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Strange FW400 & Date Behavior

J

Jesster

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 12, 2008
4
0
I have 2 of the mirror drive door PPC G4 867mhz macs, both with 1.5g memory. One is used for our kids and the other I use as a video convertor for analog to DV videos. Both have developed the exact same issue albeit 7+ months apart. For the kids, it's not an issue. The issue is when I booted up my G4 today the date and time reset back to 1969 and my firewire ports are dead. I have tried multiple firewire wires and devices to no avail. I use my old PPC with a canopus external video convertor which has worked great for 5+ years. The exact same thing happened to the exact same model that my kids use upstairs-->same date issue, same firewire issue. I have reset the PRAM, doesn't help. When using "about this mac", firewire says "Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec", but no device listings even with the canopus and a fantom drive hooked up to it.

If I replace the battery, will the firewire start working again? I assume the date/time would work. This old PPC has been a workhorse for me and I need the firewire ports to keep it viable for my needs. I have a mac mini for my work, but do not want to tie it up for importing and processing video that the PPC does just fine. Any ideas?
 
Replacing the PRAM battery will fix the FireWire issue. In some cases, even setting the system clock to the correct time fixes the FireWire issue.
 
addendum

Thanks Intel, I will order 2 batteries today. Before you replied, I was going to add that power is flowing through the FW400 ports as the canopus video convertor has power to it and it gets its power from the firewire.
 
Intell said:
Replacing the PRAM battery will fix the FireWire issue. In some cases, even setting the system clock to the correct time fixes the FireWire issue.
Click to expand...

Jesster said:
Thanks Intel, I will order 2 batteries today. Before you replied, I was going to add that power is flowing through the FW400 ports as the canopus video convertor has power to it and it gets its power from the firewire.
Click to expand...

I had a similar problem with my iBook, but the Firewire is still not fully functioning. It still recognizes FW devices when they are connected as far as powering them on, but it will not mount the devices to the desktop.

I got a new battery(which fixed the date issue) but the FW issue still remains. Any tips from either of you on how to fix this?
 
That could be a software problem or a faulty logicboard. I'm going with software problem.
 
RedCroissant said:
I got a new battery(which fixed the date issue) but the FW issue still remains. Any tips from either of you on how to fix this?
Click to expand...
I had a similar problem with my 12" iBook, this tip on resetting the PMU from this webpage fixed me up.
---------------
For iBook (16 VRAM) and later models of iBook, there is no physical reset button.

If the computer is on, turn it off.
Reset the power manager by simultaneously pressing and then releasing Shift-Control-Option-Power on the keyboard. Do not press the fn (Function) key while using this combination of keystrokes.
Wait 5 seconds.
Press the Power button to restart the iBook computer.
----------------
 
Intell said:
That could be a software problem or a faulty logicboard. I'm going with software problem.
Click to expand...

Hey Intell,

What sort of software problem could it be? I actually still have issues with the iBook being recognized in TDM as well. If the logicboard is faulty then I'm screwed and just not going to change anything else since the FW issue only affects TDM and connecting to external devices and everything else seems to work just fine.

jbarley said:
I had a similar problem with my 12" iBook, this tip on resetting the PMU from this webpage fixed me up.
---------------
For iBook (16 VRAM) and later models of iBook, there is no physical reset button.

If the computer is on, turn it off.
Reset the power manager by simultaneously pressing and then releasing Shift-Control-Option-Power on the keyboard. Do not press the fn (Function) key while using this combination of keystrokes.
Wait 5 seconds.
Press the Power button to restart the iBook computer.
----------------
Click to expand...

I tried that and nothing changed. it still pseudo recognizes the external WD drive(1TB WD MyStudio dual FW800/usb 2.0/eSata). I was using a FW 800-400 cable with it and nothing. It also didn't recognize my iSight camera when I still had it, and as I said to Intell; TDM doesn't work.
 
RedCroissant said:
Hey Intell,

What sort of software problem could it be? I actually still have issues with the iBook being recognized in TDM as well. If the logicboard is faulty then I'm screwed and just not going to change anything else since the FW issue only affects TDM and connecting to external devices and everything else seems to work just fine.
Click to expand...

It may have been a misconfiguration or missing mount point. But because there are Target Disk Mode problems as well, I'm now going to say it's a logicboard problem. Is there a firmware update for that iBook that needs to be installed?
 
Intell said:
It may have been a misconfiguration or missing mount point. But because there are Target Disk Mode problems as well, I'm now going to say it's a logicboard problem. Is there a firmware update for that iBook that needs to be installed?
Click to expand...

I have no idea. To be honest I didn't even think of a firmware update so I will check.
 
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