Your Tech Tip of the Day
Do not insert a Firewire jack into a USB port.
This has been Your Tech Tip of the Day.
| Posted at 5:31 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (12)
What happened? Er, I mean what would happen Jack? ;-)
Posted by Stu B | February 9, 2008 5:44 PM
Hypothetically speaking, the port will be physically trashed and it won't work, ever again.
Again, hypothetically speaking, don't insert the Firewire jack into a second USB port and wreck that one too, before you realize that you are an idiot.
Posted by Jack Bog | February 9, 2008 5:47 PM
Gotta be more specific Jack. Do NOT insert a firewire 400 plug into a USB receptacle. I think this is one of the reasons they changed the Firewire 800 connector so that it would be physically impossible to do what hypothetically happened. That's an expensive hypothetical mistake as it probably doesn't leave any spare hypothetical USB plugs to use. You could hypothetically purchase one of those USB keyboards with all the spare receptacles on it, but then you'd have to figure out how to plug it in.
What a bummer. Was this hypothetical device an external firewire/usb harddrive by chance? Those manufacturers seem to be the worst about properly labeling the connectors.
Posted by mrfearless47 | February 9, 2008 7:40 PM
There are labels on the connectors?
Posted by Jack Bog | February 9, 2008 8:57 PM
Tech tip of yesterday: RTFM
Tech tip of tomorrow: RTFC
Tech tipping point: any single malt, neat.
Posted by Tenskwatawa | February 9, 2008 9:26 PM
Little tiny icons for firewire or USB. Just like the ones on the computer itself. They are usually stamped into the flat part of the male connector. The problem is that if you are iconophobic like I am the icons don't help but I'm good at pattern recognition.
Actually this is useful knowledge because I always wondered what would happen if you connected firewire to USB or the reverse. Now I know thanks to your experiment . Dat no good.
Posted by mrfearless47 | February 9, 2008 10:09 PM
Little tiny icons for Firewire or USB.
I was kidding -- I knew about the icons, just didn't look at them carefully. And they're dang similar. Would it kill them to use letters like "USB" and "FW"? Sheesh.
Fortunately, I didn't screw up the operation of the computer -- just the ports.
Posted by Jack Bog | February 9, 2008 10:13 PM
haha;
That was funny!
You have to take off the box cover and plug the firewire into the motherboard right?
Posted by AL M | February 9, 2008 11:35 PM
oops. Well, if its not a laptop they can be replaced pretty easily. For a laptop, the best bet is probably to get a PC card that has the ports you need.
Posted by Jon | February 10, 2008 12:25 AM
if its not a laptop they can be replaced pretty easily
Don't know about that; most USB hubs have been mounted on the motherboard for quite a while. Getting it replaced involves soldering fine pitch parts with specialized equipment; that's why most repairs involve exchange of the board.
But I do agree that a card might be the best solution for a laptop.
Posted by john rettig | February 10, 2008 8:57 AM
In a desktop computer you can simply drop in a slot card with USB 2 connectors. Takes about 5 minutes. For Jack, who doesn't like to RTFM, it might take 10. And remember, ground yourself before touching the components inside your computer .
Frys is your friend here. Card with 2 - 4 USB 2.0 receptacles should run about $25.
Posted by mrfearless47 | February 10, 2008 12:11 PM
most USB hubs have been mounted on the motherboard for quite a while
Obscene? Yes, but protected by the Oregon Constitution.
Posted by Jack Bog | February 10, 2008 2:02 PM