Bus powered Firewire devices crashes

I have a Macbook Pro (June 2009) and a Western Digital Passport hard disk with a Firewire 800 connection, bus powered. It has an optional USB 2.0 connection
It keeps crashing the system with firewire, not with USB.
Especially when I move large files or Time Machine backups or migrations with Migration Assistant, the process stops at some point, eventually forcing me to shut the computer down.
My bet is that it's something related with the power, because this problem does'nt occur with the USB connection.
I also have an USB keyboard connected. Could this be the problem? Is the USB keyboard sucking so much power out of the mac?
Please help.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
I wonder if there might be a problem with the firewire bridge in the WD? The most reliable Firewire chipset that I know of is the Oxford 924+, but not everybody uses these. You might be able to find out what is actually used on the WD web site.
Since the USB connection works, the WD drive itself is probably fine.
Does your FireWire 800 work properly with other devices? If not, or if you don't know, you could try a SMC reset, which may help if the problem is with the FireWire port on the MBP:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411?viewlocale=en_US
Otherwise, you could try the drive in a different enclosure, like the Mercury on the Go from OWC, which has the Oxford 934 chipset. I have WD drives in 3 of these enclosures, and have never had a problem with any of them.
Good luck!

Similar Messages

Multiple bus powered firewire devices - how on MBP

Looking for answer to the following- if anyone can help:
Ideally would like to power a bus-powered firewire drive and a bus powered FW audio interface to acheive complete "AC Free" battery powered portable operation. Is this possible - and if so how ?
I have heard of problems when chaining multiple bus powered devices on MBP
True ? - if so under what circumstances ? Are there workarounds ?
Also - are there two independent BUSSES on the MBP - or are both ports actually only on a single shared bus (as in the iMac, for example)
Finally, will an ExpressCard/34 card provide for bus powering as I desire here.
Any help appreciated - thx

Hi,
see here for ablock diagram of the MBP internals: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/HardwareDrivers/Conceptual/15inMacBookP ro_0706/index.html
Also follow the links that are provided with it.
IMHO, a FW drive and a FW audio interface will be too much for the bus power provided, but I might be wrong.
The MBPs do have 'only' one FW bus that supplies both FW400 an FW800.
Also IMHO Express Card slots don't provide any kind of bus power, but I might be wrong on that too.
Regards
Stefan

Ext HD speed and Bus-Powered Firewire 800

After having gone through various External HD over the years, Firewire 800 (WD Studio with power adapter) is by far proving to be best in terms of connecting speed when handling my 350gb+ library.
However, lately, I was exploring the option of having a portable External HD drive with "bus-powered" port so that I don't have to rely on the power plug whenever I want to listen to iTunes library.
So, here are some questions...
1) Bus-powered Firewire 800 1TB - no experience with this before. all my firewire external drives had required power adapter, but during this search I just found out that such exists.
Can MBP Firewire 800 port provide enough power to spin 1TB external drive w/out a hiccup??
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
2) Obviously for a smaller size drive with bus-powered option, I must go with 2.5" drive, which meant, I have either 1TB @ 5400rpm OR 750gb @ 7200rpm for MAX Storage option. I do want 1TB... BUT would 5400rpm / 7200rpm matter when it comes to iTunes library??
I ened up getting my current Firewire 800 external drive after experiencing lagging iTunes speed via USB 2.0 and Firewire 400. But later I found out that slow connecting (constant beach ball when selecting music) is typically resulted from having many playlists/id tags/etc.
So, I want to be sure before I get a new drive, I choose the right speed drive.
Btw, here is my current set up: MBP 13" (mid-2009), iTunes (10.1.2), 500gb 7200rpm internal drive, 8gb memory
Anyone experience with above set-up that I am thinking about??

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
I wonder if there might be a problem with the firewire bridge in the WD? The most reliable Firewire chipset that I know of is the Oxford 924+, but not everybody uses these. You might be able to find out what is actually used on the WD web site.
Since the USB connection works, the WD drive itself is probably fine.
Does your FireWire 800 work properly with other devices? If not, or if you don't know, you could try a SMC reset, which may help if the problem is with the FireWire port on the MBP:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411?viewlocale=en_US
Otherwise, you could try the drive in a different enclosure, like the Mercury on the Go from OWC, which has the Oxford 934 chipset. I have WD drives in 3 of these enclosures, and have never had a problem with any of them.
Good luck!

Does using two bus powered external devices MacBook Pro 13" put too much strain on the power supply?

Will daisy chaining two bus powered external devices put too much strain on my 2011 MacBook Pro 13" power supply? Specifically I would like use ProTools with a LaCie bus powered hard disc and a Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro which is also bus powered with firewire.

Hi rrlavigne,
The biggest difference between the two machines in maximum RAM capacity. The white MacBook is limited to 4GB, whereas the MacBook Pro will support 8GB of RAM. While the cost of RAM is prohibitory right now (to go to 8GB), to have that flexibility in the future will very much be worth it... especially considering you intend to install Logic.
Other than that, I think in terms of "raw performance" the machines are very equally matched. You're paying for the unibody design, backlight keyboard, SD card and new battery technology for that $200 premium (in addition to the slight CPU bump).

Why won't my 2011 MBP boot from bus-powered USB devices?

In the past, I have often made use of OS X's ability to boot from an external USB device. Before installing major OS updates, or new productivity software, I usually clone my system drive onto an external USB drive using Superduper or CarbonCopyCloner. Once the clone is complete, I can then boot from the external drive (by holding Option at startup, and choosing the cloned image from the boot disk menu). This has been incedibly useful in the past when I've had hard disk problems, or when I've upgraded to a new Mac.
My issue is with my new 2011 model 17" MBP. I am only able to boot from an external USB drive if the drive isn't bus-powered. If I try to boot from an OS X image located on a bus-powered USB flash drive or pocket hard drive, the drive seems to power down upon choosing it from the boot menu and I'm greeted by a blank gray screen. I've also tested this technique using a bus-powered DVD drive containing the Snow Leopard retail DVD (and a Windows 7 install DVD for what it's worth) and the problem remains. The optical drive will spin up upon startup, but power down as soon as I choose to boot from the DVD.
This issue only seems to affect my 2011 MBP. I've had no issues getting the same technique to work on my old 2007 MBP or a 2008 model MacBook.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Fair enough. I'll give that a try as a last resort.
I used my wife's MacBook Pro, Target Disk Mode and a Firewire 800 cable to install Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro as I don't have an internal optical drive any more--just the standard HD and the SSD.
I did use the retail disc, and I'm wondering if the issue might be that since my machine is fairly new, I might have had to use the stock install disk--which I seem to have lost. I have the Applications DVD, but not the OS disc.
To that end, do you know of a way to get a replacement disc? I bought my machine at the store, I wonder if they'd be willing to copy one for me...

Portable bus-powered (Firewire works, USB doesn't ?) hard drive for PB ?

Does anyone have any experience with the OWC Mercury On-The-Go 100GB portable drive ? It's $250 at OWC (macsales.com).
Any other choices to consider ? Macworld gave the OWC drive it's Editor's Choice back in May when it was $300. It's got a case, dual interface (FW/USB), and boots OS X over FW.
Powerbook 1.5GHz 15 & Dual 2.3 desktop Mac OS X (10.4.3)

We've bought 10-12 of the Mercury drives for some of our traveling art directors in the past 6 months, and everybody loves them. The work great.
I bought one myself a few years ago and it's still chugging along.

C2D and Bus Powered Firewire Audio Interfaces Problem...

I have been doing some research and I have came accross this:
http://www.bigbluelounge.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33365
Anyone have any explanation on this? Is is true?
Why is this so?
What has changed on the C2D that would cause this?

Can Anyone Confirm this?
Would this be fixed with firmware?

Bus powered external Firewire drives

Most portable external drives are now bus powered, many don't even have a power input.
I wonder how many bus powered Firewire driives I can daisy-chain. Where should I place them, at the beginnig, in the middle, or the end of the daisy chain.
I have several powered Firewire drives including my Time Machine Drive.

tommmy wrote:
Most portable external drives are now bus powered, many don't even have a power input.
I wonder how many bus powered Firewire driives I can daisy-chain.
Use a powered Firewire/USB hub so there is enough power to power the port powered devices.
What happened is port powered devices are cheaper and many people opt for the lower price than the ones with their own power supplies, so it creates a problem and computer makers had to turn off ports drawing too much power from the comptuer, so people have to run out and get powered hubs.

Wiebetech bus-powered FW800 external & daisy chaining...

Please, only people that ALREADY OWN & USE the Wiebetech drive reply. Thanks.
I just bought one - the 500GB. I have three questions:
1) From your experience in running this unit, can I use it on only bus power, in a daisy chain with another FW800 drive if the other drive has a power adapter?
2) What if I have a FW400 drive also plugged in, and the FW400 is connected to the FW400 port and has it's own power adapter?
3) Also, does including a FW400 drive in the loop AFTER the FW800 Wiebetech have any adverse affect on the FW800 speed or it's bus-power?
It sounds like the draw for the 500GB on us power will be running questionably close to the max output on the port. So I'm trying to do some homework ahead of time to see if I might run into any anomalies. Thanks.

tommmy wrote:
Most portable external drives are now bus powered, many don't even have a power input.
I wonder how many bus powered Firewire driives I can daisy-chain.
Use a powered Firewire/USB hub so there is enough power to power the port powered devices.
What happened is port powered devices are cheaper and many people opt for the lower price than the ones with their own power supplies, so it creates a problem and computer makers had to turn off ports drawing too much power from the comptuer, so people have to run out and get powered hubs.

Bus-powered external enclosure, too many choices.

Hi, I'm shopping for an external enclosure for my Macbook's Sata drive as I just ordered a 7200 Hitachi drive as a replacement, I would like the enclosure to be bus-powered, firewire is a good option but not necessary.
I noticed there are a few on eBay with those characteristics, are they any good. Checked the ones on Newegg (even though they don't ship to Canada), and they are a little more expensive. There is also one that seems nice on OWC but it's pretty expensive at 80$.
Not sure if I can trust the ones on eBay, what are you guys using/usggesting ?
Francis.

Hi
I did exactly the same thing a couple of months ago so that I could save money with the white macbook versus the black. I bought a 120GB drive for my iBook and switched it with the shipped one when the machine arrived from the Apple Store. Result = I get a better specified machine than was available on line (and in white) and a removable 60GB drive with bus power, firewire 800/400 and USB 2.0.
To get to the point buy one of these:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=736770&tstart=30
works a dream, is neat and compact, comes with useful short wires, can be powered if necessary, and looks cool.
I searched for a long time and the OWC enclosure was easily the best for me, even to import to the UK (i.e need to add on a few pounds sterling for customs - still way cheaper and better than alternatives).
David
macbook, PM G4s & G5s, PBG4, iMac G4 & G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
PM G4 & G5s, PBG4, iMac G4 & G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
PM G4 & G5s, PBG4, iMac G4 & G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Early 2011 17" MBP -- USB 3.0 portable, reliable, bus-powered option?

Hi everyone,
I have the above mentioned MacBook Pro, and have been scouring the Internet for quite a while trying to find a solid USB 3.0 solution.
Ideally what I'm looking for is accesibility for portable, bus powered USB 3.0, 7200 RPM hard drives.
I know there are limitations in what expresscard/34 can deliver in power, and have been really trying to figure out solutions, as my drive isn't getting sufficient power from my current card, especially if both usb 3.0 ports are occupied (even if the other is just a camera SD card, the HDD will just 'click').
I've looked at different adapters, and Sonnet seems to make a pretty decent one that has two ports, and can be powered by a wall adapter is purchased from a third-party like OWC. This, however, would still leave me in a situation where I would always be reliant upon electricity, detracting a lot from the portability factor. It is also limited to pretty much only storage devices, and doesn't support USB 3.0 hubs
CalDigit makes an adapter as well that seems to be well received, but it cannot be externally powered from what I can tell… so I assume it would not provide enough power to the drives?
One option I have thought of is to get a USB 3.0 y-adapter, and plug the extra "power" USB plug into the adjacent USB 2.0 port.
Would this work, and likely provide enough power? Or would the speed be throttled down to 2.0 speeds?
Another option seems to be the CalDigit Thunderbolt hub, which, while expensive… seems to provide a great deal of value. However, that would really limit my portability and effectively limit my USB 3.0 usage to home, or wherever I drag the box around with me to.
Do any of these seem like they might work, or are there any other options I am not thinking of?
It seems like the only way I will have true USB 3.0 functionality is either the CalDigit Thunderbolt hub, or parting with this particular mac (which I'd hate to do). The other thing I would possibly like to expand to is a Blackmagic Intensity module ... which come in USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt ... with the USB 3.0 a bit cheaper (and not requiring a cable...) -- I would never be able to use that with the Expresscard/34 adapters, it seems.
I apologize for this being long, but am hoping I am giving enough information for my question to receive some feedback.
Thank you!
John

As a (likely) final update to this thread, after talking to CalDigit one last time, this product is no longer being produced by them, and one of the only vendors left for it seems to be OWC.
The card does not come with the USB "ac adapter"-type cable to add the extra needed power for bus-powered storage devices, and is not available through them, either. The CalDigit tech support rep recommended a regular USB 3.0 y-cable.
When I inquired about driver updates, the gentleman said it will likely continue to be covered for approximately 2 more OS system updates (typically 1.5 years each, so 3 years, according to him). He said that, as I have read, that it is indeed possible that the driver is more unstable under Mavericks.
At this point it seems there is no sure-shot solution based on expresscard/34. This is a huge pitfall, as everything else with my older macbook pro is wonderful (and upgradeable).
Anyway, just wanted to give that final update, as it varies significantly from what I was hoping for in my last post. I suppose I could "try" it, but OWC has a 15% restocking fee, along with having to pay return shipping...both of which I confirmed I would have to pay with OWC. I am not willing to do that, as that comes out to almost $20 just to return the product if it doesn't work correctly. Shame, as I would like to give it a fair try, at least, but they don't seem to be willing to budge, and after getting burned on bad products from the past (from other sites with restocking fees), I am no longer willing to go along with those business practices.
Good luck, everyone.

Bus Powered external fw 800 Drive

Hi! I am going sttrongly concidering buying a Lacie 250GB bus-powered Firewire 800 Hard drive. I know it is bus powered but I can not seem to find out how much energy that it uses to spin up. Would my 15" macbook pro be able to support it through the firewire 800 port while on battery? I am going to buy this drive to acompany Aperture 2 so I can have a good, fast drive to store my files on when I am on the road. This hard drive is found at http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10949.
Thank You.

Hi - I have used the Lacie Little Big drives and they are great. I use the 7200 rpm as it's for video and they also have two FW800 ports allowing you to attach as many as you like in a series. It also has a FW400 port for attaching other deivces.
They also make a Rugged drive that is bus powered but this only has one FW800 port so you would need to swap if media was on several drives for video editing etc.
Cheers
Jonnyukbravo

Editing with Bus-powered External Drive

Hello,
I have a MBP and usually edit using a bus-powered USB drive. It works fine, but I'm wondering if I would get a performance increase if I use a bus-powered Firewire drive. I know Firewire is faster, but if the drive is a 2.5-inch 5400 RPM that's powered by the Firewire port, does it matter?
Thanks.

Yes, FireWire is indeed faster than USB. FW400 is about 40% faster and FW800 about 70% faster for typical throughput. This will be true regardless of hard drive (assuming the same hard drive in any case.)

Firewire & bus powered devices - Phonic FireFly 302 Plus

Hello Appleheads,
Looking for some help if you have a spare moment.
I just purchased a Phonic Firefly 302 Plus audio interface, and even though it is supposed to be able to be powered by the firewire bus, I am unable to get it to work. The unit's power light does not come on at all, however when using the external power supply that is also supplied it does work. I have tested two firewire cables, 1 of which I know works.
Are there any tricks to get this to work? Can you change power output settings for firewire ports somewhere in the system?
I am using a 6 circuit firewire 400 cable that came with the device. This is the only firewire device connected to my computer. The computer is connected to a power supply. Running OSX 10.6.4.
My Macbook Pro...
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Thanks for any help that anyone can provide.
Hartz.

The unit works fine with DC power. I am yet to test it on another computer to know for sure.
An interesting point has been raised to me though that has been discussed here: https://www.mhsecure.com/faq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=3&id=21&artlang=en&hig hlight=bus power
+The MacBook Pro models include protection circuitry to shut down the bus power when a device's inrush current amount violates a threshold. This issue affects the startup transient only, so you can power the MIO from its power supply to boot the box, then connect the FW to the computer, and remove the MIO power supply after it has joined the bus.+
Surely this threshold would be set to the maximum voltage provided on the bus? 12v?
Either way I have decided that I will just use the DC adapter.

Firewire device causing problems when connected to Mini via LaCie ExtHD/Bus

Hello there..
Just bought LaCie 300GB Ext.HD/Bus(Firewire &USB). It was recognized by my Mini no problem. I have used the firewire connection between The HD and the mini. The problems begin when I try to connect my M-Audio firewire audio interface (it's mains powered, by the way) to one of the firewire bus inputs of the LaCie - then every action gets the dreaded spinning beachball and I have to shut down etc. The connection of this device has even prevented the HD being recognized by my system, in the case where I have tried having it already connected and powered up before switching on and connecting the HD to the Mini.
I've tried other things such as PMU reset, to no lasting avail.
This is the same firewire audio interface that has worked fine for months when plugged directly into the Mini, so why should there be a problem when it's connected to the bus port of the HD?
Now, as a temporary solution, I have changed the connection between the Mini and the HD/Bus from Firewire to USB - this means I can now use the FW port on the Mini to connect my audio interface (as before). The problem with this is that I work alot with video as well as audio, and have learned that it's very advisable to use firewire drives when working on video...but there is only one FW input on my Mini, so if the La Cie HD is using that, there is no port for audio interface to go in...that's why I bought this particular HD - more storage on a FW HD which has extra FW bus ports for such things as audio interfaces!
I hope I've explained the problem OK, thank you in advance for any advice.
Jimmy

You don't mention which model you have, but this is from the M-Audio Firewire 410 Manual Troubleshooting section:
The FireWire 410 has been designed to give you high performance and professional quality audio. It has been tested under a wide range
of systems and operating conditions. In the real world, however, there is a nearly infinite number of possible operating scenarios, any of
which could affect your system’s performance. Much like owning an automobile, “your mileage may vary.” This section can not begin to
cover all possible issues you may encounter, however we want to give you some suggestions on common problems you may experience.
One thing to avoid is connecting too many devices. The FireWire bus is a dependable, high-speed, high-bandwidth protocol which is ideally
suited for digital audio. Nonetheless, it’s important to remember that audio and multimedia streaming places considerable demands on
your processor and the FireWire bus. Although it is theoretically possible to chain many multiple FireWire devices in series, doing so may
potentially degrade your audio performance.
I guess this degradation could also affect the Firewire HD. Maybe there is a simple fix, but it sounds like the M-Audio people have been down this road before.

Bus powered Firewire devices crashes

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