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sonam · Sep 19, 2006, 09:40 AM

This has been undoubtedly been posted before - sorry - but 10.4.7 has killed the firewire port on my Titanium Powerbook. No target disk mode possible either. Tried a reset-nvram, reapplied the combo updater, ran disk warrior - all to no avail. Any suggestions ?

Thank you in advance.

chefpastry · Sep 19, 2006, 11:54 AM

If Target Disk Mode isn't working, it could be a hardware issue.

slffl · Sep 19, 2006, 04:04 PM

Ya I've been having this problem for over a year now. It fixed itself for a few months, now it's back to not working. I just keep trying it and every once in a while it works. What firewire device are you using?

sonam · Sep 19, 2006, 04:23 PM

Just to clarify - laptop works fine I just cannot put it into target disk mode with my other computer, a G4. The firewire device it will not recognize is a LaCie 250 GB, which is recognized by my desktop G4 btw.

romeosc · Sep 20, 2006, 09:35 AM

Originally Posted by sonam

Just to clarify - laptop works fine I just cannot put it into target disk mode with my other computer, a G4. The firewire device it will not recognize is a LaCie 250 GB, which is recognized by my desktop G4 btw.

Check firewire cable! I swore I had dead firewire port since when I connected external drive to another PB it worked! It seems the cable worked when it was twisted a certain way and since PB firewire ports were in different position cable worked. Always check all possible solutions!

Good Luck!

Tsilou B. · Sep 20, 2006, 11:36 AM

It's also possible that you need to reset the PMU. I don't know what the PMU has to do with Firewire, but I once had an iMac with dead Firewire ports. Nothing helped, not even resetting the nvram and reinstalling Mac OS X, but after a PMU reset, Firewire worked just fine again.

Here are the PMU reset instructions for a Titanium Powerbook:

Resetting PowerBook and iBook Power Management Unit (PMU)

sonam · Sep 20, 2006, 11:37 AM

Yeah... tried it with 2 different cables. Still kaput....

sonam · Sep 20, 2006, 12:17 PM

PMU reset also did not work. Thank you anyway !

romeosc · Sep 20, 2006, 05:39 PM

Originally Posted by sonam

PMU reset also did not work. Thank you anyway !

Are you losing date and time, battery not charging? If any of these problems, check PRAM Battery
it can cause a mac to go neuratic!

sonam · Sep 20, 2006, 09:35 PM

Nope... all of these are fine.

slffl · Sep 21, 2006, 11:56 AM

PMU reset also did nothing for me. I still think it's a OSX problem.

simonjames · Oct 2, 2006, 05:31 AM

GREAT - Just Great

I too have a powerbook (1.5GHz 17") where the firewire ports have all just died.

USB working fine.

PMU reset didn't work.

bloodline · Oct 2, 2006, 06:30 AM

Could be a good excuse to get a nice new MacBook Pro?

Sherman Homan · Oct 2, 2006, 06:53 AM

Just to get it straight, the PB can be started in Target Disk mode but the desktop will not recognize it?
The target disk mode problem is the key. It does sound like your FireWire port is dead. I don't think that upgrading to 10.4.7 had anything to do with it.

slffl · Oct 2, 2006, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by simonjames

GREAT - Just Great

I too have a powerbook (1.5GHz 17") where the firewire ports have all just died.

USB working fine.

PMU reset didn't work.

I really, really don't think these are hardware issues. Did yours happen to die after doing the 10.4.8 update? What kind of firewire device are you using? Are both 400 and 800 not working?

I'm using an external HD enclosure (macally PHR-100ACB).

simonjames · Oct 2, 2006, 04:52 PM

Firstly - thanks for your replies. Makes me feel a bit better that more than 1 mind has given some thought to my problem.

Both my 400 and 800 ports died before doing the 10.4.8 upgrade - which I installed yesterday in the hope it would fix the issue.

The first time I thought something was wrong was when I noticed my Canopus ADVC110 wouldn't work on Friday. I thought this may have been due to a recent upgrade to iLife'06 and so I put the PB into target disk mode to download the old iMovie application off my iMac. The PB went into target mode but wouldn't mount on the iMac. I then tried a couple of external firewire drives and different cables - all the same result.

Have zapped the PRAM and reset the PMU and left the battery out for 30 minutes - problem continues.

Fortunately I have 266 days of AppleCare left on my PB so it goes back this afternoon.

simonjames · Oct 4, 2006, 06:38 AM

Follow-up

The Apple Centre called today saying the bus had died requiring a board replacement which they've ordered from Apple.

So - hardware problem not related to any OS or app upgrade

thanks again for all of your help

Sherman Homan · Oct 4, 2006, 06:42 AM

Glad you got it fixed, even gladder (sp!) that you had AppleCare!