2011 Imac firewire port

I have a 2011 imac. Has anyone had intermittent connection problems with the firewire port?  When I have been importing video sometimes imovie would say there is no video signal and the imovie screen would turn blue. This happened only a couple of times. Once I went back to firewire plug and push it in and it came back.  Also I am getting random messeges that a device wasn't properly ejected.  I do have a cheap usb hub wih a couple of drives connected but if it is that I don't see how that would effect the firewire port.
Cassini

Not real important, but what FireWire Camera or device are you using?
I'd try another > FireWire 800 to 400 9 to 4 pin Cable first and then if that doesn't work go to > Apple - Support - iMac - Service FAQ

Similar Messages

  • IMac firewire port is not working

    iMac firewire port is not working
    Hi everybody, Happy New Year.
    I am a 72 years old semi-newbie in video editing, because Iedit only 1 or may be 2 movies a year since 2007 and I have only very little computer knowledge. 
    I received a new 27” iMac as a birthday gift 14 months ago.  About 10 months ago, with help, I successfully use the Migration Assistant to transfer some datas from my old power G4 to the iMac including two Final Cut Express projects.  I had one project successfully done; burned to DVD and I save it with Print To Video. Last week, I have my second project done, I burned the sequences into DVD but unable to do a Print To Videodue to the iMac is not communicating with my Sony camcorders DCR VX1000, this is the same camcorder I used on the last job which was working a couple of months ago.As a result, I try to switch the Easy Setup with different Format and different Use; I refresh the Canvas window; I did a Mix down; move the Screen Saver to NEVER as well as the Energy Saver set to NEVER SLEEP.  I also trashed the preferences (plist) folders; run the Utility repair, I replaced the firewire cable (4 pines – 9 pines 800), but nothing work.  Up to this point, I think that there is no signal from the firewire port to the camcorder because I understand when the sequences is ready, the firewire is connected between the computer and the recording camcorder, the Print to Video is activated, then the word DV- IN should be seen on the recording deck screen. This time, I don’tread such words on the recording screen. Therefore, I think there’s no out going signal from the iMac to the recording camcorder and the iMac is not receiving signal from the recording camcorder. At this point, I try to connect my iMac to the power G4 to see if I can do some data transfer. Follow the procedures, I hook up the data transfer cable between the G4 and the iMac, I can the fireswire icon moving on the G4 screen but no indication on the iMac screen (there should be some indications in the source bar), this shows me the iMac did not recognize the G4 which worked on previous data transfer.  It looks to me the firewire port on my iMac is dead.  What has gone wrong? Could I accidentally disabled the firewire port by some magic keystroke? (i.e. accidentally fat finger some thing to make it stop working?  Oh, by the way, during the playing around, went to the Final Cut tool bar, I click the View >Video Out > Digital Cinema Desktop Preview – Main, the result was a  black screen and the esc key was my rescuer - LUCKY LUCKY! Are there any other trouble-shooting techniques to apply before bringing to shop?  Please help!
    Sorry for such a long statement, forgive me for unable to make it shorter.  Thank you for your patience. Thanks to all the folks in this board for being so helpful.
    p.s.

    Not sounding good.
    If the system Profiler does not see it then there is a basic communication problem between camera and the Mac.
    I'm thinking the Firewire port is the culprit as some 800 ports were faulty.
    I'd suggest taking the Mac, cable and camera to your nearest Authorized Apple Service Centre and get them to diagnose the issue. eg. let them try to connect the two devices.
    Right (control)click the Sequence icon in the Browser and select Item Properties, do the same for a clip.
    You can also post screen shots for the Properties.
    Al

  • 2011 imac thunderbolt ports dead

    My first time on here - desperate for a solution having taken my machine to Apple Store 3 times, had on-site maintenance from a specialist Apple authorised repairer, all through AppleCare. So far it hasn't cost me anything (and must have cost Apple a fortune), however the issue has not been solved.
    I have a mid 2011 imac 3.4 Ghz i7, top of the range with SSD and HD, full RAM. I bought it because I needed FW800 and thunderbolt, it was the only machine apart from the mac mini offering that combination at the time. All worked fine for 2.5 years until one day about 2 months ago I started up the machine and nothing was detected at the thunderbolt port.
    System info displayed "no device connected" at either thunderbolt port, despite there being a WD velicraptor drive, a La Cie FW drive (with TB-FW adaptor) and a Sonnet PCexpress card 34 attached. I did an SMC reset (several times) and a PRAM reset (also 5-6 times), no joy.
    Took the imac to Apple Store in Geneva where they diagnosed a faulty motherboard. Repaired in 2 days, came back home, plugged everything in and started up, all was fine for about 20 minutes, then thunderbolt devices disappeared again. Same "no device connected" info.
    Back to the Apple Store, they started up the machine and said the TB ports were working fine, it must be my peripherals. They wouldn't keep the machine whilst I went back to get my peripherals (I live 2 hours from Geneva) so I had to return 3 days later with the imac and all my cables, devices, hard drives etc. They plugged them all in one by one and, hey presto, everything showed up. Changing devices, ports and cables around (all Apple TB or TB-FW cables) resulted in the same conclusion = no thunderbolt problem, there must be some problem with my installation at my place.
    Naturally back at home I got the "no device connected" story. After a long and fruitless phone call to Apple support in France I managed to persuade them to give me on-site maintenance - a guy came from a specialist repairer and noted the problem with my installation - no thunderbolt ports working, "no device connected". He took the machine back to his facility in Geneva and had it on test for 10 days, then came back to me with "no fault found".
    So - to sum up - I have a thunderbolt enabled imac whose thunderbolt ports work everywhere except where I need them to work, no-one can come up with a solution, calls to Apple are met with a rather disdainful "what you are reporting is physically impossible", the specialist repairer has given up and I am at the point of throwing this piece of junk out of the window.
    Before I do, is there anyone out there who can suggest what might be happening and why. To deepen the mystery, I have a 2011 Macbook Pro with thunderbolt, plugged into the same electricity supply, and when I plug all the same peripherals into the thunderbolt port of that machine, they all show up. Therefore there is apparently no issue with any cable or any thunderbolt enabled external device, except when I try to attach them to my imac.
    I'm an experienced mac user with several machines and I have never seen anything like this before, nor (it seems) have Apple themselves. Other users have reported problems with the thunderbolt interface on the imac, but not this exact issue. Apple support won't let me talk to an engineer, so I appear to have exhausted all avenues of support, other than writing directly to Tim Cook and asking for my money back! I would be very grateful for any advice.

    It could be the Thunderbolt cables.
    Do you have other known working Thunderbolt cables you can try?
    Make sure the cable ends are making a strong, tight connection at the connection ends of your Thunderbolt device connections.
    Also, your connections on the connected Thunderbolt device might be faulty instead of the ones on your Mac.
    Try each Thunderbolt device individually.
    A few years back 8 had two WD MyBook drives with both FireWire 400 and 800 connections and on one drive, the FW800 connections were flaky and didn't always keep a connection and the other WD MyBook drive had faulty FW400 connections that would work on and off.
    The MyBook enclosures were crap once I realized this , I had  the actual drives removed out of those enclosures by my  local Mac reseller/repair  center transfer these actual WD drives into two OWC FW800 drive enclosures and these, now, still work fine with my newer iMac.
    So, it could be either cable issues or peripheral issues, you need to test to find what cable and/or connected periphereal device is causing all of your ills.
    It may NOT be your Mac that is the issue with your Thunderbolt connection.
    Good Luck!

  • IMac FireWire port used for USB device

    I have a 27" iMac which of course has a FireWire port, but I don't own any external FireWire devices. I'd like to put that empty port to use as a USB port to connect an external storage device. Is there a cable, converter, or adapter made to do that?

    Common user always looks at the bottom line price on computer peripherals and USB devices are always cheaper. USB 2.0, in theory, should be faster than FireWire 400, but they usually aren't because of the way USB transfers data in short bursts or packets of data. FireWire 400 and 800 drives are faster as they transmit data in a more continuous, constant and reliable stream of data.
    This is why devices that use FireWire or have both USB and FireWire connections are always more expensive.
    So, those users never use the FireWire port.
    FireWire is faster for external hard drives, especially data transfers and for booting and running a Mac from an external FireWire drive. FireWire optical drives are faster. FireWire audio devices and interface devices are even faster and more reliable than USB.
    FireWire is more expensive, but more reliable data transfer protocol.
    There is no way to bridge the two device protocols . It's either one or the other. The masses always choose the cheaper USB devices.
    The masses don't care about faster and consistent data transfer rates or  better reliability.
    Especially if a user isn't some sort of creative like a graphics, designer, Illustrator, photographer, digital painer/3D-CGI Artist, engineer, audio or video/multimedia professional.

  • 27" iMac Firewire Port fails after 300 days of use

    I had to take my 27" iMac (purchased in 2012) to the "Genius" bar today because the firewire port failed.
    Prior to this:
    My Apogee Duet Firewire Sound Interface has given me all kinds of errors with the iMac. I wrote emails to Apogee complaining about the Firewire issues and they gave me a long list of possible fixes, all of which did absolutely nothing. Apogee claims that the problem is Apple's, but when I connected a MOTU Traveler to the firewire port it performed flawlessly. Many people had complained online about the awful performance of the Firewire Duet with Lion OSX so I wrote back to Apogee demanding that they replace the device with their newer USB "Duet 2" and they chose to ignore my email. So I went back to dealing with the intermittent cutting out of the Duet which is only remedied by either restarting the machine or unplugging & reconnecting the Duet.
    2 days ago:
    The Apogee Duet stops working (like so many times before), so I unplug the Apogee Firewire 400-to-800 cable and this time when I reconnect, it starts rapidly blinking and clicking, so I quickly shut the iMac down. After a waiting for a few minutes I plug the Duet in and it's dead -no lights & no click. To determine if I'd just killed my Duet, I plugged it into my 2009 Macbook with a Firewire 400 cable and the Duet works. So I think.."Maybe it was the Apogee FW400/800 cable". Next day I bought a new Firewire 400/800 Cable and connected the Duet to the iMac and I still got absolutely nothing. So I booked an appointment at the Genius Bar.
    Today:
    The helpful gentleman there quickly discovered that the main-board needed replacement because the "newer" iMacs have all the I/O stuff attached to the motherboard. It would have cost me 800 bucks with out a warranty. While I was there, I tested my original Apogee Firewire 400/800 cable with a Macbook pro and it worked fine, ruling out the possibility that my cable could have caused the Firewire port to fail. Lastly,  I asked him to connect a Thunderbolt-to-Firewire Adapter to my iMac and - yes - the Apogee Duet worked fine through the Thunderbolt Port.
    In Conclusion,
    I'm glad that they are going to repair this problem but it would appear I really have no choice but to extend my "Apple Care" since, in my experience, the Firewire port can spontaneously fail. As a full-time musician it's lucky for me this happened while it was still under warranty, otherwise I probably would have just bought the Thunderbolt-to-Firewire Adapter and hope the Thunderbolt ports last longer than the firewire did.
    Has anyone else had their main-board replaced due to Port Failure?

    Not because of Firewire, but yes, my 2007 iMac had to have extensive things replaced twice under extended AppleCare.
    I personally think $2,000 dollar items should come with more than a one year warranty, unless you expect them to die shortly after a year.
    Didn't need any warranty on my Quadra/630, still runs every day, they don't make Macs like they used to.

  • Any way to connect older digital video recorder to my 2011 imac thunderbolt port, instead of defaulting to firewire?

    Dont know if theres an adaptor on the way or if i have to wait for a thunderbolt capable vide recorder....

    What ports are available on your digital video recorder??   If Firewire is the only digital interface on your video deck, then even if there was an adapter/cable (which there isn't any currently) that went from Thunderbolt-->Firewire, the speed would still step down to the speed of your firewire connection (400 or 800).
    If you are wanting to take advantage of TB speeds (going from computer to video deck), then you may have to wait for awhile until some pro/pro-sumer level video decks come out.
    If you already have a video recorder that captures SDI or HDMI (or just want to capture analog)... Blackmagic has a video converter available already...
    http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/ultrastudio3d/
    Hope this helps...

  • IMac FireWire Port Not Working

    Hi guys, my system is a 24" 2.8GHz Intel-based iMac. Whenever I plug a device into the FireWire 400 port it powers the device but the iMac doesn't see the device - it doesn't show up in Disk Utility. There are no problems with the devices as they work perfectly with my other Macs. Any idea on whether I can fix this without taking it to an Apple Store? It seems like a Firmware issue.

    Hi DrRGrant
    First reset the SMC > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
    +1. Shut down the computer.+
    +2. Unplug the computer's power cord.+
    +3. Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.+
    +4. Release the power button.+
    +5. Attach the computers power cable.+
    +6. Press the power button to turn on the computer.+
    Then if that doesn't work, give this a go: > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1317
    +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.+
    Dennis

  • IMac firewire ports non-functional

    A client of mine has an iMac G5 20" and it seems as though the fw ports are dead. I have reset them by unplugging everything for 15min (and more) and it still will not mount an external f/w drive. Is there anything else to check before I take this to be repaired?
    -gl

    Boot from an OS X DVD (or CD), Diskwarrior, Techtool, etc. and run a volume check (using the OS X CD or DVD run Disk Utility) - I lost mine but a simple Disk Utiity ran from An OS X DVD found errors - when I rebooted they were all back. Also did it ahile back and I ran Diskwarrior from another partition and it fixed it too! May not be the ports.

  • IMac firewire ports acting up after 10.6.2

    So I upgraded to .2 and then my external raid 1 hard drive no longer shuts down with my computer. It now goes into a "sleep mode" and blinks. This is annoying, because its a really bright light and preferred it the way it used to automatically shutdown. Another issue this is causing is that the hard drive no longer turns off at all with bootcamp so after shutting down xp the hard drive actually still spins.

    Hi Peggy,
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    I'll keep that one in mind in the future.
    Thank You!
    -Sol
    Message was edited by: Sol Sims
    Message was edited by: Sol Sims
    Message was edited by: Sol Sims
    Message was edited by: Sol Sims

  • IMac i7 Quad-Core firewire port and video camera

    Has anybody tried to detect a video camera connected to the firewire 800 port?
    I have already tried with two PRO tape-based DV video cameras: SONY PD170 and PANASONIC AG-HVX200E with no results. The same models do not have any problem with iMac 27" Core Duo 2.
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    Thanks, Carlo
    Message was edited by: Carlo G

    Today my Mac has finally been fixed. I had to send it to Milano, to SATA srl, where they have replaced the logic board. Now I can import video from my video camera using the FireWire port. Thank SATA!!!
    Message was edited by: Carlo G

  • 2011 iMac, Lion, iPod 3G, FireWire - charge yes, sync no

    I'm posting this in both the iPod community and in the iMac community. My appologies to any who are bother by this...
    I just bought a 2011 iMac (21.5 w/ 2.5GHz i5) and it came w/ Mac OS X Lion (currently at 10.7.2). I have a WD MyBook Studio connected to the single FireWire 800 port w/ an appropriate cable. The MyBook works just fine all the time. I have an old 3rd generation iPod (3G, 10GB) that I have been using for years via FireWire 400 on various PowerMacs, older iMacs, a couple of eMacs and even a Dell running XP Pro. I just picked up a FireWire 800 to 400 adapter that I plugged into the second FireWire 800 port on the back of the MyBook external HD. My iPod started charging as soon as I plugged in my genuine Apple iPod-FireWire cable that came w/ the iPod. To my dismay, the iPod makes no indication that it is connected to a computer and the computer makes no indication that it is connected to and iPod. I unmounted my MyBook drive and disconnected the cable from the back of the iMac. I then plugged the FW800-400 adapter directly into the back of the iMac and plugged in my iPod. No change. The iPod charges just fine but won't connect in any way. To be certain that my iPod and cable are OK, I fired up my old eMac (I'm glad I haven't put it on eBay yet) and the iPod works great. I can sync w/ iTunes and use disk access to move files on and off the iPod from the Finder. My eMac is running 10.4.11.
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    If I can use USB for all of my iPods, then why am I worrying about FireWire? It's all about convenience. The battery in my iPod 3G doesn't last all that long. When connecting via USB, it communicates but doesn't charge (it needs the 12V of FireWire to charge even though it has USB capability). Bad things can happen if the iPod's battery dies during syncing. Connecting via FireWire not only takes care of the battery issue but it is also noticeably and measurably faster syncing files over FireWire than USB (I've done an apples to apples comparison of this in the past). I also paid $1200 for this iMac and another $10+ for the FW800-400 adapter. It should work. Apple has a number of articles that say FW800 is 100% backwards compatible w/ FW400. I can't find anything out there that tells me it shouldn't work and lots of things telling me it should work fine.
    Can anyone shed light on why my iPod won't connect via FireWire to my new iMac.

    It sounds like your talking about iPod (dock connector) from 2003, And a Mini from 2004?

  • 1 Lightning port as both 2nd monitor AND storage SSD? - 21" 2011 iMac

    Hello!
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    Haha, THUNDERBOLT!   Sorry, mate.  I must have been thinking of the newer iPad/iPhone connector.  Goes to show you how much mind I've paid to apples new port.  Anyway, that's great news.  Thank you.  I was pessimistic about their being enough bandwidth to fully support my 2nd monitor in addition to the top notch speeds of an SSD.  I was curious to know where there might be any sacrifices one way or another.

  • Using 2011 iMac as external display for new Retina macbook / port sharing question

    I'd like to see if there is a way to use the firewire port on the back my 2011 iMac 27" when it's connected to my 2014 15" Retina Macbook.
    The two work fine right now - the iMac is the main display for the macbook, but I wanted to know if there is a way to utilize the extra ports - namely the firewire port on the iMac through the Macbook. I've created aggregate devices before - would this be the way to go?
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    Hello gstern1994,
    Yes you can. Form the article below you should be able to do that, just make sure that you plug in those devices when you have already set up the Target Display Mode on the iMac. 
    Target Display Mode: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
    http://support.apple.com/en-us/ht3924
    Regards,
    -Norm G.  

  • Full Firewire Port Failure (three different machines : iMac Intel, iMac G5, Black Macbook)

    I'm experiencing a failure of all FireWire ports on all of my three machines. I believe this problem began with a faulty external, FireWire powered hard drive from G-Tech. Here are all my specs, followed by a rundown of the order of events that has lead to this situation, followed by the various troubleshooting I have done.
    Equipment :
    iMac Aluminum Intel - 24" Mid 2007 - running OsX 10.5.8 - currently 1 FW400 and 1 FW800 ports disabled
    iMac G5 - 20" - running OsX 10.5.8 - currently 2 FW400 ports disabled
    MacBook - 13" black Early 2008 - running OsX 10.5.8 - currently 1 FW400 port disabled
    2 500GB G-Drives (by G-Tech) - AC powered
    1 5TB G-RAID Drive (by G-Tech) - AC powered
    1 250GB G-Drive Mini (by G-Tech) - FW powered
    Initial Setup :
    1 500GB G-Drive connected directly to iMac Intel via FW800
    1 500GB G-Drive connected to first 500GB G-Drive via FW800 (daisy chained)
    1 250GB G-Drive connected to second 500GB G-Drive via FW400 (daisy chained)
    1 5TB G-RAID connected directly to iMac Intel via FW800>400 adapter
    Sequence of Events :
    I had transferred some files to my G-Drive Mini in order to move them to my MacBook from my iMac Intel. I copied the files to the G-Drive Mini and ejected it normally and plugged it into my MacBook via FW400. The drive would not mount, and the power indication light would not go on. After experimenting with various connections and cables I was able to get the drive to power with FW400 and USB connected at the same time, but the drive would still not mount.
    I then plugged the G-Drive Mini back into the 2nd 500GB G-Drive as it was previously connected via FW400. This action caused the G-Drive to immediately reboot and eject itself from my iMac Intel.
    I then attempted to plug the G-Drive Mini into my older iMac G5 via FW400. Immediately upon plugging in, the computer shut down, and would not restart.
    At this point I kind of started to freak out. I was unaware of the extent of the damage, but was upset that the FW powered G-Drive Mini had shutdown my iMac G5. I contacted G-Tech Support and they offered to replace the drive and instructed me how to manually reset the computer's SMC by opening up the iMac and finding the Cuda switch. This worked and the computer was able to start and function again, but the FW400 port seemed to be disabled.
    I then tried to swap out configurations and drives on my iMac Intel to see if there was any cable problems, but doing so, slowly rendered all my FireWire ports useless. It's almost as if the act of plugging in the FW-powered G-Drive Mini started a kind of shortout chain reaction. I soon learned that none of my hard drives would connect to any of my three machines, with any kind of cable combination via FW400 or 800.
    I am currently able to connect my 5TB G-RAID drive to any machine via USB, as well as my G-Drive Mini. I am unable to access the other two external hard drives, as one has only FW400 and 800 ports and the other's USB connection is not functional as well on any machine.
    Troubleshooting Steps Taken :
    I have on all machines, reset the SMC in the following methods. iMac G5 - manually, by opening the case and pressing Cuda switch. iMac Intel - unplug, hold power button, restart method. MacBook - unplug, hold power button, restart method.
    I have also on all machines, reset the PRAM by the Cmnd + Opt + P + R method at startup.
    I have also unplugged all cables / removed battery, from all machines and left alone for a period of at least 12 hours, then re-plugged in each device one at a time.
    I have also restored my hibernate mode (through Terminal) on my iMac Intel to mode 3 and also turned on Virtual Memory in system preferences and set hibernatemode to mode 7, the restarted and attempted to plug in devices. The reason I even began to deal with the hibernate mode was because I had around the same time my ports began malfunctioning, installed the DeepSleep widget, which allows you to control your computer's hibernate mode. I thought that tweaking with this setting may have made my computer incapable of recognizing devices that were plugged in. I have since uninstalled the widget and experimented with different hibernatemodes to no avail.
    I also have Repaired Disk Permissions and Repaired Disk on all my machines, from within my Admin User as well as from the OsX Install Disk.
    Sometimes in my System Profiler (like right now for example on my iMac Intel) my computer is "Unable to list FireWire devices," but sometimes, no warning message comes up and it simply displays the appropriate Bus speed.
    I also conducted a system restore using a backup from my 5TB G-Raid Drive via USB, to a date before these problems started, but my ports are still not working.
    Summary :
    I am looking at a situation where all my FW ports on all my computers appear to be disabled, and possibly also on my four external hard drives, with one possible USB port malfunction on one external drive. The only root of this seems to be a malfunctioning FW-powered external hard drive.
    Is this possible? Has this happened to anyone else before? G-Tech assures me that it is impossible for my 250GB G-Drive Mini to draw enough power from a computer to permanently disable any ports, but I have tried all of the FW port problem troubleshooting steps and am at a loss.
    I do not have AppleCare and would like to avoid bringing two iMacs, a MacBook and four hard drives to the Apple store and take my chances with the geniuses.
    I would appreciate any help or advice you all have. Thanks for reading and for your support!

    Ok. So if that was too confusing, I've re-labeled this post with letters for my hard drives and some mapping of the connectivity configurations I have attempted.
    Equipment :
    iMac Aluminum Intel - 24" Mid 2007 - running OsX 10.5.8 - currently 1 FW400 and 1 FW800 ports disabled
    iMac G5 - 20" - running OsX 10.5.8 - currently 2 FW400 ports disabled
    MacBook - 13" black Early 2008 - running OsX 10.5.8 - currently 1 FW400 port disabled
    1 500GB G-Drive (by G-Tech) w/ no USB port - AC powered : A
    1 500GB G-Drive (by G-Tech) w/ USB port - AC powered : B
    1 5TB G-RAID Drive (by G-Tech) - AC powered : C
    1 250GB G-Drive Mini (by G-Tech) - FW powered : D
    Initial Setup :
    C > FW400-800 adapter > iMac Intel
    D > FW400 > A > FW800 > B > FW800 > iMac Intel
    Sequence of Events :
    D > FW400 > MacBook
    I had transferred some files to my G-Drive Mini D in order to move them to my MacBook from my iMac Intel. I copied the files to the G-Drive Mini D and ejected it normally and plugged it into my MacBook via FW400. The drive would not mount, and the power indication light would not go on. After experimenting with various connections and cables I was able to get the drive to power with FW400 and USB connected at the same time, but the drive would still not mount.
    D > FW400 > A > FW800 > B > FW800 > iMac Intel
    I then plugged the G-Drive Mini D back into the 2nd 500GB G-Drive A as it was previously connected via FW400. This action caused the G-Drive to immediately reboot and eject itself from my iMac Intel.
    D > FW400 > iMac G5
    I then attempted to plug the G-Drive Mini into my older iMac G5 via FW400. Immediately upon plugging in, the computer shut down, and would not restart.
    At this point I kind of started to freak out. I was unaware of the extent of the damage, but was upset that the FW powered G-Drive Mini D had shutdown my iMac G5. I contacted G-Tech Support and they offered to replace the drive and instructed me how to manually reset the computer's SMC by opening up the iMac and finding the Cuda switch. This worked and the computer was able to start and function again, but the FW400 port seemed to be disabled.
    I then tried to swap out configurations and drives on my iMac Intel to see if there was any cable problems, but doing so, slowly rendered all my FireWire ports useless. It's almost as if the act of plugging in the FW-powered G-Drive Mini D started a kind of shortout chain reaction. I soon learned that none of my hard drives would connect to any of my three machines, with any kind of cable combination via FW400 or 800.
    D > USB > AnyMachine
    C > USB > AnyMachine
    I am currently able to connect my 5TB G-RAID C drive to any machine via USB, as well as my G-Drive Mini D. I am unable to access the other two external hard drives, as one has only FW400 and 800 ports (A) and the other's USB connection is not functional as well on any machine (B).
    Troubleshooting Steps Taken :
    I have on all machines, reset the SMC in the following methods. iMac G5 - manually, by opening the case and pressing Cuda switch. iMac Intel - unplug, hold power button, restart method. MacBook - unplug, hold power button, restart method.
    I have also on all machines, reset the PRAM by the Cmnd + Opt + P + R method at startup.
    I have also unplugged all cables / removed battery, from all machines and left alone for a period of at least 12 hours, then re-plugged in each device one at a time.
    I have also restored my hibernate mode (through Terminal) on my iMac Intel to mode 3 and also turned on Virtual Memory in system preferences and set hibernatemode to mode 7, the restarted and attempted to plug in devices. The reason I even began to deal with the hibernate mode was because I had around the same time my ports began malfunctioning, installed the DeepSleep widget, which allows you to control your computer's hibernate mode. I thought that tweaking with this setting may have made my computer incapable of recognizing devices that were plugged in. I have since uninstalled the widget and experimented with different hibernatemodes to no avail.
    I also have Repaired Disk Permissions and Repaired Disk on all my machines, from within my Admin User as well as from the OsX Install Disk.
    Sometimes in my System Profiler (like right now for example on my iMac Intel) my computer is "Unable to list FireWire devices," but sometimes, no warning message comes up and it simply displays the appropriate Bus speed.
    I also conducted a system restore using a backup from my 5TB G-Raid Drive C via USB, to a date before these problems started, but my ports are still not working.
    Summary :
    I am looking at a situation where all my FW ports on all my computers appear to be disabled, and possibly also on my four external hard drives (A, B, C, D), with one possible USB port malfunction on one external drive (B). The only root of this seems to be a malfunctioning FW-powered external hard drive.
    Is this possible? Has this happened to anyone else before? G-Tech assures me that it is impossible for my 250GB G-Drive Mini D to draw enough power from a computer to permanently disable any ports, but I have tried all of the FW port problem troubleshooting steps and am at a loss.
    I do not have AppleCare and would like to avoid bringing two iMacs, a MacBook and four hard drives to the Apple store and take my chances with the geniuses.
    I would appreciate any help or advice you all have. Thanks for reading and for your support!

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