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alexforsythe24 · Jan 23, 2004, 12:46 PM

Ok .. I just got an ipod and a lacie 250 GB firewire harddrive.

I'm running 10.3.2 on a powerbook (pismo) 768 MB RAM and as far as I can tell all my firmware is up to date.

However, when I transfer files to either firewire device, my trackpad flips out. It starts jumping around, clicking all by itself, moving windows, etc.

If I don't touch the track pad at all during the transfer it's fine, but if I try to move the cursor it gets a mind of it's own.

The same problem if itunes is transfering songs to my ipod. Additionally, if itunes trys to transfer songs while any song (not necessarlly the song being transfered) is playing, that song that is being played starts skipping until the transfer is complete.

Any thoughts ?

sanity assassin · Jan 23, 2004, 01:02 PM

that's funny, cause I'm getting the same thing too. Up until 10.3.2 using a firewire drive was fine, no probs. copying stuff over. Now though when copying stuff to the external fw drive, iTunes starts to skip like crazy during playback, my mouse (connected to the PB) just jumps around, and one time the system just froze.

weird.

sanity assassin · Jan 23, 2004, 01:03 PM

I forgot to say, but I'm on a Pismo too.

Pete M · Jan 23, 2004, 06:01 PM

I am experiencing the same problem on my setup:

Ti 400 768MB RAM
Panther 10.3.2
Maxtor OneTouch 250GB
Belkin FireWire Hub

other FW devices:
Apple iSight
VST CDRW

I never noticed the problem until recently when I went to backup files to the external firewire drive. When running activity monitor or top during a copy to the firewire drive I've noticed that the kernel process and the Finder are taking up significant CPU. The copies go as quickly as before but cursor response and iTunes playback are noticably affected. Opening, moving or saving files on the external FW drive do not appear to cause the same problem.

Note: For me this problem is independant of the Firewire hub (recent purchase) as I've tested w/ and w/o it in the mix.

sanity assassin · Jan 23, 2004, 06:57 PM

I'm kinda glad that others are having this problem too, cause I thought it might be the built-in firewire that was damaged.

I can't actually remember when it began, but it was recently, and my symptoms are just like yours.

alexforsythe24 · Jan 23, 2004, 07:32 PM

I'm really glad as well that this seems to be an issue bigger then me.

I also was begining to wonder if my hardware had an issue.

Like I said I recently (post 10.3.2 update) got my firewire HD and ipod, so I don't know if it's an issue prior to 10.3.2

Has anyone reported this issue to apple ???

posthumanus · Jan 23, 2004, 10:51 PM

this cross-thread of mine might be of incidental interest:

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...90#post1804390

posthumanus

sanity assassin · Jan 24, 2004, 06:07 AM

Do you think we should maybe merge these 2 threads if possible? Posthumanus - it sounds like you have the same problem as us. When I plug in the external fw drive, it doesn't show up on the desktop either, not until I reboot, or plug in the cable into a different fw port.

My fw drive is just my old internal powerbook HD,which I put into an external casing. So it seemsa like this issue isn't down to a specific product, but just general FW.

posthumanus · Jan 25, 2004, 05:32 AM

and we all seem to be running OSX.3.2

sanity assassin · Jan 25, 2004, 05:52 AM

Originally posted by posthumanus:
and we all seem to be running OSX.3.2

yeah, 10.3.2, I don't remember this being an issue before that either.

iPond317 · Jan 26, 2004, 05:50 PM

Got the same problem here. Using iTunes or copying to my any FireWire device is really bad. When doing things from the internal hard drive there is no problem. But audio in iTunes becomes slow and garbled and the mouse jumps all over the screen. Never had this problem until the 10.3.2 update. I knew it wasn't my system so I'm glad to see other people are having the same issue ;-)

My setup:

TiBook G4 400
512 MB
10 GB
OS X 10.3.2

External SmartDisk 80GB FireWire
Belkin FireWire powered hub
2G iPod 10GB

iPond317 · Jan 27, 2004, 05:24 PM

Can anyone think of a possible fix other than unplugging all FireWire devices?

Anyone, anyone? Beuller?

Tsilou B. · Jan 28, 2004, 07:01 AM

I have the same problem on an iMac G3 with Mac OS X 10.3.2. I record to an external FireWire drive and since I installed Mac OS X 10.3.2 eyeTV skips and stutters. When I use the internal drive for recording, everything is fine again. I haven't found a solution yet.

kerrazyjoe · Jan 28, 2004, 01:32 PM

I am having FireWire 400 difficulties as well. I am running X.3.2 on iMac FP 15 original. Lacie 160 GB and OWC Oxford 911 with IBM deskstar 60 GB, iSight, iPod - belkin FW Splitter.
Using the drives is unsafe for me I was trying to copy files from External HD to External HD the drives unmount in middle of copy - cannot mount again. I do odd things to get it to mount like connecting to iBook w/ OS9 - it rebuilds and the plug back into iMac.

I used the Lacie to backup before installing Panther. Was working great with Panther for a time - I have to suspect 10.3.2 as well. Am hoping for fix!!!! Soon !!!

Pete M · Jan 28, 2004, 03:03 PM

A couple of links to discussions on Apple's Support Boards that are related to this issue:

An iTunes thread dealing with slow playback on external FW drive (via xlr8yourmac's 10.3.2 reader reports)
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?50@@.599e14b1

Ext FW related thread
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?13@@.688d2281

iBean · Feb 18, 2004, 12:31 PM

I am experiencing the same thing - running 10.3.2 on an iMac G3 500.

When transfering songs to my iPod, the cursor "jumps" around...
Didn't happen with Jaguar.

[APi]TheMan · Feb 18, 2004, 12:47 PM

Yup. Pismo running 10.3.2 and I get gnarly Firewire problems when copying to (haven't tried from) my iPod or external FireWire drive. It definitely seems to be an issue with 10.3.2, as I recall not having this issue until I upgraded to 10.3.2.

Yuck.

Powaqqatsi · Feb 18, 2004, 01:01 PM

I've got some issues as well. But only that iTunes seems to skip occasionally (my music is on the FireWire drive) and transfer-rates from and to the drive seem to be a bit slow. I have not yet measured them. iTunes even skips from time to time when I'm not even writing to or reading from the FW Drive but when doing things on my PowerBook's internal drive. I hope I won't have the issues with my mini iPod like others are having with their iPods. I really want this fixed in 10.3.3

fritzair · Feb 19, 2004, 10:24 AM

Originally posted by kerrazyjoe:
I am having FireWire 400 difficulties as well. I am running X.3.2 on iMac FP 15 original. Lacie 160 GB and OWC Oxford 911 with IBM deskstar 60 GB, iSight, iPod - belkin FW Splitter.
Using the drives is unsafe for me I was trying to copy files from External HD to External HD the drives unmount in middle of copy - cannot mount again. I do odd things to get it to mount like connecting to iBook w/ OS9 - it rebuilds and the plug back into iMac.

I used the Lacie to backup before installing Panther. Was working great with Panther for a time - I have to suspect 10.3.2 as well. Am hoping for fix!!!! Soon !!!

Same here. 911, 80 gig WD will no longer work. I can format it as a DOS disk but will get all sorts of errors if I try HFS+. Last night I cooked a IBM micro drive after downloading some images from my camera. I hope the drive just quit and it is not another problem with 10.3.2.
I would be very careful with relying on FW as a backup right now.
Has anyone tried USB 2.0 as an alternative to FW 400?

Later.