IMac, Firewire 800 issue

I am using a 24-inch iMac with 1GB RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor and running Mac OS X 10.4.11. Since I edit video, I am using Final Cut Pro HD and dealing with files that take up a large amount of space. The LaCie Rugged External Drive that I am using has a FireWire 800 Port, but when I plug in this way, the drive does not show up. The drive does however, work with the regular FireWire 400 Port. This is a problem since the external camera I am using for video capture requires a FireWire to DV cable, and I only have one 400 and one 800 port on the iMac. Using the camera or an external DV deck is also a problem in itself since it is not recognized in Final Cut whenever an external drive of any kind is plugged in. This happens with the LaCie and a Western Digital MyBook that I have. Strangely enough, the Western Digital sometimes does not work with a 400 cable, but works with 800. As soon as the drives are ejected, the camera is recognized. I was curious if someone had an answer to either of these issues, since I do not wish to use the Main Hard drive for these large video files. I am thinking it is some type of issue with the ports but I am not sure. Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide.

I think that there are, in general, a number of issues with the FireWire drivers for the Intel Macs. I had submitted several bug reports with observations and logs of the behavior. I don't think it's the hardware since, if you, say, run a different operating system on the same machine, there are no issues with the drives or cameras (under Linux anyway, never tried Windows).
The behavior changed when I upgraded to Leopard from Tiger. In particular, I could daisy-chain the camera off a FW drive after the upgrade. However, FinalCut experiences more frame-drops on transferring DV video than it did in Tiger. iMovie does not drop any frames at all, and I suspect the two applications are using different frameworks/libraries for accessing the DV video stream. Whereas, under Linux, frames are never dropped.
I'd contact LaCie, though, about the drive not appearing. A lot of those problems stem from firmware problems on their drives (or at least have in the past). You might find a firmware update for your drive on their web-site that would fix the problem.
In the meantime, though, I still maintain that there are issues with FireWire on Intel Macs related to the FireWire drivers.

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Macbook Pro WD Firewire 800 issues possible work around

I have been having issues with my Western Digital My Passport Studio and the Firewire 800 connection. The drive would mount and was completly readable however copying to the drive would result in a stall. The USB connection worked perfect. I have found if I disabled the Wi-Fi connection I could then write as usuall without error.
I have read of people having issues with thier firewire connections and am curious to know if this helps anyone else. The most popular responses have been RMA the drive or the Macbook. I have also read peoples dealiings with Apple thus far have not been very helpful either. Hope it helps seems to be working for me thus far. Hopefully a fix is in the works 'cause I love my MacBook and the drive.
This is the current (late) 2011 MBpro with OsX Lion 10.7.2

I can only answer part of your question. Your SLR has mini HDMI and a mini USB out. Your MBP has three ways to connect: USB, FW 800 (9 pin) and Thunderbolt (which is ao far supported by a limited number of devices).
As far as I know, you will not be able to use On Location with the Canon. But I could be wtong. Good places to ask are the Adobe forums and Canon forums.
Good luck.
Russ

Mac G5 - Firewire 800 issue

Hi, I use a late G5, 2.0 GHz, 10.4.11. It have two firewire 400 and one 800 ports. I use my Mac for music production, so I have two external audio interfaces, Mackie Onyx 1640 and Presonus Firebox.
Presonus is connected via firewire 400 onto a Mackie firewire bus, then Mackie is connected via firewire 400 onto my Mac. Everything is fine.
I used a Western Digital (My Book Home) external hard disk. It had firewire 400 but I used a firewire 400 to 800 cable, so I connected it on firewire 800 port on my Mac. I hadn't any problem.
A week ago I replaced My Book Home with a Western Digital (My Book Studio) external hard disk. It have firewire 800 (and usb). When I connect it on firewire 800 port on my Mac, it conflict with my external audio interfaces. Both of them go out of synchronized and they need switch off and on again.
Western Digital (My Book Studio) is powered from a separate outlet from Mac. I tried connected via usb and everything is ok.
I connected a firewire 400 device on firewire 800 port on my Mac and everything is ok again. Only firewire 800 connection seems to have this issue.
Then I open my System Profiler. Under Firewire tab I noticed that appears an Unknown Device, Manufacturer: Unknown, Connection Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec (except the two external audio interfaces and My Book Studio that appears right). I disconnected all of my firewire devices from my Mac, I restarted it again, but Unknown Device is still there at my System Profiler.
It seems to me like it is some kind of drivers but where?
I connected Western Digital (My Book Studio) on a friend's Mac G5 (with the same Mackie Onyx audio interface) via firewire 800 and everything works properly. Of cause at his Mac System Profiler there was not any Unknown Device...
Any suggestion please, any answer?
Thank you in advance.
Message was edited by: Spy x

Hi Tom, thank you for your reply. Although I had read these threads, today I tried many things from what these says but without success. Then I read to a thread here that the Unknown Device at my System Profiler exists to every Mac G5 dual or quad core at Firewire tab. So this query goes out but my problem exists.
But now I have some new data. I mentioned at my first post that when I have connect My Book Studio to a usb port I haven't any conflict with my firewire devices.
Today I noticed that when I have connect My Book Studio to firewire 800 port and the same time only one of my audio interfaces (Mackie Onyx 1640 or Presonus Firebox) connected to a firewire 400 port there is not any conflict. The conflict happens when I plug and the second audio interface to another firewire 400 port.
Summary, there is a conflict when I have connected to my Mac an external disk to firewire 800 port and two audio interfaces connected to firewire 400 ports (one for each). No conflict with the external disk to firewire 800 port and only one from the audio interfaces (one or the other) to a firewire 400 port.
An additional info: At Audio MIDI Setup I have configure Mackie Onyx 1640 and Presonus Firebox as an Aggregate Device...
Any suggestion please?
Thank you, Spyros.

2009/2010 iMac Firewire 800 port dead - can anyone help?

My iMac i7 firewire port is dead. I've tried PRAM reset and SMS reset, and clean OS instal. I'm terrified as soemone told me it's connected to logic board and could cost £700 to replace if hardware is faulty. Need firewire port to connect to Pro Tools Digirack 003, have tested it on various other firewire devices and nothing is recognised. Any help would be greatfully appreciated x PS Running Mountain Lion.

Ok, for connecting the camera to the iMac I used a 9-4 pin cable that externally looks like the one you linked in your post and unfortunately I can't test it with other devices.
However, I tried to connect my Iomega MiniMax HDD (1 TB) via FireWire.
The HDD has a 400 FireWire port and I used a cable like this http://www.smelectronics.com/images2/FIREWIRE96.jpg to connect it to the FireWire 800 of the iMac.
Again Snow Leopard can't see the external device.

IMac Firewire 800 port not supplying power

Hi,
The FW800 port on my iMac suddenly stopped supplying power to bus-powered drives.
The same drives work/mount when I use an AC adapter.
Have thoroughly trouble-shot (shooted?) the hard drives/cables on a different computer.
Tried the SMC reset (unplug for 15-seconds).
Anything else I can try before sending it to Apple?
System Details:
iMac
27-inch, Mid 2011
Processor 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2048 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63)

I only use one bus powered drive at a time.
Have been using them without issue since I got the iMac in 2011. The drives currently work fine on my MacBook Pro.
Here are the drives I use: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
Bus powered RAID (2 drives): http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/EliteALmini/RAID/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
Genius Bar it is….

Firewire 800 issue with mac mini

I just upgraded from a 3 year old mac mini with a firewire 400 port which I connected to my LaCie external hard drive via a firewire 400 cable. The LaCie has 3 USB ports that I connected my printers and scanner to as the 4 ports on the back of the mac mini are in use with my monitor, keyboard, wacom tablet and LaCie.
Now that I have the new 2009 5 usb port mac mini with a 800 firewire port - none of the 3 USB ports work on the LaCie. I have a new 400 to 800 firewire adapter that lets me plug the 400 firewire connection into the 800 firewire port - all power up, but nothing is recognized that will let me print or scan. I have connected other USB devices into these ports and nothing works. I purchased the adapter instead of a new cord 6 foot cord with the same connections as I didn't want this cord draped all over my desk - cord that came with the LaCie is 9 inches.
Not happy about this - any suggestions??? I really don't want to have to switch USB connections when I want to print or scan. I am going to call Applecare tomorrow to advise.

I am confused with your description of your setup.
You have a FW adapter for the Mac mini's FW800 port so that you can connect the external LaCie, which has FW400. Is the FW connection how your Mac mini accesses/reads & writes to the HD? Is there also a FW hub with other FW400 ports for attaching other FW peripherals to the LaCie external HD?
You do not mention a USB connection from the Mac mini to your external HD. The USB hub in the external HD can only function if it is connected to a USB port on your Mac mini. This is normally accomplished with a USB cable that has a USB "A" plug on one end, and a USB "B" plug on the other end. The USB ports cannot function with only a FW connection.

HVX-200 can't mount using the iMac Firewire 800?

My specs are Mac OS X 10.6.6 , iMac 2.8 i5 with 12GB of ram.
I'm trying to mount an HVX-200 Panasonic using P2 cards on my new computer via the iMac's Firewire.
Each time I connect, load up the camera. It always gives me a disconnect message on the camera. I can't mount my camera at all! I tried this using a Firewire 400 setup on a friends older machine, no problem.
Btw, I had to by a $40+ 9-pin to 4-pin Firewire cable on the Apple store and pay shipping just to find out all this is not working...
Any suggestions here?

That cable is fine with the iMac - I am more concerned with your camcorder; see page 10 of the FAQ:
+Does 24PN have a IEEE 1394 (Firewire) mode?+
+No, 24PN (and 30PN) modes do not transmit data over the IEEE 1394 (“firewire”) interface. The P2 HD camcorders only transmit SMPTE-compliant data streams over the 1394 interface, and 24PN/30PN recordings are unique modes that do not comply to established streaming protocols. Accordingly, 1394 output is disabled when using a Native mode.+
As I said, I know nothing about your camcorder, but I think it is time for you to contact the mfr and/or the store where you bought it and ask questions about these data streams and FW compliance. In the link I sent previously (description of such a cable) it said that both devices must be compliant and, according to these FAQs, it may not?

Editing Canon 5D to ProRes on an iMac and firewire 800 drive

The Canon 5D footage that has been sent through Compressor to ProRes will not play with any smoothness in FCP 6. I'm wondering if it's because of the Drobo firewire 800 drive? I'm working in a local company's setup and I'm thinking they should be using more than a firewire drive. This iMac is not capable of eSata connection or higher. Any ideas what other cause there could be for the footage playing slowly or freezing all together in the timeline? Thanks.
This is a 2.66 intel core duo iMac with 10.5.8 4GB Ram

When you say, "small portable raids", do you mean like a CalDigitVR or a G-Raid mini or G-Speed?
If you want a drive you can drag around with you, I can't recommend the Caldigit VR Mini highly enough. It is really solidly built and is powered from either the FW bus or an external supply. I used one recently to capture 14 hours of DVCProHD live over 2 days (direct feed from an HVX-200 to FCP on a MBP with the drive powered via firewire) without a hiccup. VERY impressive.
My only quibble with it is there is no independent power switch. When you plug it in (fw or external power), it starts up. Other than that, no issues. The Caldigit RAID software allows for a variety of configurations.
x

Focusrite Saffire does not show up when connected to Imac by Firewire 800

When I connect my focusrite saffire to my i7 imac 27" via the firewire 800 port, the device does not show up on the computer, however it does light up indicating it is being powered off the firewire. When I click on "about this mac<more info<firewire", all I see is this " Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec", I have checked and my "AppleFWAudio" file is up to date. The Focusrite uses Firewire 400 but I use an adaptor which converts it to 800, I have tried different adapters and cables from a number of companies which were suggested by Focusrite themselves and none of them worked.
Any ideas on what the problem could be?

I too was having problems connecting my Focusrite Saffire to my new iMac 27" i7. It would light up and click several times, but it would never be in a ready state w/ both LINE indicators being green. The Saffire Control software would say the the Saffire DSP didn't load and to unplug it and re-plug and wait for the lights to turn green, but that never happened. I called Sweetwater (where I bought the unit) and they didn't seem to know of any prevailing issues, BUT the tech did suggest to reboot the iMac in 32 bit mode (hold down the '3' and '2' keys during startup). I did that and replugged the Saffire but it exhibited the same problem. I unplugged it and left it for like 3 minutes then reattached the firewire cable and it mounted. I opened up the Sound preferences and was able to select it and get sound out of it. I then opened DP and ran a quick test and it worked as well. The next test was to reboot into 64 bit mode. I did that while the Saffire was still connected and it actually stayed mounted and connected upon reboot. I have my System Sound output running through it right now and its still working. I haven't tried DP yet, but will do that later. I'm not going to reboot again until I hear back from Focusrite. I sent in a help request last night.
Hope this helps someone.

IMac G4/800 in FireWire Target Disk Mode shuts down, hard drive hopeless?

I have found myself in possession of a 12 year-old iMac G4/800. The machine looks stock and was nice and full of dust when I took it apart, so I'm going to assume nothing has been upgraded on it. The person who the computer belongs to has had issues booting the machine and when it does boot, the machine will throw up the "grey screen of death" after a few seconds, I suspect when the hard drive starts to get hit.
I've attempted to start the machine in FireWire Target Disk Mode and the machine will mount on my 2011 MacBook Pro, however once I begin to copy files the machine will abruptly shut off.
I have also attempted to remove the hard drive from the machine and connect it to my MacBook Pro via an OWC Drive Adapter, but it won't mount from the adapter in Disk Utility, Terminal or Disk Warrior. I've connected other (non-IDE) drives with the adapter before, but no luck with this one. Perhaps the IDE connector is faulty on the adapter?
I may look for another drive adapter and I've made an Apple Genius app't for later this afternoon, but I'm curious if anyone has any further advice. Is it more likely that it's a motherboard issue that's causing the machine to shut of in FTDM or a hard drive issue? In any case, this may be one for the Data Rescue Experts. I imagine I may get a few looks at the Apple store with such an old machine.

Another contributory issue to booting in an older PPC Mac is the PRAM battery.
If the battery is more than four years old, it would likely be a partial cause of odd
startup issues and some settings that are required for the computer to start &
run correctly would not be available. The battery is a 3.6V. 1/2AA Lithium cell.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/BAA36VPRAM/
A few companies such as macsales.com show them on their web site... sounds
like your old iMac G4 800MHz could use one. Note there are takeapart instruction
pages online such as one from XLR8Yourmac from years ago. The 800MHz is
similar to the later models with faster G4 processors of the same appearance.
The hard drive type utilized is the older ATA/IDE or PATA; uses older formatting.
Tools, thermal paste, and some other tedious details need to be attended to...
•iMac G4 Take-apart for Drive and RAM upgrades:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/imac_g4/imacg4_takeapart.html
And another fairly good page w/ larger images:
•Mr Totes' iMac G4 -- taken apart:
http://www.mrtotes.co.uk/page1/page1.html
Sometimes the power supplies and other components can be the cause of issues
in these iMac G4 models, you can test the power output by using the test ports
that are located in the same compartment as the upgrade RAM slot & wi-fi card.
You may be able to find a copy of an original Apple service manual for that iMac.
Those are harder to get, and used to be available to Apple trained technicians.
Good luck & happy computing!

Upgrading my intel iMac to internal SSD and running 1TB external drive from firewire 800 for mass storage while still using a second external drive for backups...my goal-speed with a SSD, to still have 1TB of room for everything i have now..possible?

I seem to kill HD's every two years...the last two i've installed were WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200rpm 3.5" drives. The speed gains over stock drives have been remarkable. I don't blame the drives for the failures, my machines are up and running 16 hours a day, every day, year round. They die from 'mileage' so to speak...i assume...there's no viral acvtivity or questionable downloads to gunk things up...just lots of work.
I have my third new drive ready to install in my intel based iMac...but i've had a thought...I want to install a SSD in my iMac for the speed gain (and recent price drops)...for standard storage i want to use this new WD Caviar Black 1TB in an external drive bay and connect via firewire 800 for storing everything except the OS and my most commonly used software...am i crazy? will the firewire 800 external drive negate the speed gained with an internal SSD??
I have four iMacs in my office, and one at home. I buy second hand and install new drives and boost memory. I'm going to do this on my 'home' machine...if it works out well i want to upgrade the other three this way...but first i need to know if i'm just dreaming, or will it really make a difference? or even possible??
Thanks!
2.66 intell core2duo
2009 iMac
8gig ram
1 gig hd
OSX ver. 10.8

The SSD gives great bootup and Application launch speed. I think it also speeds up the video rendering a bit, I do all that on the SSD and then move the finished project to the external drives. As far as the speed for the external drives they are quick enough for viewing video and the file transfer rate is good. I had initially put the SSD into an external cradle (FW800) and the system was faster than on the internal drive. I only got a 1.5GBs SATA drive, perhaps yours could benefit from the 3GBs. I know the 6GBs would be too fast and costs a lot more, even the MacPros need special hookups to make use of the 6GBs.

My new MacBook Pro and Imac can't recognize my digital video camera (Canon GL2) via FireWire 800 9 pin to 4 pin cable.

My new MacBook Pro and Imac can't recognize my digital video cameras (Canon GL2 or Sony) via FireWire 800 9 pin to 4 pin cable. I've tried two different cables. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Is your DV camera plugged in to AC power (not batteries only)? When you step down from 9 pins to 4 pins, you lose the "power" pins.

I am using IMovie 11 with a new iMac. Unable to import video from a Panasonic PV-GS400 mini-DV camcorder using a Firewire IEEE 1394 400 cable connected to a Firewire 400 to 800 adapter which is then connected to a Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter.

How can I get iMovie to recognize my Panasonic PV-GS400 as a device so I can import video to my iMac? I have a FireWire IEEE 1394 400 cable connected to the camcorder. Since my new iMac has only Thunderbolt ports, I purchased a Firewire 400 to 800 adapter to connect to the cable. I also purchased a FireWire 800 to Thunderbolt adapter to connect to the computer. My camcarder is still not recognized.

I would suggest that you try a 9 pin to 4 pin Firewire Cable along with the Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter.
Those Firewire 400 to 800 adapters do not seem to work well with iMovie.
The 9 pin to 4 pin cables are available at reasonable prices here, for example.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=103&cp_id=10301&cs_id=1030104 &p_id=3541&seq=1&format=2

How do I use my iMac's Firewire 800 port to connect to my external hardrive using a USB Micro-B input?

I have a late 2009 iMac with Firewire 800 input on the back. I have a Western Digital Passport external hard drive with USB Micro-B input that I would like to connect to the Firewire (4 USB inputs aren't nearly enough on the iMac). I can't find an adapter to do this. Can someone please help?? As an alternative, is there an adapter that will convert the Firewire 800 to standard USB2.0?

USB and FireWire work in very different ways, so there is no adapter.
Instead, you should just get a USB 2.0 hub, like this one
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/USB2HB7PRO/
There are many choices, but be sure to get one that is powered (it comes with its own power supply). Cheaper hubs rely on the computer's USB port for power.

What do I need to support my FireWire 800 gear on a new iMac

I need to replace my antique mac pro 1.1
I am now retired and my needs tend more towards games than av creation so the new Mac Pro is not only overkill but the dual video I here is not optimized for games in any case.
The problem is all of my existing FireWire 800 gear and no FireWire ports on the new iMac designs
I guess I need to buy an external thunderbolt case for the 4 2 terabyte drives in the old pro do any of the external T-bolt cases offer good FireWire 800 support (full speed support) for all of my old gear?
Are there other ways to support these devices than an external t-bolt case for sata drives?
And for a game playing iMac is a fusion drive or a large solid state drive best choice bearing in mind I will have about 10 terabytes of FireWire and t-bolt external storage ( I was thinking of making the drives in the required t-bolt external case a raid array for best performance)
So what external t-bolt drive case should I buy and if it does not support a set of FireWire 800 ports what external t-bolt gadget for that support should I buy?
Thanks

Windshadow99 wrote:
I looked at those but would it not be far better to have a gadget that plugged into a t-bolt port and then had a bunch of FireWire 800 ports on it? There must be lots of folks that like me invested in FW800 gear with their older computers and need something like this.
Perhaps, though as with anything it depends on your needs. I don't know of any such device, though. All the Thunderbolt docks I've seen that have Firewire at all have only a single port. You could use a TBolt to FW adapter with Thunderbolt ports in a dock, though. A Firewire hub isn't a lot of good other than providing multiple connectors since all devices are on the same FW bus and hence not really much different from daisy-chaining. There's certainly no performance improvement and probably not much in the way of stability improvement either.
I was told a long time ago back in the mac 2fx sccsi days that daisy chaining things should be avoided and giving things their own pro was better does this advice sill hold good?
SCSI was very different (and usually wasn't a problem as long as it was terminated correctly). Daisy-chaining FW is different, though it very much depends on the devices and the sort of throughput you need. Daisy-chaining Thunderbolt should be no problem at all as long as the devices support it.
Regards.

IMac, Firewire 800 issue

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