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Level 2

268 points

Firewire issues after Snow Leopard...

Greetings.. I have a first-gen Dual Dual Mac Pro, that is experiencing firewire issues after the 10.6 upgrade.

I first noticed the issue when trying to copy files to a Western Digital Passport 500GB 2.5" external HD. After the Snow Leopard upgrade, the drive is virtually un-usable with frequent hangs when attempting to copy even small files. In addition, I am having an issue where my Sony Firewire external DVD-burner is not recognized after the patch. Hmmm... All is well under USB ironically (Since the Passport has both FW 800 and USB 2 connections)

Overall. I am having real firewire issues after the patch, and it was running flawlessly before the patch.

Anyone else having similar issues? The only thing I changed was my software.

Thanks in advance...

MacPro, MacBook Pro unibody, and many iPods..., Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Aug 31, 2009 9:14 AM

244 replies

Woudap

Level 1

0 points

Jun 23, 2011 11:34 AM in response to Chris Heric

Thanks for this Forum

Trying to connect a 640 GB WD Passport Studio on an iMac here WITH FIREWIRE (400/800) and failed.

The SMC and PRAM reset WORKED FOR ME!

Resetting the SMC for Mac Pro, Intel-based iMac, Intel-based Mac mini, or Intel-based Xserve

Shut down the computer.

Unplug the computer's power cord.

Wait fifteen seconds.

Attach the computer's power cord.

Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

Resetting PRAM and NVRAM

Shut down the computer.

Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.

Turn on the computer.

Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.

Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.

Release the keys.

I am Happy!

skeksis

Level 1

0 points

Jul 8, 2011 3:32 PM in response to Woudap

Thanks to the forum and thanks Woudap!

I just upgraded to SL in anticipation of Lion and my WD MyBook Studio Ed. wasn't coming up at all (via FW800). I followed the steps for resetting the SMC & PRAM and my ext. drive mounted no problem!

I'm on an iMac - 2.4 Intel Core 2 Duo so I'm really glad this worked!

Jul 25, 2011 3:03 PM in response to skeksis

For the past several weeks I've been having firewire 800 problems off and on. The SMC reset worked initially, but now seems to not do anything. Have also tried to reset PRAM and NVAM but no effect. Was actually on the phone Friday with Apple when the firewire devices magically reappeared on my desktop.

So frustrating.

I have a 3.33 6-core Intel Xeon MacPro that has less than a week left on the one-year warranty.

urbanSeb

Level 1

5 points

Aug 9, 2011 5:05 PM in response to Chris Heric

HI,

I'm having similar problems with my 250gb CrossFire Hard Drive connected over Firewire. About since the second last snow leopard update it does not get recognized promptly anymore. It never had these problems before and there should really not be any particular reason for it to suddenly not show up on my desktop. I very much doubt it is an internal problem or an age problem for example.

I haven't figured out yet whether it just doesn't always get recognized or if it just takes now about 2 minutes to show up.

Also I noticed that when I put new music on that harddrive it takes ages to start the transfer and to transfer - example: it takes about 3-5 seconds now per song to move (about a MB per second) while it should be about 50 MB per secs for a Firewire 400.

All of this is only since recently...

What did Apple do with the recent updates to those Firewire ports??

Firewire issues after Snow Leopard...