Firewire Port Reset

My firewire 800 port suddenly stopped working. I remember a few years back an Apple rep talked me through a firewire port reset. I can't find the instructions on how to do that on-line. Can any one direct me to those instructions?

This is probably the link:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1317
However, I think it may boil down to resetting the SMC:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411?viewlocale=en_US
Good luck!

Similar Messages

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

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

Firewire port on Macpro won't work with my Sony DV Cam

I just got my Macpro and love it-but I do have a small problem that maybe somebody can help with.
I have a Sony PD100A. I was using this camera on my PC just up until last week and grabbing video via firewire into Premier. It all worked fine.
On my Mac, I plug into a firewire port, and neither iMovie or FCpro can capture from the camera. I seems to recognize the camera, but when you try to capure video, it just locks up.
I also have a firewire hard drive that I'm using to tranfer data from my PC to the Mac-it works just fine. Which leads me to believe somehow the camera isn't working with the Mac.
HOWEVER-I use a Digidesign Digi 002 rack attached to a firewire port on the back. The 002 has a passthrough firewire port on the back, so I hooked up the camera. Lo and behold, the Capture now works. But only by going through the 002.
I'd really like to be able to capture video by just plugging my camera inot the fron Firewire posts after I shoot some tape.
Does anybody have an idea why the front or rear firewire ports won't control or capture from my camera directly?
Thanks in advance for any help with this.
Greg

A couple of things to try…
1) Open a new user account and see if it works there
2) Reset PRAM and NVRAM…
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
3) Reset the System Management Controller…
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304123
4) Try your other Firewire ports
5) Boot off another drive and see if it's your software rather than possibly hardware

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.

Capturing Video on New iMac with only 1 FireWire Port

Using one of the new Apple iMacs, what is the best way to capture digital video footage (Mini DV) into Final Cut using an external drive as your scratch disk? The iMac offers only one FireWire 800 port. Is it advisable to connect the camcorder to the FireWire port and use a USB 2.0 to connect the external drive? Or can you connect the drive via FireWire 800 and connect the output of the camcorder to one of the other Fireiwre ports on the drive? In this instance I am using a Lacie Rugged Hard Disk that has one FireWire 800, one FireWire 400, and one USB 2.0 port.

They often do not play well with other firewire devices on the same bus. And since all the firewire ports on a Mac are on the same bus, it can lead to incompatibilities during capture. On some computers they work fine, on others they collide.
Try it and see if it works for you. If it does, be happy. If it doesn't, you'll have to do the external drive/camera shuffle.
It goes like this:
• turn off the computer and all connected devices,
• disconnect the external drive
• connect the camera using a FW800 to FW400 cable
• turn on the camera
• turn on the computer
• launch FCP, set the capture scratch folder to the system drive then capture
• shut down the computer and the camera
• disconnect the camera and connect the external drive
• turn on the drive
• turn on the computer
• launch finder and move the captured files from the system drive to the external
• launch FCP and reset the capture scratch folder to the external drive
• open your project and reconnect the media.
Or, use a different (non-Canon) capture device.
Or, get a computer that has multiple internal drives or has expansion capabilites so you can add a firewire card to create a second independent firewire bus for the camera.
Good luck,
x

Firewire Port out to lunch! Formac Studio goes with it! Help!

There was a nasty thunderstorm last night in my area. My computer was off the entire time, but upon restarting hours later, I found both my firewire ports out. This morning, one of them came back to life- but when I plugged my Formac studio into it- it no longer is recognized. I tried a few different attempts to get the other port back into action- but no luck. Anyone with suggestions? Anyone have a similar problem with Formac Studio going dead (I did email Formac as well)
Thanks, Matt

I was having problems with my Formac, iSigh and 8 FW drives.
G5 2x Gighertz, 4gig RAM, two internal drives and the above.
Everything would work until I put the computer to sleep, upon wake-up, neither the isight or the formac would produce an image. Both were just black screens. I would have to unmount the drives, disconnect and reconnect all firewire to make them work again.
I have two firewire hubs, one connecting the isigh and the formac (connected to the FW 400 port) and the other to the 8 drives (connected to the FW 800 port).
After trying just about every combination between the iSight and the Formac, I used a different cable than the original cable with two magnets which the Formac uses and connected it to the Hub with the 8 FW drives. This got me to the point where all I had to do was reset the Formac and both the Formac and iSight would work without disconnecting and reconnecting all the FW devises.
But it also got me thinking what would happen if I used the Formac FW cable to connect the hub to the FW400 port. Maybe that cable would help stabilize the connection... Since it came with the Formac, maybe it would work better for video, right? Well, I connected the Formacs cable to the hub and to the FW400 port. The computer immediately shutdown! After that, neither the 400 nor the 800 ports work. The hub smelled like burned circutry and 3 of the 8 drives have damage to the file structure.
Needless to say I am fumming! What the **** is this cable from Formac? Why does it have what appears to be two magnets? and why would they sell this cable that has the potential to damage an entire system costing thousands of $$s?
I'm doing a file recovery now, but don't have my hopes high on that...
If this cable caused all this, Formac should be put out of business!

Firewire ports

My IMac is dying a slowwwwww death. First I have the black screen, but was able to use an external monitor for the time being. My problem now is my firewire ports. They both are not working. When I open my system profiler it says "No info found". Anyone able to help me? Anyone know a "fix" for this?

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 still didn't 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! Also, here is Apple doc.#88338 on getting FireWire to work.
Here's some more FW tips.
Cheers! DALE
I have a little more but we need this.
p.s. It would help us, so we can advise you correctly, if you would fill in your Mac's specs. in My Settings over on the right, near your name and under the logout choice please.We don't know exactly what version of 10.3 your are running.
->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Older ACD USB/Firewire ports and a Thunderbolt MBA.

I have an older Apple Cinema Display (20) and a Thunderbolt MBA. Can I use the Firewire ports on the ACD if I use a Thunderbolt to DVI adapter?
Specifically, I have an older iSight external camera (Firewire based) that I would like to use with the ACD whilst the MBA is in clamshell mode. With the Firewire ports on the ACD, I'm intrigued by how I might access them with the MBA.
Is this possible?
TIA,
eznet

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.

ISight, FireWire Port, eMac

I am trying (to help a friend) to connect an isight to an eMac running OS X 2.8 -- there are 2 FireWire ports on the side. When I plug in the cord, the camera's light turns on for about 3 seconds. iChat has no indication that there's a video camera attached. The System Controller does not even mention FireWire ports. I have read thru this topic and tried unplugging the computer (& camera) for 1 hr & then turning on the computer to reset the FireWire ports. Nada --
Will the camera turn on if the ports are not "hot?" I DO see them on the side of the computer! They ARE here! I have nothing else to test the camera on -- or to test the ports with. Any thoughts?
I took off the back and pushed anything that looked remotely like a button -- There was nothing, really, that pushed back! I took out the cards and reseated them. I unhooked the board and reseated that, too. In the Apple Sysyem Profiler, under Devices and Volumes, the FireWire Port says () --
I am beginning to think that this eMac 10.2.8 is not capable of video. The iChat turns on when I plug in the iSight, however there is no indication that it has video power like on my iMac -- There's no video tab here. There's no iSight listed in the system profiler.
Is that possible that I can't use video on this machine?
Thanks!
(Please disregard MY computer stuff listed -- this question is NOT about MY computer)
Thanks!

need to upgrade iChat & iSight -- Then all's well.

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 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 Port Reset

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