Tried a few more changes and now I get "Port Com 1 is busy and cannot be used for deck control"!

have you tried a new FW cable

I am using the firewire cable supplied with the Mojo.  I could also try a 400 to 800 (800 on the CPU end), but here's the exact error message. (I freed up Port Com 1, by the way.)  The record window says:

"A device on the 1394 bus causing problems. Please remove it or disable 'output to DV Device' (That setting has already been unchecked.) FTSTatus COde -TF_LinkInitializationFailed - FlamethrowerLinkManager::OpenLink - Failed to create link object."

Any device settings you think I could disable or change?  I'm so close---I actually saw a picture for a few seconds!!!

Can you get hold of a firewire card and plug it in to a free slot on your machine (don't know which is the correct slot on a Dell, as we have HP workstations) and connect the mojo to this? There could be conflict (in an "AVID sense") between the on-board firewire and some other machine function. If you want to connect firewire storage and use the mojo at the same time, you are going to have to go this route anyway.

Do you mean an additional firewire card? As far as I know there is one firewire card on the machine, which I installed myself in order to bring the Dell up to Avid standards and also give more power to my multiple media storage drives (all now unplugged.)

I do have a Firewire hub, which is connected to one of the 3 FW slots on the back of the computer.  I'm not sure I know what is meant by "onboard" firewire--is that the card I installed? Or something else that's powering the card?

And, are you saying I could actually have firewire connected storage AND use the Mojo? I had thought Mojo was a firewire hog which wouldn't let you use any other devices.

THANKS!

Chez,

DO NOT USE A HUB!!!! try the other FW ports that are built into the machine, try a new FW cable.

Is this an Avid supported machine?

It's not an Avid approved "workstation", but the graphics card (not what my system specs say below--it's an NVIDIA QUadro FX 570 graphics card), RAM, speed, and all devices (it's a Texas Instruments firewire, etc) are all the elements required by Avid.  It runs the software beautifully--but this Mojo thing is devilish.

FYI, there are only 3 firewire slots--2 are the square 800 ones, the only one that fits the traditional firewire plug is what I'm using for Mojo.  Are you saying to try one of the 800 slots (which Avid says is not approved?)

ChezAmber:

Do you mean an additional firewire card? As far as I know there is one firewire card on the machine, which I installed myself in order to bring the Dell up to Avid standards and also give more power to my multiple media storage drives (all now unplugged.)

It sounds like the Dell doesn't have an on-board firewire port(s) (??) The usual arrangement with the HP workstations is that the workstation has an on-board ( on the mother-board) Firewire port, which you use for the mojo and you add a card to give additional firewire ports for storage.  I was assuming you have an on-board firewire port. I don't understand the "give more power to my ...media..drives". Either there are ports for them, or not? Did they work before you added the card?

I agree with Matthew.. Do not have a hub connected. Forgive me for asking, but were you trying to feed the mojo through the hub? The mojo needs to "see" the computer directly.

You say your firewire card has both 800 and 400 firewire ports. Can you get hold of a firewire card (400 only) and try it? ADS Pyro was always the preferred card.

Just looked up the machine on Dell's website and the front panel firewire connector is not connected to the motherboard, but to an optional card, which I presume is what you have installed. If you want to run firewire storage, you will need to add another card. Why use firewire? All our machines use USB-connected external drives...far more stable.

No, the mojo does not work with the firewire 800 Mbs standard.