Firewire Fix for Sony FX-1
 

So Monday morning my firewire (i.Link) port went out on my wonderful FX-1, and after coming to this forum, I found that this was a fairly common issue, not only with the FX1 but with other firewire camera's as well. The fix from Sony is not cheap ($500 out of warranty).

Well, although new to the forum, I'm happy to contribute that I found a solution that runs about $50.00 (depends on shipping and how much help you want doing it.)

It seems the part that breaks is most commonly a very small chip located right behind the casing on the right side of the camera. The part from Sony costs roughly $35.00 + shipping. To replace it requires removing about 40 screws (in the proper order), taking the side of the case off, and swaping out the part. The sony technical manual can walk you through this as well.

The part most people need is the Mounted C.Board, FP-964, aka 1073-874-A.

Realize, opening your camera can result in MORE damage to it then when you started, and I what I'm offering here is solely advice, and is probably entirely against the manufacturer's recommendations. I take no responsibility should this cause you to damage your camera more, your computer more, or if the fix turns out not to work for you as it did for me.

Hopefully this helps someone out there recover their precious FX-1... Anything I can do to help I will.

Does anyone know of a source or link for the sony technical manual for the FX1? Looks like I have a bad port.

Thanks
Tom

Link to book
 

You can find it pretty quickly on ebay or various websites.

Thanks for the info. I'm pretty sure its the port. Oddly it works fine when I switch the camera to iLink convert and capture as DV but when I try to do HDV capture I lose all camera control and can not capture. Ever see this? Have never had these problems before. Also tried on another cable and computer with the same results.

It's been my experience that when the port dies, it dies fully... Which makes sense, you would basically have to short out a pin... HDV uses the same pins as DV I believe, so I'm not sure your having a hardware issue, although I suppose it's possible.

It sounds more to me like you might be using the wrong capture settings (DV vs. HDV) but if you had it working before, I'm not sure what to tell you...

What software are you using? FCP?