Thank you - you would need to qualify "there was a company that specifically made a USB to FIrewire Active Cable for Video Cameras" because it is not common knowledge and you provide no links.
My original question was which Dell computers - desktop or laptop - were issued with firewire ports as standard please? I received a list kindly. However there appears to be no definitive answer to this question. I have checked out Precision Workstaions credited with firewire for example, and discovered that some models were issued with and some without firewire, so firewire was not a standard fitting to this model at least. I would imagine in that case that firewire might have been an optional extra which some cutomers requested and others didn't?
I also asked if there were any reason a firewire port on a computer might not function, with specific reference to the Dell Inspiron 531. I am willing to purchase a Dell supported PCI firewire card for this computer (531) if I can be refunded in the event of it not functioning - no firewire cards on the 531 have ever worked, I still don't know why - I plug my cam into the firewire port and nothing happens, the port is to all intents and purposes dead even though the card has been properly, firmly connected to the PCI slot in the motherboard.