hear a click-in-place sound, but i was analysing the little gold lines (the AGP slot connectors) at the tip of the card that was connected to the PCI slot, and i could see that the length of the lines were more visible at one side than the other. i was a bit suspicious alright that it wasn't connected properly.

what the problem was was the PC's back plate panel. I will try and attempt to describe the problem as best as i can.

ok, the metal brackets that you attach the metal plate of the card to were preventing the nearby AGP slot connectors from reaching fully into the PCI slot. the ones at the far end of the firewire card were fully in properly (because they were a longer distance away from the plate panel and could be pushed in easier. So i had to manually bend the metal brackets and push them downward so as to ensure that all the AGP slot connectors were fully seated into the PCI slot. When i did this, started up the computer, Voila!! 'PC detected new hardware, 1394 controller'. Relief...

I'm sorry for wasting you all a lot of time. All I needed to do was bend some metal lol!

HAY-HAY! Great to hear the good news! :grinthumb

And no waste of time. We all learn from one another's stories