Monday, August 14, 2006

Resetting Mac firewire ports: computer won't recognize device

Via Macintouch (LaCie sells firewire drives):

Mike Mihalik, LaCie

Seems like the FireWire issue needs to be revisited quite often. Here is my often repeated suggestion which appears to clear up many FireWire issues: reset the FireWire ports. Panther has a Finder Preference to show mounted volumes on the Desktop. You must set this for mounted drives to be visible. Please follow these instructions to reset your FireWire port. Here is a summary:
  • shut down and disconnect all external drives and peripherals ; make sure nothing is connected to the FireWire ports
  • use Apple Disk Utility to repair permissions on your internal boot drive
  • shut down and disconnect the AC power from the computer as well as the drives; if laptop, also remove battery
  • let sit unpowered and unconnected for 15 minutes
  • reconnect AC power to only the computer (battery too if laptop)
  • restart computer
  • verify that FireWire ports are visible within Apple System Profiler
  • reconnect FireWire drive (only one); refresh window within Apple System Profiler to rescan the FireWire bus; confirm that drive is visible
  • confirm drive is OK by using Apple Disk Utility and apply First Aid
  • repeat for other drives, one at a time
And here's the kb article he references: What to do if your computer won't recognize a FireWire device

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