FireWire port can't hold cable

[McGiord]

I have late 2008 15" MBP, any cable I try is always loose on the Mac's port, the same connector on the different HDDs fits very well.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I didn't use the FireWire frequently until recently I started to get all my data organized in different external HDDs, I didn't noticed this before as I was never using this port.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

Probably something inside the port is bent so that it no longer retains the connector. Not much you can do about that, other than try bending it back yourself, which I don't think is worth the risk.

 

[McGiord]

Probably something inside the port is bent so that it no longer retains the connector. Not much you can do about that, other than try bending it back yourself, which I don't think is worth the risk.

It can transfer data and if I am very careful it stays in place, however with minimum touch of the cable it slides out of the port.
Is a bent FireWire port connector a known issue?

 

[Fishrrman]

Have you tried a _different_ cable yet, to be sure the problem isn't with the connecting cable itself?

 

[old-wiz]

I've had problems on firewire with cheap cables with plastic ends; once I switched to a better quality cable with metal connectors it worked fine. I could have returned the cheap cable, but I decided it wasn't worth paying to have it shipped back so I just tossed it out.

 

[HB in Tokyo]

Easy fix for loose Firewire cable on Macbook Pro

I got a Western Digital 1T HD mainly because it was Firewire capable. As many have found, the eSATA cable that came with it was very loose in the socket and dropped out at the least provocation.

Ordering another cable probably will get you nowhere, from the tales I have seen. Same manufacturing issue.

I saw this fix at another site, tried it, and it definitely worked for me. Seems that the issue is the socket is deeper than the cable specs intended, or the reverse.

So with an Xacto blade or other sharp knife, trim off about 1 mm (roughly the thickness of a dime) from the rubbery plastic insulation surrounding the plug end. This will allow the plug to engage the socket more deeply.

Problem solved, and it only takes roughly 2 or 3 minutes.