Fire wire ports - uses of & dangers advice

Hi
i recently daisy chained two lacie external hhds and noticed that the second was playing up -
I checked various threads here & the general feeling was dont daisy chain
the external hds just plug them straight in to the mac.
This proved right because the brand new lacie just died three months after i bought it & i trace the erratic behaviours back to when i daisy chained.
So i'm reduced to swapping fire wire cables into ports, depending on which external drive i want to power up - this is because i only have a limited amount of ports and people generally felt i should do it this way and not use a fire wire hub.....
So im now concerned about if this constant plugging in & out of firewire cables is a potential danger to my mac...........
Can anyone shed any opinion or warning that may be of use to my situation ?
improvements, dangers etc......
thanks
d

1. my issue with firewire hubs is that i want to
transfer data between external hds - i was advised
not to use a firewire hub to do this.
The hub shouldn't cause a problem.
The general
advice is that the safest connections are direct into
the computor.
A properly designed device should have no problems with a properly designed hub, but not everything is properly designed. Manufactures like to blame hubs when their products don't work.
However you've got me thinking....I've got three
firewire ports,
Are you sure? eMacs have two FireWire, and three USB ports.
so maybe if i use two for two
external hd's and the third with a firewire hub for
my printer & scanner
You have a FireWire printer and scanner? FireWire scanners are rare, and I haven't seen FireWire printers. USB is more common for printers and scanners.
2. when you say go in backwards, you mean upside down.
A FireWire plug is rectangular, with a pointed end, so it will only fit one way. If the socket is worn, it can be forced in the other way, and cause daage.

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Fire wire ports stopped working

This is pretty weird, even for a Saturday.
The fire wire ports on one of my G5's quit working while attached to 2 Western Digital external hard drives. The FW 800 port attached to a 9800xl MicroTek scanner quit too. Proofed all the wires and equipment on another computer with no problems.
I reran the 10.4.8 updater, with no luck.
I've been trying to run two MicroTek scanners on the computer at the same time. One connected thru fire wire, the other thru USB2. Can't seem to get the drivers to recognize the scanners at the same time. I have to uninstall the driver for the i900, before I can use the driver for the 9800xl.
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How does fire wire work? is it a direct hook up to the processor thru the mother board, or is it a modular connection. I'm thinking about installing a PCI slot set of ports, but before I do that I would like to determine whether I'm cooking up a conflict.
thanks,
andojct

Hi, likely you can bring them back, disconnect all peripherals & power, then...
How to reset the SMU on a Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) or Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1436
Earlier G3, G4, G5 models...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1939
Also see...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1317?viewlocale=en_US

Fire wire ports do not work

Here's a little history with the problem I'm having. At first (about 1 year ago) my fire wire ports became intermittent. They would work one second, then they wouldn't. I took my Mac in to be serviced, at the time it was still under warranty, but the techs couldn't find anything wrong. I brought it home but still had the problem. I figured maybe my components were bad. 1 year later I'm still having the problem. So I took it back, to the same people, this time they dug a little deeper with their tests and found that my logic board was bad. Everything else on the computer seems to work great, just not either fire wire port.
The questions I have are:
1) has anyone encountered this problem?
2) when looking at the logic board which number is used for the part
number? Mine says 820-1592-A, also 630-6483 is listed just under the
bar code. I'm trying to locate another, so far unsuccessfully.
3) do you think Apple would honor the warranty since Authorized techs
didn't find the problem the first time when my MAC was under warranty?
Any info will be helpful. Thanks

I had an issue with my FireWire ports not working right before my logic board died. I was able to resurrect the FW situation by unplugging everything from the back of the G5 (including the power cord) and letting it sit for 15 minutes. This caused a reset and then FW started working again -- alas for nothing when the logic board croaked a few weeks later.
By all means contact Apple -- since you did have it checked under warranty they might be able to work with you. You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. My repair put me back $900 + (I did not have an AppleCare extended warranty, since I have never had any of my previous Macs fail before).

Fire wire ports driving me batty

I have a late 2007 Intel iMac with a total of 7 Lacie external hard drives daisy chained together via the 800 fire wire ports. The externals are stacked one on top of the other. I cannot hook up the 8th hard drive to the 7th one (the hard drive on the top is #1, the one on the bottom is #7) without losing the 7th hard drive (I get an error message saying that the #7 hard drive hasn't been disconnected properly) and it disappears from the desktop. However, if I attach the 8th hard drive via the 400 fire wire port, all is well. I've switched the order of the hard drives and used different cables, but it always seems that the 7th hard drive has an issue with both 800 ports being used. Anyone have a suggestion (other than hooking up the 8th to the 400 port) or an answer to why this is happening? I think maybe heat might be a factor.
Message was edited by: Sunny's mommy

I don't think the hard drives have internal fans. Anyway, I've tried switching the order, like hooking up #1 & #2, with #2 on the bottom, then hooking up #7 to #2. Changed around the order - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but it's pretty consistent, that whenever one of the two 800 firewire ports on the bottom one is in use and I attach another hard drive to the free firewire port, it freaks out the bottom one. However, when I use the 400 firewire port, all is well. Anyway, in the grand scheme of things, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Was just wondering if it's the way I'm setting things up. By the way, what is a bridge board?
Message was edited by: Sunny's mommy

How can i download video hdv minicassette footage from my sony video camera with no fire wire port?

How can I download video HDV minicassette footage from my sony video camera with no fire wire port?

Hi,
Are you talking about your computer which has no firewire port ? If YES you can have one of two options:
(a) Use FCI - Firewire card like this (preferred)
You can buy from this:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-Ports-PCI-Express-PCI-E-IEEE-1394A-Firewire-Adapter-Cable-Card-/1507023...
(b) You can also use USB-Firewaire adapter like this:
http://compare.ebay.com.au/like/120580625092?ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes
Regards.
BH
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Display's fire wire port

Just bought a new mini with a 20 in Mac display. Since the only fire wire port is taken on the mini with the display wire, can you use the displays fire wire port for the external hard drive? Thanks

If you have only one FireWire device, you can plug it into the Mini, and leave the display's FireWire cable disconnected. If you have two devices, or the display's FireWire ports are in a more convenient location, plug the display's FireWire cable into the Mini and use the FireWire ports on the display.

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I have tried several times to test my fire wire port on this mac mini. I tnever does anything differently than boot up.
I am hooking up an audio interface and cant seem to get it to recognize the unit. I have tried testing the port, different cables and even purchased a 2nd interface thinking my original was the problem
Help
Mac Mini
M box pro
pro tools 10
Chase

Just for the record, I have friends that have the exact same setup as I do. It works flawlessly. They are using the same OS in both pro tools and apple. This seems to be a hardware connection issue. My Mac Mini does not recognize the M Box Pro audio interface I am using.
I have 2 m box pros doing the same thing. I have used 3 fire wire cables.
I first want to test the fire wire port on the mac mini, I need to know if it works at all. I tested it once and have not been able to conduct the test again. I believe this is some sort of internal set up issue. All of the software and hardware is identical to what several friends have.

One Fire Wire Port, What Do I Do?

I only have one fire wire port on my MacBook. I use that for the external hard drive/scratch disc when working in FCE. How can I capture video from my camera and then transfer to the scratch disc manually? The better question may be can this be done?

I don't know whether these 2 heretical comments will be of any use but here goes.
1. Whilst I generally use FireWire Hard Drives, I have never experienced any problems whatsoever, capturing or editing on USB 2.0 HDs (I have 3).
2. A few weeks ago I discovered to my surprise that I had been capturing DV and HDV from 3 different cameras (2 Panasonics and a Canon) through a cheap Belkin FW hub onto FCE 4 and FCP 6 for the last 18 months. I had wired it in to test whether it would work and then completely forgot about it.
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Cheers

Hi
The USB ports provide automatically the power. Usually every USB port provides about 500mA.
But please note; the notebook must run and the external USB device (iPod) must be recognized by Windows OS!
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The remaining folders will do their job as needed. You just "tell" to FCE where to find material that was previously used in a project.
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Michel

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Hi all,
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If you are planning on using this for video work you should look elsewhere. It is not designed for that application.
If you are looking for a drive to simply back up data, it should work.
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good luck.
x

HT2498 how do I find out what kind of fire wire port I have on my desktop? I want to transfer video from my camcorder.

how do I find out what kind of fire wire port I have on my desktop? I want to transfer video from my camcorder.

If you have Firewire 800 it's a boxy looking port, the Firewire 400 is thinner and has a arrow looking shape, you can get a adpater.
FW800 is simply FW 400 x 2, so the adapter gives you FW 400.

No power from Fire Wire port to my audio interface

I face this problem after my set-up always has worked: I have a Quata Fire 610 Audio interface, powered thru my Fire wire 400. For some reason there is no power, and my Mac does not recognize the unit. I have tried both Fire Wire ports, and none of them works. The unit works fine on my other Mac (iMac G4) Is there any way I solve this problem. I have done the the disc utilities.
Peter

FireWire ports have been known to fail.
Did you shut down (power OFF) the Power Mac G5, and restart? Did you also try the port on the front panel? Did you try a different FireWire cable? Is it possible to try another FireWire device on the ports, as a test?
You can also try a reset of the PMU or SMU (power management). Depending on your model
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1436 <- newer models
<a class="jive-link-external-small" href="http://">http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1939 <- older models

Video out fire wire port from iTunes?

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In an attempt to get my iTunes downloaded TV episodes to play on my TV without having to buy the Apple TV hardware and an airport card I have been trying to find a way to convert the m4v video files into a format that can be read by a stand alone player that allows me to output video playback through my fire wire port so my canopus box can then send it to my tv and stereo. I tried iSquint and it does not work. I get an AppleScript error "Can't make "" into type real. (-1700)" If you hit OK the program then spins it's wheels with the progress report "Preparing Audio for File 1..." It is still my belief that Apple should enable iTunes to output video through the fire wire port. Since Final Cut Pro and Pro Tools LE have that ability and it works I assume that it should work wth iTunes. Please send iTunes feedback from within iTunes and ask apple to add this option to iTunes.

Fire wire ports - uses of & dangers advice

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