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Camerafreak · Nov 28, 2009, 04:43 AM

Hello guys i need some help.....

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.28f2

I have several external hard drives that are fw400&800 after upgrading to Snow Leopard the drives arnt recqognised and i cant access the information on drives i think i need to reinstall the drivers or something can you guys help out with how i do it...if it were windows machine it'll be easy but its a glorious mac, and i am not used to doing things like this on my mac. thanks in advance.

Thorzdad · Nov 28, 2009, 09:21 AM

What make/model are your FW drives? There are several ongoing discussions over on the Apple forums regarding exactly the same problems you are experiencing. A large number of them (but not all) seem to involve WesternDigital FW drives.

That said, if you read through those discussions, it's pretty clear that there seems to be an overall issue with FW and SnowLeopard. Here is a fairly lengthy discussion about the problem and the potential solutions others have come up with. For now, though, the only sure solution seems to be to run the drives via USB2, if available.

ghporter · Nov 28, 2009, 09:41 AM

...and the thread is now in Notebooks because it's about an MBP.

amazing · Nov 28, 2009, 10:08 AM

I haven't upgraded to SL yet, but here is one "solution" I've gleaned from reasearching this problem:

"The problem lies with the extension"

IOFirewireSerialBusProtocolTransport.kext

"If you replace it with the one from 10.5 your Firewire should work properly. One caveat, you MUST repair permissions BEFORE restarting or risk not having the replacement extensions recognized. Even if you repair permissions after restarting the replacement extension may not be recognized."

I'm hoping you've got a backup of your 10.5.8 install where you can get the kext?

Eug · Nov 28, 2009, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by amazing

I haven't upgraded to SL yet, but here is one "solution" I've gleaned from reasearching this problem:

"The problem lies with the extension"

IOFirewireSerialBusProtocolTransport.kext

"If you replace it with the one from 10.5 your Firewire should work properly. One caveat, you MUST repair permissions BEFORE restarting or risk not having the replacement extensions recognized. Even if you repair permissions after restarting the replacement extension may not be recognized."

I'm hoping you've got a backup of your 10.5.8 install where you can get the kext?

I can confirm this works.

Using 10.6 SL's native IO kext, the Pioneer drive doesn't get seen. With the 10.5.8 kext, it works fine.

amazing · Nov 28, 2009, 08:49 PM

Yep, it's not just a laptop problem, Snow Leopard seems to not be warming up to firewire?

Still, Apple got it right in Leopard, what should the Snow make that much difference?

ghporter · Nov 28, 2009, 11:42 PM

Originally Posted by amazing

Yep, it's not just a laptop problem, Snow Leopard seems to not be warming up to firewire?

Still, Apple got it right in Leopard, what should the Snow make that much difference?

The driver set is my guess. This is looking more and more like the issue belongs in the OS X forum (not the notebook forum I put it in, nor the Mac Pro forum it was posted in), so unless someone thinks there's a much better place for it, I'll be moving it shortly.

Camerafreak · Nov 29, 2009, 04:16 PM

hiyah guys, many thanks for your generous replies, really appreciate the help, yes i do have western digital drives, they are not read, i also have a lacie drive that is firewire 400, that doesnt get seen either...unfortunately i dont have a copy of the ext you refer to in the posting, how would i aquire one now... it is looking like a wipe to me, a friend of mine did a complete install with just snow leopard and seems to have had no trouble with FW....why me i wonder LOL ;-) if someone can suggest a way of replacing this faulty bit and where i would find it, within the system files please let me know...

Great site by the way admins, very efficient. thanks again.

Camerafreak · Nov 29, 2009, 04:21 PM

PS, i have a Sony PMW EX1 camera that connects on firewire, that doesnt get seen either as the lappy is a production tool i need to sort this out urgently.....Thanks again guys

amazing · Nov 29, 2009, 10:16 PM

In a source for the above tip, it was mentioned that you could download the 10.5.8 combo update and use Pacifist to extract the kext from the combo update. The combo update is humongous, but some perseverance will get it done...

AKcrab · Nov 29, 2009, 10:55 PM

Originally Posted by Camerafreak

PS, i have a Sony PMW EX1 camera that connects on firewire, that doesnt get seen either as the lappy is a production tool i need to sort this out urgently.....Thanks again guys

Check your private messages.

Thorzdad · Nov 30, 2009, 12:59 PM

Judging by some of the responses in the Apple threads, it might be better to have ALL of the 10.5.8 FW kexts handy to replace, just in case. These appear to be:
FireWireStorageDeviceSpecifics.kext
IOFireWireAVC.kext
IOFireWireFamily.kext
IOFireWireIP.kext
IOFireWireSBP2.kext
IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport.kext

Owing to a generous benefactor, it looks like I will be upgrading to a new iMac soon and will probably be facing the same issue with my external LaCie FW drive, too. Seeing as how my current G5 is still running 10.3.9! (I know, I know...) I won't have any of the 10.5.8 FW kexts to copy over, either.

Eug · Nov 30, 2009, 01:03 PM

What do you mean? I will back up all my 10.5.8 FireWire kexts, but the only one in that list from 10.5.8 that I'm using in 10.6 is the last one, and my FW optical drive works fine now.

BTW, amazing mentioned that you can use Pacifist to get the kext from the 10.5.8 combo update.

Thorzdad · Nov 30, 2009, 01:10 PM

I'm just passing on information posted in some of the Apple threads. For some, just replacing the single kext worked. For a few others, it seems, they had to replace all of the listed kexts. YMMV, as always.

And, yes, I'm aware of using Pacifist to get them from the combo updater. OTOH, a kind soul bundling just the involved kexts in a download would be far handier.

AKcrab · Nov 30, 2009, 05:06 PM

Originally Posted by Thorzdad

OTOH, a kind soul bundling just the involved kexts in a download would be far handier.

If anyone needs these, PM me for a link.

Thorzdad · Dec 3, 2009, 12:01 PM

This week, I took delivery of a new 21" iMac, pre-loaded, of course, with 10.6.1. My first leap into the Snow Leopard end of the pool. On my 10.3.9 G5, I was using a LaCie d2 external drive for backup and as a Photoshop scratch disc. I used the FW800 connection. After updating the iMac to 10.6.2, I went ahead and connected the d2 to the iMac (without replacing any .kexts, just to see if it would work.

It's a mixed bag. The iMac sees the d2 and I can read/write to it just fine. On the other hand, the drive acts a lot more spasmodically on the iMac than it ever did on the G5. On the iMac, it will go through periods where it will suddenly spool-up and act as if it is being accessed by...something...even though I am not currently doing anything that would require any activity. It'll work-away for awhile, then quiet down. Sometimes, it will obviously spool-down and, apparently, go to sleep, as well. None of this was seen when it was connected to the G5.

So, I'm glad it can be seen by the iMac, but I'm a bit concerned by the odd activity. I'm not sure if replacing the .kext would solve this or not, or if this is merely how SL treats external drives. Ah progress....

Eug · Dec 3, 2009, 12:09 PM

I got the same weirdness in 10.6 with one of my drives that did work. I then turned off put-the-drive-to-sleep option in the energy saver options, and the weirdness went away.

Thorzdad · Dec 3, 2009, 12:14 PM

Ah! Totally forgot about that little toggle. Thanks, Eug. I'll see how that works.

Camerafreak · Dec 13, 2009, 07:10 PM

Hiyah guys, i need to update my original thread, thanks to all of the helpers on this thread i've really appreciated it. However after trying all of the suggestions, unsuccessfully, i took it upon myself to do two things, install a clean version of snow leopard (formatting the internal drive) and updating the system. Plugged in my wd hard drive and still nothing, i have also plugged in a cdrom in a housing with firewire on it and the nothing occurred there...so i reformatted the drive and installed leopard, and again updated system still no firewire drives are visable...i know about finder by the way, that was checked to show external drives on both occasions. when viewing the info in about this mac, more info...the firewire section shows a speed of 800 max...so i think the drivers are there....it seems not to be getting the info that there is something plugged into either 400 or 800 ports, is there any way i can reset this? possibly via the command line? also as i am a cameraman and have my own HD camera with I'link (firewire connection) i tried this, and still nothing.....HELP !!! is my baby Ill does it need to go to hospital? the other thing is that, as i was almost skint when buying this laptop just over 14months ago, i couldnt afford to buy the extra service pack thingy they offered, i had total trust in the bomb proofness of my mac....HUH how wrong was i to do that....any help with this issue will be appreciated, also advice on the service side of apple would also be appreciated as to what to expect with sorting this issue out. i need my baby well again so we can again have happy times together :-) ps i use firewire alot so i do need to sort it out, hope fully with as little financial damage as possible...thanks guys your all stars....

seanc · Dec 13, 2009, 07:21 PM

Have you reset the PRAM or SMC?

Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Camerafreak · Dec 13, 2009, 09:21 PM

Hiyah SeanC, thanks for the reply after many attempts at pressing keys removing batteries etc, not sure if i have done anything beneficial or even if the keypresses have worked but still nothing, i am hoping the MB hasnt gone....anything else i can try, one thing i didnt mention was that i installed the diagnostic program you get when you sign up for extra service...Techtool delux, it came up with 4 clocks the last being firewire, it said on there that the bus speed was 800, i have changed cables and blew out the ports just in cas ebut still no hard drive boot up....are there any command line resets that i can do, this will ensure that i am doing the keypress alternatives correctly, was never asked to redo the clock etc, so i am not sure if i have....Thanks again...much appreciated...

Camerafreak · 10:25 PM

further to recent postings....I have just done an option shift pwr button reset and the wd drive, connected by 400 lead shut down with the computer, it went to sleep, when i rebooted the lap top the lights on the hard drive came on a rebooted with it, but still the icon on the desk top isnt there to allow me to see the drive, and there for not accessible...any idea's ? all boxes are checked and nothing comes up in the side bar, so the icons can't be off screen or hidden...weird!

also getting this in the logs, kernel firewire (ohci) ti id 8025 built-in: no valid self ids for more than 3 minutes after bus reset.

there has always been a drive connected in the hope things happen.

Dec 15 02:16:03 : SPFWR ERROR: FireWire bus may be unstable. Other FireWire devices may be present.
Dec 15 02:16:37 System Profiler[252]: SPFWR ERROR: FireWire bus may be unstable. Other FireWire devices may be present.

got this after a clean install of snow leopard with nothing else loaded except 1 hard drive...

is there a way of re installing the firmware to the firewire part, or the logic board it self, maybe its gotten currupted? havnt got a clue why this has happened as the computer isnt abused.....

eventually the penny will drop and a solution will be found, i hope the Logic board isnt gone....14mth old lappy faulty, shocking...

Camerafreak · Dec 20, 2009, 08:53 PM

Hiyah Guys its me again, but finally there is a resolution to my issues with the firewire ports, it was after all down to the logic board, although the laptop was out of warranty, albeit just, APPLE amazingly agreed without persuasion to replace the logic board....absolutely amazing treatment by my local store, very courteous and very helpful and understanding... what can i say, apart from having little baby apples i am totally happy...they even replaced my psu as it had a frayed cable...

all it leaves me to say now is thank you guys for replying to my plea for help...at least i wasnt alone..

all the best and thanks...

i fancy putting a screen behind my apple logo now...what do you think???