Can't boot from firewire disk

[ttrtilley]

I live in Taiwan, so it's easier to just go down the street and get something. It costs too much to ship things here. I do have a Wiebetech Super DriveDock that I like, except it only has one port so must go on the end of the chain. I cursed that just yesterday since nothing downstream of the Zynet is available, and the DriveDock has to be downstream. Totally disappears, not just for booting!!!!! Speaking of LaCie, their firmware upgrader wanted to upgrade the DriveDock, so I let it go ahead. Now it is a LaCie DriveDock.
I'm not sure if the Zynet/Prolific is easily upgradable. The chip says PL-3507 03497A. I wonder if I could just replace the whole controller. It is probably the least expensive component. The case itself is thick beautiful extruded aluminum. Power supply is external.