Firewire issues on mountain lion

Question

Level 2

180 points

Firewire issues on mountain lion

I´m running Mountain Lion 10.8.5 with all major updates installed. But the last two or three weeks my MacBook Pro 17" Early 2008 started showing some issues with Firewire Hard Drives. The drives most of the time doesn´t mount on the desktop, neither show on Disk Utility. On System Profiler under the Firewire section it reads in red:

Warning: Unable to list Firewire devices

Other symptom that´s been showing at the same time although I don´t know if it´s related is that it takes too loong to boot (About 7 Minutes).

I´ve tried resetting PRAM and leave it all night turned off disconnected to the AC with no results.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks in advance !!!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), 2.5 GHz Core2Duo 4GB RAM 1 TB HD

Posted on Dec 1, 2016 7:38 PM

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Answer 1

nOmada Author

Level 2

180 points

Feb 26, 2017 3:22 PM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric, sorry for not been able to reply before but I was too busy and I switched to a Mac mini, but Before I switched I found what was generating the firewire issue on my Mac Book Pro. I also upgraded the system to Mavericks with no results.

It turns out that months earlier I had installed a third-party app called SAT SMART Driver. It allows to check the SMART status on external drives. Most of the times I plug USB hard drives with no problem and check their status, but I found that firewire drives has some issues depending on what version of SAT SMART Driver is installed. It had 0.10 version installed. I switched to 0.8 version (which is the recommended one by the developer) and it fixed the firewire issue. Problem solved, the FW drives mounted on the desktop and also I'm able to do SMART check on them. I hope this information would be useful to you and others in the community.

Thanks anyway for your time and suggestions. I've learned about EtreCheck and MalwareBytes, new handy tools on my Utilities arsenal that surely would be helpful on other future situations.

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Answer 2

MichelPM

Level 10

81,547 points

Dec 2, 2016 4:24 AM in response to nOmada

I noted some issues with external hard drives over time on Mountain Lion.

I don't allow my hard drives to sleep/spin down any longer and I just set the display to sleep.

Also, make sure the FW connector is firmly connected.

I had an issue where copying data to my external FW800 drives became really slow.

I discovered the FW800 connector was coming loose and when I reconnected it and made sure it was connected securely, copy/transfer speeds went back to normal.

Good Luck!

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

685,311 points

Dec 2, 2016 7:39 AM in response to nOmada

Try running this program in your normal account , then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. On the screen with Options, please open Options and check the bottom 2 boxes before running. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.

Etrecheck – System Information

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Answer 4

nOmada Author

Level 2

180 points

Dec 2, 2016 8:11 AM in response to nOmada

Thanks for your reply Eric, This is what the reports reads with a fresh start and no firewire drives mounted. Should I do this also with a Firewire drive connected?

EtreCheck version: 3.1.3 (337)

Report generated 2016-12-02 11:08:07

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime 3:19

Performance: Good

Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Remove] links to remove adware.

Problem: Other problem

Description:

Firewire hard drives not mounting

Hardware Information:ⓘ

MacBook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 15" or 17" display, and Multi-Touch trackpad.

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro4,1

1 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Duo) CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM1

2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Video Information:ⓘ

GeForce 8600M GT - VRAM: 512 MB

Color LCD 1920 x 1200

System Software:ⓘ

OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5 (12F2560) - Time since boot: about 2 hours

Disk Information:ⓘ

ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB disk0 : (1 TB) (Rotational)

[Show SMART report]

disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

HAL (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 999.35 GB (556.85 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

USB Information:ⓘ

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple, Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Configuration files:ⓘ

/etc/hosts - Count: 2

Gatekeeper:ⓘ

Anywhere

Adware:ⓘ

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.onlineapplicationnotice.AppNotice.plist

One adware file found. [Remove]

Unknown Files:ⓘ

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.appicon.AppIcon.plist

~/Library/Application Support/AppPolicy/AppIcon -i -c 453483 -isn 6E0FC4B5-0783-4623-8986-B8C7D7164B1E

One unknown file found. [Check files]

Kernel Extensions:ⓘ

/Applications/Toast 12 Titanium/Toast Titanium.app

[not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (2.0 - 2016-11-14) [Support]

/Applications/Utilities/DiskWarrior.app

[not loaded] com.alsoft.Preview (5.0 - SDK 10.5 - 2016-09-20) [Support]

/Applications/Utilities/TechTool Pro 8.app

[not loaded] com.micromat.driver.spdKernel (1.0 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-09-21) [Support]

[not loaded] com.micromat.driver.spdKernel-10-8 (1.0 - SDK 10.8 - 2016-09-21) [Support]

/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.FTDI.driver.D2XXHelper (1.0 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-09-21) [Support]

/System/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.sony.pci.SxS (1.0.52020 - 2016-11-27) [Support]

[not loaded] com.wacom.kext.wacomtablet (Wacom Tablet 6.3.15-1 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-11-27) [Support]

[not loaded] fi.dungeon.driver.SATSMARTDriver (0.10 - SDK 10.6 - 2016-11-27) [Support]

System Launch Agents:ⓘ

[not loaded] 3 Apple tasks

[loaded] 115 Apple tasks

[running] 27 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons:ⓘ

[not loaded] 58 Apple tasks

[loaded] 134 Apple tasks

[running] 44 Apple tasks

Launch Agents:ⓘ

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2016-04-12) [Support]

[running] com.epson.eventmanager.agent.plist (2016-09-26) [Support]

[not loaded] com.maintain.LogOut.plist (2015-11-14)

[not loaded] com.maintain.PurgeInactiveMemory.plist (2016-09-20)

[not loaded] com.maintain.Restart.plist (2015-11-14)

[not loaded] com.maintain.ShutDown.plist (2015-11-14)

[not loaded] com.maintain.Sleep.plist (2015-11-14)

[running] com.maintain.SystemEvents.plist (2016-09-21)

[running] com.wacom.wacomtablet.plist (2015-10-05) [Support]

Launch Daemons:ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist (2016-04-12) [Support]

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (2016-10-25) [Support]

[loaded] com.apple.aelwriter.plist (2015-11-03)

[running] com.apple.qmaster.qmasterd.plist (2010-08-25)

[loaded] com.bombich.ccc.plist (2015-11-14) [Support]

[loaded] com.bombich.ccchelper.plist (2015-11-14) [Support]

[running] com.cleverfiles.cfbackd.plist (2015-10-26) [Support]

[running] com.freemacsoft.appcleanerd.plist (2015-11-03) [Support]

[not loaded] com.maintain.AutoLoginUserScreenLocked.plist (2016-09-21)

[not loaded] com.maintain.CocktailScheduler.plist (2015-11-14)

[not loaded] com.maintain.HideSpotlightMenuBarIcon.plist (2016-09-20)

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (2010-08-25) [Support]

[loaded] com.wacom.displayhelper.plist (2015-10-20)

User Launch Agents:ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2016-04-12) [Support]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist (2016-09-21) [Support]

[running] com.appicon.AppIcon.plist (2016-08-25) [Support]

[loaded] com.apple.AddressBook.ScheduledSync.PHXCardDAVSource.6153016C-8CDD-4E14-96B1-9DE B8C919BBB.plist (2015-10-20)

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-08-24) [Support]

[loaded] com.maintain.ShowUserLibraryDirectory.plist (2016-09-21)

[running] com.onlineapplicationnotice.AppNotice.plist (2016-08-04) Adware! [Remove]

~/Library/Application Support/AppCommon/AppNotice

User Login Items:ⓘ

SmartDaemon Application (2016-09-21)

(/Library/Application Support/CleverFiles/SmartDaemon.app)

XtraFinder Application (2016-09-23)

(/Applications/XtraFinder.app)

com.adobe.SwitchBoard.monitor.plist MachInit (2016-04-12)

(/etc/mach_init_per_user.d/com.adobe.SwitchBoard.monitor.plist)

Mach Init items are deprecated

Internet Plug-ins:ⓘ

JavaAppletPlugin: 14.6.0 - SDK 10.8 (2015-10-20) Check version

FlashPlayer-10.6: 23.0.0.207 - SDK 10.9 (2016-12-01) [Support]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.1 (2016-09-21)

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 11.0.13 - SDK 10.6 (2016-09-21) [Support]

Flash Player: 23.0.0.207 - SDK 10.9 (2016-12-01) [Support]

AdobePDFViewer: 11.0.13 - SDK 10.6 (2016-09-21) [Support]

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.6.6 - SDK 10.6 (2016-07-26) [Support]

WacomTabletPlugin: WacomTabletPlugin 2.1.0.6 - SDK 10.9 (2015-10-05) [Support]

iPhotoPhotocast: 7.0 - SDK 10.8 (2016-01-05)

Safari Extensions:ⓘ

AdBlock - BetaFish, Inc. - https://getadblock.com (2016-11-23)

Downie - Charlie Monroe Software - http://downie.charliemonroe.net (2015-03-16)

Audio Plug-ins:ⓘ

DVCPROHDAudio: 1.3.2 (2015-11-03)

3rd Party Preference Panes:ⓘ

Flash Player (2016-10-25) [Support]

Perian (2011-07-23) [Support]

WacomTablet (2015-10-05) [Support]

Time Machine:ⓘ

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU:ⓘ

100% Finder

5% WindowServer

3% kernel_task

3% Transmission

1% fontd

Top Processes by Memory:ⓘ

410 MB kernel_task

365 MB Safari

352 MB WebProcess

74 MB apsd

70 MB Finder

Virtual Memory Information:ⓘ

960 MB Available RAM

960 MB Free RAM

3.06 GB Used RAM

0 B Cached files

7 MB Swap Used

Diagnostics Information:ⓘ

Dec 2, 2016, 10:48:00 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-02-104800_[redact ed].crash

/System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/XPCServices/com.apple.dock.extra .xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.dock.extra

Dec 2, 2016, 09:54:01 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-095401_[redacted].crash

/usr/bin/hiutil

Dec 2, 2016, 09:53:57 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-095357_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 09:53:32 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-095332_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 09:53:01 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-095301_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 09:52:45 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-095245_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 09:52:29 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-095229_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 09:52:06 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-095206_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 09:52:03 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-095203_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 09:51:57 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-095157_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 09:51:46 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-095146_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 09:51:44 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-095144_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 09:51:38 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-095138_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:59:00 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-02-085900_[redact ed].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:31:39 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-083139_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:31:35 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-083135_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:31:25 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-02-083125_[redact ed].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:31:11 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-083111_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:30:40 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-083040_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:30:23 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-083023_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:30:08 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-083008_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:29:44 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-082944_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:29:41 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/hiutil_2016-12-02-082941_[redacted].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:24:51 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-02-082451_[redact ed].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:22:51 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-02-082251_[redact ed].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:22:41 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-02-082241_[redact ed].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:22:07 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-02-082207_[redact ed].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:21:57 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-02-082157_[redact ed].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:21:55 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-02-082155_[redact ed].crash

Dec 2, 2016, 08:14:08 AM Self test - passed

Dec 2, 2016, 12:28:14 AM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-02-002814_[redact ed].crash

Dec 1, 2016, 10:39:17 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-01-223917_[redact ed].crash

Dec 1, 2016, 10:11:42 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-01-221142_[redact ed].crash

Dec 1, 2016, 10:05:07 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-01-220507_[redact ed].crash

Dec 1, 2016, 10:03:04 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-01-220304_[redact ed].crash

Dec 1, 2016, 10:02:58 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-01-220258_[redact ed].crash

Dec 1, 2016, 10:02:23 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-01-220223_[redact ed].crash

Dec 1, 2016, 10:02:14 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-01-220214_[redact ed].crash

Dec 1, 2016, 10:02:11 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-01-220211_[redact ed].crash

Dec 1, 2016, 06:41:11 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Install Adobe Flash Player_2016-12-01-184111_[redacted].crash

com.adobe.InstallAdobeFlashPlayer - /Volumes/VOLUME/Install Adobe Flash Player.app/Contents/MacOS/Install Adobe Flash Player

Dec 1, 2016, 06:05:13 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-01-180513_[redact ed].crash

Dec 1, 2016, 05:31:03 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.dock.extra_2016-12-01-173103_[redact ed].crash

Dec 1, 2016, 04:19:47 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/PluginProcess_2016-12-01-161947_[redacted].cra sh

com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess - /System/Library/StagedFrameworks/Safari/WebKit.framework/PluginProcess.app/Cont ents/MacOS/PluginProcess

Dec 1, 2016, 04:19:09 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/PluginProcess_2016-12-01-161909_[redacted].cra sh

Dec 1, 2016, 04:18:24 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/PluginProcess_2016-12-01-161824_[redacted].cra sh

Dec 1, 2016, 01:37:01 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/WebProcess_2016-12-01-133701_[redacted].crash

com.apple.WebProcess - /System/Library/StagedFrameworks/Safari/WebKit.framework/WebProcess.app/Content s/MacOS/WebProcess

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

685,311 points

Dec 2, 2016 10:55 AM in response to nOmada

You are welcome. If maintain is a memory management application, I suggest you uninstall it. It ends up fighting the OS for control of the memory. Let the OS handle it. Uninstall using the developer's uninstall instructions.

Adobe Flash Player is crashing. Try un-installing and then re-installing.

Adobe Flash Uninstaller

Adobe Flash Player

You have adware installed. Run the report again and where you see the red Adware, click Remove. Once complete, run the report again and post a copy into a new reply. Also attach the drive please.

Or download this program which was written by Thomas Reed, a long time poster. The program will do the work for you which makes it easy.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac 10.8 and later

What should I do if Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac didn't solve my problem?

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