Firewire 400 problem

I bought an external hard drive maxtor, been using it for a few days and it work perfectly under firewire or usb, but.. today I tryed to connect it and it seems that it had something stuck inside... I took it out and it was a small crystal ball but I dont know if its suposed to be inside the cable or not... I conected it and works perfectly but im not sure if im going to have problems with it or not or just demage the hard drive....
should I buy an other fire wire cable? or its okay to use it that way?
thanks

anyone?

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K8N Neo2 Firewire 400 problem

I just got the MSI K8N Neo2 Mobo which has a Firewire 800 plug on the board. The salesperson told that there was a cable with 2 firewire 400 plugs included but this was not in the case. The distributor here in Denmark doesn't have this optional plug and won't take it home.
So my question is how to get hold of this plug ?
Please help!
Thank's

the k8 neo fisr2 comes with 2 firewire ports both 400 speed one is a mini 4 pin the outher is a standard six pin.
the mother board does not come with firewire, it does come with 1 floppy, 1 ide ,and one d bracket, as well as a sata power adapter , and 2 sata cables,
the neo2 looks like it comes with the same cables, although i am not sure about the number and type of ports.
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=608
but i would suspect they dont have 800 cables out yet as the number of devices that is actually firewire800 are still very few except for a few external drives.
But one place to look is any store that handles apple computers, they seemed to have adopted 800 more.

FireWire 400 problems...

I recently purchased a WD 500gb MyBook, and the firewire port on my macbook doesn't recognize that the device is connected.. I've also tried a Maxtor 250gb external HD and it also is not recognized. I've tried connecting the mybook via USB and it is instantly recognized. Any suggestions on how to test the firewire port on my macbook? Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I am having the same problem with my MyBook 320GB Drive. USB is fine and firewire gets me nowhere. I have tried about everything with no luck. I don't think it's the port because I was able to get the firewire connection on my Ipod to work fine. I called Western Digital and they said that I probably have a bad firewire cable and they are sending me a new one so give them a call. I doubt that it's really the problem because I already tried another cable with no luck. I called Applecare and they tried to tell me that the drive wasn't supported and I should order one from the Apple Store. When I told them that they sell the MyBook line of drives they told me that Western Digital could possibly have a newer driver. Oh well at least the USB works for now. Here is what I have tried so far http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=947477&tstart=15

DVD DL fail to burn AND Firewire 400/800 problems

I have had several months of intermittent DVD burn fails. Most recently today burning from the finder and it is now reporting "The disc can’t be burned because because communication between the computer and the disc drive failed (error code 0x80020022)."
That error is new, previously it was always
Sense Key - Hardware Error
Sense Code - 0x03
The first time this cropped up was on 10.5.x and when I reported it to apple they had me take it to get the drive replaced since it was still covered by applecare.
After the DVD replacement and while still in the shop it burned a few DVD DLs ok. A few weeks later the same 0x03 errors. (it always burns CDs just fine)
After another phone conversation with applecare, they now suggest that the logic board needs to be replaced. (This was after I mentioned I frequently have problems with Firewire 400 or 800 external drives showing up...sometimes they work sometimes they don't. The same drives always show up when connected via USB)
I was walked through resetting the PRAM, which cleared up the Firewire 400/800 temporarily, but it did not help the DVD burn problem.
So on the eve before the appointment, this crazy MBP (2,2, 2.33 ghz) burns a DVD DL after blowing compressed air thru the DVD slot. But the second DVD DL fails to burn with the ""The disc can’t be burned because because communication between the computer and the disc drive failed (error code 0x80020022)."
I was hoping that the upgrade to 10.6.x would solve both issues, but not so much.
Anyone else with the DVD DL problem experiencing FW problems?

The problems with some external FW burners under SL are fairly common, Robert. With some earlier drives (like my Pioneer 109 in an external box) often one can't even "see" the drive at all (though the bridge in the external box will show up under System Profiler) through FW, though it works fine under USB. With some later ones things like PRAM resets, or simply disconnecting and reconnecting the drive, will get them working. See http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10070281 or some discussion of these issues and possible "workarounds".
As far as the general disc burning issue goes, other things that are worth considering include problems with a "fullish" hard drive with fragmented free space, and the actual media being used. What brands of DVD have you tried?
DL discs, generally seem much more finicky about dust and dirt than single layer when it comes to burning (and , of course, need much more free HD space) . Will it burn a single layer DVD or a CD without problems?
Cheers
Rod

ISight: External Firewire 400 (My problem solved)

Hi folks,
Like many others I have been unable to use my iSight and I discovered what my issue was. Maybe someone else is having this exact problem.
I have a 2009 Mac Pro with FW800. I don't have/didn't purchase a 800/400 adapter, but instead was using a Belkin PCI USB 2.0/Firewire 400 card I purchased YEARS ago. The several times I had tried to get this camera working I had nothing, but trouble. On a few occasions the computer would just boot to a black screen. I figured the card was damaged, but I installed it in my G4 DA running Tiger and it worked fine as well as the iSight.
Today I tried again. Same problem. The card was recognized in the profiler and USB worked in it, but still no iSight. I pulled my computer out and looked to see if one of the ports was damaged. What I did notice was the firewire ports are vertical and the top of the ports were slightly slid under the PCI slot cage dividers. I loosened the screw and gently moved the card downward and centered the ports in the PCI cage then re-tightened it. I plugged in the iSight and low and behold it worked!
The problem was when the plug was inserted into the firewire port the outside contact was touching the computer case and causing some kind short. If I hadn't gotten real close to the port to look for damage I would never had noticed it. So check the clearance of the firewire ports on your PCI card if you're using one and make sure the plug isn't touching.

Thanks for letting us know what worked for you.
Mac Pro Quad Core (Early 2009) 2.93Ghz Mac OS X (10.6.7); MacBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2009) 2.26GHz (10.6.7)
LED Cinema Display; G4 PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11); iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9); External iSight; iPod4touch4.3.1

FireWire 400 External Hard Drive problem with Macbook

I have been using the firewire 400 connection of my macbook (2 ghz Intel Core Duo, OS X 10.4.11) with a LaCie 320 GB 7200 RPM with no trouble for over a year now. Suddenly, the drive is really slow to mount. Sometimes only one of the 2 partitions mount (which never happened before). And it takes considerably longer to access files, let alone load one up.
I tried the external drive with the same fw 400 connection on a G4 running 10.3.9 and a PC running XP and both mounted fine (with, as expected, only the windows compatible partition loading in the latter case). Data was quickly accessed and loaded on both machines.
So, thinking it was a problem with my macbook's fw port, I tried another fw external drive, which mounted very quickly and was quick to access and load data.
What is going on?

Hi George,
Have you had a look in the system.log file in the Console application? It sometimes a good start to check to see if its reporting any errors when you plug the drive in. Note the exact time that you plug in the drive. This will make it easier to find the part of the log you should be looking at.
Another thing you can do is run a disk utility such as Disk Warrior on the drive and optimize the directory. Directory problems can also cause drives to mount slowly. On the other hand it doesn't really make sense that the drive will mount quicker on other machines. Hope this helps.

Mac Pro Early 2008 problems with firewire 400 drives

I am having some sporadic problems with firewire 400 drives and am trying to figure out my best options going forward. System 10.5.2 has hung on me twice in the first week of use, and each time I noticed from console there were some problems accessing one or more of these drives (even though I wasn't doing any reads/writes to/from them). Just before one of the crashes, Disk Utility also had problems "seeing" these drives. My external firewire drives are:
Maxtor OneTouch III 750GB
Acomdata enclosure/Seagate 400GB
LaCie d2/160GB
LaCie w/Lightscribe DVD
I have this "cobbled" arrangement because I just upgraded from an eMac and needed these drives to manage video files, audio files, photos, etc. While I'd love to go out and buy new internals to install in my spare bays, and migrate the data to them, I will have to do that in stages as my budget is tapped out at the moment. My MacPro is the base version of the early 2008 units, with 300GB internal.
In the interim, is it worth troubleshooting firmware updates for these externals, or am I destined to continue to have firewire problems? Is there a straight-forward/inexpensive way to remove these drives from enclosures/install in drive bays with an adaptor? I believe the external hard drives are all ATA type drives.
Thanks in advance for any counsel.

I would assume that the Maxtor may be SATA. Does it have an eSATA port? Also, there were a lot of threads (in OS X Leopard forum) about those OneTouch units. Same can be said for LaCie problems.
Yes, check for firmware and configuration. In some cases, and what I do with any new OS, is to reformat all drives - gradually. Given the age of the eMac I'd guess firmware is out of date, and that the drives are formatted some time ago. While you don't have to use GUID, it is a good idea eventually, or just reformat a drive.
Don't forget to test your drives with Disk Warrior (4.1) also.
750GB WD Caviar is $139 SATA.
http://eshop.macsales.com/Specials/XLR8YourMac.cfm?Criteria=&sort=&man=Western%2 0Digital
Are you using daisy chains? you have one FW bus shared by front and back ports. Do you have any on FW800 or using FW400 to FW800 adapter cable? PCI Express FW400 card might even help a little.
Never had trouble with OWC enclosures:
http://www.macsales.com/firewire/

I currently have a MAC Mini, which has 1 Firewire 800 port. I have a 1TB external hard disk that runs at Firewire 400. Can I insert another external hard drive that runs at Firewire 800?

Here's the deal. Currently running SL 10.6.8 on a MAC Mini. Planning for eventual upgrade to ML. Have a 1TB external hard drive partitioned into two volumes, one volume for Time Machine and one volume for SL which I periodically update using Superduper. Thus I always have a point-in-time bootable backup on the external hard drive.
The MAC Mini supports Firewire 800. However, booting from my current external hard disk is pretty slow, since it only supports Firewire 400. I am considering buying an Iomega MiniMax which supports Firewire 800. Then, I would use the MiniMax as my bootable backup volume, and relegate the older hard drive to Time Machine.
So, question #1 is, can I daisychain the new MiniMax between the MAC Mini and my existing external hard drive? My expectation is that the new Mini Max would run using Firewire 800 and that the existing hard drive would run at Firewire 400 speed as it does today. If it doesn't (e.g., daisychaining in the Firewire 400 external disk with the MiniMax Firewire 800 external disk ends up running the whole leg at 400), my resolution will be to run the existing hard disk off an available USB port and have just the MiniMax running at Firewire 800.
Why am I going to all this trouble? That's question #2. I don't trust upgrades; they always break something. When I upgraded from 10.5.x to 10.6.x, the web directories got renamed, and all of my web apps 403'd until I figured out what happened. Plus, I have accounts for other family members, and in order to ensure their ability to use the computer during my upgrade process, I need to have the ability to fall-back quickly to a known-stable version of OSX. So what I'm trying to do is insulate myself from problems by partitioning the MiniMax into two volumes, taking a Superduper image of my current installation on the Mac Mini to MiniMax external drive volume 1, then upgrading to ML on the MAC Mini, and take a SuperDuper image of that to MiniMax external drive volume 2. Then, if the upgrade results in problems I can't resolve immediately, I can simply reimage the MAC Mini from MiniMax volume 1. BUT ...
... I've read that the ML installation creates a "service and support" partition that is different than the startup disk. I'm concerned that I won't be able to reimage the hard disk in the MAC Mini once I upgrade it to ML because of the partitioning changes it introduces on the startup disk. Theoretically, I +should+ be able to use the disk utility on my SL system to repartition the disk in the MAC Mini prior to reimaging it from my backup, but I'm considering the possibility that the new partition may be of a type that the SL disk utility cannot identify, and might therefore be unable to delete or even detect. So I'm hoping someone else has been down this road and can advise me. Even at Firewire 800 speeds, booting from an external disk is still going to be slow, so I want to be able to restore my SL image to the MAC Mini hard disk.
A little background on me. I work for a major disaster recovery provider. I used to have a Mac PRO G5, which I got used, and the first thing I did with it was install a second hard disk, SuperDupe an image from the first disk to the second, and made sure I could boot from the second. THEN I started using and customizing the MAC. I really feel vulnerable with the MAC Mini, since it only has the single internal hard drive - sort of like going out in public dressed only in a long T-shirt. So my whole thing is, I ABSOLUTELY MUST BE ABLE TO PUT THINGS BACK THE WAY THEY WERE before I do the migration to ML.
Obsessive-cumpulsive? Yep. Anal? You got it. That's why I'm in the DR business.

You may have overloaded the port, following the instructions below it should reset:
+1. Shut down the computer.+
+2. Disconnect all devices and all other cables, except the keyboard and mouse cable(s).+
+3. Disconnect the computer from the power outlet and wait for 3 to 5 minutes.+
+4. Plug the computer back in and turn it on.+
+5. Reconnect the device(s) (one at a time if there is more than one) and test. Test with each port if you have more than one.+
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1317?viewlocale=en_US

Recording to external hard drives - Firewire 800 problems

Ok so i did post a similar thread on this in the "mac mini" part of the website so im very sorry for double posting but I thought since this problems pertains mostly to recording and specifically recording on garageband, that I would try posting here as well. Heres my deal:
I am a musician working with garageband and I have always been recording to my internal drive until recently. I was unaware until I read some posts here from the good people like you guys, that that is not a good idea to record to your internal drive. So, I got an external firewire 800 drive (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DGZ05A) and this cable (http://www.amazon.com/2M-Firewire-800-9PIN-Cable/dp/B000XQILWK/ref=pdbxgy_e_imgb). When I received it, I first used disk utility and reformatted it for Mac OS Extended Journaled. Then I proceeded to move a couple sample libraries and my entire "Garageband" folder (with my saved songs in it) to the external. I instantly knew something was wrong. The files were taking forever to get written over. It took about 15 mins for a 5GB folder to be moved over. I was already discouraged. Anyway, I plugged in the USB cable that came with the external (the drive has hook ups for both USB 2 and firewire 400/800) and tried moving the same files and it was MUCH faster. The same 5GB file was moved over in a matter of minutes.
I then tried recording to the drive (using firewire again) and it would hardly even PLAY the song without stopping every couple seconds (too many effects error, and yes ALL the tracks were locked). Tried to record as well and i'd get even less time before garageband would stop the song with the same error. So I disconnected firewire and went USB. Thru USB the song didnt stop once, not on playback OR recording. Then I moved the songs back to my internal and played them (and recorded) with no problem either.
I ran a couple tests on the drive using AJA system test and came back with these results:
Basic test of read/write speed using firewire 800:
write - 14/mb sec
read - 21/mb sec
then, using usb 2.0
write - 18/mb sec
read - 37/mb sec
both these connections seemed to be running slower then they should ..but at least the USB connection would actually let me play a song and record to it without stopping
I manually copied over a 2.04GB file and via firewire 800 connection it took 2 mins and 20 secs. Via the USB 2 connection it was 55 seconds! ..also, while i transfered the files i noticed that the USB transfer was nice and steady with tiny increments of the file being transferred. Firewire, however, was speedy then slow, speedy then slow. Very inconsistant transfer speed throughout the process. kind of choppy
So what gives? I cant figure out if I'm doing something wrong, or if my external HD is bad? Or the cable is bad? Or maybe the firewire port on my mac mini is bad (i've never used it before for anything other than this external drive). Or i'm thinking maybe my processor isnt strong/fast enough to record to the external firewire drive? Im working with a mac mini 120GB internal HD and the 2ghz intel core 2 duo with only 2GB ram (i know thats not ideal for recording and im planning to upgrade at some point, but i have been recording to the internal just fine with the RAM i have now and never had a problem until trying to record to the firewire drive). I was going to go out today and get a new cable and see if that was the cause of it. Anyway sorry for the book-length post! But PLEASE SOMEBODY help me here! ..as i said, im not very computer literate and only just started producing music using computers so please use dummy terms lol ..thanks in advance

Strictly my opinion, and more than happy to be educated with facts and convinced otherwise... but, there are no dangers.
Bottom line is this... does your specific computer setup encounter ANY problems during recording or editing with your chosen software and current workflow? If not, then there is nothing wrong. Simple as that. Further, if you are having problems, then its more than likely dealt with by upgrading RAM amount and internal HDD speed and size. If you have a slightly older machine that is pre FW800, you will find by bench marking your HDD's that an upgraded internal system HDD will significantly outperform any external HDD read/write spec's. Even with FW800, comparing apples with apples, your system HDD will more than likely have better spec's. Please however, do not take my word for this, but try it out for yourself. Make sure you have facts about your own system rather than believing my claims or anyone else's claims. I used Intech's Quickbench http://www.speedtools.com/QuickBench.html to get some facts about my machine.
There will be an argument made that you will be putting strain on your hard drive by recording to the system drive because it not only has to deal with this function but also with other functions related to your audio programs and OS. Apparently you may be working it on the 'hard' side and shorten its life span. Probably technically correct but practically speaking you will more than likely never even notice any such strain. If you are worried about a system HDD crash or death because you are working it too hard then the answer to this is a well planned back up regime. You should have one anyway, regardless of setup.

External Hard Drive Doesn't Mount on Desktop through FireWire 400

I have an external hard drive that mounts on the desktop when connecting to my iMac via USB, but it fails to appear on the desktop when connecting via FireWire 400. It was glitchy in Tiger as well, and had problems since installing Leopard. I was able to get it to work once, after using Leopard Cache Cleaner (a 3rd party program), disconnecting the hard drive, and unplugging the iMac. I moved my computer this week, and had to unplug it and when I powered it back up, the hard drive doesn't appear on the desktop again through FireWire 400 (still works fine with USB). It also doesn't appear in Disk Utility through FireWire.
What good are FireWire if they fail to recognize a hard drive so often?!

upgrade to latest system, that computer will accept, then try again

FireWire 400&800 (IMAC Core2) NOT WORKING after Upgrading to SNOW LEOPARD!

My FireWire 400&800 (iMAC Core2) are *NOT WORKING* after Upgrading to SNOW LEOPARD!
Any Solutions?
Thanks!
--Frank Strallents
www.SHOCKPROOFX.com

I'll try your suggestions....Thanks!
Recently, I try to Re-install Snow Leopard, unfortunately, still unsuccessful.
The Mybook Icon only appears if it is connected via USB.
After using Firewire and getting used to the speed...USB 2.0 is like a Corvette racing a Veyron...lol
I am not upset on these issues, it is normal for new OS to have these problems...unfortunately, even OSX is not invincible.
I'm sure Apple/Steve is on every Programers A*s for a solution.
I still think APPLE'S OSX will still be the future of Operating system!
For now, still waiting for the patch and hopefully soon.
Suggestions are still Welcome for a Solutions:-)
Frank
SHOCKPROOFX.COM

Firewire 400 external vs internal hard drive - which is better?

I’m thinking of buying a handy little Mac Mini (circa 2008) from a friend to replace my ageing, workhorse Powermac (sniff).
The only problem is, it comes with an absolutely measly 60GB HDD. I want to replace this and boot from a new drive, but am stuck between getting a new internal drive (very hard to install, but obviously I don’t have a warranty to worry about) or an external fire-wire 400 drive (very expensive in relation).
Which will run quicker or better? Internal or Fire-wire 400? (I’m a typical Mac user – lots of internet, quite a lot of iPhoto, a bit of iMovie here and a bit of Dreamweaver there)
Also, I really want to use an Iomega one that matches the mini (I’m buying a mini to save space and reduce clutter in the first place..) – has anyone used this as their bootable drive with success??

A 7200 RPM internal will be the fastest. But Firewire-400 will be pretty good, too, especially if it is a 3.5-inch model.
Assuming the current internal has no problems, you could reformat it and make it the boot drive, but keep all your data on a firewire external.
Generally drives start noticeably slowing down once more than 50% full; so if you can keep the internal (boot) drive under 50%, it might surprise you with how fast it could be.

Firewire 400 to firewire 800 adaptor

Hello everyone, I just recentley upgraded from my 1.6 GHz PowerPC G5 to a Mac Pro 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, with 8 gigs of ram. Now my problem is that I'm trying to figure out if there is an option for my firewire 400 Lacie harddrives to be connected to my new Mac Pro. Basically I was curious to see if there is a Firewire adaptor 400 to 800 & if so does this adaptor work well with new systems? Ultimately I want to reconnect my 3 Lacie External harddrives and use them for storage still. Just curious to see if that is an option.
Jeff

There are FW400 to FW800 cables all over the place. Every G-Tech drive ships with one too. I have like 8 in a drawer. And the adapter works.

Audio interface for 24" iMac - conflict between firewire 400 and 800?

So, what I have now:
2.8ghz iMac, latest model, newest firmware, running OS 10.4.11, connected to an M-Audio Ozonic Firewire 400 interface, and I was hoping to run said interface while ALSO connecting a firewire 800 hard drive for samples, or for recording to.
Alas, as soon as I turn on the firewire 800 drive, a model sold by Other World Computing and containing an Oxford chipset, all audio stops on the Ozonic keyboard and is replaced by clicks and pops. The only way I've found to get the audio back is with a complete restart of the system, with the firewire 800 drive OFF.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the M-Audio device, it's a small keyboard and firewire audio interface in one unit. Perhaps not the highest quality, but my Powerbook G4 1.67 with firewire 800 CAN run both the Ozonic and the firewire 800 drive at the same time. With no interruption in sound playback.
I did some research and discovered that in the iMac I bought, the two firewire channels, 400 and 800, appear to be on the same PCI E bus, and perhaps will NEVER work together.
Is that right? I thought the whole point of firewire was how it's able to negotiate such communications and work seamlessly with other firewire devices. I know, I know, I'm living in dreamland, it's just sad that a much older Apple product (my PPC notebook), can do something a brand new model cannot. Sigh.
Any advice? Any chance 10.5 fixes this?
If not, should my next audio interface be USB 2.0? Any thoughts from the Audio pros out there (besides 'you bought the wrong machine) would be great.

Sorry I can't help with your specific query as I have never used that Audio hardware.
I am a video man myself and went for the 24" 2.8Ghz iMac as i believe the Firewire 400 and 800 Buses are seperate. I know on older iMacs and even the MacPro the FW800 and 400 buses were on the same bus and when connecting a firewire video camera to the FW400 bus, the 800 would lower it's speed to 400 to accomodate or in some cases would lose the connection all together.
I currently have a FW800 Hard drive connected to the FW800 port and a video deck in the FW400 port and they both run at full speed 800/400 respectively.
This leads me to believe Apple have fixed the Firewire sharing problem.
I know it's no help but just though I would share my experience with the Firewire on the new iMac.

HT201338 Can I connect a firewire 400 to firewire 800 adapter and then a firewire 800 to Thunderbolt adapter(standard Thunderbolt to firewire adapter) together to digitize video from a miniDV video camcorder?

I have a 10 year Canon MiniDV camcorder that I used to connect via firewire to digitize the data. Now my IMac only has a Thunderbolt connector and my camcorder uses the older firewire 400 standard. I would like to digitize the video into my IMac. How can I do this?

I did a little looking around and found a Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter, and then a Firewire 400 to 800 adapter, but no Thunderbolt to Firewire 400. Amazon and Apple stores had the Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 cable and Amazon had the Firewire 400 to 800 adapater.
Wherever you get the cables, ask them if it will work OK with what you want to try and do - if they don't know make sure you can return if there is a problem. I think it will because the Thunderbolt side is so much faster than what the camera can pump out to it. If it were the other way (Thunderbolt device to a Firewire computer I would expect that to fail since the Firewire could never keep up with the data rate of the incoming Thunderbolt device).
Maybe if you have a local Mac user group or a friend with an older mac with a firewire 400 port you could do it this way too?
Good luck

Firewire 400 problem

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