firewire nightmare with snow leopard

Maybe this is why the seller dumped that computer?

What does "zero firewire" mean exactly? Do you have more that one FW device that isn't working? Is it FW400, FW800 or both? Have you reset the firewire bus?

Did you try to reset the SMC ? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411

Message was edited by: Hazem Malek

It sounds like the firewire port on the used Mac is defective. (As someone said, this could be why it was sold.) If so, there is no patch or other software fix for this: although different extensions might cause it to react differently, none are capable of repairing physical damage to the circuitry or making it reliable.

Regarding obtaining OS extensions, there is a reason they are not available individually: they are meant to be installed as part of an integrated package that among other things performs various checks & updates internal references in other OS files to make sure all the pieces are compatible with each other & will work as expected with the other parts of the OS.

If you have a legally obtained copy of the installer, you can usually use Pacifist to replace a damaged extension file with an undamaged copy of the same file without problems, but using it to substitute & mix different versions of OS extensions is not advisable, at least if your goal is a reliable system.

If you don't mind my asking, what exactly are the "extensions" that are being talked about here? I didn't know OS X had things called extensions.

Regards,
Steve M.

The items in /System/Library/Extensions, known as kernel extensions, with the file type of "kext."

There are a bunch of them, many with a hierarchical dependency on others for their functionality. For example, there is a whole family of several dozen "IO" (input/output) extensions, including five that support various Firewire features. None of the five are stand-alone, each depending on other IO kexts for low level support, arbitration, & so on.

That's why mixing kexts from different OS versions rarely works reliably. It's a little like using parts from one year of a car in another year's engine.

Thanks very much! I had heard of kernel extensions in passing before but did not make the connection this time.

Regards,
Steve M.

I have no idea what "known software issue with snow leopard" you are talking about or what long topic discusses it. If you have permissions problems, Disk Utility's Repair Permissions step should solve them. Kext utility is primarily a developer's tool for non-Apple extensions -- anything it fixes that Disk Utility can't isn't a part of Snow Leopard & the responsibility to fix it is the developer's, not Apple.

Douglas Meeuwsen wrote:
nah my firewire port is fine, tihs is a known software issue with snow leopard.

Interesting. Which particular 'known software issue with snow leopard' is this? I have several Macs running SL, all of them with FireWire ports, none of them with anything like the problems you have. Could you supply a RADAR report number for this 'known issue'? Could you go into a little detail about it? How do you reliably reproduce it? Which versions of the OS have it? Which hardware does it affect?

Same here regarding having several Macs running Snow Leopard, all with no discernible Firewire issues.