AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHH! F*&%ing1394 4-pin jack!

[Roboburger]

for the second time in less than a year, I have casually, mindlessly moved my laptop an inch, and WRENCHED the tiny 1394 jack to a non-working state. I'm gonna have to send this back to Dell AGAIN, and it's not really Dell's fault- but it is Dell's problem, or at least I'm gonna make it theirs!

My wife was a software engineer for Scientific Atlanta until recently, and she says the software guys there constantly cursed the four pin sized 1394 jack. There was one manufacturer of a $3000 Tv set that had one on the back, and they broke it! What a lousy design flaw. And there's not a single USB 2.0 interface I'd consider using so far, at least not that I've seen...

allrighty then... Time to transfer all the files to a external hard drive and spend tomorrow at the studio doing what I was hope to do on my laptop tonight. Fudge!

[CraigS63]

What about one of these?
http://www.computerhq.com/LaCie_FireWir ... 04682.html

[ThunderFaceWizardHead]

I have my firebox connected to the 4-pin jack on my laptop, and it is a very weak and flimsy connection. I've got to get a firewire pcmcia card before I tweak mine too.

[Roboburger]

What about one of these?
http://www.computerhq.com/LaCie_FireWir ... 04682.html

A) there's no PCMCIA slot on my dell.

B) I've heard awful things from folks that convert PCMCIA to Firewire for devices- maybe they don't set their software correctly, but I dunno.

C) Update: If you have to by a PC laptop for remote recoring, buy a Dell and get the superdeluxe warranty package as I have, and I will renew. The customer service has only stopped short of sending a man over to lick my ass while repeating "Sorry, Sir!"

I called Cutomer service on a thursday about noon, they had a man out from DHL with a well padded laptop box. I placed my Laptop (sans easy-to-remove hard drive and battery) in it and called DHL, they had someone there to pick it up within hours the same day, Dell called me and emailed me to say they received the laptop on friday morning, and called and emailed monday morning to say my laptop would be arriving soon. by monday afternoon, I was mixing. Sweet.

Like I said above, the crappy jack is not their fault, but they are responsible when a component they have chosen to use shits the bed. and I must say, that was about the best feasalbe response to my situation in my eye. Of course, I'd rather not have broken the jack in the first place.