M-audio Fw 410 Hotplugging? Options

[glimmer]

Hi, I'm a newcomer here with a question about M-Audio FW 410. M-Audio says you should never hotplug the 410 into your Mac but should power down the computer, plug in the FW 410, turn it on, then turn on the computer. Also, when you're done with the 410 you should pwoer down and then unplug it from the computer FW port.

This seems extreme, and I have some friends who say they don't bother to power down to use the FW 410.

How do you guys here use the FW 410? Just plug it in and go? Or do you follow M-Audio's advice? Thanks.

[ghess]

This is a Firewire issue. If you are bus powering devices, you can generate a spark that will fry your Firewire port. If you are using the external power supply it isn't a problem and you can hot swap.

[glimmer]

Thanks for the response. Yes, I'm bus-powering the device using a six pin FW cable. My thought was to plug in the device with the computer on but the device turned off. Then once plugged in, turn on the device.

Even in that scenario you'd consider there to be a danger from a spark as you describe?

[ghess]

yes, that could still cause problems If you want to hot swap, use the wall wart. That way there's no power going through the FW port

[mortalengines]

I would listen to whatever the manufacturer says since doing anything other than what they say wil void your warranty.

[lepetitmartien]

And there's been a few horror stories upon fried FW ports due to not protected enough ports on some hardware.

Play it safe, M-Audio was among the few with issues unfortunately.