Can a bum FW port on the iMac fry the FW port on an external device

Hi i'm an editor and we work off aluminum iMacs (i know, i know, my boss is a cheap ***). Experiencing many of the FW issues others have with this model of iMac. But on e that is very strange is that it seems to be zapping and rendering useless the FW on external devices.
We had a functioning DV deck that can no longer connect by FW to ANY computer (not just aluminum iMacs), a brand new g-tech drive whose FW never worked (not 100% sure it's the drive, but things seem to be adding up), and now a brand new HV30 camcorder that was able to capture to one of the iMacs, but now cannot and can't connect to the iMac or a MBP (i know about canon cams and FW).
It seems as though the bad FW connection on the iMacs is frying the FW ports on the other deviecs.
Is this possible? has anyone heard of this happeneing?

"you mean i should always power down device AND computer before disconnecting devices?"
It is not necessary to power down the your computer before disconnecting a firewire device. What is necessary is to make sure that if it is mounted, to dismount the device before disconnecting it. Firewire is completely hot swappable which is one of the advantages of it over older technologies like SCSI.
by the way, what is the "normal firewire issue with iMacs" that you refer to. I have 5 iMac's of varying age. 2006,2007 and 2008 models, 20" and 24", all of them have multiple firewire devices connected to them and I have never had any problems with my firewire ports. Maybe I am just lucky!!

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You may experience unexpected results if you have installed third-party system software modifications, or if you have modified the operating system through other means. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)
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Purchase the Snow Leopard Retail DVD.
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