Firewire port trouble

Firewire port is starting to act up (cutting off) when cables are attached.   Is this a sign of wear, and is there anything you can do about it?

Try installing a FW card. the HD and camera are both trying to use the ful bandwidth of the single built-in bus.

Similar Messages

  • Checking for FireWire port trouble

    Hello,
    I've got an iMac G3 running OS 10.4.11 and would like to know if there is a way to check the status of the 2 FireWire ports without the external DVD drive that was used to install OS X. The drive stopped working and has been sent for repair and/or replacement. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Do you want to confirm that the FireWire bus/port is operating correctly and that it's not the cause of the external DVD drive's failure? Obviously, another FireWire device would provide the answer, since you're not going to be able to check the FireWire controller chip on the motherboard.

  • Trouble with Firewire Ports

    My MacBook Pro crashed and ever since the firewire ports (both) will not recognize any drives, audio interfaces or camcorders. When I check the System Profiler under FireWire Bus it says "Warning: Unable to list FireWire devices."
    Has anyone had this trouble? (USB is working fine.)
    Thanks in advance for any help.

    Try resetting the PMU, this worked for me.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1767?viewlocale=en_US

  • 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?

  • IMac firewire port is not working

    iMac firewire port is not working
    Hi everybody, Happy New Year.
    I am a 72 years old semi-newbie in video editing, because Iedit only 1 or may be 2 movies a year since 2007 and I have only very little computer knowledge. 
    I received a new 27” iMac as a birthday gift 14 months ago.  About 10 months ago, with help, I successfully use the Migration Assistant to transfer some datas from my old power G4 to the iMac including two Final Cut Express projects.  I had one project successfully done; burned to DVD and I save it with Print To Video. Last week, I have my second project done, I burned the sequences into DVD but unable to do a Print To Videodue to the iMac is not communicating with my Sony camcorders DCR VX1000, this is the same camcorder I used on the last job which was working a couple of months ago.As a result, I try to switch the Easy Setup with different Format and different Use; I refresh the Canvas window; I did a Mix down; move the Screen Saver to NEVER as well as the Energy Saver set to NEVER SLEEP.  I also trashed the preferences (plist) folders; run the Utility repair, I replaced the firewire cable (4 pines – 9 pines 800), but nothing work.  Up to this point, I think that there is no signal from the firewire port to the camcorder because I understand when the sequences is ready, the firewire is connected between the computer and the recording camcorder, the Print to Video is activated, then the word DV- IN should be seen on the recording deck screen. This time, I don’tread such words on the recording screen. Therefore, I think there’s no out going signal from the iMac to the recording camcorder and the iMac is not receiving signal from the recording camcorder. At this point, I try to connect my iMac to the power G4 to see if I can do some data transfer. Follow the procedures, I hook up the data transfer cable between the G4 and the iMac, I can the fireswire icon moving on the G4 screen but no indication on the iMac screen (there should be some indications in the source bar), this shows me the iMac did not recognize the G4 which worked on previous data transfer.  It looks to me the firewire port on my iMac is dead.  What has gone wrong? Could I accidentally disabled the firewire port by some magic keystroke? (i.e. accidentally fat finger some thing to make it stop working?  Oh, by the way, during the playing around, went to the Final Cut tool bar, I click the View >Video Out > Digital Cinema Desktop Preview – Main, the result was a  black screen and the esc key was my rescuer - LUCKY LUCKY! Are there any other trouble-shooting techniques to apply before bringing to shop?  Please help!
    Sorry for such a long statement, forgive me for unable to make it shorter.  Thank you for your patience. Thanks to all the folks in this board for being so helpful.
    p.s.

    Not sounding good.
    If the system Profiler does not see it then there is a basic communication problem between camera and the Mac.
    I'm thinking the Firewire port is the culprit as some 800 ports were faulty.
    I'd suggest taking the Mac, cable and camera to your nearest Authorized Apple Service Centre and get them to diagnose the issue. eg. let them try to connect the two devices.
    Right (control)click the Sequence icon in the Browser and select Item Properties, do the same for a clip.
    You can also post screen shots for the Properties.
    Al

  • USB, Firewire ports not being recognized?

    Recently, I've been having trouble using my USB and firewire ports. I have a 1TB WD external hard drive which has been working fine until about a month ago when it stopped being recognized when I connected it through Firewire. I thought maybe my firewire cable or port was bad so I tried hooking it up through the USB port and it still didn't recognize that it was connected. After playing with it for a while, I finally got it to back it up.
    Tonight I connected a thumb drive and it is not being recognized either.
    Both ports are being recognized it Disk Utility and in System Profiler, and the USB ports work when I use them to charge my phone and Ipod all the time.
    Any suggestions?

    Well now I feel a little silly..
    I have tried using it on another computer and it was recognized just fine.
    However, I have not tried manually mounting my WD hard drive and when I went to try to that, it worked just fine right away, without doing anything.
    I then tried the thumb drive again and when I tried to mount it, it came up with this error:
    "The disk “UDISK” could not be mounted.
    Try running First Aid on the disk and then retry mounting."
    So I ran First Aid and it came up with this error:
    "Disk Utility stopped verifying “UDISK” because the following error was encountered:
    Filesystem verify or repair failed."
    The details say that the "File system is left marked as dirty."
    So I guess there must be something wrong with the thumb drive, although it seemed to work fine on my PC.

  • Is my Firewire port failing?

    I have an external LaCie FW400 drive (APM formatted, not bootable) which works perfectly with my Intel MacBook Pro (10.5.1) but causes much grief on my Intel Alu iMac (10.5.2). Could these symptoms indicate that my iMac's FW400 port is malfunctioning - or is there another explanation?
    1. On three occasions now, my iMac Finder has frozen when I was browsing files in column view on the external FW drive. No freezes at any other time. On these occasions, the Finder cannot be relaunched and I have to power down.
    2. On several occasions, the FW400 drive has refused to mount on the iMac - but mounts readily when immediately switched to the MBP. Rebooting the iMac will usually make the FW drive mount again.
    3. When rebooting the iMac with the FW drive mounted, it is sometimes very slow through the grey startup screen, ie it can take 3 minutes to boot compared with 25 seconds normally.
    4. I also have an external LaCie FW800 drive (GUID formatted, Time Machine) which never causes any problems and doesn't give me slow restarts.
    5. I have run Disk Utility and 3rd-party diagnostic tests on the FW400 drive and it always comes up smelling of roses.
    6. Permissions are regularly repaired on the iMac and the internal hard disk is checked daily. I did suffer corruption on a Boot Camp partition but this has since been deleted.
    I'm not sure which utility checks the integrity of the Firewire ports. TechTool checks USB but doesn't list Firewire among its checks. The Apple Hardware Test (extended) seems to test only RAM and storage. If anyone knows of a Firewire test I would be keen to run it. Otherwise, I am preparing to tell Apple that there is something wrong with my FW400 port - unless the symptoms above can be explained by something else.
    Simon

    My TM dive was correctly named anyway (just "Time") so even though it was turned off most of the time, I wouldn't have been affected by this part. My computer name had both an apostrophe and a space (inserted by the Os, not by me, when setting up the computer) so I changed it and that didn't cure my problem.
    I have found some CrashReporter logs of my Finder crashes (8 in one morning) and also of a SystemUIServer crash which preceded them by an hour and of a TextEdit crash which was the first sign of trouble, 30 minutes earlier. I wish I knew what bits to extract and post here but here's a sample from each:
    TEXTEDIT:
    Process: TextEdit [12890]
    Path: /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit
    Identifier: com.apple.TextEdit
    Version: 1.5 (244)
    Build Info: TextEdit-2440000~2
    Code Type: X86 (Native)
    Parent Process: launchd [105]
    Date/Time: 2008-02-23 11:04:13.512 +0000
    OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.2 (9C31)
    Report Version: 6
    Exception Type: EXCBADACCESS (SIGBUS)
    Exception Codes: 0x000000000000000a, 0x0000000015b53110
    Crashed Thread: 0
    Thread 0 Crashed:
    0 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9538683b CIconStorageEntry::Load(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long) + 785
    1 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95386fd0 CLocalRefToSharedStorageEntry::Load(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long) + 134
    2 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9532f43d CIconStorageEntry::GetData(long) + 103
    3 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9532f37e _ISGetIconDataPointer + 42
    4 com.apple.LaunchServices 0x95beb1b9 CheckIfDataAvailable(unsigned long, void*) + 53
    Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
    eax: 0x00000000 ebx: 0x9538653e ecx: 0x00019110 edx: 0x15b53110
    edi: 0x00896d30 esi: 0x00019110 ebp: 0xbfffc878 esp: 0xbfffc780
    ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010202 eip: 0x9538683b cs: 0x00000017
    ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x00000000 gs: 0x00000037
    cr2: 0x15b53110
    SYSTEMUISERVER
    Process: SystemUIServer [97]
    Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/MacOS/SystemUIServer
    Identifier: SystemUIServer
    Version: ??? (???)
    Code Type: X86 (Native)
    Parent Process: launchd [81]
    Date/Time: 2008-02-23 11:33:14.752 +0000
    OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.2 (9C31)
    Report Version: 6
    Exception Type: EXCBADACCESS (SIGBUS)
    Exception Codes: KERNPROTECTIONFAILURE at 0x0000000000000008
    Crashed Thread: 0
    Thread 0 Crashed:
    0 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9285fdad _ClientGetDiscoveredComponentArray(DiscoveredComponentArray**, DiscoveredComponentArray**, DiscoveredComponentArray**) + 763
    1 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9285f96e registerSystemComponents + 94
    2 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9285f6b5 FindNextComponentInternal(ComponentRecord*, ComponentDescription*) + 95
    3 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9285f63f FindNextComponent + 53
    4 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92cb8719 islcGetComponentFromBundleID + 76
    5 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c20b8d islcGetIdentifierFromCacheElem + 240
    6 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c209c9 islGetInputSourceIdentifier + 107
    7 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92e1c831 islCreateInputMethodCharacterRepertoire + 142
    8 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92e1c8d3 islCreateInputMethodScriptCode + 38
    9 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c24ca4 islCreateInputMethodPropertyForInputSource + 53
    10 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c202f2 islGetInputSourceProperty + 2982
    11 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c1f688 TSMGetInputSourceProperty + 289
    12 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x0071d9b8 0x71c000 + 6584
    13 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x0071f6d8 0x71c000 + 14040
    14 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x0071e8a0 0x71c000 + 10400
    15 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x00720211 0x71c000 + 16913
    16 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x00720de8 0x71c000 + 19944
    17 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x00720e91 0x71c000 + 20113
    18 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x0072385c 0x71c000 + 30812
    19 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x007240e5 0x71c000 + 32997
    20 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x95249e21 __CFMessagePortPerform + 193
    21 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x9526b921 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 3921
    22 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x9526bd18 CFRunLoopRunInMode + 88
    23 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c146a0 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 283
    24 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c144b9 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 374
    25 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c1432d BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 106
    26 com.apple.AppKit 0x907787d9 _DPSNextEvent + 657
    27 com.apple.AppKit 0x9077808e -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 128
    28 com.apple.AppKit 0x907710c5 -[NSApplication run] + 795
    29 com.apple.systemuiserver 0x000057c4 0x1000 + 18372
    30 com.apple.systemuiserver 0x000052c6 0x1000 + 17094
    Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
    eax: 0x00000000 ebx: 0x9285fabd ecx: 0x00000000 edx: 0xa030f8c8
    edi: 0x005edba0 esi: 0xa03063a0 ebp: 0xbfffe568 esp: 0xbfffe4b0
    ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010246 eip: 0x9285fdad cs: 0x00000017
    ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x00000000 gs: 0x00000037
    cr2: 0x00000008
    FINDER 1A
    Process: Finder [173]
    Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder
    Identifier: Finder
    Version: ??? (???)
    Code Type: X86 (Native)
    Parent Process: launchd [136]
    Date/Time: 2008-02-23 13:01:38.658 +0000
    OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.2 (9C31)
    Report Version: 6
    Exception Type: EXCBADACCESS (SIGBUS)
    Exception Codes: 0x000000000000000a, 0x00000000006a1b77
    Crashed Thread: 3
    Thread 3 Crashed:
    0 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9538696c CIconStorageEntry::Load(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long) + 1090
    1 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95386fd0 CLocalRefToSharedStorageEntry::Load(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long) + 134
    2 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9532dff7 _ISGetStorageRefFromLoader(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long*) + 675
    3 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95331cc4 _ISGetStorageByIconFile + 128
    4 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953329bf _ISAddFSRefIconToImage + 145
    5 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95337da4 SFLMutableListItem::SetNewPrefs(__CFDictionary const*, unsigned short, OpaqueISImageRef*) + 1700
    6 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953376f9 SFLMutableListItem::SFLMutableListItem(unsigned long, __CFDictionary const*, short, unsigned short, OpaqueISImageRef*, unsigned char*) + 139
    7 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953375fa SFLMakeNewListItem(unsigned long, __CFDictionary const*, short, unsigned short, OpaqueISImageRef*) + 88
    8 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9533754e SFLListBase::AppendFromListInfo(__CFArray const*, __CFArray const*, unsigned short) + 458
    9 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95337229 SFLRemoteEntry::InstantiateFromPrefs(unsigned long*, __CFDictionary const**) + 219
    10 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95336e6a SFLRemoteEntry::MakeSnapshotList(unsigned long*) + 190
    11 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95336d5f _SFLCreateSnapshot + 87
    12 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954cc41d LockSFLCreateSnapshot(OpaqueSFLRef*, unsigned long) + 55
    13 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x95524a7d TSFLSynchronizer::TSFLSynchronizer(TNodePtr const&, OpaqueSFLRef*, bool) + 101
    14 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954cba15 TNode::PopulateVirtualContainerFromSFL(OpaqueSFLRef*, bool) + 197
    15 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954c930a TNodeSyncTask::HandleInternalEventVirtualChildListChanged(TCountedPtr<TNodeEven t> const&, TNodePtr const&) + 110
    16 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954c9194 TNodeSyncTask::HandleInternalEvent(TCountedPtr<TNodeEvent> const&) + 320
    17 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954c8ac6 TNodeSyncTask::SyncTaskProc(void*) + 160
    18 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9287abeb PrivateMPEntryPoint + 56
    19 libSystem.B.dylib 0x934d6c55 pthreadstart + 321
    20 libSystem.B.dylib 0x934d6b12 thread_start + 34
    Thread 3 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
    eax: 0x006a1b7d ebx: 0x9538653e ecx: 0x006a1b73 edx: 0x934a59e6
    edi: 0x006a1b73 esi: 0x006a1b73 ebp: 0xb01a4098 esp: 0xb01a3fa0
    ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010212 eip: 0x9538696c cs: 0x00000017
    ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x0000001f gs: 0x00000037
    cr2: 0x006a1b77
    FINDER 1B
    Process: Finder [153]
    Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder
    Identifier: com.apple.finder
    Version: ??? (???)
    Build Info: Finder_FE-6071400~5
    Code Type: X86 (Native)
    Parent Process: launchd [136]
    Date/Time: 2008-02-23 13:01:03.245 +0000
    OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.2 (9C31)
    Report Version: 6
    Exception Type: EXCBADACCESS (SIGBUS)
    Exception Codes: 0x000000000000000a, 0x0000000000698004
    Crashed Thread: 3
    Thread 3 Crashed:
    0 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953868b9 CIconStorageEntry::Load(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long) + 911
    1 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95386fd0 CLocalRefToSharedStorageEntry::Load(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long) + 134
    2 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9532dff7 _ISGetStorageRefFromLoader(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long*) + 675
    3 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95331cc4 _ISGetStorageByIconFile + 128
    4 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953329bf _ISAddFSRefIconToImage + 145
    5 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95337da4 SFLMutableListItem::SetNewPrefs(__CFDictionary const*, unsigned short, OpaqueISImageRef*) + 1700
    6 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953376f9 SFLMutableListItem::SFLMutableListItem(unsigned long, __CFDictionary const*, short, unsigned short, OpaqueISImageRef*, unsigned char*) + 139
    7 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953375fa SFLMakeNewListItem(unsigned long, __CFDictionary const*, short, unsigned short, OpaqueISImageRef*) + 88
    8 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9533754e SFLListBase::AppendFromListInfo(__CFArray const*, __CFArray const*, unsigned short) + 458
    9 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95337229 SFLRemoteEntry::InstantiateFromPrefs(unsigned long*, __CFDictionary const**) + 219
    10 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95336e6a SFLRemoteEntry::MakeSnapshotList(unsigned long*) + 190
    11 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95336d5f _SFLCreateSnapshot + 87
    12 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954cc41d LockSFLCreateSnapshot(OpaqueSFLRef*, unsigned long) + 55
    13 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x95524a7d TSFLSynchronizer::TSFLSynchronizer(TNodePtr const&, OpaqueSFLRef*, bool) + 101
    14 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954cba15 TNode::PopulateVirtualContainerFromSFL(OpaqueSFLRef*, bool) + 197
    15 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954c930a TNodeSyncTask::HandleInternalEventVirtualChildListChanged(TCountedPtr<TNodeEven t> const&, TNodePtr const&) + 110
    16 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954c9194 TNodeSyncTask::HandleInternalEvent(TCountedPtr<TNodeEvent> const&) + 320
    17 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954c8ac6 TNodeSyncTask::SyncTaskProc(void*) + 160
    18 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9287abeb PrivateMPEntryPoint + 56
    19 libSystem.B.dylib 0x934d6c55 pthreadstart + 321
    20 libSystem.B.dylib 0x934d6b12 thread_start + 34
    Thread 3 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
    eax: 0x00000000 ebx: 0x9538653e ecx: 0xb01a407c edx: 0x00698000
    edi: 0x00000000 esi: 0x0004119e ebp: 0xb01a4098 esp: 0xb01a3fa0
    ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010246 eip: 0x953868b9 cs: 0x00000017
    ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x0000001f gs: 0x00000037
    cr2: 0x00698004
    The other 6 Finder crashes that morning look fairly similar; anyway they all have same thread 3 crash.
    Simon

  • How to fix a lack of enough  firewire ports  issue?

    I am using garageband with an Alesis iO14 audio interface. Just bought a Liquid Mix 16 with a firewire connector. Am having trouble with the Liquid Mix after installation. The mfr. says I should not daisy chain the two. They recommend a firewire expansion card. Is this even possible with the mini? any advice on how I can fix this? I really want to use this Liquid Mix. Thanks.

    You are out of luck. This is so annoying. I just don't understand why Apple can not give most of their machines not only two firewire ports, but two independent busses as well. This is not a luxury in my opinion. The only machine in their entire product lineup what allows for expansion of firewire busses/ports is the giant Mac Pro. Mac computers are used in so darn many professional industries that depend on not only fast harddrive interfaces, but interfaces of various kinds that need a dedicated high speed buss. Pro machines should feature pro inputs and outputs. They've even taken the ExpressCard interface away from all but one laptop. What's next? Maybe they should just remove the USB ports too and assume that we all love wireless keyboard/mice/card readers/printers...it's insanity.
    You are supposed to be able to daisy chain an enormous amount of firewire devices, but in reality, that just does not work all the time. I too had all kinds of problems chaining a MOTU 828mkII and one single harddrive on one FW buss. No matter of changing order of hooking them up, to which one to turn on first had any effect. They both wanted more than the single buss could give.
    I'd return the LiquidMix if you can...the only mac in the current line that I can honestly call Pro is the Mac Pro tower. The others just don't have pro or even semi-pro in/out anymore.
    It's almost like Apple really likes to not give us pro's what we really need. Close, but not quite. Imagine a macbook pro with two firewire busses? WOW! The audio and video crowd would go crazy for them. Imagine they also put back expresscard slots on all laptops in the Pro line? You could have 3 separate input busses for harddrives, cameras, audio interfaces, etc. Now that would be pro.

  • Changed firewire port

    When I bought my expensive MacBook Pro today, I told them I had an old one that I was having trouble charging. It would have been nice if they had told me that the firewire port has been changed, so my firewire cable wouldn't work to migrate data from the old computer. I could have bought the new cable at the same time. Now I have to make another trip out there tomorrow, when I'm in the middle of a project for which I need my files. It took half an hour to get someone to wait on me today- not looking forward to the loss of time. I tried to migrate using an ethernet cable, but after 4 hours, it encountered a problem; I had to cancel, and NOTHING had transferred! SERIOUSLY ticked at the poor service at my Apple store- and I buy a lot of stuff from them.

    I'm not really sure why you feel Apple is at fault here. MacBook Pros have had firewire 800 for a number of revisions now so there wasn't really any reason for something like that to enter into into their mind... especially when you were discussing a charging problem. I consider myself to be pretty computer proficient and tech savvy and I doubt I would have even thought of that. You can get a firewire 800 to firewire 400 cables at most electronics retail stores. I can understand it might be frustrating to get home with your nice new machine and then not be able to do what you need to... but that does not mean that the person at the Apple store was at fault. Everything unfortunate that happens doesn't have to be blamed on someone. You didn't know that firewire 800 uses a different connection and the sales person at Apple really had no reason to bring it up based on what you've said. It's just one of those things. To say you're +*"SERIOUSLY ticked at the poor service at my Apple store"*+ ... while that may be the way you feel... it isn't necessarily justified.

  • Firewire ports not responding to external drives.

    I have a LaCie 250 gig and it was working fine until I plugged a power book into one of the firewire ports. Not only did my G4 not recognize the power book, it also stopped recognizing my external drive.
    The .mac site said to unplug everything and restart the computer to reset the firewire ports. Which I did and nothing changed. Figured it was a lost cause so I used the USB instead.
    Then, one day, I tried it again to see what would happen and it worked. The firewire went back to normal and everything was fine.
    The other day, I plugged my Canon XL2 into the firewire port and it shut everything down again. So, now I'm without firewire and back to USB for my external drive.
    The firewire DOES turn on the drive, it just doesn't recognize that there's anything plugged in.
    Thoughts?

    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.
    All your FireWire devices should reapear, if not repeat the procedure
    How to avoid the issue :
    The only really proven way to avoid burning up a FireWire port is to connect all devices and to turn them on PRIOR turning on the Mac. Likely, one must unplug them and turn them off AFTER the Mac has been turned off. If you need to connect another device, then you're on for a shutdown of your machine... 
It's a tad annoying but it guarantees that the FW ports won't be damaged. 
Be careful when using self powered devices such as webcams, iPods, hard drives or hubs, as they can destroy the port pretty easily. Another thing is to avoid daisy-chaining hard drives.
    When the FW port doesn't respond anymore :
    In this case, peripherals won't be mounted upon plugging, and won't be displayed in Apple's System Profiler. The self powered devices will still be fed by the port, but won't respond either. 
It happens that the PHY just hangs after a surge or a random problem. Once hung, the port will not respond any longer, it is possible to reset the component by going through the following steps :
    1° boot the PPC mac in Open Firmware by holding [ Apple key - Option - O - F ] after the startup chime. 
2° you'll get to a command prompt. the keyboard mapping will be QWERTY, so pay attention when you type the following : 
RESET-NVRAM (enter) 
RESET-ALL (enter) 
3° Now the mac should restart itself and the port should function properly again. 
If it still doesn't work, then it means that the PHY is damaged.
    http://www.hardmac.com/articles/16/
    From Kappy post:
    922 is only used in dual drive cases to provide a "build-in firmware RAID support"
    912 or 912+ is FW800, the "+" means USB2
    911 is FW400
    924 adds eSATA support along with FW400/800
    MacSales, OWC Tech Support library is where I would go first, as they do tend to have or links to, firmware updates for Oxford.
    From Wiebetech:
    I just upgraded my Mac OS, and now I'm having trouble with my FireWire device. What can I do?
    A: With nearly every OS update Apple releases, some external drives are not recognized after the update. The typical symptom is that the device will not mount but the volume is visible and grayed out in Disk Utility. This means that the device is working properly, but the OS does not recognize the volume as mountable. Sometimes the drive does not show up at all.
    The first thing to do is to see if repairing Permissions with Apple's Disk Utility First Aid feature solves the problem. If not, try repairing the disk with First Aid. Another possible solution is to zap the PRAM. This is done with a keyboard command while rebooting. Restart your computer and hold down the Command, Option, P and R keys. Consult the Apple web site for details.
    If this does not work, then try pushing the PMMU reset button on the logic board. Consult the Apple web site for locations of the button for your Mac. If the drive still does not show up, shut down, disconnect all peripheral devices, and boot from the Mac OS Installation CD. The later the OS version, the better. Do not reinstall the OS, but when the Installer is loaded up and ready to begin, go to the File menu and use the Disk Utility program. Connect the drive that is having problems, then start the Disk Utility application. If you see the external drive and it is not grayed out, you know the drive is okay. Run Disk First Aid on it anyway. Then run it on your internal boot drive while you are at it. When done, unmount the external drive and UNPLUG it! Then restart the Mac.
    When the Mac has restarted and is running on the internal boot drive, reconnect the external drive.

  • Bad Drive, Enclosure or Firewire Port?

    I have a WD "Book" drive connected via a FW800<->FW400 cable to the FW800 port on my mini. After having the 10.6.3 upgrade go south on me, I'm having problems with the drive. I was able to get the mini back-up by reinstalling 10.6 and then updating through Software Update, but I'm still having troubles with the drive.
    All tests give the drive a clean bill of health, but if it's connected to the machine, I cannot boot the Mini -- It starts to boot, but never doesn't get to the login screen unless I unplug the drive. I can mount the drive after login; however, eventually some application access the drive will "space out" regarding the disk access. It seems like any part of the program that's not related to the disk access (UI, other windows, etc.) will continue to work, but anything actively involved in, or waiting on the completion of the disk access will stop making progress and never complete. For example, copying files in the Finder will stall eventually (it might be after less than a dozen files, it might be after a thousand. I was able to get all the files off the drive, so it's not corrupted files/disk.
    Before the upgrade troubles, I was planning on pulling the drive out and putting it in another enclosure (I'm not too happy with the WD Book enclosure), but now I'm hesitant. If the stalling problem is due to the enclosure, I'm OK; however, if it's the drive, then I'll have to buy a new drive.
    My big fear is that something horked the firewire port and/or software, so attaching anything to that port will cause problems. Short of borrowing something to run on the FW800 port, is there any way to test it?
    Ray

    From what I've heard, the MyBook is not a drive that can be used outside the case, but is hard-wired to the enclosure.
    That said, there are disk maintenance tools that can fix and repair directory structure, notify of bad sectors.
    Or maybe it is cable, or FW ports, and needs to be reset.
    When SL came out it seemed like there were an exceptional large number of reports of problems than would be expected, often from 'known' good brands using Oxford chipset (not sure if they were the latest, or if the latest were the very ones having trouble), but there have always been the fear that another 10.3.0 FW bug would occur.

  • 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

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