I have seen Firewire to USB converters. Would that help me?
Dave,
Frankly I don't know, doesn't sound like a viable solution to me.
Regarding Vuescan, I would strongly suggest you contact Ed Hamrick and ask for advice. I worked with Ed when he developed Vuescan for the Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro, very nice guy.
I agree with Erik, Ed usually is very responsive and helpfull.
Meanwhile, since the legacy driver doesn’t get you going, a few other things to consider.
If you are comfortable opening your PC case can you establish:
1. If your firewire controller is a card is seated in one of the logicboard slots inside your PC, the firewire connector is on the rear side of the card.
2. Or is your firewire controller integrated in the logicboard (firewire connector on the PC case is directly connected to the logicboard via a small cable).
In case 1 try reseating the card in another vacant slot of the logicboard and reconnect the scanner.
In case 2 consider to buy and install a firewire controller card as in case 1 bypassing your built-in firewire controller and connect your scanner to the new controller.
These are the options I can think of at this moment.
Take care,
Jaap