Firewire problem (the old 'Warning: unable to list firewire devices')

Hello everyone,

I am having a very big problem with my 13" Macbook Pro since yesterday. I took it to work and hooked it to a RME Fireface 800 audio interface we have in there, and for some odd reason it didn't recognize the interface. After a few tries, it suddenly came alive. I did the recording session as usual, turned the notebook off and brought everything home. Today, I hooked it to my own RME Fireface 400, and one of the firewire ports on it wasn't working - I plugged on the other and started audio playback. After a few minutes, the audio stopped and the host connection problem led the Fireface has turned on. AFter this, I couldn't get the fireface to be recognize on its own - more on this later.

I went to system profiler and got a 'WARNING: Unable to list firewire devices' message. I already googled it and it seems I am not the only own having this problem. I already clean PRAM, SMC, ran disk utility to repair disk and disk permissions and nothing has worked. HOWEVER, one external HD (firewire) i have is working just fine on this same firewire interface. I also tried daisy chaining the Fireface to the Hard disk, the later being connected itself to the Macbook, and using this method the interface works. I also tried the interface on another computer and it works just fine - so the problem lies on my Macbook Pro.

Now, I went to the Console application to see if there was any error messages, and in fact there are plenty. I got a bunch of 'FireWire (OHCI) Lucent ID 5901 built-in: Bad selfIDs, issuing bus reset (retry 2)' and then 'Missing self ID for node 0!'. Also got some 'Firewire (OHCI) Lucent ID 5901 built-in: 4403 resets in last 3 minutes'. Also 'SPFWR ERROR: Firewire bus may be unstable. Other Firewire devices may be present.'. Right now, If i plug the interface and look for something on the console, I get nothing. I only get something when I look on the System Profiler.

So, obviously, there's a problem between my interface and the MBP. Anyone has ANY clue on what to do? BTW, the interface don't work when booting to bootcamp using W7 (it is also not recognized).But like I said, it works when daisy-chained to the hard disk or in another computer.

Thanks a lot,
Ivan

13" Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6), 160gb / 4 gb

Posted on Jan 22, 2011 6:39 PM

Reply
3 replies

Jan 23, 2011 3:21 AM in response to jangoux

Does the RME device have its own AC power supply brick? If so I would suspect that it is failing and the system is pulling too much juice from the MBP. When you have a drive daisy-chained the interface is able to get the juice it needs from that drive and not from the Mac itself.

If it has no power supply brick you will have better luck with a powered hub.

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Firewire problem (the old 'Warning: unable to list firewire devices')

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