First of all there is no such thing as a USB to Firewire adapter. Secondly, not all PCIe Firewire cards are created equal......some chipsets are not compatible with Presonus,(& other brands), of audio devices. Make sure you use a card with an approved chipset:

http://www.presonus.com/uploads/products/media/files/PreSonus_FireWire_Chipset_Compatibility_7-25-12.pdf

I have a Dell Latitude e6410 and use a Dynex firewire card and it works just fine with my Firestudio.

Oh....and BTW....maybe it's not the card.....did you install the latest drivers from this site and, if so, are you sure that they installed properly?

Thank you Cristofe

cristofe wroteFirst of all there is no such thing as a USB to Firewire adapter.

To be extra clear. Such adapters does exist but they exist for a specific purpose, not applicable to our type of gear.

Some equipment, mostly consumer cameras, have a firewire connector and you can connect this to your firewire port on your computer. So far, so good...

However, they implemented a nice little feature in that kind of an equipment. They added an usb port - Into the same firewire connector! By autosensing your computer it could then autoswitch between firewire and usb. Hence the firewire-->usb adapter.

So this type of an adapter is nothing more than a simple wire-for-wire connector.

So this type of an adapter is nothing more than a simple wire-for-wire connector.

And therefore useless to the OP which is exactly why I didn't mention it.

cristofe wrote

So this type of an adapter is nothing more than a simple wire-for-wire connector.

And therefore useless to the OP which is exactly why I didn't mention it.

The problem is that they google it and find the 'non-existing' adapter. I think that It is better to say that it isn't compatible rather that it doesn't exist..

You've got a point there......I made that mistake once myself.

cristofe wroteYou've got a point there......I made that mistake once myself.

I was just a split hair from doing it myself once . Fortunetly my adhd/spidersense kicked in and I did my investigation...

Btw, that spidersense doesn't work all the time though

cristofe wroteFirst of all there is no such thing as a USB to Firewire adapter. Secondly, not all PCIe Firewire cards are created equal......some chipsets are not compatible with Presonus,(& other brands), of audio devices. Make sure you use a card with an approved chipset:

http://www.presonus.com/uploads/products/media/files/PreSonus_FireWire_Chipset_Compatibility_7-25-12.pdf

Bought a StarTech EC13942A2 which is on the list from the above link you sent me. My laptop reads it and says it ready to use and working properly but my Firestudio mobile wont fire up on just comnnecting the firewire cable. I used the power adaptor, which gives it power but nothing in terms of the blue light remaining "on" on the interface. Will be searching out what else i can do but figured i'd leave a comment here for any other ideas you, or anyone else, can provide me with.
Thank u for your time.

Make sure that you use the legacy drivers.

i did. i researched and found that i had to use the legacy drivers. Firestudio Mobile audio device now appears in the dropdown menu for selecting audio devices but a message pops up saying that the device didn't start correctly and to configure the device, or something to that affect. same message reaapears and keeps asking me if I'd like to retry, which i press yes but it keeps failing. I'm going to call Presonus for Tech help soon. I'm close, lol,
Thanks to you all for your assistance.

click wrotei did. i researched and found that i had to use the legacy drivers. Firestudio Mobile audio device now appears in the dropdown menu for selecting audio devices but a message pops up saying that the device didn't start correctly and to configure the device, or something to that affect. same message reaapears and keeps asking me if I'd like to retry, which i press yes but it keeps failing. I'm going to call Presonus for Tech help soon. I'm close, lol,
Thanks to you all for your assistance.

With the PC powered off, connect the FSM, then power up the PC. Make sure the sync light is solid blue. Then start S1. You will probably get the same message as before, but hitting retry should get you connected.

S1 remembers the last state, so if the FSM hadn't connected successfully on the last session you will get that message. As a practical matter, I have always had better luck connecting my FST by connecting with the pc powered down, then powering up the pc.