# FireWire Driver Missing (ALSDRVR.INF)? alesis fireport issue



## processor93 (Jul 18, 2006)

i'm trying to narrow down the source of the problems i'm having connecting to an external device.

COMPUTER:
G4 powerbook / 1.5GHz / 512MB DDR / DVD-R / firewire port included
shipped with 10.3.7, updated to 10.3.9 

DEVICE:
alesis fireport 1394 - connects the back of the IDE drives used in the alesis HD24 hard disk recorder to firewire.  comes with its own software called FSTconnect, which allows your computer to see the tracks as .WAV files and transfer them back and forth.

PROBLEM:
upon launching the program on my laptop, whether the device is connected or not, i get the immediate error "can't load IEEE-1394 driver: ALSDRVR.INF."

although the driver name would suggest to me this is something the alesis software should have installed, alesis tech support said that perhaps this is a firewire driver that should have been installed but was skipped.  however, although i've never tried any other firewire device connection with my laptop as the master, i have used it in firewire drive mode many times. in addition i can't find any such driver on my G5 at work, which i connect via firewire to with no problems.

i appreciate replies from anyone with perspective on this, whether they have experience with this alesis device or not.  thanks in advance.

d.


----------



## fryke (Jul 18, 2006)

It sounds like a _Windows_ driver. *.inf-files are popular over there in that world, whereas on the Mac, they're not. Get back to that company.


----------



## MisterMe (Jul 18, 2006)

That error message sounds like a Windows error message. The .INF extension is for Windows setup files. Either Alesis made a serious mistake in its MacOS X software or you made a serious mistake when you installed your device.


----------



## processor93 (Jul 18, 2006)

yeah, i thought that name sounded strange. even moreso when i noticed the only files with that extension i could find on a mac were microsoft office-related. although to me there are windows-ish sounding files used on mac OSX (i've only switched from OS9 last april), so i was giving it the benefit of the doubt.  to confuse matters more, their drive is not windows, it's a proprietary format called FST.  obviously the files used are similar though.

now i'm sure the alesis is the culprit - it turns out my recorder doesn't have the latest version of the firmware (1.20), even though it came out in 2004 and i bought mine in late 2005.  this would affect the drive as well.  it makes sense now - their mac software can't load the driver, not because it's not on the mac, but because it's expecting it to be on the IDE drive.

thanks for pretty much confirming my suspicions.  nice to have something else to reply with next time i talk to a tech.


----------



## processor93 (Jul 19, 2006)

thanks for your help...still trying to narrow down the problem, but now i believe i have a software issue related to my mac not being able to run the installer on the disk properly.  see the thread i've started in the OSX software forum:

http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1319568


----------



## mhtsos (Mar 8, 2007)

i had this problem yesterday , and after trying a couple of times , i realized that the solution was written down to my install cd :
INSTALL FROM CD
i don't know why , but it works. maybe it's come kind of copy protection ? :-|


----------

