Which Firewire PCI card?

Hello, I've been having trouble with firewire for over a year now. FCP won't communicate with the deck etc. I've heard the Apple firewire bus has known issues and overloads very easily. A solution is to get a 3rd party Firewire PCI card. My local authorized Apple technician says he can't find a card compatible with my system. He says the wrong one would destroy the motherboard.
Where can I get Firewire card garaunteed no to break my G5?

Hello, I've been having trouble with firewire for over a year now. FCP won't communicate with the deck etc. I've heard the Apple firewire bus has known issues and overloads very easily. A solution is to get a 3rd party Firewire PCI card. My local authorized Apple technician says he can't find a card compatible with my system. He says the wrong one would destroy the motherboard. < </div>
Nonsense on all accounts. Your local guy is, umm, misinformed.
Bad FW manifests as a binary situation. It either works or it doesn't. While an open connection on the motherboard's FW port section is possible, it is a result of mishandling and is a physical condition that is repeatable and therefore easily found by a competent tech.
Fluctuating FW status indicates software or OS problems that are difficult but certainly not impossible to diagnose. The major FW support sites (use google) can assist you to establish a test procedure that will save you lots of money and wasted time. You carefully eliminate all possible causes and then just as carefully examine what's left. If you do not set up a good test procedure, buying additional PCI FW cards may not fix anything.
Failure to communicate with your deck can be caused by dozens of things and we've been discussing them for years around here. An overloaded FW bus is not on that list unless you've got a bunch of other FW devices hooked to the same bus. That qualifies as User Error.
Buy any PCI FW card that says "Macintosh compatible" on it. That is not a problem because they all say that; PCI is PCI. They range from $10 to $200 at CompUSA, choose your connectors and bus speeds and just take your pick.
http://www.compusa.com/products/productinfo.asp?productcode=50268010&pfp=SEARCH
http://www.compusa.com/products/productinfo.asp?productcode=50231536&pfp=SEARCH
bogiesan

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