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mgl · Aug 20, 2005, 10:02 PM

The firewire ports on my new iMac G5 don't seem to work properly, regardless of the device or cable.

I've tried three devices:
- my iSight, which worked fine on my iMac G4, works sometimes for a while
- my iPod never gets all the way through a synch
- my external HD can't copy thousands of files. A few will usually copy but then it will stop with a "-36" error message.

All 3 of these devices worked on my G4 and the external HD works fine on my iBook G4 still. I've tried swapping cables but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Neither port seems more reliable than the other. It may be a coincidence, but the ports seem more reliable for a short while after booting, or at least they don't work sometimes until I reboot.

Any ideas?

Bluecloud55 · Sep 12, 2005, 12:13 AM

I have a similar set up and have experienced the same problems. At first i thought the hard drive on my ipod was going as it was making a grinding noise and would crash whenever I tried to copy music. It worked better if the battery was fully charged but was painfully slow in transfer speed over firewire. I then realised after trying to use my firewire drive that it had the same problems. I hooked my iPod to my laptop and had no problems in speed or in grinding noises.

I ranthe Apple Daignostic tools which says there is no problem. took the computer in to get checked out. My suspicion is there is not enough power to the firewire ports. This is probably a logic board problem,. The dealer said they have not had this problem before, most problems are with video on this model. I'll see what happens.

Bluecloud55 · Sep 19, 2005, 11:40 PM

I took my Imac G5 in to the Mac dealer where I bought it. They ran Disk Warrioir on the machine and could not replicate the problems. I even brought in my iPod and Firewire harddrive to try out and everything ran fine. The tech person thought it wasa sysyem file problem as that would have been fixed with Disk Warrioir. I run Disk Utility and Cocktail egularly. he had never seen the firewire problem before. He suggested zeroing the harddrive and doing a clean install when the next Tiger update comes out. I have reinstalled the system software a couple of months ago soI would have thought the OS would be ok. Anyways, the result is that my firewire is functioning properly again.

welshbaloney · Sep 24, 2005, 12:50 AM

This is very disappointing if true.

I just traded up from a 15" flat panel iMac G4 to a new 20" iMac G5. I had exactly the same firewire issues with the G4. I had an external firewire drive that I simply couldn't use with another device. Once, my firewire got so screwed up that I couldn't recover anything - couldn't even mount the drive and all the usual recovery programs failed. I recall seeing it discussed in a forum somewhere, so it was a well-known issue. The only resolution I was aware of was to get an external firewire hub (powered) to compensate for the power that the firewire drive consumes.

Now its 2005 and 2 days into my new computer, I find the SAME problems. I just can't believe it!

Tony.

Originally Posted by Bluecloud55

I took my Imac G5 in to the Mac dealer where I bought it. They ran Disk Warrioir on the machine and could not replicate the problems. I even brought in my iPod and Firewire harddrive to try out and everything ran fine. The tech person thought it wasa sysyem file problem as that would have been fixed with Disk Warrioir. I run Disk Utility and Cocktail egularly. he had never seen the firewire problem before. He suggested zeroing the harddrive and doing a clean install when the next Tiger update comes out. I have reinstalled the system software a couple of months ago soI would have thought the OS would be ok. Anyways, the result is that my firewire is functioning properly again.

as2 · Sep 25, 2005, 07:32 AM

I've had similar issues with Firewire on my 20".

I've got an...

iSight
EyeTV 410
250GB FW Drive

If I am watching or recording TV, and copying files then my iSight freezes, or get's weird lines across it.

mgl · Sep 25, 2005, 08:49 PM

I haven't tackled this problem, I've been limping along without synching my iPod for weeks now, but I did call Apple. They told me the midplane board would need to be replaced and to take my iMac into the shop. Ugh.

I hadn't thought about a loss of power. It's not like the firewire ports don't work at all, they just work for a few seconds and then seem to die. This could be due to lack of power. If I plug a powered firewire hub into one of the ports, it might be okay? I know this sucks, but I could use a third port anyway so i was kind of thinking about buying a hub. If this fixes it, i'd do this rather than take it in and risk having it come back with a different problem.

What type of hub are you using?

Thanks,

Mike

Telusman · Sep 26, 2005, 08:35 PM

I have exactly the same problem on my 20" iMac G5, the unit is a couple of months old. I cannot have my iPod and iSight on firewire at the same time, nor can I have my 52x firewire burner and my iSight, or any combination of the 3 devices one of them will always fail, more often than not it's the iSight. It works perfectly on my PowerBook and works great as long as the iPod is plugged into USB. It's terribly annoying. It will even do it if the iSight is in use, it's just like the computer goes "whoops, lost it..." and then never sees it again. Very disappointing, heres hoping for a firmware patch that may fix this issue.

- Telusman

Rowen · Sep 28, 2005, 02:10 PM

I haven't had any firewire problems on my 17" iMac G5.a but I have had other problems with the line out not returning to the built in speakers, airport card sometimes not wanting to confess the network is there, and a few other things. I am aware the iMacs at my university have been experiencing similar problems when they upgraded from the eMacs.

as2 · Oct 24, 2005, 04:06 PM

My stupid firewire problems are getting worse!

Now I can't even watch my eyeTV without the picture pausing, or getting a 'channel not available' error every 5 mins. Also my FW HD has been killed by the FW, as messed up the directory structure.
Aaagggh.

xmacintosh · Oct 24, 2005, 04:52 PM

I have a problem on my 17" iMac G5 (rev.B). I can use my external Sony FW DVD Burner but my Dazzle Hollywood Bridge does not work. The Dazzle works in my iBook... :/

sray · Oct 24, 2005, 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by mgl

- my iSight, which worked fine on my iMac G4, works sometimes for a while
- my iPod never gets all the way through a synch
- my external HD can't copy thousands of files. A few will usually copy but then it will stop with a "-36" error message.

Exact same problem here. Just got a brand new iMac (with iSight built in). About 2/3 into the iPod synch, it gave up with the -36 error message. The computer is just 2 days old! Very frustrating. I think I'll just get a USB cable for the iPod and sync that way.

mduell · Oct 24, 2005, 07:20 PM

This is a well known and well documented bug.
Firewire iSight + Firewire iPod + Mac = all sorts of bad behavior

The official solution from Apple: Don't use iSight at the same time as your iPod if connecting over FireWire.

Macfixit has at least three articles (here, here, and here) on mitigating the issue.

Macpilot · Oct 25, 2005, 10:22 PM

I too have had firewire troubles on my iMac 20 2.0ghz.

My firewire drive and iSight are connected now. I get a crackling sound when connecting the cables to the back of the iMac.

When I had a 40gig iPod it was connected via firewire. I think it was the bad firewire on the iMac that caused the iPod to fail.

I never had troubles with the drive or iSight with my old Powerbook with FW800.

Now my external drive sometimes does not mount, or copies very slowly. Connecting the iSight sometimes gives no video capabilities to iChat.

A few times I have pulled the firewire cables from the iMac and the iMac went to sleep!

I have reset the SMU, done all the open firmware resets, PRAM resets, etc.

The guys at the Apple Store could not replicate the issues and have suggested that it is the power strip my equipment is plugged into.

What is the point of having two firewire ports on this thing if I can't use both reliably at the same time?