Firewire ports and power.

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

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

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Firewire ports and power draw while sleeping

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

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

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.

I have just upgraded from a Macbook to a Macbook Air. I have been using a iomega external hard drive for Time Machine, which use a Firewire. However, Macbook Air's do not have a Firewire port and i cannot find an adaptor anywhere. Can anyone help?? Thanks

I have just upgraded from a Macbook to a Macbook Air. I have been using a iomega external hard drive for Time Machine, which use a Firewire. However, Macbook Air's do not have a Firewire port and i cannot find an adaptor anywhere. Can anyone help?? Thanks

There has never been a reliable firewire ---> USB adapter suitable for external high speed storage. This was a major issue when the MacBooks lost the firewire port a number of years ago (Apple subsequently brought it back).
The only high speed port on the Air is the ThunderBolt port. There are external ThunderBolt drive options out there, but they're somewhat more expensive than traditional USB/FireWire options.

IMac i7 Quad-Core firewire port and video camera

Has anybody tried to detect a video camera connected to the firewire 800 port?
I have already tried with two PRO tape-based DV video cameras: SONY PD170 and PANASONIC AG-HVX200E with no results. The same models do not have any problem with iMac 27" Core Duo 2.
Apple care protection plan has been useful only to know that if my iMac firewire port can handle an external Hard Disk, as it does, the compatibility with the camera is not a problem of Apple, but simply mine.
Any suggestion? Any help to find official pages by Apple with technical specification about firewire port and protocol of the new iMac 27" i7?
Thanks, Carlo
Message was edited by: Carlo G

Today my Mac has finally been fixed. I had to send it to Milano, to SATA srl, where they have replaced the logic board. Now I can import video from my video camera using the FireWire port. Thank SATA!!!
Message was edited by: Carlo G

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

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

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

Older ACD USB/Firewire ports and a Thunderbolt MBA.

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

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

Firewire as audio out - can i send my iTunes out through my firewire port and into a DAC?

I have a 5 year old (retired) MacBook with firewire 400 and 2 USB 2 ports. I want to use it as my music source for a fine stereo system. I want to know if I can use my firewire port to ship my digital music signal out to a DAC before sending it to my pre-amp in analogue format. OR, can I use the optical digital audio out in the heaphone jack to do it? What is the bandwidth of the optical out?

You do not need .Mac in order to send photos by e-mail. It sounds like you use ATT as you internet provider. Have you configured Apple Mail to be able to send e-mail yet? Can you send an e-mail text message OK?
If you haven't yet gotten Mail configured to work with your ATT account a quick call to ATT should give you all the information you need. Setting up Mail is easy.
Post back with further questions.
Regards,
Steve M.

Firewire Port and 12V

Good evening,
I have a Leaf digital back, that I need to plug in to a laptop, for professional reasons. It´s powered through a firewire cable by the firewire port. The firewire port needs to have 12V of power output, to make the digital back work. Does anyone know what macbook pro´s have a 12V capacity at the firewire port?
Regards,
Diogo

Here are the specifications. Apparently the battery alone will output the voltage range.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2952
Ciao.

Question about 6 Way Firewire Port and Ex. HD's

I recently bought the Belkin 6-Port Firewire adapter. Right now I have two external HD's ( 200 GB and 300 GB ),and my iSight connected. I was wondering if it was safe to have my two HD's always connected? I've been having issues with my screen turning dim and not coming back to normal until I restart. I reset the PRAM and still after using my iMac for awhile the screen turns dim, like as if were about to go to sleep, but when I try to brighten it, it stays the same brightness?

Assuming the harddrives have their own power supply the issue us unlikely to be related. Its unlikely to be related either way.
Are you sure you are not losing connection to the keyboard so when you try to brighten it takes a while for the keyboard to reactivate, plenty of people have had issues with the keyboard.
Also you can switch off the totally pointless slight dimming thing in the energy saver part of system prefs
Intel iMac 20inch, 14inch Book Mac OS X (10.4.5) Maxed up baby

Crap! Did I damage my firewire port?

Previous owner of a PC laptop and 4-pin FW that connected my m-audio fw-410. Needed to use the adapter to power the device.
Got my MBP with 6-pin and have been using the fw-410 but still connected to the adapter. I've heard that this is necessary when using phantom powered mics.
However, just poked around the m-audio website and found an article that specifically warned against using the adapter with apple computers that have 6-pin.
Would this instantly ruin my gear or port or is it precautionary due to an outside possibility of damage?
How would I know?
Here's the m-audio message:
- DO NOT USE the power supply when using your M-Audio FireWire audio interface with Apple computers!
The 6-pin FireWire port on your Mac supplies your M-Audio FireWire interface with power. Connecting a second power source (6-pin FireWire port AND Power Supply) can cause a variety of problems from installation failure to device damage. The power supply is intended for use when connecting to 4-pin FireWire ports that do not supply bus power. Apple Macintosh computers do not use this type of FireWire connectors and for this reason, you should never use the power supply with a Mac.

I guess it is. It still recognizes drives and still pumps sound through the device. I suppose that stupid me can assume it's okay and I dodged a bullet?

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

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

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

Firewire port & power

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

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

My external hard drive and cd burner does not appear on the desktop of my mini. Using Firewire adapter from old to new firewire ports.

I have a new Mac Mini (2013) and older external hard drive (Lacie) and cd reader/burner (EzQuest). Both have the original Firewire ports and the Mini has the new kind. I bought a cable with both kinds of ends but I plug them in and they don't show on the desktop.

From what I've heard, sometimes certain devices will not have full functionality if they are FireWire 400 with an 800 adapter. Take Apple's original iSight external webcam. It had FireWire 400, and people report using a converter cable will give them video, but not audio.
When I first got my mini, my usb cd burner wasn't recognised by Finder or Disk Utility. After repairing disk permissions and a reboot, it worked fine.

Big problems with Firewire iPod and camcorder - please help!

Hi all,
I don't know where else to turn with this problem. I think I've damaged my Firewire kit.
I have an iPod 4G 20GB and a Canon MV901 MiniDV Camcorder. I used them both over Firewire with my Pismo without difficulty, but I then tried video editing on my Windows machine with a firewire PCI card. Scrabbling around the back of my computer, I think I somehow managed to get the firewire cable to the camcorder in the socket upside down, reversing the power and data conncectors. Nothing really happened, but the camcorder stopped showing up. I tried it a good few times, then tried my iPod. By some bizarre coincidence, I think I managed to plug the iPod in the same way. Now, my iPod doesn't work on either the Windows machine or the Pismo over firewire, but does over USB2.0 on my Windows machine.
I measured the power going through the Firewire power pins as around 13.5 volts on my Pismo and the card, but the card also has an auxiliary power connector. This was disconnected when I tested it, but was connected when the iPod and camcorder were.
The thing I would like to know is whether a voltage spike of this size could fry the firewire controllers on both devices. The iPod's diagnostic mode detects that firewire is connected, but will not show up. Strangely, it still charges over firewire from either machine. Have I permanately damaged the firewire controllers?
Thanks in advance,
Rob Johnson

Rob,
If you mistakenly inserted the FireWire connector twisted 180 degrees, the power lines can be directly connected to the data lines and can result in a fried PHY (connects the port to the FireWire bridge) or the FireWire bridge itself.
You can take a look at the voltage specs for FireWire ports and see that your voltage readings are well withing specs:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58207
I am not sure where you go from here. You could try a known-good FireWire device connected to your Pismo and see if it works. If not, the data-side of the FW port may have failed. I don't know about testing the iPod or camcorder.
A possible cheap fix for the Pismo FireWire is a FireWire PC card; if running 10.x, it will just be a plug & play affair. However, unlike built-in FireWire ports, FireWire PC cards supply very little bus power. Your camcorder will work since it has it owns power supply (assuming there is no hardware failure) and but am unsure about the iPod. The iPod will not charge, of course, but it may still work in data transfers. There are a few FireWire PC cards that also have their own power supply.

Firewire ports and power.

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