FireWire was working this morning, now it's not...

messiahmessiah
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I copied some files on to my FireWire drive this morning, but upon returning home I found that none of the FireWire ports on my PM G5 work.



Neither of the FW400 ports on the base unit (front and back) and the two ports on the Cinema Display, work. The drives work fine on my GF's little Mac mini.



ASP FireWire says "No information found" which worries me a bit. I'm not sure if it should say this when there are no FireWire devices plugged in, or if it means that the computer can't see it's own FireWire components...



Does anybody have ANY ideas? Are there any cables running from the motherboard that could have worked lose etc?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Messiah

    I copied some files on to my FireWire drive this morning, but upon returning home I found that none of the FireWire ports on my PM G5 work.



    Neither of the FW400 ports on the base unit (front and back) and the two ports on the Cinema Display, work. The drives work fine on my GF's little Mac mini.



    ASP FireWire says "No information found" which worries me a bit. I'm not sure if it should say this when there are no FireWire devices plugged in, or if it means that the computer can't see it's own FireWire components...



    Does anybody have ANY ideas? Are there any cables running from the motherboard that could have worked lose etc?



    If you have done the usual, repaired permissions, zapped the PRAM, run Disk First Aid (to eliminate a corrupted kernel driver for the FireWIre), then it's time to put in the Hardware Test CD and run it.



    One more thing you could do is boot into Open Firmware (command-option-O-F after hitting the power switch) and type



    reset-nvram

    reset-all



    and let it reboot.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Simply rebooting may do the trick.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    Thanks for the replies guys... your help is appreciated!



    I'm going to sit down with a 'clear head' this morning and try and see if I can figure out what is going on.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    Right, so, I carried out a 'nuke & pave' this morning as a last resort. I used the installer disks that cam with the machine and then downloaded 10.3.9 from Software Update.



    The problem is still there ? but I think I may have found the cause ? my new 20" Cinema Display.



    If I boot the system without the Cinema Display attached, the FireWire drives mount and operate correctly. If I go to ASP the FireWire Device Tree shows up correctly.



    But if I connect the Cinema Display and boot the machine, the drive don't mount and ASP displays 'No information found'.



    It's as though the FireWire hub in the display interferes with my G5 and kills all the FireWire ports?



    Am I missing something really simple here?



    Has anybody else ever heard about this?
  • Reply 5 of 6
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    Okay, now the FireWire's not working at all.



    Doesn't matter what's already connected, or what I try to connect, nothing works. As soon as I connect something, ASP switches to "No information found".



    All of the FireWire devices continue to work flawlessy on the other machines...



    I've ran the hardware test CD and it tells me that there are no FireWire devices present, the machine also passes the extended test without anything untoward showing up (man, those fans spin up don't they?).



    How can the machine pass both tests, but clearly the FireWire ports aren't working?



    Am I missing something simple here or is the machine goosed? Is it going back in the box for a lengthy repair?
  • Reply 6 of 6
    johan siebkejohan siebke Posts: 26member
    I know this is a bit late in the day and not the solution to your specific problem, but:

    I had the same problem just now; couldn't see or find neither LaCie external FireWire drive nor the FireWire film scanner.

    I opened Disk Utility, selected the boot HD and repaired permissions. Then shut down, disconnected every single device and the power cord from the mac, waited 15 minutes, connected everything and booted up again. Everything works fine now.

    What was the cause of the problem? I don't know, but about the same time as drive disappeared there were thunderstorms and sudden dips in power supply.
Sign In or Register to comment.