"If the card requires I/O access below 1000h?" - That's the question I need to answer.
The issue is still the same as mentioned in many of the threads of HDSP(e) series: "freeze or bsod with HDSPe cards".
In this case I'm owner of a Dell Notebook as well but when reading the forum it looks like that Apple product owner aren't much more happy with this topic...
I've already read the workaround (disable power feature for EC in bios) but as the bios option doesn't persist and Dell doesn't seems to change this I have to choose the lesser evil for me.
The Info from Dell is quite easy: this is just one EC which cause trouble with their Notebook and all the other are fine.
I've tested (borrowed by a friend) an EC with USB connector from LogiLink which works fine at the Notebooks. So I understand the Info provided by Dell.
The tested card: http://www.2direkt.de/i-sell2u/images/d … PC0055.pdf
I have ran a few more tests with a second Notebook from Dell (M6500) which has a 6 pin Fire Wire Port.
That's why I reinstall Win7 on a dedicated HDD, insert and installed the HDSPe EC to my Notebook and connect it directly to the M6500. The Notebook even freeze if I didn't transfer any files or w/o starting the application from you (hdspmix.exe). I have reinstalled the OS once more w/o installing any driver except of chipset and the one from the EC (v. 3.27) > again the same problem. That allows me to say that the problem is probably caused by your driver.
So I've asked Dell for co-operation to this topic and was quite surprised about the amount of ideas and Info's provided then...
We've found the mandatory different between the Notebooks reported now (which does not work) and those before (which work) is the chipset. Dell has found entries in their data base, that the chipset architecture has changed over time by Intel. They suppose it might be a reason for having such problems and know there is a memory I/O access threshold at 1000hex.
For example they reported me a problem that some old PCIe or EC cards wasn't detected at any of their Notebooks as result of this change. This was fixed by a dell bios release month ago.
Sure it was their duty, so they handle it. But to fix a driver from a different vendor (from their point of view) isn't one and it seems to be the reason, why they didn't enable the option in bios too. It's a change request to enable a workaround but not to fix the actual issue.
At the end I am the customer of both of you and not interested in who will fix it. But I do know whose responsibility it is.
Everything I want, is to use what I have paid for.
best regards
Nelson
