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TICKET ARCHIVE -> ongoing firewire problems
gee3 - Dec 22, 2005 - 5:28 pm
i lost use of firewire after upgrading to os x 10.3.8. after a long troubleshooting bout, i discovered that the firewire extensions had not been loaded on upgrade! used pacifist to reload from the standalone installer pkg and voila! firewire flowed, that is, until i went to 10.4.1. since then i have not had use of either the pci card or my onboard firewire slots. i have looked at all the standalone and combo upgrades since 10.3.x and although firewire extensions appear to be loaded, three previous files seem to be missing rom 10.4.x onward, e.g. iofirewiresbp2.kext, iofirewireserialbusprotocol.(forgot extension), and iofirewireserialbusprotocoltransport.kext. these files were in 10.3.x. i have flushed the slot the pci card is in, still no firewire. the other thing is that i cannot do crash report and when i click on firewire in the hardware section of system profiler the whole window disappears. i am going nuts because several projects depend on using the digital 8 camera. here are my system specs.
b&w g3 w/owc mercury 500mhz (not overckocked)
ati radeon 9200 video card w/20" apple multiscan (second card in the motherboard but not in use nor is second monitor conected)
adaptec 29160 scsi card with 2 internal hd and three scanners attached (3rd scsi hd not in use and disconnected @ present due to unknown problem being seen by os)
2 epson printers-740i and 900g + hp 920c all usb
belkin f5u237 7-port hub
snap server 1000
2x2 midiman
apc backups pro 500
4-port firewire pci card configured to use only external 3 ports
b&w g3 w/owc mercury 500mhz (not overckocked)
ati radeon 9200 video card w/20" apple multiscan (second card in the motherboard but not in use nor is second monitor conected)
adaptec 29160 scsi card with 2 internal hd and three scanners attached (3rd scsi hd not in use and disconnected @ present due to unknown problem being seen by os)
2 epson printers-740i and 900g + hp 920c all usb
belkin f5u237 7-port hub
snap server 1000
2x2 midiman
apc backups pro 500
4-port firewire pci card configured to use only external 3 ports
ishan - Dec 23, 2005 - 6:54 pm
Have you tried to reset your G3 as per Apple's instructions on their info doc pages? That will reset (hopefully) your pci slots as well.
You have so many variables in your system that could be causing this problem that it's almost impossible to troubleshoot without simplifying the system down to just the firewire PCI card and whatever firewire drive you want to test. You have also potential issues with any drivers that your FW PCI card depends on; have you checked with the vendor regarding that issue? You also report a problem with a SCSI hard drive.
To do this right, I would reinstall your system with the original install disks, install whatever software is needed to support your upgraded CPU (if any), download the combined 10.4.3 updater (97 MB) from Apple's downloads page and update to 10.4.3. Do not hook up your FW drive during all this; there have been many problems with drives becoming corrupted during software upgrades.
After your system software is up to date, run Disk Utility to repair the disk and fix permissions. Then install whatever software (if any) that's needed to use your PCI FW card with 10.4.3. Finally, attach your external drive.
Does the FW bus work properly? Check the Console logs–if you see repeated "FW bus resets" the problem is still there. If not, one by one, attach your many peripherals and recheck your FW after each addition to your system. Assuming your FW drive is mounting, to check FW function, generate a large (e.g. 10 GB) file and copy it back and forth between your boot drive and the FW drive.
If you have a WD 400 GB or Seagate versions 7200.8 or 7200.9 drives in your FW case, they have been reported to cause problems. Usually, however, the WD problems are with internal installs. The Seagate problems relate to SSC, which has to be inactivated for them to work on a Mac. The software to inactivate SSC is now only available in a Windows version, but a Macintosh version is in the works.
HTH and please let us know what happens. Have a safe and happy Holiday.
You have so many variables in your system that could be causing this problem that it's almost impossible to troubleshoot without simplifying the system down to just the firewire PCI card and whatever firewire drive you want to test. You have also potential issues with any drivers that your FW PCI card depends on; have you checked with the vendor regarding that issue? You also report a problem with a SCSI hard drive.
To do this right, I would reinstall your system with the original install disks, install whatever software is needed to support your upgraded CPU (if any), download the combined 10.4.3 updater (97 MB) from Apple's downloads page and update to 10.4.3. Do not hook up your FW drive during all this; there have been many problems with drives becoming corrupted during software upgrades.
After your system software is up to date, run Disk Utility to repair the disk and fix permissions. Then install whatever software (if any) that's needed to use your PCI FW card with 10.4.3. Finally, attach your external drive.
Does the FW bus work properly? Check the Console logs–if you see repeated "FW bus resets" the problem is still there. If not, one by one, attach your many peripherals and recheck your FW after each addition to your system. Assuming your FW drive is mounting, to check FW function, generate a large (e.g. 10 GB) file and copy it back and forth between your boot drive and the FW drive.
If you have a WD 400 GB or Seagate versions 7200.8 or 7200.9 drives in your FW case, they have been reported to cause problems. Usually, however, the WD problems are with internal installs. The Seagate problems relate to SSC, which has to be inactivated for them to work on a Mac. The software to inactivate SSC is now only available in a Windows version, but a Macintosh version is in the works.
HTH and please let us know what happens. Have a safe and happy Holiday.
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