I've been using a Roland/Edirol FA-66 Firewire interface with years and it's been rock solid.  My desktop is slowing down and I also wanted something portable.  I was able to get an incredible deal on a great very high-end dell laptop from my office (slightly used by me).  It has a firewire mini port so I hooked up the correct cables, notice that the BUS power setting on my FA-66 won't turn the lights on, OK - no problem - I'll just use the FA-66 DC in power supply.  But even with that, it drops out every time.  So I've read that laptops typically have inferior firewire hardware and/or drivers - is it worth looking into a Firewire repeater hub that has it's own power supply (looks like these are at least $100 ?), or is it time to move to a USB interface (I'm considering the Roland Quad Capture - approx $269)?  Thanks in advance for any advice!

A hub is not going to compensate for a deficient PC firewire interface.

Firewire is a dying standard now. Firewire on laptops kinda sucks, as you said, and the only way to get "decent" Firewire is through cardbus, which is also getting less and less common and changes every so many years. Considering the price I'd probably say drop it (or use it on your old desktop as a backup system) and get a new interface. Do you really need four simultaneous inputs?

The way most interfaces are setup, extra ports are useful for more than simultaneous input. They provide routing options for external hardware or just a simple loopback to the DAW.

Floyd : tell me the laptop/Dell model ! il look up its firewire interface

latitude E6520 - i7, 8GB RAM, sounds like a hub might not make a difference... I can try selling the FA-66.  I don't really need 4 simultaneous ports, might be nice at some point but mainly working on one track at a time.  Looks like Roland Duo would be fine - at closer to $200.

One thing I like about the Quad is the Monitor mix, which my FA-66 has and I do use when recording.  It looks like the Duo doesn't have that function.

Good call.
Didn't mean to say you need less. But if you're going for a new one you might as well evaluate your needs. Most home studio users don't need many inputs simultaneously. But better sound quality or built in phantom power could be important. Scratching one feature will usually save some money or gain you something in other areas. Considering your everyday use and envisioned use before uou buy is always a good idea.

After a little more research online it sounds like with a TI chipset the firewire connection from my laptop to FA-66 should work just fine.  My laptop has an ExpressCard port and I'm going to order this Firewire adapter (below) card for $40 and give it a shot.  No reason to spend $270 if this will do the trick.  The reviews on amazon.com are great and sound like several people have ordered this to resolve the same issues that I'm having.  I'll update this post either way (success or failure).
StarTech.com 2 Port ExpressCard Laptop 1394a Firewire Adapter Card (EC13942)

go on the control panel and check on the device manager the Firewire chipset brand ...if it's and TI try just like that ...if it doesn't work , just rooll back the driver to legacy mod
 
check this out ...
 
http://s638.photobucket.com/user/zoakajeezo/media/ProcedureFirewirewindows7.mp4.html
 
also give us your dpc latency test result ...to be sure that it's not related to that simply ...