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Mac pro firewire 800 problems

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He's clearly an experienced computer user plus he's got more RAM in this one machine than I've got in all my computers put together! So, does Leopard introduce new FireWire issues?

firewire port not working - Apple Community

Well, we've some evidence that it does. Reader Charlie tells us that his FireWire doesn't work under Leopard, but works just fine under Tiger:. Connecting the drive causes an unrecognized disk message to pop up in the Finder. However, if I boot up off of the Leopard install DVD, it doesn't work firmware level does still see the drive as you would expect but subsequent boot into the installer ends up with the disk being unrecognized again. I also found that the drive works properly with FW on an older G5 1.

Ever since installing Leopard on my Quicksilver , I've been having trouble with my Firewire connections. System Profiler gives the message "Warning: Unable to list Firewire devices". Sometimes the Profiler will show some information about a connected device after a reboot or a PRAM zap but the drive wont mount or show up in the Disk Utility.

I have tried many different manufacturers and types of Firewire devices and keep running into the same problems. Booting back into Tiger produces none of the anomalies so I have to assume it's a Leopard specific problem.

Mac OS X 10.5.x Special Report: FireWire device problems

One reader told us that he could not install Leopard at all on a machine whose two internal disks were arranged as a striped RAID set - the installer simply fails. Having received my mail order of Leopard this afternoon, I booted to the Leopard But the Clearly not true as I can boot into After deciding to install Upon booting back to Still another report, from reader Daniel, tells us that Time Machine is apparently confused by a RAID setup, evidently thinking that the two drives constitute double the data:.

Nor are the problems confined to FireWire. A reader reports that copying a mildly large file across an eSATA connection is failing under Leopard:.

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The drive will remain mounted, however I can not browse the drive, nor can I eject it it say's it's use by something. If I re-seate the cable, it will mount again just fine and I can resume browsing the contents of the drive. The same copy works fine in Tiger in all scenarios. So, what's going on here? Is FireWire a bit dodgier than the advertising would have us believe, or does Leopard introduce a software problem that makes FireWire hardware and perhaps some eSATA hardware less reliable than under previous systems?

From the evidence, one is tempted to conclude: Maybe both. Mobile World Congress Restart your Mac. All your FireWire devices should reapear, if not repeat the procedure How to avoid the issue: 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.


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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: If it still doesn't work, then it means that the PHY is damaged.

From Wiebetech: What can I do? 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.

problem with 24" iMac and Firewire800 drives

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.

Apple Diagnostics - MacBook Pro Target-Disk Mode (FireWire)

Then run it on your internal boot drive while you are at it. Then restart the Mac.


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  • When the Mac has restarted and is running on the internal boot drive, reconnect the external drive. Also note that there is a program for Oxford Chipsets where you can change the ID of the drives. It worked back when I had 12 each GB external drives and when mounting one it would bump one of the drives with similar ID.

    I have 1 FW drive hooked up to my 3. FireWire audio devices usually require additional third party driver software. Definitely check the driver for the interface. Download the most recent version from the website the brand of interface i. Hope this helps! By clicking "Post Your Answer", you acknowledge that you have read our updated terms of service , privacy policy and cookie policy , and that your continued use of the website is subject to these policies. Home Questions Tags Users Unanswered. Andy Schweig Andy Schweig 2. Hold the D key while booting from a powered off state with the AC adapter connected.

    See if it gives you an error code and edit your question with the results. I tried this several times and can't get anything to happen. I unplugged everything except my keyboard and monitor, shut down, started power up and held the D key right away. All I see is the gray screen and eventually the system boots as usual.

    Is there some trick to this? Your hardware test software may be on Disk 2 of your OS X installation media.