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Firewire not working

P

Pixels

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 15, 2005
14
0
UK
I seem to be having a problem with my wife's new G4 iBook OS Tiger - just tried to connect an external hard drive and it refused to show up - so had a go with an external Flash card reader and still no luck.
USB connections seem to work fine.
Checked the System Profiler and Firewire port appears but nothing else.
Any ideas anyone ??

Afraid I posted this message earlier in Applications - oops sorry
 
What is the drive manufacturer? You may need to do a driver update to get it working under Tiger.
 
emw said:
What is the drive manufacturer? You may need to do a driver update to get it working under Tiger.
Click to expand...
The drive is a LaCie 20Gb portable but surely this would not explain why the card reader is not working either ?

I had assumed (probably wrongly) that updating external drives firmware was a thing of the past and the operating system had everything needed to recognise and handle the drive. I've certainly had no problem with this drive on any of my other machines. (Running 10.3 and 9.2)
 
Pixels said:
The drive is a LaCie 20Gb portable but surely this would not explain why the card reader is not working either ?

I had assumed (probably wrongly) that updating external drives firmware was a thing of the past and the operating system had everything needed to recognise and handle the drive. I've certainly had no problem with this drive on any of my other machines. (Running 10.3 and 9.2)
Click to expand...

So, if I understand correctly, only the heading for the Firewire bus shows up in System Profiler, even if something is plugged into the port?

If so, I would say with reasonable certainty that the port is the problem.
 
I had to reset my firewire on my G4 powermac a while back, It was somthing like unplug everything, leave for 20min then restart. I dont know if it will work on a powerbook. There is a post about it somewhere on the forum....
 
evil_santa said:
I had to reset my firewire on my G4 powermac a while back, It was somthing like unplug everything, leave for 20min then restart. I dont know if it will work on a powerbook. There is a post about it somewhere on the forum....
Click to expand...
My MDD powermac did that too. I was just ready to haul it off to be fixed when I tried it one last time after it had been unplugged for a while. Worked fine. As you say - may just be a Powermac fix.
 
Pixels said:
The drive is a LaCie 20Gb portable but surely this would not explain why the card reader is not working either ?

I had assumed (probably wrongly) that updating external drives firmware was a thing of the past and the operating system had everything needed to recognise and handle the drive. I've certainly had no problem with this drive on any of my other machines. (Running 10.3 and 9.2)
Click to expand...
You would think, but the Apple support site notes that certain firewire drives (I believe the reference Maxtor) need to be updated.
 
Just checking... but did you try a simple reboot? Also, after you plug in the drive, go into Disk Utility and look for it there. Sometimes OS X decides that its not a good idea to auto-mount external drives...
 
Well I think I have tried all the ideas now and am beginning to think the port may be faulty (on a new iBook !!?)
Tried LaCie's update tool and it didn't recognise that there was a drive attached so I guess that sounds bad.
Have tried re-booting etc etc all to no avail.
Oddly though the power light comes on on the drive so it is getting power from the computer.
May have to go and see one of those "Apple Genii" in London.
Thanks everyone for your help
 
Surge damaged FW port maybe?

The Macs that were made before mirror-door PowerMacs were out lacked surge protection for their USB and FireWire ports and that could lead on to problems like the one described. I think the camera still works because it does not need the power component of the FireWire connection, which is the part that failed. Best to use USB 2 if the portable features that, otherwise you should start saving for another Mac.
 
I have the same Firewire problem

I am very interested in what you found out. I have the same problem with my PowerBook G4. After I upgraded to Tiger my external Hard drive would no longer mount. A friend tried to mount hers and it would not show up either. Most recently, I have tried to connect my DV camera to my firewire port and it no longer mounts either. All of these items worked before my "up"grade to Tiger.

Also, I can no longer connect the external HD or camera via USB. Both worked recently after I installed Tiger, but now I get nothing. :( Sad me.
 
caveman_uk said:
My MDD powermac did that too. I was just ready to haul it off to be fixed when I tried it one last time after it had been unplugged for a while. Worked fine. As you say - may just be a Powermac fix.
Click to expand...


What do i have to do, to get my MDD G4 firewire working?

My 60GB portable IBM/Hitachi drive was updated, works fine on my Dual 450 G4, but not the newer MDD G4.
 
Pixels said:
The drive is a LaCie 20Gb portable but surely this would not explain why the card reader is not working either ?

I had assumed (probably wrongly) that updating external drives firmware was a thing of the past and the operating system had everything needed to recognise and handle the drive. I've certainly had no problem with this drive on any of my other machines. (Running 10.3 and 9.2)
Click to expand...
You, by chance, wouldn't have anything else hooked up to your firewire port would you? :eek:
 
Sweetfeld28 said:
What do i have to do, to get my MDD G4 firewire working?

My 60GB portable IBM/Hitachi drive was updated, works fine on my Dual 450 G4, but not the newer MDD G4.
Click to expand...
Unplug everything (power everything) leave 24 hours. Try again.
 
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