Firewire port & power

Hello All,
Did Apple alter the power configuration for the firewire 400 ports? I have an adapter (iFire??) that I use to run an old set of the round HK speakers (originally for an old iMac. The adapter takes power from the firewire port and also plugs into the sound out port. It worked fine on my old G4 PB 1.5 and it does work on my wife's new black MB but it doesn't work on my brand new MB C2D.
Any thoughts. The firewire port does work in syncing an old iPod and runs an old iSight camera. Should I have this looked into??
Thanks....
John
Calgary Canada

It would seem so. When I moved from my PowerBook G4 over to my new MacBook Pro I had the same problem with my iFire. At least you know it's not just you...
Looking around the forums it seems like the power output has dropped on the new systems. There are quite a few postings centered around problems with hard driving getting power from Firewire.

Similar Messages

New 8 Core MP passing power to firewire ports even when turned off???

Is anyone else noticing this? Even after you have turned the power off to the MP 8 core, power continues to travel through the firewire ports?

Some FireWire functions work with the computer off. See:
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/HardwareDrivers/Conceptual/HWTechFireWire/Articles/FireWimplementation.html>
and
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/HardwareDrivers/Conceptual/MacPro_0801/Articles/ProductDeveloperNote.html#//appleref/doc/uid/TP90005242>
"When in sleep, the Mac Pro has 25 W of power available to the USB and FireWire ports, and memory. If the combined USB and FireWire port power load exceeds the available power, power to those ports will be cut to preserve memory."

Power shortage caused by mini-display touching firewire port.

I discovered if you touch the in firewire port with a mini-display adaptor the power cuts and you need to restart the machine.
Has anyone else discovered this happens or is it jsut this one machine?

Well that would create a dead short between the pins on the FW port, as the mini display adapter has a metal outer surround, I would think that it cause an issue with any machine as these pins are not intended to ever touch. BE CAREFUL!

Firewire ports and power draw while sleeping

After plugging in a power meter, I noticed my iMac was puling approximately 13W while sleeping. A bit of unplugging narrowed it down to the firewire ports. Each one was pulling about 6W, even while sleeping.
Will the firewire ports still draw power if the device is turned off? I'm specifically interested in an external drive that has a hard power-off feature (as opposed to simply sleeping). I'd like to keep it plugged in (I had been unplugging the cable except when needed).
I now I can check this myself, but I'm using the power meter for another project right now and don't want to unplug it and start over, but would like an answer "now."
Thanks in advance.

An open cable connected to any port draws no power. Think of it as kind of a cable to nowhere. Now...connect it to some external object such as a printer or external hard drive and the current draw of the device determines how much power is drawn. Most devices in standby draw about 5-15W depending on their complexity.
virg

Firewire ports and power.

Are some Macs designed to allow some power to continuously flow through firewire ports even when the computer is shut down?
My iMac G5 (ppc) bought over a year ago will not allow my Lacie hard drive to shut down or power on automatically when my computer is shut down or turned on. The Lacie drive has an auto power switch feature that is supposed to do that. It functioned properly on my previous machine, an iMac G4.

Repeater function
Built-in repeater functionality allows FireWire data to pass between the computer and external devices even when the computer is turned off. Power from devices with power supplies runs to the repeater through the FireWire cable. The repeater does not work with devices that do not supply power.
Repeater functions between 8 V and 33 V and consumes approximately 1 W.
See your manual for your specific model.
Joe

Satellite M100 - Does a disabled firewire port saves battery power?

Hey everybody
I do not need IEEE so..
If I disable firewire in device manager will it turn it off and will it help to save battery power?

Hi Dmitrij
I doubt that disabled firewire port will help you to save battery power.
If you want to save the battery power you should check the Toshiba Power Saver settings and options.
Check the HowTO document
+How to setup my computer for optimum battery usage?+
You can find it in Forums HowTo area.
If you are using the Vista then I recommend checking the Vista Power settings.
More details you will find in "HowTo" doc:
+How to handle the power managment features of Windows Vista?+
Cheers

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.

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!

Firewire port not working Mac Mini (G4 1.25ghz)

Hi,
The firewire port isn't working on my mac mini, I've tried several devices, but none are connecting. I was wondering if anyone else was having this issue and possibly a solution. The only software installed on the computer since the firewire worked last was Apple updates, so maybe other mini's lost firewire somewhere along the way.
Thanks, and Thanks
W

This worked from Smokerz in the Power Mac G4 forum:
1. Shut-down your Mac, and unplug the power cord
2. Turn the power off on your external FireWire devices
3. Unplug the FireWire devices from the Mac
4. Wait for 5 min.
5. Plug the power cord to your Mac only
6. For PPC Macs: Restart the Mac while holding the Option-Apple-O-F, and keep holding until you get the ">" prompt, then release the keys
7. At the ">" prompt type:
reset-nvram and hit the Return key
set-defaults and hit the Return key
reset-all and hit the Return key
the last command will restart your mac
8. Shut down your Mac
9. Connect all your FireWire devices to the Mac and turn them on
10. Restart your Mac.
Works fine now thanks Smokerz!!!!!
also repaired permission and reset PRAM, nothing worked until I did this.
W

I can't sync with FireWire port and I can't charge with USB port!!

Hi. I've a old model of iPod (M9244Y). After the last update, my iPod does sync with the FireWire port.
I tried with another PCs and Mac but it does work. Finaly I buyed an USB cable and this one syncs but not charge.
I've restored to early versions of iPod Updaters but it does not work again. Can I do somethig to fix it?
Why I can't sync with the FireWire port?
Please help me, I can't live without iPod, I can't live without music!!!

Do you have other Firewire devices? Do they work? Could be the FW ports are not working right.
First thing to do is reset the FW chip set on the mother board. Unfortunately, when you power down the computer there is always a bit of power still applied to the motherboard to keep things alive and this usually includes the ports to do stuff like detect when a device wants to wake up the computer. The downside of this is when a bus/port chipset goes into a weird state, power cycling the computer won't work.
So first thing to try is resetting the chipset and to do this you have to power down the computer and completely unplug the computer from the wall power (unplug the power cord to your Mac). Also unplug everything from the Mac's ports (USB, FW, Ethernet, etc.) to make sure no parasitic power is still there to keep the chip alive. Now let it sit for ten minutes (give those big power caps in there time to discharge). Now plug it back in, start up the Mac and see if your FW ports and the drive work any better.
Patrick

No FireWire ports were found on MacBook Pro 15.4" running Mac OS 10.6.4

Hello all,
I recently bought a Mac Book Pro with Intel Core i7 and 2,66 GHz with a 4 GB RAM. The system is good, until I connected my external hard drive from Mac Way that connects to the laptop through a Firewire 800. The HD mounts well with a USB but not with a Firewire 800. I then went to the System Profiler and found this message in Hardware/Firewire - No FireWire ports were found.
I restarted the system and the system hangs or takes like three minutes to start, usually it starts in less than a minute. So I pressed on the power button for 5 seconds and again started the machine.
This time, surprise the HD mounts and in the Firewire in System Profiler, I have Firewire Bus, and when I click on it I have OEM ATA Device 00 and below
OEM ATA Device 00:
Manufacturer: DMI
Model: 0x0
GUID: 0x30E002E0000983
Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec
Connection Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec
Sub-units:
OEM ATA Device 00 Unit:
Unit Software Version: 0x10483
Unit Spec ID: 0x609E
Firmware Revision: 0x120
Product Revision Level:
Sub-units:
OEM ATA Device 00 SBP-LUN:
Capacity: 2 TB (2 000 398 934 016 bytes)
Removable Media: Yes
BSD Name: disk1
Partition Map Type: APM (Apple Partition Map)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
BW Time Machine:
Capacity: 2 TB (2 000 263 774 208 bytes)
Available: 779,33 GB (779 328 532 480 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s10
Mount Point: /Volumes/BW Time Machine
I am able to use the Time Machine function.
Does any wise ones have suggestions out there? Thanks in advance for your kind help.

https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Websites+or+add-ons+incorrectly+report+incompatible+browser

Audigy platinum ex firewire port

We are having great difficulty using the firewire port on an audigy platinum ex. The audigy has worked very well for three years. The machine is an AMD Athlon 2GHz, AOpen m/board, Win XP with SP2.
We recently bought a LaCie d2 extreme 200GB triple interface HD. When connected to the port on the external audigy box, or to the port on the rear of the PCI card, this dri've is not recognosed by the computer. It does not appear as a HD in the hard disk section of the device manager, and we can see no evidence of a firewire client running, though the PCI OHCI Compliant IEEE394 Host Controller is installed and working. From this we conclude that the OS is set up for firewire devices, but that for some reason it is not being detected.
When we connect the LaCie dri've to a USB2 port on the machine, the device works fine; we can see the dri've, access it for directory & file lists, and read & write files to/from the dri've. We have also tried the LaCie on other machines fitted with USB2, with Win2000 & Win98 and it works fine. We therefore conclude that the LaCie does not have a fault itself. This hard dri've has its own power supply, and is not reliant on the power capabilities of either IEEE394 or USB2.
We have 'discussed' the matter with LaCie. They have asked us whether the IEEE394 port we are experiencing difficulty with is engineered only for DV, or whether it is engineered to be connected to mass storage device such as a hard dri've. We were unaware that ther were such differences with IEEE394, and we have no way of checking this; the Creative labs specification does not go into this detail.
Therefore, the questions we would like to pose to the community are as follows:
. Is this port known for certain to be engineered for the attachment of mass storage devices?
2. Has any body actually attached a mass storage device to the external dri've box port or the port on the audigy PCI card?
3. has anybody actually use da LaCie d2 extreme 200GB dri've on these ports?
4. What set-up procedures were followed to get a LaCie to work?
Although we are 'newbie' status on this site we do have considerable experience of computers and computing going back to 966, and covering most types of machine that have been extant in the intervening period. This includews working with PC's since 983 and as systems engineers on Unix technical workstations. This problem does illustrate that no matter what ones experience level is, there is always something that can baffle, as this has done to us.
We'd like to thank in advance anybody who can contribute information to solve this problem, or indeed anybody who reads the posting and could point us in the right direction.
Regards
John Smith

I have been using a Maxtor One Touch external USB/Firewire hard dri've and a Canon digital camcorder on the Platinum Audigy Ex Firewire port for over a year with no problems except for the time the plug on the extension cable inadvertently got pulled out of the back of the Ex box when I moved some equipment around.
I am running Windows XP Professional SP2, and I upgraded to it after I started using the Audigy Platinum Ex Firewire port. No problems either before or after.
Bit Pusher

Imac G5 won't start with Isight plugged into the firewire port.

I went to turn on my Imac today and it wouldn't start. After checking all the usual culprits (power strip, outlet and power chord) which were not the problem, I proceeded by unplugging all the external devices from the back ports. After unplugging the computer for a few seconds and plugging it back in (which I read resets any power issues), it turned back on. I plugged my Isight camera back in and turned it on and the computer suddenly shut off. I reproduced this quite a few times and it did the same thing. It won't even turn on if any device is plugged into the firewire port. Does anyone have a clue of what this conflict could be or experienced anything similar.
I would greatly appreciate any input.
Thanks in advance,
Daniel

Welcome to Discussions - try resetting your PRAM, if that doesn't work, I'm afraid there is something wrong with your logic board, where the firewire bus is located. The best thing to do would be to take it in for servicing.

I have a mid 2007 iMac w/ mac OS X Lion 10.7.5. My time machine (LaCie) is not responding through firewire port (since day one). Did an update mess this up?

I have just recently realized that my time machine has not backed up in a couple of weeks. I am using a LaCie external hard drive that I purchased with the iMac and has been plugged into the firewire port since day one. When I try to establish a connection it only gives me airport utility. When I look through network connections it shows that my fire wire is not connected or at least it doesn't find anything connected.
I have also been getting a start up disk message off and on that I need to close applications due to no more memory? (or something similar to that).
Just curious what might have changed. Did an update re configure something? Are these two issues connected?
I have always loved my Mac for the fact that it just always worked. I'm not super savvy with computers and the settings so I'm not the kind that just goes in to tweek things. This is the first real issue that I have had with it. I would think that it was the fact that I upgraded to lion but I did that quite a while ago.

Hello,
It isn't the fw in Network you want o use or look at, that's for something completely different.
My first suspect is the Power Adapter on the LaCie has gone.
At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac, then click on More Info, then click on Hardware>Firewire, what is listed there?
Reset the Firewire bus
If your Firewire or USB isn't recognizing any device. A solution which has worked for some whose hard drive became invisible in 10.4 was simply to follow these four steps to reset the Firewire/USB bus:
1. Shut the machine down.
2. UNPLUG the power lead to the computer and any firewire/USB drive or devices.
3. leave it for 10 minutes.
4. Connect back up and reboot.
http://www.macmaps.com/firewirebug2.html

USB/FireWire Ports Issue

So before I go into the apple store and ask for this computer to be repaired/replaced, I would like to see if anyone knows if something can be done about this issue I have pinpointed..
Basically when I have more than a few USB/FireWire ports connected, one or more of the devices does not function properly. This has happened with two external hard drives - which should have no problem being connected simultaneously.. When I try to eject one of them, I receive a message stating that it cannot be ejected because one or more programs may be using it.. although all programs are closed, causing me to have to force eject..
Also, I plug in one drive and open the other in finder to back it up, and all of the folders in the drive are suddenly empty.. nothing inside. I go to Get Info.. Zero KB.. I try ejecting, but receive the same message, so I force eject, plug it back in, and wala, all the files are back in the right place..
This has also happened in the past when my cinema display and a printer were plugged in simultaneously.. the computer won't detect the USB of the cinema display -- which only means that the speakers of the display won't work + no brightness control from the keyboard.. so i let it slide.. but now with this external hard drive issue, i need to solve the problem..
Thank you for reading..

Same here. Since a few weeks, my MacPro ejects USB HDD's as soon as I write or read data on it.
(no I haven't installed something new at this time and all HUB's and HDD's have their own power supply, and yes they have been exchanged, so its not a broken cable or so !!!!!!!!)
After a reset of the NVRAM and PRAM its better for an hour or so, then starts to eject again. I've seen a lot of communities with exact the same question, but never a solution for it. There is also nothing in the support tab of apple.
Hope someone here can help me out or due to the fact that this is a AplleSupportCommunity, a Apple-Employee may starts to do his job and help this huge amount (I guess there are hundrets or tousand) of mac-user with exact the same problem....
btw: don't agree with MACATTACK2010 that this is a hardware problem, cause there are a lot of people in the
net that ask the same question with brandnew Hardware. I think it's an OS or an Update Bug, or may both.

Firewire port & power

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