Firewire port previously working now not recognized

Question

Level 1

1 points

Firewire port previously working now not recognized

Hello,

I understand this particular issue has been discussed at length on this forum and in other places but none of the solutions have yielded any success for me and I see this is often the case for others. So, I'm posting the question again in hopes that there is an Apple guru out there who has figured this one out. (All relevant specs below.)

Problem: Firewire port was working fine for downloading video from a Panasonic PV-GS320 into iMovie 8.0 on an iMac 10.5.8. Then, suddenly the firewire port was no longer recognized:

FireWire Bus:

Warning: Unable to list FireWire devices.

Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec

The problem cannot be with the camera or cable as I can swap them over to an iBook 10.4 and the camera and firewire download perfectly there.

I have run AHT. Test results show no hardware problems.

I've tried all of these suggestions:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338

http://macperformanceguide.com/blog/2011/20110808_0_Firewire800--howto.html

and quite a number of other solutions that involve rebooting SMC and PRAM but no dice.

I'm guessing this might be some kind of driver or software issue. There's got to be a simple solution to kick this thing in the butt and get it working again. I'd prefer not to do an OS re-install if I can avoid it.

Thanks much! Below are the specs:

iMac: 10.5.8

2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Firewire: 800 Mb/sec

Posted on Jul 4, 2012 12:28 PM

Reply

Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

238,973 points

Jul 4, 2012 2:13 PM in response to j_mann39

Hello,

Any other Firewire devices connected?

Does it still get that warning if the Cam is not connected?

Reply

Answer 2

Jul 4, 2012 2:23 PM in response to j_mann39

USB and FireWire Quick Assist

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151?viewlocale=en_US

What to do if your computer won't recognize a FireWire device

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338

Dealing with FireWire problems (drives not mounting, devices unrecognized, etc.)

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20041221081432908

Your iMac has a 400 & 800 Firewire ports. Is only the 800 inop?

 Cheers, Tom 😉

Reply

Answer 3

j_mann39 Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 4, 2012 3:50 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi BDAqua,

There are no other firewire devices connected. I've also done the 'clean reboot' with only keyboard connected and added the firewire and still had the problem.

Your second question is interesting b/c I just checked the warning again. It used to be that the warning only appeared with the firewire connected and camera on. Now, I notice that if I refresh the screen the warning is still there, and also the warning is still there with the firewire unplugged. I don't have an explanation for this odd change in behavior.

Thanks for your help!

Reply

Answer 4

j_mann39 Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 4, 2012 3:58 PM in response to Texas Mac Man

Hi Texas Mac Man,

Thank you for the links, I'll need some time to explore them.

As for the question, I see there are 2 firewire ports in the back and they have different pin/shape configurations. I don't know the technical names of the connectors -- I've only ever used the one that has the two truncated corners on it, and that's the port that's failing. I don't have a firewire for the other style of port (the rectangular one).

Thanks for the links, as soon as I've gone through them or found the solution I'll send a reply.

-j_mann39

Reply

Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

238,973 points

Jul 4, 2012 4:03 PM in response to j_mann39

I think Tom has you covered with restting the FW bus.

Reply

Answer 6

j_mann39 Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 6, 2012 1:07 PM in response to Texas Mac Man

Hi Tom,

I've had an opportunity to try all of the options listed on those links. I did omit one however, the Combo Update for 10.5.8. I hesitate to pursue this one b/c from what I can understand this 1GB's worth of update is basically a reinstall of the OS. I'd prefer not to take such a drastic action b/c I'm in the middle of editing a documentary and I don't want any other hardware or software to malfunction or alter behavior while I'm in mid-stream.

Let me know if I'm mistaken about this. As it stands the Combo Update is my last option, otherwise I'm just going to move forward with a dead port.

Just as a sidenote: the behavior of the firewire recognition has changed. Now, the system does not recognize the firewire plugged in at all. I used to get an error message, now nothing.

Thanks Tom and BDAqua.

If anyone else is reading this post I'd like to hear from someone who has experienced the same problem and found a/the solution.

Best Regards,

-J Mann

Reply

Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

238,973 points

Jul 6, 2012 5:15 PM in response to j_mann39

I'd prefer not to take such a drastic action b/c I'm in the middle of editing a documentary and I don't want any other hardware or software to malfunction or alter behavior while I'm in mid-stream.

By all means wait, but it shouldn't cause problems at all, no sense testing it.

Reply