IOGear GUH 420 Firewire/USB Hub

Question

IOGear GUH 420 Firewire/USB Hub

I purchased this IOGear GUH420 Firewire/USB hub to use on my new MacPro 2.66 Intel desktop. Ever since I installed it, my firewire devices have been acting up and I couldn't ever figure it out. I was having lockups, spinning beachballs, monkeys flying out the floppy drive slot (oh yea, no floppy drive). Suffice it to say my new macpro wasn't acting right.

I did some research today and found out that some Firewire hubs do not like the voltage that comes from the new G5's and macPro desktops.

When I did the system profile, all my Firewire showed was Firewire 800/400 or the like. No devices, no hubs!

When I disconnect the IOGear hub and reboot... viola! Firewire in system profile shows all connected devices and everything runs much faster and I have zero errors!

So far, I would have to conclude that the IOGear hub is not compatable with the macpro, or mine has just been defective all this time.

Anyone else have issues with this hub?

Thanks,
matt caswell
http://www.thesabrehood.org

2.66 GHZ MacPro, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Jan 26, 2007 9:13 PM

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Answer 1

Baryo

Level 1

55 points

Jan 27, 2007 4:02 AM in response to Matthew Caswell

Hi,
I'm not using the same thing but for some time now and with several kinds of Hubs I find that Resetting the PRAM after first setting up the thing Fixes the glitches you described.

This is something I had to do with my MacPro and with my previous G5.

About resetting PRAM:
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238>

Hope this helps.

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Answer 2

Jan 28, 2007 11:07 AM in response to Matthew Caswell

UPON FURTHER REVIEW

and extensive swaptronics....

The problem is not the HUB, it's the ADS Firewire 800 external drive case. It has 2 FW800 ports on the back and 1 FW400 port. I guess I assumed too much when I thought that I could chain a 400 device off the fW800 case.

When I connect ONLY the FW800 case to the MacPro, and do not connect any FW400 devices off the case, the firewire profile in system profiler shows everything as it should be.

I CAUSED THE PROBLEM AND NOT THE IOGear hub. I have posted my stupidity in case anyone was influenced by my previously incorrect assumption about the problem.

matt caswell

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