Installing a Firewire port into a G3 IMAC

A G3 CRT IMAC with OS9.2 was donatd to our little cable TV station.
It has USB ports, but no Firewire ports. However there seems to be some sort of access expansion hatch.
Question: Is it possible to install a Firewire port on a G3 IMAC of this vintage?
We do community TV and would like to use it as a simple off-line editing computer.
Thanks,
Dave Gordon
Olympia, WA

If this is a tray-loading iMac, you might still be able to find one of Sonnet's Harmoni processor upgrades which also includes a Firewire port. But it's probably not worth the money unless you could find one really cheap. Newer iMacs with Firewire ports show up on eBay regularly for under $100.00, and eMacs frequently appear well under $300.00.

Similar Messages

Imac G5 won't start with Isight plugged into the firewire port.

I went to turn on my Imac today and it wouldn't start. After checking all the usual culprits (power strip, outlet and power chord) which were not the problem, I proceeded by unplugging all the external devices from the back ports. After unplugging the computer for a few seconds and plugging it back in (which I read resets any power issues), it turned back on. I plugged my Isight camera back in and turned it on and the computer suddenly shut off. I reproduced this quite a few times and it did the same thing. It won't even turn on if any device is plugged into the firewire port. Does anyone have a clue of what this conflict could be or experienced anything similar.
I would greatly appreciate any input.
Thanks in advance,
Daniel

Welcome to Discussions - try resetting your PRAM, if that doesn't work, I'm afraid there is something wrong with your logic board, where the firewire bus is located. The best thing to do would be to take it in for servicing.

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!

TS3850 I am using a Sony HBR -VLU camera to import into Final Cut 10. Plugging into an I MAc that doesn't have a firewire port. The camera is not being recognized by the computer. The camera is set to play tape too. Why is camera not recognized?

I am trying to import from the camera into an I-MAC. I'm told the I-mac does not have the firewire port, but has thunderbolt. Is the only way to get video from the camera via a firewire port? Is someone giving me bad information as to the firewire port not being on the I-MAC? The camera is not being recognized. Thanks in advance.

Apple has moved on from Firewire and the current iMacs (and most MBPs) have Thunderbolt, USB3 and USB2.
There are Firewire toThunderbolt adaptors. Here's one. You also want a four pin to nine pin FW cable to run from your camera to the adaptor.
Russ

How to transfer files from an iMac without upgraded Migration Assistant to a new iMac that doesn't have a firewire port?

Hello.
I just purchased a new iMac. He's awesome. However, he didn't come with a Firewire port. (Bummer, because I have one from the last time (2007) I had to transfer stuff from my iBook...)
When I turned him on, he wanted to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from the older iMac; she doesn't have the most updated Migration Assistant, though. (She works just fine, but she only has Snow Leopard.)
Okay, so what I'm wondering is if I just have to use a huge external hardrive to move everything? If I do that, will my programs (Microsoft Office) move? I fear they won't move/transfer that way. Ugh.
PLEASE HELP.
Ideas? Advice?
Thank you in advance!

Firewire 800 (what the new iMac has) is 9 pin. FireWire 400 is 6 pin (what your old iMac has). Hopefully you didn't damage your new iMac by trying to insert a FW400 cable into its FW800 connector. The numbers are important in the case of the ports. They don't interchange!!! Get the proper cable or risk damaging your new iMac.

I have a mid 2007 iMac w/ mac OS X Lion 10.7.5. My time machine (LaCie) is not responding through firewire port (since day one). Did an update mess this up?

I have just recently realized that my time machine has not backed up in a couple of weeks. I am using a LaCie external hard drive that I purchased with the iMac and has been plugged into the firewire port since day one. When I try to establish a connection it only gives me airport utility. When I look through network connections it shows that my fire wire is not connected or at least it doesn't find anything connected.
I have also been getting a start up disk message off and on that I need to close applications due to no more memory? (or something similar to that).
Just curious what might have changed. Did an update re configure something? Are these two issues connected?
I have always loved my Mac for the fact that it just always worked. I'm not super savvy with computers and the settings so I'm not the kind that just goes in to tweek things. This is the first real issue that I have had with it. I would think that it was the fact that I upgraded to lion but I did that quite a while ago.

Hello,
It isn't the fw in Network you want o use or look at, that's for something completely different.
My first suspect is the Power Adapter on the LaCie has gone.
At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac, then click on More Info, then click on Hardware>Firewire, what is listed there?
Reset the Firewire bus
If your Firewire or USB isn't recognizing any device. A solution which has worked for some whose hard drive became invisible in 10.4 was simply to follow these four steps to reset the Firewire/USB bus:
1. Shut the machine down.
2. UNPLUG the power lead to the computer and any firewire/USB drive or devices.
3. leave it for 10 minutes.
4. Connect back up and reboot.
http://www.macmaps.com/firewirebug2.html

Capturing Video on New iMac with only 1 FireWire Port

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

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

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

Why are the two firewire ports on the back of my iMac diffferent?

I currently have an external hard drive plugged in to one firewire port. But I noticed that I cannot fit my iPod connector into the other firewire port.
Why?
Intel-Based iMac 24" Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Look at this article iMac (Late 2006): External Ports and Connectors and go down to:
"Two FireWire Ports"
The iMac (24-inch) has one FireWire 400 port, and one FireWire 800 (IEEE 1394b) port, which supports transfer rates of 100, 200, 400, and 800 Mbps as a theoretical maximum load; actual rates may vary.
If your External HD has a second firewire port on it, connect the firewire iPod there. If not I would pick-up a firewire hub to prevent having to plug and unplug cords.
Dennis
17" iMac Intel Core Duo - 1.5GB Ram - Mac OS X (10.4.10) - Maxtor 300GB FireWire - Creative Inspire 2.1 - 2G Nano

27" iMac Firewire Port fails after 300 days of use

I had to take my 27" iMac (purchased in 2012) to the "Genius" bar today because the firewire port failed.
Prior to this:
My Apogee Duet Firewire Sound Interface has given me all kinds of errors with the iMac. I wrote emails to Apogee complaining about the Firewire issues and they gave me a long list of possible fixes, all of which did absolutely nothing. Apogee claims that the problem is Apple's, but when I connected a MOTU Traveler to the firewire port it performed flawlessly. Many people had complained online about the awful performance of the Firewire Duet with Lion OSX so I wrote back to Apogee demanding that they replace the device with their newer USB "Duet 2" and they chose to ignore my email. So I went back to dealing with the intermittent cutting out of the Duet which is only remedied by either restarting the machine or unplugging & reconnecting the Duet.
2 days ago:
The Apogee Duet stops working (like so many times before), so I unplug the Apogee Firewire 400-to-800 cable and this time when I reconnect, it starts rapidly blinking and clicking, so I quickly shut the iMac down. After a waiting for a few minutes I plug the Duet in and it's dead -no lights & no click. To determine if I'd just killed my Duet, I plugged it into my 2009 Macbook with a Firewire 400 cable and the Duet works. So I think.."Maybe it was the Apogee FW400/800 cable". Next day I bought a new Firewire 400/800 Cable and connected the Duet to the iMac and I still got absolutely nothing. So I booked an appointment at the Genius Bar.
Today:
The helpful gentleman there quickly discovered that the main-board needed replacement because the "newer" iMacs have all the I/O stuff attached to the motherboard. It would have cost me 800 bucks with out a warranty. While I was there, I tested my original Apogee Firewire 400/800 cable with a Macbook pro and it worked fine, ruling out the possibility that my cable could have caused the Firewire port to fail. Lastly, I asked him to connect a Thunderbolt-to-Firewire Adapter to my iMac and - yes - the Apogee Duet worked fine through the Thunderbolt Port.
In Conclusion,
I'm glad that they are going to repair this problem but it would appear I really have no choice but to extend my "Apple Care" since, in my experience, the Firewire port can spontaneously fail. As a full-time musician it's lucky for me this happened while it was still under warranty, otherwise I probably would have just bought the Thunderbolt-to-Firewire Adapter and hope the Thunderbolt ports last longer than the firewire did.
Has anyone else had their main-board replaced due to Port Failure?

Not because of Firewire, but yes, my 2007 iMac had to have extensive things replaced twice under extended AppleCare.
I personally think $2,000 dollar items should come with more than a one year warranty, unless you expect them to die shortly after a year.
Didn't need any warranty on my Quadra/630, still runs every day, they don't make Macs like they used to.

Firewire port on my iMac. Need help troubleshooting

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

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

Am I correct that none of the latest iMac's have a DVD Drive or Firewire port?

Am I correct that none of the latest iMac's have a DVD Drive or Firewire port?

I actually use an external optical drive as all of my family and friends (including the ones in other countries) prefer to get the movies I produce on a DVD they can put in their DVD player and watch on a big screen TV, so I will be using that technology for some time to come. I also prefer not to upload anything as most everyone thinks everything is free to download (steal) other people's content. I've used an external burner for years because the super slim vertically installed drives in iMacs were less than reliable and any media could shift by 1/100th of an inch.
My current (new) external burner is from OWC:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MR3F82SD24S/
(they have others, including bluray). Mine is quiet, sturdy, and offers several plugin possibilities.

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

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

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

Problem importing video from a DV camera into the new imovie 10.0? I have a Sony DCR TRV17 connected via Firewire port that worked in 9.0.9 but not under 10.0...

I have a Sony DCR TRV17 that I used to pass through VCR tape video via Firewire port to my Mac Pro under Imovie 9.0.9 without an issue. Now under Imovie 10.0 the video shows in the import window, I can start recording yet when I stop recording the recorded clips do not show up anywhere. The movie file I'm creating still indicates that I still need to import video. Anyone having similar problems?

Hey Dave,
I had this issue only once before but was lucky enought to find it was a specific event causing the import to freeze. It took me some time to isolate the problem though. I would recommend letting it sit there for some time before you try any troubleshooting. Larger libraries can take long periods of time to update.
This is a good thread for this issue. I would first try removing the iMovie.plist as elikness mentions.
1. Open Finder
2. Click on "Go" in the menu bar.
3. Click on Go To Folder on the dropdown menu.
4. Type "~/Library/Preferences/" in the text field and click Go.
5. Find the com.apple.iMovie(some number).plist file and move it to Trash.
Quit and relaunch iMovie to see if this took care of the issue before attempting the next step. If you're still having an issue then you can try what I needed to do which is isolating the problem event.
1. Open Finder.
2. Go to the Movies folder. You should see iMovie Events here.
If you have a larger event library I'd recommend renaming the iMovie Events folder to say, "iMovie Events COPY". Then create a new empty folder named “iMovie Events”. When you launch iMovie 9.0.9 all events will be missing at this point. Quit iMovie if it is open. Then you can either drag each event from iMovie Events COPY to iMovie Events or you can select and drag several at a time. Each time you drag an event folder back into the new iMovie Events folder launch iMovie 9.0.9 to see if you are having the same issue. Wash and repeat until either you have found the problem event or you have imported all events.
If you find the problem event you can reimport the clip from iMovie 9.0.9 by going to File > Import > Movies and navigating to that events iMovie Original Movies folder to find the clip.
Hope this helps!

What is wrong with my 30" Cinema Display? The USB and FireWire ports still work, but the screen is pitch black. When you plug it into the computer, it detects that it's a Cinema Display.

When you plug it into the computer, it detects that it's a Cinema HD but the screen is pitch black.
For some reason, the USB and FireWire ports still work.

If you shine a really bright light directly into the screen can you then see a faint image on the screen? If so, that would indicate the backlight has died (hardware failure) and the unit needs repairing.

Installing a Firewire port into a G3 IMAC

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