Problems with firewire and EyeTV 200!

I have just bought an EyeTV 200. I have tried it for 3 days now, and I keep losing the signal all the time. I have done some research, and this is what I have written to Elgato Support so far:

I think I am closing in on the problem. I just watched TV through my EyeTV 200, and I had Console.app open. Right away, when I started using my LaCie d2 Triple Interface fw800 harddrive, I lost the signal, and Console.app started jumping. This message appeard every second, until I un-plugged the EyeTV 200:

Aug 25 12:02:23 g5powwa kernel[0]: Write for 0x38bf000 done, status e00002d6

Aug 25 12:02:23 g5powwa kernel[0]: Write for 0x38bf000 done, status e00002d6
Aug 25 12:02:24 g5powwa kernel[0]: Write for 0x38bf000 done, status e00002d6
Aug 25 12:02:24 g5powwa kernel[0]: Write for 0x38bf000 done, status e00002d6
Aug 25 12:02:25 g5powwa kernel[0]: Write for 0x38bf000 done, status e00002d6
Aug 25 12:02:26 g5powwa kernel[0]: Write for 0x38bf000 done, status e00002d6

8/25/2005 3:01 am

Right before posting the last message, EyeTV 200 crashed my Power Mac G5. Everything froze when I tried to connect it with the fw-cable. I did a forced restart, checked my harddrive for errors (no errors found). When I connected the EyeTV 200 to my Power Mac G5 again, after the restart, it worked. What can be causing these problems? Does the EyeTV 200 need more power than from firewire?

This is the info found in System Profiler, about the EyeTV 200, connected to one of my fw400-ports:

eyetv 200:
Manufacturer: 0xC6C
Model: 0x1
GUID: 0xC6C050020CB00
Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec
Connection Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec
Sub-units:
eyetv 200 Unit:
Unit Software Version: 0x10001
Unit Spec ID: 0xA02D

8/25/2005 2:50 am

There seems to be a problem with firewire. I have one LaCie fw800 harddrive connected to my PowerMac G5, and I have the EyeTV connected to the fw400 port on my Power Mac G5. Something is wrong. Is it the EyeTV 200 that is causing the fw-problems. I have never had problems with firewire before I connected the EyeTV. This is an excerpt from my system.log:

Aug 25 11:12:47 g5powwa kernel[0]: /SourceCache/AppleFWOHCI/AppleFWOHCI-244.4.0/AppleFWOHCI.cpp 3435: ERROR: FireWire (OHCI) Apple ID 42 built-in: handleUnrecoverableErrorInt

Aug 25 11:13:25 g5powwa kernel[0]: Command for device 0x50c2600 that's gone away
Aug 25 11:13:25 g5powwa kernel[0]: Write for 0x4bcf680 done, status e00002d7
Aug 25 11:13:51 g5powwa kernel[0]: FireWire (OHCI) Apple ID 42 built-in: 179 bus resets in last minute.
Aug 25 11:15:26 g5powwa kernel[0]: Command for device 0x4c42f00 that's gone away
Aug 25 11:15:26 g5powwa kernel[0]: Write for 0x4bf5380 done, status e00002d7
Aug 25 11:15:26 g5powwa kernel[0]: Command for device 0x4c42f00 that's gone away
Aug 25 11:15:26 g5powwa kernel[0]: Write for 0x4bf5380 done, status e00002d7
Aug 25 11:15:26 g5powwa kernel[0]: Command for device 0x4c42f00 that's gone away
Aug 25 11:15:26 g5powwa kernel[0]: Write for 0x4bf5380 done, status e00002d7

8/24/2005 3:42 pm

Are you still working on fixing the "no signal" issues? I get "no signal" pretty often. The signal light is orange, and I get no signal. I have to re-plug the fw-cable to get contact again. This is very frustrating! When I upgraded from EyeTV 1.8 to 1.8.2, should I have trashed my old preferences, or does that not have anything to do with my "no signal" problems? This is really frustrating. I can not rely on the EyeTV 200 for recording TV-shows 😟. Please help me. I have checked all the cables, and everything is ok with the cables. The fw-cable is connected directly to my Power Mac G5.

Any ideas?

Posted on Aug 25, 2005 4:33 AM

30 replies

Aug 27, 2005 7:05 AM in response to Thomas Berglund

I'm not sure if my problem is at all related but maybe someone here has an idea..

EyeTV will lock up on me and prevent even MacOS X from quitting it (either normal or force, even by a restart/shutdown)... I get the following error in system.log when it happens... my only recourse is to reboot hard...

Aug 27 00:27:07 MyComputer kernel[0]: IOATAController device blocking bus.
Aug 27 00:27:07 MyComputer kernel[0]: disk1s3: I/O timeout.
Aug 27 00:27:50 MyComputer kernel[0]: IOATAController device blocking bus.
Aug 27 00:28:01 MyComputer kernel[0]: IOATAController device blocking bus.
Aug 27 00:28:12 MyComputer kernel[0]: IOATAController device blocking bus.
Aug 27 00:28:24 MyComputer kernel[0]: IOATAController device blocking bus.

It repeats and repeats and repeats... gonna try a re-install... i probably should also mention that I've had disk errors reported by Disk Utility but they went away spontaneously...

Aug 27, 2005 7:14 AM in response to Justin Surpless

How is your EyeTV connected? Do you have any external hard drives connected to your Power Mac?

Aug 27, 2005 7:29 AM in response to Thomas Berglund

It's plugged into my 20" Cinema display... I don't have any external drives connected...

Aug 27, 2005 9:48 AM in response to Justin Surpless

I have had problems with the firewire ports in my Cinema Display 20-inch too. To fix the problems, unplug the firewire cable, and plug it back in again. That worked for me. I will try using firewire 800 and my iPod, at the same time too, to see if the same problems I have with the EyeTV appear.

Aug 27, 2005 11:53 AM in response to Thomas Berglund

What sort of problems have you had?

ds store

Level 7

30,855 points

Aug 27, 2005 11:53 AM in response to Thomas Berglund

Connect the EyeTv's directly to the PowerMac, one to a port.

When you connect two heavy duty Firewire devices to the Apple monitor your actually overloading the capabilities of the single firewire 400 channel.

If you need more 'simultaneous use' firewire channels there are PCI cards you can buy to give you more ports.

Also keep in mind of the power draw, EyeTV's use the Firewire for power, so you can't be draining that too much neither.

😀

Aug 27, 2005 3:00 PM in response to ds store

I only have a single EyeTV and I've had it for nearly a year... this has only recently really become an issue... the only other device I have on the monitor's channel is my iPod Mini which is almost never using the port...

ds store

Level 7

30,855 points

Aug 27, 2005 3:56 PM in response to Justin Surpless

Put the Mini on it's own channel, leaving the EyeTV to have the channel to itself (the monitor's two ports actuall is only one channel) and see how it goes.

I learned this lesson myself.

Good luck 😀

Aug 28, 2005 3:35 AM in response to ds store

The power draw is a good point to bring up. If a device is drawing power from the firewire port, then at some point one may have too many devices plugged in at once.

I was having a different issue with the eyetv 200. I believe that there might have been syncrhonization issues when the eyetv scheduled the G5 to wake up, but the eyetv may not have powered up in time. Eyetv support did mention that you can get a separate power suppy for the eyetv200 which is what I bought. It was around $15-20.

satcomer

Level 4

1,593 points

Aug 28, 2005 6:59 PM in response to Johnnie A. Seed

Johnnie wrote: "Eyetv support did mention that you can get a separate power suppy for the eyetv200 which is what I bought. It was around $15-20."

I was wondering where you got that power supply?

Aug 29, 2005 1:48 AM in response to satcomer

Yeah. Johnnie, where did you get it?

ds store

Level 7

30,855 points

Aug 29, 2005 4:49 AM in response to Thomas Berglund

You can get a generic power supply (aka transformer) from any electronics shop like RadioShack.

The transformer has a switch to change the voltage and different plugs to match the EyeTV power port.

Remember to match the correct voltage amount, type (like AC to DC) and amperage as the EyeTV.

The EyeTV has specs that state specifically what input it reguires.

look here for example

Information provided is for US household currents. No comp for plug.

Aug 29, 2005 8:49 AM in response to satcomer

they recommended the Jameco power supply with part# 143714.
Jameco has a web site: http://www.jameco.com.

Hope this helps.

Aug 29, 2005 9:30 AM in response to Johnnie A. Seed

Does this power supply help you with the problems you had with EyeTV 200?

Aug 30, 2005 12:30 AM in response to Thomas Berglund

It's hard to say if it "fixed" the problem since I haven't seen the same exact problem as before.

I've been having a couple of other problems that seem unrelated to the reason I bought the power supply. But for the most part, I'm not recording programs that involve the computer waking up to record a program successfully since I'm usually home or I leave the computer on. However, this coming labor day will certainly test this feature again.

This past Christmas I was gone for 2 weeks and the scheduled shows did not wake the computer up at all. This was not a power supply problem, but it may have been the eyetv software version at the time. I probably shouldn't have upgraded just prior to leaving for the holidays.

I have also been having problems recording scheduled shows where the computer is on, eyetv software is running, and the eyetv live window switches to the correct program to record, but it doesn't record. This has happened at least 2-3 times. I might have something that's corrupted since this seemed to have happened after filling the harddrive to the max.

Since the last software upgrade, I haven't had any noticeable problems, though.

I'm happy with my eyetv, but I can't say that it's been as reliable as a VCR, but it sure can record more hours, and it's great for making DVDs of tv shows.

The power supply seems to have helped since there are times that the computer would start, but the red light on the eyetv unit would not turn green. So I haven't had to unplug it and then plug it back in for the light to turn green to receive a tv signal. So at the very least the power supply has helped out a lot for that problem.

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Problems with firewire and EyeTV 200!