Any Mac tech-heads out there?

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 15 Apr 2004 1:13 am

If so, I need help with the utter disappearance of FireWire from my G4/400 ("Sawtooth") tower. I'm prepping my iBook to temporarily sit in place (to the extent possible) under the assumption that the G4 has a physical (not software) problem and that the G4 needs to go the hospital. (FW devices--HD and burner--work fine with the iBook. G4's System Profiler shows NO FW busses--never mind devices.)

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 15 Apr 2004 2:33 am

Ben, this does occaionally happen.
Ok the easiest to describe fix is push the rest button on the mother board.

It is about 1/4 inch and rather flat. silverish looking.
I can't tell you preciscly where on your version it is.

Shut down, open the side and look over the mother board.
It will likely be middle left opposite end from where the PCI cards and plugs leave the back.

Just push the button once and close up and restart.
Firewire SHOULD be back on line.

Ther is a combination of keys on startup and a command line command that can do the same thing, but I don't remember it.
And the rest button is an over all reset.

I occasionally lose firwire for my video input, but the fix isn't too bad.
Try this , if you can't find the button, your mac dealers tech will do it in 30 seconds if you bring it there.

This isn't something most people know about and doesn't really happen a lot.

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 15 Apr 2004 6:17 am

In the unfortunate situation that your FW port did die, you don't necessarily need a new motherboard--that is if the machine has a PCI bus. Firewire cards are cheap. I bought a 3-port Adaptec FW card for $49. I think they're cheaper now. Here's the link.

------------------
Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 15 Apr 2004 11:57 am

Thanks for these suggestions. To clear up a coupla items: I'm running OS 9.1 on both G4 and the iBook. (Ever since a near-cataclysmic failed attempt (later successful) at upgrading from 8.5 to 9.0 on another Mac, I really hate to screw with things, given my mechanical incompetence. The aftermath of the bad installation made me shell-shocked for life. So here I stay in the OS 9 world until Steve Jobs personally drags me kicking and screaming into the 20th Century. Would it surprise anyone to know I'm the owner of a Nixon-era ZB D-10 that will need $400-500 worth of expert setup to make functional?)

I tried both the HD and burner on the iBook after theG4/FW blowup: they each work fine with the iBook.

I've tried the Cmd-Opt-P-R restart--no help along with some other suggestions. Long story short: I assumed physical/electrical problem rather than software, extensions, conflicts. I haven't ruled out an occult curse, since as an arts-type person, I am not eligible for membership in the secret fraternity to whom all mechanical and technical secrets and abilities are given upon inititation.

I'll try the reset suggestion since I was about to unplug everything from the G4 anyway, thinking it might be headed for the hospitapple.

PCI slots--now those are what have been in Macs since the second version of the G3, right? So the second version of the G4 (mine) ought have 'em too, right? So I just buy a card, plug it in, install any needed software and I'm back in business with FW, right?

Thanks, everyone--all suggestions appreciated.

Riding to trade school on the little bus...

Kiyoshi Osawa · Post by **Kiyoshi Osawa** » 15 Apr 2004 7:49 pm

find a friend that has an external firewire disk similar to yours. Take the disks out of the chasis and swap them to see if your disk now works. Many external drives get moved around alot and that messes up the connectors or the power supply.

Make sure the chasis is the same firewire version as yours (regular "old" firewire= 40 mbps, Firewire 2= 800 mbps)

------------------
Kiyoshi
------

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 16 Apr 2004 6:30 pm

Bill--

Thanks for the FW card tip. I was able to get the next auction for one 9gently used) ending on eBay cheaply enough (~$28 w/ s&h & fees), so we'll see if this gets me up and running with FW. If not, it's not a disastrous lo$$.

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 16 Apr 2004 7:57 pm

Ben,

I hope that does it for you. I had suspected dead FW ports on my 1.25GHz G4 QuickSilver tower and bought the Adaptec 3-port FW card. It works fine. Turns out my two native FW ports were also fine, so now I have 5 working FW ports!

I also have OS-X 10.2.8 which immediately recognized and worked with the new Adaptec card with no added drivers (they're built in to OS-X). Since you are using a previous OS, you will need to install a driver. They are available at the Adaptec site (if that's the card you're buying).

------------------
Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 26 Apr 2004 1:26 am

No dice with the Adaptec card. Only thing to do now is find a landfill big enough for a G4 and a ZB D-10 and one who'll look the other way concerning EPA toxic materials.

Done. Through. Sick. Tired. Only two words to say and the second one is "it." (Steve Jobs: hope things are going OK at PIXAR, at least.)

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 26 Apr 2004 6:47 am

Ben,

Have a look at this Usenet discussion. And also this one that is a bit more disconcerting, but it may be the problem. (The first part of the second article is in German but the quote from Apple's site is in English.) I hope it's not a hardware problem.

Did you buy and install the Adaptec card (with software driver) and found it did not work? If that's true, it sounds like a software/firmware issue and not hardware....

------------------
Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?[This message was edited by Bill Llewellyn on 26 April 2004 at 07:56 AM.]

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 26 Apr 2004 6:52 am

Ben, no land fill please.

For firmware reset :

During boot up hold down
Alt + apple + F + O (not zero)
you will get a white screen,
type PRECISELY
" rest-all " (Not with the quotes please)
just the words as written

then hit return

Your Mac will continue to boot up.
If no firewire at that point,

shut down and open the box,
there is a small flat button on the motherboard for system reset.
Press it for two seconds, then repeat.
Close up and reboot.
This should fix the firewire blockage.

If not, take it to a Mac dealer,
not the landfill.

I just had this same problem this weekened.
When I isolated the 500 gigs of drives and external PCI chassis, and just tried this above with a 160 gig firewre drive and video camera it came back online just fine.

I have no adequate explaination why this sometimes goes dead, but it has been relative to pretty good elctrical storms for me.
And we get corkers here too.[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 26 April 2004 at 08:22 AM.]