Firewire port keeps getting power although MBP is turned off and only runs on battery

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Firewire port keeps getting power although MBP is turned off and only runs on battery

I'm using the M-audio Firewire Solo as my external soundcard for my MBP and never had a problem in years. M-audio warns not to hot plug the cable with either device powered on as it could fry the firewire ports. So until now I always made sure to unplug the MBP from the wall before connecting/disconnecting the two.

Yesterday I had to reformat the MBP and after that I noticed that the FW Solo won't turn off, even if I turn off the MBP and unplug it from the wall. It just stays on, getting power from the computer and draining the battery. Evey time I connect/disconnect the two, I take the risk of permanently damaging something.

What happened? It has never been like this before. Now I can not use my FW Solo without either leaving it on 24/7 or hotplugging/unplugging it constantly.

This is what I learned from support.apple.com:

"Many Apple computers provide power over their FireWire ports even if the computer is off or asleep. This is normal and expected. This feature enables:

FireWire-based iPods to continue to charge even if the computer is asleep or off
FireWire bus-powered drives to be used as Startup Volumes
Additional features that may require power when the computer is plugged in but not turned on

Note: With notebook computers, power is only provided over FireWire if the computer is connected to AC power. If the computer is running off battery power, it conserves power by disabling this feature."

So basically my MBP is doing someting that it's not supposed to do.

I really hope somebody can help me with this!

Thanks, chris

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jul 31, 2011 11:23 AM

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Answer 1

nait08 Author

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Jul 31, 2011 12:35 PM in response to nait08

"Many Apple computers provide power over their FireWire ports even if the computer is off or asleep. This is normal and expected. This feature enables:

FireWire-based iPods to continue to charge even if the computer is asleep or off
FireWire bus-powered drives to be used as Startup Volumes
Additional features that may require power when the computer is plugged in but not turned on

Note: With notebook computers, power is only provided over FireWire if the computer is connected to AC power. If the computer is running off battery power, it conserves power by disabling this feature."

Is there any way to disable this "feature" (which shouldn't even be there to begin with)? I am not able to find any other information about this topic anywhere.

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Answer 2

nait08 Author

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Aug 1, 2011 1:31 PM in response to nait08

Anyone?

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