DR-HD-100 crashing when connecting to Mac
 

Lately we have not been able to connect our DR-HD100 to our Mac Pro. When you hit Enable, it sits for about 5 seconds and then shuts down and restarts. The Mac obviously sees it for a second because I'll get the eject disk before unplugging warning. I've tried a system reset, but it didn't work.

We can get it to connect to a couple of PC's sometimes, but that's hit and miss. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Any suggestions?

Hi, try to switch the Firestore in DD mode and then boot up the MAC.

Thanks, I'll give that a try when I get to the office.

Didn't work. The Firestore crashed as usual.

I am very curious as to the answer to this question myself. Last weekend I was on a shoot and attached my Dr-100 to my macbook pro and had the same thing happen.
The Dr-100 shut down twice and restarted. I turned the unit off unplugged all the firewires and reattached them then plugged-in the dr-100 turned it on in and it worked fine. Later when I transfered the footage to my mac pro I had no problems. I am hoping it was just a bad connection.

It is a good idea to have the unit powered down when connecting to a computer. Once connected, power the unit on.

DR-HD100 problems
 

For such expensive units there are a number of problems with the DR-HD100's (and i would guess their sister models). For one the battery is just plain inadequate (yes they offered a larger capacity field battery, but IMO the units should have shipped with a decent battery). This would be one of the first things I'd check if having problems. Take the battery out all together and connect it to the computer with the power supply only. Check the DC input because mechanically it is what we call a P.O.S. - work it out for yourself. A production capable unit should come with a D tap, an XLR, a Hirose or something that provides a solid connection. The power input on the DR-HD100 seems like an afterthought.

Secondly try a shorter firewire cable or a different firewire cable. Sometimes this may help. I had to send my DR-HD100 back under warranty because it would only connect intermittently on the computer IO port using the small cable that I used with the camera. I'd suggest that the 1394 chipset is less than stellar.

I still have problems from time to time with connection, where it works on one computer and not another. I can't say why except imagine the protocol handshake is getting corrupted somehow in the firewire stream, because the signal isn't strong enough. My unit does not shut down at this point, but I get the yellow exclamation mark in device manager (win32).

I'm interested in Matt McEwen's comment because the way the software interface is written seems to imply that you don't connect to the computer until after you enter that mode. From memory it says something like "connect to computer now" - it can't do that if the unit is not turned on when you connect it:) Personally, given the problems with the JVC's firewire port I'm thinking it is much safer to connect it before turning the computer on.

If you can't get it to work any other way, try connecting it as a DV device and dubbing directly into your NLE, using the other port on the DR-HD100. I would also have both turned off as you do for connecting to your camera. Painful real time I know but may get you out of trouble, then send it back to Focus to get fixed.

FireWire is supposed to be hot-swappable. But in reality many ports have been damaged this way. Including Camera's, harddrives etc...
You can prevent problems by:
- If possible use cables which don't carry power. (I use only cables which use the firewire data only)
- Always shutdown the equipment while connecting.

Hi Marc - know that :)

I'm just pointing out that the way the software interface on the DR-HD100 is written that it strongly implies connecting the device to the computer after you turn it on. Which i realise is not the right way to do it. Therefore I'd like an explanation from Matt McEwan as to why?