Intel 20" iMac 2.4GHz, 4 GB RAM, OS X 10.6.2
It's been a long exasperating road tracking this down, with numerous calls to AppleCare and trips to the Apple store. I've been having repeated problems with spinning beachballs, apps that have to be force quit and Finder crashes, along with external HDs that periodically don't show up on the Desktop. Sometimes after a crash I restart and get only a grey screen. Unplugging everything including power cable and waiting a while usually fixes this. (Or taking it to the Genius Bar, where it NEVER misbehaves.)
Pretty much eliminated software as the culprit by replacing internal HD along with clean system install. Long talk with an Apple tech today points to problem in the FW400 chain, where I have five external HDs and a CD player. (He also recommended that I ask about it here.) Apparently problems could be caused by:
1. Sheer number of devices overloading the port
2. Something goofy with any one of the drives (or cases or cables)
3. The particular order that they are connected in
4. Some weird interaction between drives that don't like each other
I've tested all the HDs with Drive Genius for bad blocks and rebuilt all the directories. I just ordered a Belkin FW hub to see if connecting them all to that makes any difference. Right now I'm running one drive at a time and if I get no snafu after a while adding another to see when the issue kicks in.
Just wondering if anyone has come across similar problems and if there's some fix I've overlooked.
It's been a long exasperating road tracking this down, with numerous calls to AppleCare and trips to the Apple store. I've been having repeated problems with spinning beachballs, apps that have to be force quit and Finder crashes, along with external HDs that periodically don't show up on the Desktop. Sometimes after a crash I restart and get only a grey screen. Unplugging everything including power cable and waiting a while usually fixes this. (Or taking it to the Genius Bar, where it NEVER misbehaves.)
Pretty much eliminated software as the culprit by replacing internal HD along with clean system install. Long talk with an Apple tech today points to problem in the FW400 chain, where I have five external HDs and a CD player. (He also recommended that I ask about it here.) Apparently problems could be caused by:
1. Sheer number of devices overloading the port
2. Something goofy with any one of the drives (or cases or cables)
3. The particular order that they are connected in
4. Some weird interaction between drives that don't like each other
I've tested all the HDs with Drive Genius for bad blocks and rebuilt all the directories. I just ordered a Belkin FW hub to see if connecting them all to that makes any difference. Right now I'm running one drive at a time and if I get no snafu after a while adding another to see when the issue kicks in.
Just wondering if anyone has come across similar problems and if there's some fix I've overlooked.