[RyanCahoon]

Originally Posted by Mark Rozitis

This might be a dumb question but on both my old and new laptop the express card mounts so loose that it practically falls out!, Is there some adapter or something I am missing here, the slot is way to big.

As noted in the Wikipedia article on ExpressCard, there are several different form factors included in the specification. Most laptops I've run across have ExpressCard/54-capable slots, and so if your adapter card is of the smaller, ExpressCard/34, size, the slot will indeed appear to be too large. This wasn't too much of a problem for me when I had to use an add-on wireless card on my old laptop, but for your application where you have external cables attached it might be.

Originally Posted by Mark Rozitis

I have to do live video streaming now for the TV station and I like to use the express card so I can use the larger 6 pin firewire cable as to not wear out the small jack on the laptop as in news we are rather rough with the equipment and it gets alot of use.

I'd suggest trying to implement some cable strain relief system to take the strain off the adapter itself, but overall it sounds like you're dealing with much heavier usage than either the card or the slot is designed for. You may want to investigate something more like a docking station that might have a greater focus on durability instead of trying to get everything squeezed into the small form factor of a mobile add-on card.

A couple options:

• If your laptop manufacturer makes a proprietary docking station that includes Firewire, that would probably be the best.
• If that is not available, maybe try using a Firewire hub with the laptop's built-in port, that may be enough to alleviate some of the stress.
• This product claims to allow DV capture over USB, if that fits your needs
• Don't be so rough on your equipment!

Good luck,
--Ryan