Firewire iSight and Snow Leopard

[boston04and07]

Even though my MacBook has a built-in iSight, I still use my old external FireWire iSight since I run my MacBook in clamshell mode, and my external monitor doesn't have a built-in webcam. All in all, I love it - it works well, looks good, and I use a nifty gooseneck stand with it that can be repositioned just about anywhere. It was perfect for my needs, and I was never interested in changing webcams. However, after upgrading to 10.6, my external iSight no longer works. I have no idea how to fix this. I know they're old, but has anyone heard whether or not Apple was making them obsolete?? Anyone else having this same problem?

 

[quantum003]

That's bizarre... I upgraded to 10.6 and got an iSight since then, it works just fine. Any other possible problems? Bad firewire cable?

Iris closed?

 

[ziggyonice]

That's strange... now that you mention it, I just took out my old iSight to test it out. The green light isn't even coming on. It was working fine just a month or two ago -- I wonder if Snow Leopard somehow killed it off? I would think it would have worked fine, as it's just a camera...

EDIT: So tried another Firewire cable, and the green light turns on when I plug it in. But then it instantly turns back confused off.

 

[boston04and07]

That's bizarre... I upgraded to 10.6 and got an iSight since then, it works just fine. Any other possible problems? Bad firewire cable?

Iris closed?

Haha, nope! Iris is open. Firewire cable worked before SL so I'm assuming it still does...I'll test another one out tomorrow, though, just to make sure. Also, my iSight is daisy-chained to my WD MyBook...maybe that's causing the problem? Although it worked fine daisy-chained under Leopard. Hmm...

I'm glad that at least you have an iSight working with SL, though...at least we know that the update didn't break it completely!

EDIT: Ok, just tried connecting my iSight directly to my MacBook using a different FireWire cable...and it worked fine! Out of curiosity, I tried daisy-chaining it to my MyBook via the new FireWire cable, and now it doesn't work. So, I guess it's the daisy-chaining that's broken. Ziggyonice, are you daisy-chaining or connecting it directly??

 

[boston04and07]

I know this is an old thread but I thought I'd post my solution here in case anyone else is having the same problems! Turns out that the hard drive I'd been daisy chaining my iSight to was having problems, as I would later learn when Time Machine wasn't working. A simple repairing of the permissions fixed it all.