Firewire not recognized, the "cure" done at Apple Store, DISASTER, HELP!

Question

Took my dual 2.5 to the Apple Store to "cure" the non-recognition of the firewire. They clear the Pram and other easy steps, restart the computer (I am packing my stuff as they seemed to think I was "cured") then, blinking displays and complete failure. They are doing an evaluation but they are saying things like: motherboard, power supply, etc., HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN! If they were doing this at the Store, was it their fault? I am waiting on the triage. Any one with such a situation which started as a firwire failure?

Answer 1

I had fans of a Powerbook G4 turn into a logicboard issue. The computer is a fairly tightly integrated unit. The firewire ports are saudered onto the logicboard. So it is entirely possible that in an effort to fix the firewire ports they noticed something wrong with the circuitry to the ports on the logicboard.
Power supply affects Firewire ports in that Firewire ports are able to supply power to Firewire devices that don't have their own power and understand signals for bus power. If the power manager is having issues, that could affect the ability of Firewire ports to supply power.
A flakey power supply may create such issues that seem intermittent and grow with frequency as problems.
So don't worry, so far nothing unexpected has happened at the store.
Some things to think about, if they do end up determining the power supply is the issue, check to make sure that you have a good surge protector, and are not defeating the purpose of the ground plug, and use steady power on the machine. If away from the machine for longer than a day, or you have thunderstorms in the forecast, I'd shut down and unplug the machine. A surge from a direct lightning strike can't be protected against by any surge protector, and can create power supply issues. Also ask an electrician to find out whether or not your power port that you are plugging the computer into is able to supply the power required of the machine.