PCMCIA firewire adapter not working ....

Question

with my LACie 40GB USB/Firewire mobile hard drive..
I previously posted that my TiBook 550 firewire port & the Lacie firewire
port are fried. I was hinted that the Tibook firewire port may have been
the culprit but not certain.
I bought a 3rd party PCMCIA firewire adapter IEEE 1394A
Here's the issue it works with a new firewire 3.5"drive enclosure which has
it's own power supply.
With the LAcie it runs off the power from the TiBook when I use the USB
port.
Is there a specific PCMCIA fire wire adapter I need to run the firewire bus
power of the LAcie drive?
I'm at a lost and REALLY behind in backing up data because of this.
Need help thanks ~A~

Answer 1

Thank you for clarifying this to me.
I went to the Apple store today, and not much was told except to buy
a new logic board!
My new 2.5" firewire enclosure does have a power supply port.
So looks like that seems to be my answer for now.
It does seem odd to have a power suppy for something portable, but
I guess when you blow firewire ports and need to go through a PCMCIA
adapter that's my best option.
The one thing I am curious about is that the LAcie firewire port & Tibook firewire port though the harddrive isn't mounting on my desktop still brings power to the drive.
Do you think on the "off the wall" chance that by adding a external power supply to the "injured" LAcie drive that it may allow my Tibook to mount
on the desktop?
A strange inquiry but worth a shot!
What do you think? ~A~
To add to Hardy's advice: Some pocket-sized FW drives
come with their own AC adapters. Others can use such
an adapter, but it's an optional accessory. Others
have no provision for connecting an external power
adapter to them, and must draw their power from the
FireWire bus. They can't do that when the FireWire
bus is on a PC card, unless the PC card adapter
itself came with a short auxiliary cord to connect it
to one of the host computer's USB or FireWire ports.
That cord is provided to draw power from one of those
ports for any bus-powered devices that are connected
through the PC Card adapter.
Therefore, you will need to do one of several things,
listed roughly in order of preference:
1. Use the AC adapter that came with your pocket
FireWire drive, if one did;
2. Buy such an adapter, if you didn't get one with it
but it can use one;
3. Use the auxiliary power cord that came with your
PC Card FireWire adapter, if one did;
4. Buy a different FireWire enclosure for your pocket
hard drive that allows the use of external power, and
comes with its own AC adapter.
5. Buy another PC card adapter that comes with an
auxiliary power cord.
#4 is preferable to #5 because it's certain to work,
not because it's necessarily less expensive.
Note that some portable hard drives need more power
than the USB or FireWire bus in a Powerbook can
supply. It sounds ridiculous — why make a portable
drive that requires you to carry an AC adapter with
it? — but it's true. This is why #5 above may not
work: even with an auxiliary power cord in use, your
drive may overdraw the power budget of the port to
which the cord is connected, and you'll be right back
where you are now.
PowerBook G4 Titanium 550Mhz   Mac OS X (10.3.9)   airport express, Safari, 512 MB
PowerBook G4 Titanium 550Mhz   Mac OS X (10.3.9)   airport express, Safari, 512 MB