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2011 MacBook Pro: FireWire 800 not working...?

MacAztec

MacAztec

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 28, 2001
3,028
1
San Luis Obispo, CA
Hey guys,

I upgraded to the 2011 MacBook Pro last week, and I've been having some trouble backing up my files to my external.

I have a Western Digital Passport 500GB drive, and it has FireWire 800 and USB2 connections. Whenver I hook up the FireWire 800 and try to backup, or copy large files over, it stalls during the file transfer, and I have to unplug the drive to get my system out of the loop it falls in to.

However, everything works fine over USB2. I can't seem to figure out the problem. I've reformatted the drive, reformatted my Mac (fresh install of 10.6), repaired permissions, etc. I even had WD send me a new drive!

Nothing seems to fix it.

So, do you think it's something to do with the MBP's new logic board? Or, is it something to do with the chipset on the external?
 
There is no way of telling. You need to 1) try the drive on another machine with FW800 or 2) try another FW800 drive & enclosure on the new MBP.

I can tell you that I had a similar intermittent problem backing up with Time Machine and it turned out to be the FW800 enclosure that was bad.
 
MacAztec said:
Hey guys,

I upgraded to the 2011 MacBook Pro last week, and I've been having some trouble backing up my files to my external.

I have a Western Digital Passport 500GB drive, and it has FireWire 800 and USB2 connections. Whenver I hook up the FireWire 800 and try to backup, or copy large files over, it stalls during the file transfer, and I have to unplug the drive to get my system out of the loop it falls in to.

However, everything works fine over USB2. I can't seem to figure out the problem. I've reformatted the drive, reformatted my Mac (fresh install of 10.6), repaired permissions, etc. I even had WD send me a new drive!

Nothing seems to fix it.

So, do you think it's something to do with the MBP's new logic board? Or, is it something to do with the chipset on the external?
Click to expand...

Hi, I am in the identical situation, new macbook pro 2011 with a wd external 2.5" drive USB2.0+FW800 bus powered, same problems using the firewire port....
The drive works perfectly with my old macbook (early 2007 model) firewire 800 port and if i use the mbp 2011 USB 2.0 port.

I have tried a firewire 400 external 2.5 bus powered drive and it works.
Finally i have tried with a 3.5" firewire 800 external drive (WD My Book), and it works too .....
Maybe a problem with the power supplied from the firewire bus ? Not enough for fw800 peripherals ?

I hope Apple can quickly fix this with a firmware / software update

M.
 
FireWire 800

I have a MacBook Pro and I tried 3 different brand new drives, (2) Iomega eGo for Mac drives, (1) Seagate GoFlex Pro for Mac, only to find out that one of my pins was somewhat covered by the plastic on the actual port once I cleared that it started mounting the drives consistently. Before that I took it to the Genius bar and it only mounted a Lacie Rugged Drive not sure if that firewire cable had pins that stuck out further so the contact was better or not. :eek:
 
bimbolotti said:
Tried this solution but without any luck :-(

Now i am waiting to find an external firewire 800 hdd, bus powered, different from wd.
M.
Click to expand...

Hey there.

I bugged WD enough, and they sent me hte newest model WD 500GB FW800/USB2 Drive (Portable). It's the one with the screen on it.

It works with the 2011 MBP.
 
jeffy.dee-lux said:
hi, i hadn't seen this thread and just started a new one under the MBP forum:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1123163/

Where did you go at WD? I wish there could be a software fix, but if I get a new drive out of it, that would ease the pain.
Click to expand...

If your drive is still covered by wd warranty you can ask to wd to RMA your drive, there is a link under wd website under support menu.

After reading MacAztec post i have done the same thing and this morning arrived the drive, wd sent me the newest model too and it works ! :)

Meanwhile i have done some tests with a Seagate goflex fw800 adapter, it also worked without problem.
M.
 
Bumping this up as I'm having the same exact problems as OP. I don't have the WD drive, but I have Iomega 1tb fw800/usb2 portable and seagate 4tb goflex desk. I also have tried but had to return 2 different Seagate 1.5tb goflex portable drives as well. I've tried different FW cables and obviously different FW drives. On every FW drive, the USB portion works flawlessly, meaning I can transfer or back up via Time Machine via USB with no freezing like it would on FW. I've done the SMC and PRAM resets many times, and I even took my MBP (early 2011 15") to the genius bar, where they did the extended diagnostic test, and the FW port tested with no problems. Any one have a clue what's going on? I have been able to back up to my Iomega drive via FW800, but the kernel panics and/or backup freezes tend to return after a while.
 
bimbolotti said:
If your drive is still covered by wd warranty you can ask to wd to RMA your drive, there is a link under wd website under support menu.

After reading MacAztec post i have done the same thing and this morning arrived the drive, wd sent me the newest model too and it works ! :)

Meanwhile i have done some tests with a Seagate goflex fw800 adapter, it also worked without problem.
M.
Click to expand...

So what are u saying is that even the WD drive works on another identical model of MBP15, the WD will still replace it and send me a newest model of their external hard drive ?
 
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