Dead firewire port

Seems my firewire port suddenly died. I tried plugging in my iSight and it's not detected, and I tried a firewire hard drive as well, and that is not detected.
Any steps I should try on my own before contacting Apple for APP repair?

After installing firmware password protection, I found out that it disables your firewire ports.
So I disabled the password, but my firewire ports are still dead, i can use targetmode, but my mini never mounts, I tried connectiong isight and it didnt work also, I did some research on this and found the code that checks the firmware for this setting.
is located on the file IOFireWireController.cpp
it looks to me as if the security-mode is set to none, once it was set to anything else other than "NULL" value it will still disable the firewire. so i tried to set it to NULL also but no luck. My Firewire is dead, and also my other laptop that had a firware password has the same problem. I've tried:
altopt+of
setenv security-mode none.
rest-nvram
reset-all
return.
Then
reset the PMU.
but nothing.

Similar Messages

EMAC 1.2 mg 2 Dead firewire ports

EMAC 1.2 mg, 2 dead firewire ports neither will mount, but have power

Welcome to Apple Discussions.
You should reset the Power Management Unit (PMU) by removing the user access panel and locating the push button switch to the right of the drive connector and just below the right end of one of the two DIMM slots on your logic board. To do so…
• shut down the computer
• unplug all cables EXCEPT the power cord from your machine but not from a grounded AC source
• place it face down on a stable, level surface
• remove the user access door by removing the center screw which mounts it to the frame
• equalize your electrical potential to that of the machine by touching the exposed metal case
• once you have done so, remove the power cord from your machine
• do not move around, which would change your electrical potential
• press the PMU reset button ONCE and once only, as second and subsequent presses can crash the PMU itself, and rapidly drain your backup battery
• wait 10 seconds, replace the AC cord and power on the computer using the case mounted switch
Replace the plate, place the machine upright, and reconnect your keyboard and mouse.
Plug in a FireWire device to see if it appears in the Finder as a mountable volume and verify this by using the Disk Utility if it is a storage device.
If your issue has been resolved, it is the PMU reset which has done so. If you have not but still have power available at the FireWire interconnect socket, then your FireWire PHY controller is likely damaged, a condition which requires a logic board repair or replacement.

Dead firewire Ports & PCI Card

Well here i go. Today I hooked up my firewire external drives. I am in the process of cleaning and reorganizing. The drives did not mount. The deck was next to be hooked up and is not recognized?
Okay so next its the forums alot of info. too much for me. Zapped the pram rebooted numerous times. Shut down let everything rest unplugged everything rebooted and plugged everthing in, nooo go. One of the LaCie fwdrives does work in my Mac Book Pro, so I realize it is not the drive or the cable. Reset the pmu button. NADA.
Okay so now its off to Staples for that Belkin PCI Firewire card. Installed it nothing. The system profiler recognizes it but the drives don't mount, and Disk Utility does not see the drives. Called Belkin tech support and I don't even want to go there, no we diffently do not want to talk about that.. anyone had a similar problem I would greatly like to hear what you have to say. It is real obvious that I would like to have the ports....BOTH FW PORTS THAT SHIPPED WITH THE APPLE G 5 work, however I quess that will not be and it seems everyone just settles for the PCI workaround, I will also if I can get it to work.. Thanks. I'll need the practice for when my USB ports LUNCH...

Regarding having to disconnect every FW connection before hooking up a Canon (GL2 in my case) I'd figured it was my Echo AudioFire 2 FW audio box that was causing the strin on the system, but as you quite rightly pointed out it's the Canon.
I just got back from buying a no brand "IEEE 1394A Card" from a local PC centric store and hooked the AudioFire up to it thinking it would end the problem, but as soon as I connected the GL2 the connection to my 1TB external LaCie was severed and my Lexar Professional card reader started flashing on and off (maybe it was flashing in sympathy with the pulses coming from the GL2 - a communication signal of some kind).
Anyways, I now have the following connections which is working great:
1. Firewire PCI card hooked up to the GL2 exclusively
2. Built-in G5 Firewire (rear FW400 port) hooked up to the FW breakout cable on my Cinema Display.
2a. (Cinema Display FW400 port 1) to Ext 1TB Lacie
2b. (Cinema Display FW400 port 2) to Lexar Professional card readers' FW port 1 and then from port 2 to the Echo AudoFire 2.
The only downside to this is that I was hoping to start using an iMac as my main machine but I can't now because I need two FW busses, and when I upgrade to a new Mac Pro I'll have to use up a PCI slot for the FW card.
I'm surprised Apple's pro machines only have the 1 FW bus, and even stranger how FW400 and FW800 share the same bus!!!

Dead firewire ports! on g4 it was working fine till after the updates!

i tryed every thing from booting comand+options+o+f reset-nvram reset-all boot comand+options+r+p reset even reset on board it self (pmu) a guy told me its firmware???

What model G4 & what updates did you make?
What to do if your computer won't recognize a FireWire device
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338
Dealing with FireWire problems (drives not mounting, devices unrecognized, etc.)
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20041221081432908
 Cheers, Tom

Dead firewire ports

I have an iMacG5, 2.0ghz, 17", last model without iSight, that has been working fine, till the Apple Care Warranty expired. Sometime since that,the firewire has stopped working. Is there any way to get it re-started short of a logic board transplant?

Try [this|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338] and these as well:
Zapping the P-RAM:
After the startup tone, hold down <commandd><option><r> until 3 additional startup tones are heard, then release the 4 keys.
Or try an Open Firmware reset:
After the startup tone, hold down <command><option><o><f> until the text screen is visible. When text can be entered, type the following commands, followed by the <return> key (there are no space characters in each command):
reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all (the Mac will boot up after this command is entered)

A135 S-4527 wont recognize camcorder over firewire port

The firewire port is identified in Device Manager as 'Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller'. There is also a 1394 Net Adapter under Network Adapters. (Everything working properly in Device manager). I am trying to connect my sony DCR-TRV 250 camcorder usin 4 pin - 4 pin cable to firewire port, but it is not detected. However, this camcorder works well with my desktop where I connect it using 4 pin-6pin cable as desktop has 6 pin connector. I have already tried followings,
1) 3 different 4-4 pin cables.
2) Connecting external firewire DVD writer which is also not recognized by laptop.
3) Vista, XP SP1, SP2.
4) Different camcorder (Canon) with 3-3 pin cable for no luck.
Do I have dead firewire port (But in device manager it is detected and working properly). OR do I need to take any steps to make it work. Somebody Please Help.

Oh, I also formated the hard drive from my MBP. I wrote 0's on the entire drive. I don't mind doing any formating because I have a TimeMachine backup.

IMac dead firewire giveaway

I tried to use Target Disk to transfer data from my MacBook to my new iMac. Didn't work, and after being on the phone with Applecare for 30 minutes they chalked it up as a bad cable. Took it in the the Genius Bar and confirmed it was a dead firewire port, perhaps often overlooked because, how many people utilize firewire? (their question, not mine).
Anyway, b/c I bought the thing a week ago, they were just going to swap it out for a new one. Feels a little weird to give them my machine to utilize migration for the data transfer - they said three days. But my entire Gmail account is on that thing via IMAP on Apple Mail. Ugh. I wish they would have just swapped out the hard drive. The genius said that would be too complicated.
Check your firewire, but prep your machine before you give it away.

Hi,
If we tell you that - You may have to be " silenced " or disposed of!
Only joking....
There are several tests that you can perform on almost any computer. The results of those tests, usually, point to one or another component failure.
Its only easy if you actually know the answer!
Regards.
Ian.

FW800 Card causes G4 all firewire ports to go dead

I tried to install an Allegro Firewire 800 card from Sonnet into my G4 1GHz Dual Processor G4. I put the card in, connected my firewire drive and got the following outcome.
1. When I re-booted, the computer hung at the blue screen that comes right after the gray screen. It stayed there for a very long time 5+ minutes but finally got through it.
2.When I logged on I found that the firewire ports on the Sonnet card AND also the native FW 400 ports no longer worked.
3.I removed the card, rebooted, and the machine still hung at the blue screen for a long time. It finally got through it, but the FW ports were still dead.
4. I worked for almost two hours, rebooting, trying to reset the PRAM, although I just got a black screen and no "restart" as is the usual case.
5. Finally, I unpluggd the machine completely and re-booted one last time and magically, the native FW ports started to work. So now I am back where I started.
Any ideas what is going on here? Should I try to install the card again? I am thinking that it was a mistake to hook the drive up before the machine had a chance to recognize the card, so I am tempted to try again that way, but I am afraid of getting the same results. Or should I just throw the card in the trash basket, call it a $50 loss or be content with FW 400?

Hi-
Finally, I unpluggd the machine completely and re-booted one last time and magically, the native FW ports started to work.
Doing so reset the PMU, and also reset the FW bus. Good job on stumbling onto the fix.
Any ideas what is going on here?
Bad card, maybe......
Should I try to install the card again?
Scary thought, huh.......
I am thinking that it was a mistake to hook the drive up before the machine had a chance to recognize the card, so I am tempted to try again that way, but I am afraid of getting the same results.
So, this means that you installed the card, connected a FW800 device, and then started the machine?
It would definitely be best to install the card, startup, and check the System Profiler, prior to connecting devices.
You don't need to shut down to connect a FW device. Hot plugging is fine, as long as you "eject" the device before unplugging it.

Firewire ports on Cube seem to be dead

The firewire ports on my Cube seem to be dead, in that the Cube is not able to see an external drive connected to either of the ports (and the external drive can be seen when connected to another computer). Is that sufficient evidence to conclude that my firewire ports are dead? Is there any software test I could perform? Is it possible to repair the firewire ports?
I'm afraid it's about time to retire the Cube.

I see a PDF on the top of this search page. And a little lower down is link to a video on removing the board.
http://www.google.com/search?q=replacelogic+board+mac+cube&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&clien t=firefox-a#q=replace+logic+board+g4cube&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=slH&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ivfd&ei=_ UG6TPyDB8P6lwep6IDFDA&start=10&sa=N&fp=6b353df19b06cafa
Thank you, WZZZ. I'm afraid I can't find the link to the video you mentioned. Would you give me the link itself?
Thanks,
John Link

Firewire ports are dead

My firewire ports seemed to have died. Not only will my Lacie Drives no longer mount, my iPod won't either. The system profiler doesn't seem them. They don't mount on the desktop. However, it seems as if power is still getting to the devices.
I've tested the devices and cables in question on my powerbook. They all seem to work.
Any ideas?

Thought you could use this info about getting FireWire to work!
First, you should always Repair Permissions in Disk Utility before and after any update; I would do that now. If you installed your update with FireWire plugged in, your Mac may not recognize it anymore.
Try resetting your FireWire ports by disconnecting all FW devices, shut down your Mac and unplug it from AC power (wall socket) for 30 minutes. plug it back in and try FW.
If that did'nt work, download the combo update from this site (yours may be corrupt), not Software Update, disconnect all firewire + USB devices except keyboard + mouse, Repair Permissions, re-install update, Repair Permissions again + try. Yours is the 10.4.3 Combo update. Others reading, download the Combo that applies to your system.
If that still did'nt get it Zap the PRAM. While restarting Mac hold down the following key combo Command-Option-P-R. Keep holding those keys down till you hear the second start-up chime, then release.
For those of you with Macs that are not PowerBooks or iBooks, a bad internal battery can cause FireWire to not be recognized, so make sure it's good!
Good Luck!
Cheers!
DALE

Firewire ports 'dead'

Heello again,
Further to my previous query, the one directly before I think.
I think my firewire ports have some kind of problem - I've tried hooking up a camera on iMovie and it can't fin it / acknowledge it is connected.
Could I have inadvertantly done something / altered a setting or something to render them inactive?
Thanks again
Dan

May just be a simple Firewire Chipset lock up. Happens sometimes. Turning the computer "off" often does not fix it because there is still power applied to the logic board and keeping the chip set powered and locked up. So we have to remove power and allow it to reset.
To check/fix, on a desktop machine, power down the machine, unplug the computer from the wall (yank the power cord completely). Also unplug everything from the computer except mouse and keyboard. We don't want any peripheral devices providing indirect power via Firewire that might keep the chip set powered and locked up. Now let the system sit unplugged for about 5 minutes to allow all internal capacitors to discharge. Then reconnect the power cord, boot up and see if you see your Firewire ports back in the profiler. If you do, plug in your Firewire device and it should work.
Patrick

Dead Firewire 800 port

i have a iMac 21.5" with a MyBook Studio 1TB and ive been using the firewire port up until 30 minutes ago when it stopped working. theres two firewire ports on the External HD and one usb. The usb work on my mini and my imac but the firewire wont work on my imac.

Hello CaCohen0509
First try resetting 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 reset the FireWire Port try > 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

Pismo Firewire Ports Dead

My firewire ports are no longer working. They do not show up in the About This Mac. Any suggestions where to begin troubleshooting?
ELM

ELM,
You might try these resets in the order presented; disconnect all peripherals first.
- Reset the PRAM...allow three startup chimes before releasing keys, then test:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
- Reset the Open Firmware, then test:
Boot into Open Firmware by holding down the 'Command-Option-O-F' keys from a cold start while the chime is being played. You will see a command-line screen...enter these commands:
1. At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-nvram
2. Press Return.
3. At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
4. Press Return.
Example:
0 > reset-nvram
Press Return
0 > reset-all
Press Return
The reset-all command should cause the computer to restart. If this occurs, you have successfully reset the Open Firmware settings.
- If still no success, run the Hardware Test CD (after the resets) that came bundled with new Pismos if you have it.
- If you boot into 9.x, do the ports appear and can you mount the drive? If 9.x is not on the HD, boot to your 9.x CD, then see if the drive will mount.
- Can you test your FireWire device on another Mac to verify its integrity?
If all fails, you can buy an inexpensive FireWire CardBus PC card for the PCMCIA card slot. However, if your FireWire device(s) does not have its own power supply, it will not work via the FW PC card. Built-in FireWire ports supply bus power for devices like a FireWire 2.5" HD, but FW PC cards do not supply bus power. You can, however, buy a FW PC card that also has a separate power supply so that bus-powered devices will work.

Why would the Firewire Port and/or External DVD-RW suddenly not work?

Hi, it's me again. I swear, I must be destined to just use Windows machines...
Anyways, I have a used/refurbished iBook G3 500MHz 320MB RAM Dual USB (1 Firewire)laptop running OS 10.2.8 that I bought a few months ago. I went and purchased an external Firewire/USB 2.0 DVD-RW drive as I only had a CD-ROM drive on my machine and I wanted the option to burn CD's or watch/read data from DVD's (I know that with my slow processor writing DVD's -other than data- would be a stretch and have other machines to do that with anyways so it wasn't a concern really). I received it and installed it, also installed the free version of Toast that came with it, and the drive worked fine. I have not needed to use the drive since then and have not used the laptop much at all since then really, but I do need to say that I did end up adding a new user account, though I can't remember if I changed the original Admin account and then still have the one I created myself when I first started the laptop after I bought it (had a fresh install of Jaguar on it, but I have no disk to re-install with if needed) or if I created a separate (new) account and ended up deleting the Original Admin accout (I know in Windows, you cannot delete the original Admin account but I do not know if that is the same for OSX or not). I did this as I wanted a master Admin account that I just wouldn't really use and then wanted the other as my main account (and use it to connect to my home windows network) and for some reason it would not let me put a check in the box to allow that account to do so (from either Apple or my user accounts) and so I know that my main user account now is set up to allow it (was it the old Apple user account or a new one, I can't remember- sorry).
Ok, so that is the back story to my problem, which happens to be this:
I just bought a new chip of RAM (512MB to make it a machine with 576MB RAM total) and as I had been looking at getting OSX Tiger (but didn't want to do it without the extra ram and had been considering Panther instead as well), I thought it was necessary if I wanted to not bog down my machine. I bought the Install Disks on DVD for Panther, as well as an upgrade disk (DVD again) for Tiger, therefore letting me use the External Firewire DVD-RW to install Panther, and if I liked I could go ahead and upgrade to Tiger (and if I didn't like it too much, or it slowed things down too much etc, then I could always go back to panther and have both available for future options). The extra RAM coming in handy here definitely.
So I was going to install the RAM today, and decided to go ahead and test out the External DVD to make sure it could boot from it (before making any changes to my system) and then go and install the RAM, and after that, install Panther to start... But I plugged all the cords and cables in, used my laptop with AC power even, and I could not get the External to show up at all... (kinda like the very current post right below mine but for the G4- it worked before, but now the firewire External just does not show up).
I only have USB 1.1 on this laptop obviously, and I don't even know if you could do a boot from an external with USB 2.0 if my laptop had it (the DVD player does). I was recommended to boot with an external firewire DVD or firewire to another machine with DVD capabilities to do the install. So my problem right now is getting slightly bigger, as of course, I can't seem to momentarily find the stuff that came with the External (spare USB cable to check and see if the laptop will recognize it at least with that and to show it is the firewire that is not working properly, or the disk that I used to install it -might have been only used to install Toast free version if it didn't need any drivers, but I don't know where that or the instructions for installation sheet currently is -- I am looking for it, but I have switched bedrooms just last week and I also seem to be missing a few other Windows laptop disks as well so there is a good chance that they are all together, I just need to figure out where, heh.)
I am waiting currently before installing the memory, though if I don't get the External working tonight, I may go ahead and do it first as at least I will have more memory on my laptop then, until I can get other stuff functioning and be able to do the Panther install.
But my main question is, is there something that would cause an installed external to suddenly not show up in OSX? Since I hadn't used it since that one day, and it was unplugged from the laptop itself, would that end up doing it, or more likely, the changing of the user accounts (though I have been trying to test it with different types of media and through both of my user account (which are both "admin" ones), though I do still have one of those being an account that was on there when the External DVD was first installed, so it really shouldn't have done this at all (one would think). So how big of a chance is it that the firewire has somehow gone dead and this is the main culprit to my wasting the past 4 hours on this???
I am currently scavenging around for an extra USB cable to try and test the External that way and will post the results when I can... I love the look and idea of macs, now I have a mac and want to upgrade it even, but why is it that whenever I attempt to use it after having not used it for a bit (and try to make the iBook feel better by using it more as I am sure it feels sad and alone sitting on the shelf while my Windows Laptop gets more attention), or try to fix it when it can be made better (and therefore used more often), the mac (all macs really), just seem to get all pissy and cause problems and make me spend hours upon hours trying to get things to work again??? You have to admit it, I am "mac cursed"... sigh I can program in 4 or 5 computer languages and am very advanced at many tech things (the ones I am not as good at I am still usually Average or Medium skilled) so it makes me wonder why I have so many tech problems with Macs when they are supposed to be the "easy" OS to use...

Actually, I think I have it all working now. After going back to the Plextor Website, I found out that the switch between the USB and 1394 ports only gets activated (switched over to the other) with you turn the device off first, move the switch and then turn it back on. I was sure that I had done this with the ibook, but maybe not as when I went back and did it with first the USB and then the Firewire cables, it did work. I definitely knew that I had not done this with the Windows laptop, the reason it would not have the USB work for me on it.
but back to the iBook, I was confused as it was only showing up as a DVD-ROM (which I guess is what they do until you actually open up the burning software to then be able to burn to it), and it also had the wrong Model #, which after more research, showed that it was the Internal DVD drive model version (PX-708A) compared to the actual model version (PX-708UF) which is the USB/Firewire (External) model. The firmware was really out of date as well (from June 2004 I think, v1.06) and they had v1.12 from Spet/Oct 2006 available so I went to get that (which was a hassle). They had nice easy Windows self extractor/installer packs, and then the BIN files for use for all systems (Sun OS/ Mac OSX/ Mac OS/ Linux etc as well as usable for Windows), and those needed a special Firmware Updater Application which was OS specific. Only I had the hardest time trying to get the OSX one as it would send me to a FTP site and not give me any clues as to which file(s) I needed to get and the Mac OS version was just for older 9.2 or below versions and didn't want to install under the OS Classic mode.
I ended up using my windows computer which made it easier to view with the FTP stuff as I have FireFTP in Firefox, and downloaded the files I thought I needed (to test out), and then realized my silliness, and just downloaded (as well) the Windows Auto Extractor/Installer as the Firmware is the same for all OS's, just the way to install/update it was different... So I hooked the DVD drive to my PC and updated the firmware, checked it out on here before moving it back to the ibook, where I checked that it still worked and had the new update version showing, which it did, and now I have my fully working and newly updated drive ready for the OSX installations... I had attempted to update my Jaguar system as well while online, but it had no new updates available (I guess those were all mostly Tiger updates that were just recently released).
I am now off to install my additional RAM, and after checking that it all shows up correctly, I will go ahead and do the Panther Install (and test it out and see if I like it or not).
For anyone that currently uses Panther on any mac, are there still any major problems I should know about before hand, or know about things that they have mostly fixed (like the issues with Firewire ports and External Drives that they had around the time Panther was first released for example)???
Thanks to all that helped... I now know to attempt an "eject" of any external HD (which I do have one that I will setup to use after I get Panther on the ibook) or CD/DVD drive instead of just unplugging the USB/Firewire cable.

Recent Leopard Update Messes up Cinema Display Firewire Ports

Okay, this is really odd. I have a Lacie Porsche DVD-RWDL Firewire drive hooked up to my Mac Pro via my 23" Cinema display. The cinema display firewire cable was connected directly to the back of the mac pro. Lastly my iSight was connected to the open firewire port on the Lacie. This worked just fine for the longest time under both Tiger and up until very recently in leopard.
Now tho the DVD Drive is not recognized by any programs (Toast, etc) or by System Profiler (Unknown Device) when it is connected to the cinema display. Oddly enough it is detected when connected directly to the mac pro (or for troubleshooting sake I tried my G4 cube w/ Tiger... it also detected it). On top of that the iSight will work when plugged into either the Lacie or the Cinema Display... so its not like the cinema display's pots are dead (the USB works fine).
This is pretty obscure I know... but has anyone ran into something similar? I figure its either some very, very weird hardware problem or or one of the many recent updates to leopard has things acting goofy.
Thanks

I have a similar problem with my 20" cinema display. Try unplugging and replugging the device. That's been working for me, although it is an annoyance.

Dead firewire port

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