Firewire is known by several names and exists in multiple flavors.
The official name is IEEE 1394. Firewire is Apple's name for the
interface. Sony had a version called i.Link which was used for their
digital video cameras.
Be sure that you specify the 6-pin Firewire 400 (Mbits/sec) connector
Regarding the PRAM and booting up, I recall having a Pismo which
wouldn't start up unless I pushed in the tiny triangle-labeled button
which is located between the ethernet and VGA display ports. It's
been years so I'm hazy on the details.
Regarding the slow response, I had similar symptoms when
