Firewire port stays on??

Sorry if this has been addressed - but my quick search revealed no answer.
Recently upgraded from a G4 iMac (which I kept - love it) to a G5 2ghz machine.
Noticed that when I shut down, my external firewire drive stays on.
This didn't happen with the G4 imac - shut down - fire wire drive turns off.
My external drive gets its power from the firewire (no external power supply).
Is this normal for the G5 iMac?
Any way to tweak something so that the external drive will shut down when I shut down the iMac?
Thanks

I'd like to turn this drive "off" - but there is no on/off switch.
But, are you saying if I un-mount it(drag to trash) - then shut down the iMac - the external will stay off?
I'll try that when I get home - thanks.
It's an Acomdata 120gb drive - and older version of this one
http://www.acomdata.com/app/stx.productdetail.asp?did=87
great drive - but now that blue light (BRIGHT) stays on and lights up my office and bedroom! And, I don't want to have to plug and unplug the firewire cable daily (or more) - that's just asking for trouble. But more importantly - I simply want the drive to turn off when I shut down my iMac - like it did on my G4 iMac. (Apple must have changed some fundamental electrical/power design on the G5 for this to occur.)

Similar Messages

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.

Mac G5 firewire porting problem.

Hello,
I am having a problem with my G5 Powermac firewire porting.
Everything was working fine until we physically moved the mac and peripherals to another office. Now the Firewire drive is not recognized and the Sony DSR45 cannot connect.
Whats really wierd is if I have the Sony DSR45 turned on and I go into the view menu in FCP Studio 6, I can checkmark the "all frames" and it won't change anything. If I turn the deck off, I can change the setting and it will stay changed.
I have tried shutting down the Mac, turning off the DSR45, wait ten minutes, turn on the DSR45, turn on the Mac, the Firewire drive is not recognized and neither is the DSR45.
How do I get the Mac to re-port the firewire ports?
I am using the 800 firewire connection for the Firewire drive.
This all worked fine before moving the system to another office.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Ymir

Try resetting the PRAM. This resets the presence of all hardware devices. Start up holding the keys: command, option, P, R. Hold these keys for 3-chimes and release. Hope this helps.
Best Regards

Firewire port on my iMac. Need help troubleshooting

I've been attempting to troubleshoot this issue for the past month, with no real solution or or glint of hope!
I'm having issues using my Motu firewire audio interface with my iMac (*late 2006 24" iMac*). Once the unit is connected to my iMac, it starts turning on and off. The same interface work flawlessly with two other macs. I've done the following sofar:
- re-installed audio drivers multiple times
- SMC resets many times (have lost count)
- Fresh new OS install
- Different firewire cables. Even tried the FW800 port.
I'm beginning to suspect the problem is with the power flow out of the Firewire port, since when the mac is shutdown, I still get the same problem when the interface is connected to my mac.
Firewire drives work fine. No problems. So its not a problem with firewire devices not mounting. I'm truly stumped!! Not sure why this is happening. Any info or technical advice is greatly appreciated.
thanks;
John

im having a similar problem the only difference is, the power stays on two interfaces the motu ultralite and the fw solo by m-audio but they dont show that there connected, with both the software and the system, any ideas??? anyone??? can my firewire be fried already? the cpu is almost 2 years old!

Blown Firewire Port

Hello
i am currently in Zimbabwe and have been editing on Final Cut Pro for several years. Last year my Firewire port on my Macbook blew and as a result could not capture video, I then purchased a new IMac from a South African Retailer. My firewire port again blew the only thing i plugged into the port was my hd video camera and my external Lacie drive, I sent it in with my Lacie external drive which i thought was causing the problem. The technician told me the drive was faulty and i had the computer fixed, however as soon as i got it back i plugged my sony hd hanycam into the computer to capture video and the same problem occured. I have spoken to many people and no one can exlain to me why the port keeps blowing. Please will you help explain this problem and what the solution is?

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Bios 1.74 fixes firewire port on warm reboot

Just incase you missed this whilst we are waiting for right bios that fixes Newcastle core temps,the latest beta bios 1.74 has cured the problem with my firewire port that shows up as yellow symbol after a warm reboot.
Previously it would only work or be correctly identified on a cold reboot but since having this bios its been fine and staying setup correct in windows device manager although listed as "1394 net adapter #2"

Southmike,
Reading the forums here, I keep seeing references to bios versions 1.71 and 1.74 for the K8T Neo FIS2R. The latest bios update I see is ver. 1.6 dated 5/6/04. Am I not going to the correct place, or am I just confused?
Thank you,
Pat
MSI K8t Neo FIS2R
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Western Digital 74 gig Raptors (2) raid 0
Nvidia Geforce Ti 4200 128mg graphics
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WinXP Pro sp1a

Broken firewire ports - boot problems - target mode help needed

HI there,
I have a 15" macbook pro from 2008 with core 2 duo cpu etc.
It has recently developed the problem of hanging during the boot process with a blue screen, taking around 5 minutes to get to the login screen.
Much research has led me to the solution of removing two files from the SYSTEM > LIBRARY > EXTENSIONS folder relating to the firewire bus (?) and this has solved the issues about booting. (IOFirewireIP.kext and IOFirewireFamily.kext)
(I put on a clean install of 10.6.3 and the screen stayed blue. Removing these two files in target mode fixed this problem.)
There is still a sleep problem though - i.e. the machine does not wake from manual sleep (Apple menu) or if the system sleeps after the time allocated in the energy saving preferences.
There are so many suggestions on the web, it's almost impossible to know what the correct course of action is.
Another strange thing is, is that I can boot into target mode and access the drive via the firewire (400) port from another mac.
If the port were truly broken, how come it still works in target mode?
Is it possible that the firewire interface is not broken, but disabling these two files above could eliminate another associated problem?
Also, is there an online resource, or walkthrough, to eliminate what could be causing the sleep problems?
I would appreciate someone's suggestions on this and thank you for your help in advance!
Best wishes,
Torbz

Strangely, after installing a clean 10.6.3 - I've updated to 10.6.8 and the firewire ports are suddenly back and being reported in system profiler (whereby they were not before).
The two files I deleted above have been re-instated through the updates - and all seems well.
I've yet to check the sleep mode problem - but the firewire has at least sorted itself out...
That's a bonus!
Torbz

BSODs lock ups and flakey firewire port - help ??

Okay I'm really getting fustrated over this laptop it's nearly 2 weeks old
and I've already had 2 BSODs the odd crash where the mouse moves but nothing
else around it works so a forced reboot was needed.
Today I had a BSOD all i did was run some untility from the taskbar called
network doctor or something.
error message:
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (no address information supplied)
STOP: 0x00000000050
someone suggested that I may have a memory problem or my page file is corrupt.
anyway here's a run down on what i've installed so far with my laptop.
- Installed all XP security updates and patches
- Installed Firefox 1.0.1 (don't trust IE6.0 yet)
- Installed iriver download manager (my mp3 player)
- Installed winamp 2.0 and Creative Notebook Cam.
I've ran a forced boot chkdsk and no problems found.
Another thing I found interesting was nearly everytime my laptop bsods I usually
find a a yellow marker over my 1394 net adapter (firewire port) in device mananger
("cannot start device") don't know if that's related or not. A reboot seems to
clear this yellow marker but I am rather unhappy BSODs are no laughing matter.
My laptop model is the Equium A60-181 (Intel P4 HT 3.2Ghz 512Mb RAM)
Anyone else had similar problems or recommendations?
cheers,
Richard S.

Hi Richard
I understand you that you are unhappy with this all problems but there can be a lot of reasons for that. In my opinion this can happened because of some unnecessary update or some drivers installed by third-party software that you installed on your notebook.
Please reinstall OS using Recovery CD. After firs boot check in device manager if there is some hardware problem. If not you than try to start Config free (Connectivity doctor) and some other Toshiba tools to check if everything is ok.
If everything is ok try to install SP2 if you dont have it on your machine (just SP2 and not separately updates and patches). I am not sure but some of A60 are delivered with SP2.
Install all your programs slowly and follow carefully what happened after every step that you done.

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

How How can i install Mountain Lion with faulty firewire ports??

Basically the firewire ports are fried on my MBP 3.1 (2007). My mac used to take hang on blue screen and take 10 mins to boot but I solved this problem by installing an ssd and deleting the following kext file...
/System/Library/Extensions/IOFireWireFamily.kext
My MBP now boots in under 20 seconds so if anybody is having the same issue then there is the resolotion..
Anyway these are the steps I have taken but failed to properly install ML.
Dowloaded Mountain Lion at least 3 times from the App store to make sure the download wasn't corrupted.
I even tried making a Lion Bootdisk so I can install Mountain Lion on a USB drive (Install ESD.dmg).
I have even tried installing Lion first thinking I would take it one version at a time but gets stuck on boot screen too.
I even changed my hard drive to a new blank SSD drive to see any difference.
Each time I install Mountain Lion or Lion, everything is good until the installer has to restart the laptop.
Laptop gets stuck at the grey boot screen with the Apple logo and the loading circle. Nothing ever happens after.
I always had to use/boot to the Snow Leopard CD so I can restart the laptop back to the Snow Leopard OS and then update to 10.6.8.
I am guessing it is the ML dmg reinstalling the above file ( /System/Library/Extensions/IOFireWireFamily.kext ) which is leading to the same issue because of the faulty firewire ports.
Is there anyway I can resolve this because its doing my head in and Snow Leopard is old and doesnt support newer software that I would like to use.
Any help would be kindly appreciated. Thanks

Kurt Lang wrote:
Just some thoughts.
I presume you already partitioned the new SSD drive as GUID?
Is there anything on the new drive at all yet, or anything that isn't already backed up? If not, you could try erasing the drive and then installing OS X from the bootable flash drive installer you made.
Ive tried that and yes it is GUID. Im going to get grey hairs soon and Im not even 30 lol .... yet
I am not going to buy a new logic board as its just not logical (sorry for the pun) I got the mac for free and I want to spend as little money as possible. Im running out of ideas though

My MacBook Pro can't find the FireWire port

My MacBook Pro (OSX 10.6.8) can not find the FireWire port. Until now there hasn't been any problems using the FireWire, but now it just deny any knowledge of it, so to speak.
The audio device lights up when I connect it to the MBP (yes, I did connect it when in off-mode), so it seems to work in a way.
Does anyone recognize this problem and knows how to solve it?
/JohanLaMar

Have you tried following through the trouble shooting tips in this knowledge base article on Firewire?

I have a MacBook Pro Mid 2012. I have a sony DCR-PC350E . How do i transfer the video to the laptop ? I have firewire cable. But not able to find the firewire port in the video camera.

Need help.

The DCR-350e is a miniDV camcorder. It has a FireWire port, but it's not on the camera itself, it's on the cradle (aka "Handycam Station") that should have come with your camcorder. You need to insert the camera into the cradle in order to capture video via FireWire.
Here's a link to the Owners Manual. See p. 142 for a diagram that shows the DV (iLink) port on the cradle.
You also need an appropriate cable to connect to your MacBook Pro. Check your MBP to see what port(s) it has:
Some 2012 MBPs have a FW800 port, in which case you need a 4-pin to 9-pin FW cable like this one.
Some 2012 MBPs only have a Thunderbolt port, in which case you need the Apple Thunderbolt-FireWire Adapter in addition to the FireWire cable.

How can I tell if my firewire port is faulty?

I recently cannot import video from my canon elura 100 which connects using a 4-6pin firewire cable. I thought maybe it was the cable so I grabbed my brother's black macbook and it seems to import fine, it still isn't 100% smooth like I think it should be but when I plugged the camera back into my black macbook, the video that was being imported just kept freezing and it seemed warped. I tried this process a few times and kept getting the same results. I feel as though I may have a firewire port issue. How could I check on my own. I know that when I use my firewire 410, I have no problems so I don't know what could be wrong. Any help?

Did any of your problems start with Snow Leopard, is your brother's machine running the same version of SL.
Over in the audio forum there are those having some problems with their firewire interfaces. (glitches, static...etc)
pancenter-

Firewire port stays on??

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