Firewire gone

[rfm]

Really odd. This morning I discovered my Firewire ports don't work anymore. Neither my CD burner nor my LaCie pocket drive work. There is power coming over the cable because the LaCie harddrive is spinning but the Finder just doesn't mount them.

The problem may have been there for a week or so because I haven't used any of my firewire drives in the mean time. Last week I installed the iPod updater, everything worked fine then.

Who knows what may have caused this?

Robert

[spacecommander]

I am having the same problem. Everything was fine until 2 days ago and now my firewire port isn't responding for any device. My iPod is charging but wont show up on the desktop, my burner can't be found and my 160 GB drive is in lala land. All devices are working as I have tried them on other machines. I have done clean installs and updated the OS...if you get an answer can you contact me.

Much appreciated

[applewhore]

sounds frighteningly familiar...

Last week I had the same problem (iPod charging, but not visible on the desktop / external 250GB drive "M.I.A." / additional slave computer not "showing up for work" (BAD slave!)

...in addition, my PB's internal modem was "hanging up unexpectedly" every couple of minutes...

I re-installed OSX (10.2.1) and then upgraded again to 10.2.4

All seems to be OK again now - but very strange - my original OS came with my PB, and upgraded via System Preference's "software update"...

Sorry I can't give an explanation as to "why?" - just my personal experience as to how I resolved the problem...

[spacecommander]

Thanks for your reply. I have done the following (and it has taken all day)

Reinstalled 10.2, Upgraded to 10.2.4, Ran Hardware test, reported no problems
Ran Disk First Aid, Ran Norton Utilities, Ran software update

Still nothing...

[moav]

Wow,

Crazy I was just going to back up some data on my Ipod and transfer it over to my PC (this has been a daily occurence for me for the last year) And nothing I have two other Firewire drives a fire cdrw and a HD. I tried using a brand new Belkin cord 6 pin and 4 to test out a theory. What I think happens for those that may use their drives a bit and plug and unplug, something in the connector in the macs got damaged. Using the 4 pin I get nothing. Using the 6 pin I get juice and the drive lites up but no go. I am wondering if my daily use of the port somehow bent something that shouldn't or pushed a connector out of place. Who knows. I don't think Apple had intended that people plug and unplug from the firewire port 500 times a year... those connectors are so thin something has to give. So, after running over to Compusa 2 hour drive for me. I get a new Firewire card for my baby plug it in and what the hell do you know everything works like a charm. Of course I hope the ports don't go out on my powerbook cause then I'm screwed.

Good luck to all

[GraphicUmp]

Had the firewire go out at work on our "new" AGP graphics 450 MHz - couldn't see the LaCie CDRW no matter what cable or what port I plugged it in to (even the one on the mobo).

Reinstalled 9.2.2 and 10.2.4 and everything was fine, but couldn't see it for anything until I did that. Have no clue why....

[applewhore]

spacecommander... i agree - it takes a long time (and when it doesn't work, it's a complete pain...)

moav, i take your point, but I bought my PB on 28th December 2002 - surely a firewire port should last this long?!?! (i also tried using a new firewire cable, but this made no difference)

irrespective of this, why wouldn't Apple expect people to plug / unplug twice a day? isn't that the joy of backing up with firewire on a portable computer? (i.e. whatever you do during the day, when you get home you can quickly ensure that your data is backed-up and secure)

i only started having this problem with 10.2.4 - up to this point OS X has been awe-inspiring in its stability. i switched from using 95/98/2000/NT/XP a year ago after 16 years of weekly blue screens, approximately 40% of total downtime, and 100% of computer-related hassle.

here's hoping that 10.2.5 (and later, panther) sorts this out... i'm still holding "the faith"!

[applewhore]

An interesting, if somewhat irritating, development!

i've recently had an adsl line installed in my flat over in bangkok...

i bought a micronet sp3350a ethernet router separately from the isp (asianet)

"if it doesn't work, we don't support this", they said. "we only support the benq modem."

"fine", says i, "i'll risk it..."

well, two weeks of driving myself to distraction trying to make the thing work, i finally give in and phoned asianet to tell them to send the benq modem across.

the guy arrived this morning and tried to install on my pb. no good. so he tried it on his "big, black brick" - immediate success.

"your ethernet port doesn't work" he says.

"don't be silly", i reply... "but try it on airport anyway." the connection is there, as i can see by the fact that weatherpop tells me it's 30 degrees outside, but absolutely nothing in terms of getting onto the internet or using entourage...

so he tries it on my girlfriend's pb - immediate success!

i'm about to launch my pb at the wall, when it suddenly occurs to me that i didn't upgrade her os the last time we had problems with 10.2.4 - i checked, and, sure enough, she's running 10.2.1 still from the last re-install process...

i overwrote my 10.2.4 and put it back to 10.2.1 and, 10 minutes later, i'm connected via the benq router...

5 minutes later, and i'm now writing this from across the room, using my airport...

in my experience, 10.2.4 has caused firewire, the internal modem, the ethernet port and airport to go absolutely loopy over here... basically, every problem i've experienced with os x can be attributed to this version...

fortunately, it's working again now that i've "regressed" to 10.2.1 - i was suffering MS deja vu!