Windows 8.1 - Legacy Firewire Drivers

Question

Hello,

I need to use the legacy firewire drivers for my system.

Windows 8 does not have this driver anymore and it does not allow the installation of the driver files from a Windows 7 system due to driver signing.

The only way to get the driver to install is by enabling test mode and disabling something else. This results in a screen watermark.

Can Microsoft please provide a signed version of the Legacy driver? It would cure headaches for a big chunck of audio engineers who choose to use Windows.

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi,

We have made the legacy 1394 driver available to download for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 today. Please see the blog below and instruction on download/manual installation.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/usbcoreblog/archive/2014/09/10/announcing-the-availability-of-a-standalone-legacy-1394-ohci-firewire-package.aspx

thank you,

Koichi Hirao [MSFT]

Answer 2

OK for those of you who are having trouble with the installer and can not run the KB2970191 download...

1. First extract the files from the 1394_OHCI_LegacyDriver msi installer package. (I used 7-zip but I am guessing most any unzipping app will work)
2. Throw out all the ones with a "2" suffix in the title. (The files with "1" worked for me so I didn't need the ones with 2 suffix.  You may want to try throwing out the "1" files and using the "2" files if this doesn't work well for you ).

So trash these:

_1394bus2.sys

_legacy13942.inf

_Legacy13942.cat

_ohci13942.sys

3. Rename each of the remaining four files by removing the "_" prefix and the "1" suffix.

so

_1394bus1.sys becomes 1394bus.sys

_legacy13941.cat becomes legacy1394.cat

_Legacy13942.inf becomes Legacy1394.inf

_ohci13941.sys becomes ohci1394.sys

4. Double click on the legacy1394.cat file (the catalog file)

View Signature

View Certificate

Install Certificate

Choose between “Current User” and “Local Machine”

Choose “Automatically select the certificate store, or you can store based…”

Press “Finished”

5. Right-click the Legacy1394.inf file

Select install

Hope I wrote this up clearly and accurately. My brain is fried after working on this for hours. Hope it works for you.

Answer 3

I am using 64 bit Windows 8.1

Check to make sure that your video capture software has correct settings for Device Control and set to appropriate NTSC or PAL setting.

Answer 4

Actually Windows 8.1 seems to have big problems with firewire/normal drivers especally for Audio devices.

I was trying to install it by using the "device manager" --> update driver --> "search for driver on the pc" --> select from a list --> Harddrive. (Sorry I was translating it from German..)

Then I Picket the *.inf file from the driver directory and chose the rigth device, ignored the warning and installed the driver.

It worked, The Audio interface's controll panel recognized the device, but lost it after a few minutes.

My Audio editing Software (Ableton) couldn't open the device driver...

So there is no other way than uninstalling this Windows 8.1 update and give them some time to think about it and hopefully fix it some day.

Answer 5

Hi,

If the drivers are not available for Windows 8.1, then you can download the drivers for Windows 7 and install them in compatibility mode and check. Follow the steps to install in Compatibility mode:

a. Right click on the driver installation file and select Properties then tap or click on the Compatibility tab.

b. Place a check in the Run this program in compatibility mode box.

c. Tap or click the drop down box and select a previous Operating System, then tap or click OK.

Reference:

Make older programs compatible with this version of Windows

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/older-programs-compatible-version-windows

You can also refer to:

What is program compatibility?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/what-program-compatibility

Compatibility Center.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/win8/CompatCenter/Home?Language=en-US

Please do let us know if you need further assistance, we’ll be glad to assist you.