non XL related issue - firewire and sp3

[billberet]

Hey,
ok i am at the end of my rope, figured i would ask here as my last resort.
i am connecting my external Drobo to my pc (hp z200 workstation) via pcie firewire 800.

I have win xp with sp3 and any time i plug in my firewire connection i get BSOD.
it has nothing to do with firmware, driver updates, etc. all that has been covered.
i've even gone as far as registry edits on the device instance.

there is a known issue with SP3 breaking firewire.
i've tried almost everything, even took the working drivers from SP2 and replaced the SP3 drivers regarding firewire.
i've loaded the hotfixes MS has provided on this issue, no luck.

if there is no device connected, the pc will boot up fine, and service manager sees the card and has loaded the appropriate driver, no issues.
the minute i plug in the wire, BSOD, and the machine will go in a constant reboot, not even getting to the windows login.
i flashed the bios, have all the latest and greatist drivers, still no luck.

anyone have any ideas?

[billberet]

i've also tried the replacement of the sbp2port.sys file.
which in my case i never had that file to begin with. (that can't be good)
this is the file which opens up the communication to the firewire port.

i added the file in from another xp machine, but still no luck.

***edit****

gonna uninstall sp3, go back to sp2.

[Bill Lott]

A total shot n the dark, but.... did you try BIOS Settings screen and disable the feature known as “USB Legacy Device Support”?

[billberet]

i know what your talking about, but that won't apply for this case.
i made some progress, one issue is that the pcie slot is sharing an irq with the video channel.
i am going to switch to pci card instead. I also found some success with the unibrain drivers.
they are the king when it comes to firewire.
then i made some registry entries, and everything seemed to work.

i'm on the right track, just a little more to go!!!!