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Supp0rtLinux

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 28, 2008
92
27
I have a 15'' MBP with 10.5.4. Recently, my external FW drive stopped being detected when I plugged it in. If I plug it in via USB, its fine. A quick of System Profiler shows:

FireWire
FireWire Bus:
Warning: Unable to list FireWire devices.

Further checking in /var/log/system.log shows LOTS of:

Sep 6 23:25:24: --- last message repeated 5 times ---
Sep 6 23:25:24 gentoo kernel[0]: FireWire GUID ffffffffffffffff is invalid!
Sep 6 23:25:54: --- last message repeated 5 times ---
Sep 6 23:25:54 gentoo kernel[0]: FireWire GUID ffffffffffffffff is invalid!
Sep 6 23:26:24: --- last message repeated 5 times ---
Sep 6 23:26:24 gentoo kernel[0]: FireWire GUID ffffffffffffffff is invalid!
Sep 6 23:26:54: --- last message repeated 5 times ---
Sep 6 23:26:54 gentoo kernel[0]: FireWire GUID ffffffffffffffff is invalid!
Sep 6 23:27:24: --- last message repeated 6 times ---
Sep 6 23:27:28 gentoo kernel[0]: FireWire GUID ffffffffffffffff is invalid!

Now, today I realized my camera seems to be shot too. Photobooth shows an image of a camera with a line through it and System Profiler doesn't show the camera at all. I'm starting to think I may have a bad system board. Thus far I've done the following:

Booted to Safe Mode, then rebooted normally.
Did a PRAM reset with Cmd+Opt+P+R
Did an SMC reset per the Apple instructions.

None of the above worked. In fact, I'm using GeekTool to watch the system log and all I'm seeing are these firewire GUID errors repeatedly. After Googling a bit, I made a backup folder on my desktop and moved all of /System/Library/Extensions/IOFireWire* to it, then rebooted. Doing so resolved the errors in system.log at least (and sped up boot time and shutdown time), but obviously didn't fix the problem. It just made the messages go away as the drivers aren't being loaded. And my system no longer sees a firewire networking device, though this is definitely expected.

Has anyone seen this before? Am I looking at a trip to a Genius Bar to get the board replaced? Everything else seems to work fine. I didn't buy Apple Care, but I've only had the laptop since December of '07, so I'm under my one year warranty. I'd really prefer to not have to have it sent it. I'd prefer a s/w fix or something similar if possible.
 
run the apple harware test, by inserting the first install disk that came with your comp. and holding down the d key at restart. this should help you troubleshoot the problem and maybe give you some more specific info. now if that doesnt help, then you need to go to apple and get service.
good luck!
 
Well, I ran through a few options. First, after reading http://www.hardmac.com/articles/16 I tried booting into Open Firmware to reset things, but then I realized that doesn't apply to Intel systems. I did, however, try resetting the PRAM again. Then I ran the full diags after booting from my OS CD (not just the quick pass, but the long pass). It says there were no issues found. Yet, after all this, I still have no webcam showing up and no working FW devices. Looks like a trip to the Apple store when I get back from my conference. :(
 
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