# FireWire devices not mounting



## rubaiyat (Apr 28, 2008)

I upgraded my iMac G5 iMac 2.0Ghz (standard with 1.5Gb RAM) to Leopard 10.5.2 via the original installer DVD (OSX 10.4) and a Leopard upgrade DVD.

I backed up the internal HD to an external FW drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, then wiped my internal drive, which had been partitioned into 3 partitions, back into one journaled partition.

It was a smooth installation of OSX 10.4 and upgrade to 10.5 plus all necessary updaters. I let it install all the applications & settings from the previous system on the external FW HD. In the process I must have rebooted several times and my external FW drive still worked.

Once I had Leopard updated I set about tailoring my settings and UI. I set up Spaces and multiple tabs in DragThing when I got a kernel panic. I am not sure whether the panic happened in Spaces preferences or in DragThing.

Since then boot up has been extremely slow. 1m 45sec of the spinning cursor and another 4 min of blue screen before log-in. I can no longer see any connected FireWire devices (HDs & DVD burner that are OK on other machines) or my EtherNet cable connection. AirPort is still working as is my USB.

I ran DiskUtility both from the HD and the Leopard installer DVD. It does not see any FireWire drives even when running the DVD system.

System Profiler says:

"FireWire Bus:

  Warning:	Unable to list FireWire devices.
  Maximum Speed:	Unknown."

I have run Mac TechTool Pro 4.6.1 with a thorough Hardware check. Both Firewire and Ethernet are greyed out in the checks. Everything else passes.

I have run out of ideas. I can not find a FireWire probe that might tell me more about what is or isn't happening. 

Any suggestions? Thanks for any help you can offer.


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## cwolfson (May 13, 2008)

I'm having the exact same problem. I put a drive in a brand new OWC Mercury Elite Pro case. It showed up at first in the Finder but when I tried to access the files, the Finder hung, wouldn't relaunch and I was forced to reboot. Since then I've been getting the "unable to list" message.

Here's everything I've tried:
Rebuild directory with DiskWarrior
Restarted with all cables disconnected and let sit for 15 seconds
Cleared system caches with Leopard Cache Cleaner
Started up from Leopard install CD and looked at System Profiler: same message
Applied all the recent Software Updater updates
Reset PRAM

My next plan is to do the power cycle restart again and leave the computer off for a couple hours. If that doesn't work I'm out of clues. 

We're not the only ones. There is a thread about this at Apple.com discussions: 
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1197602&tstart=0 but no Apple "geniuses" have chimed in with anything useful.

This is all an absolutely infuriating waste of time because I'd bet dollars to donuts that it's something Leopard or otherwise Apple related, but they are unresponsive.

I've got iMac 2.4GHz Duo running OS X 10.5.2.


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## rubaiyat (May 17, 2008)

I sourced the Apple Diagnostic Software for my iMac and it fails the FireWire and freezes when I try to test the EtherNet.

I am really stuck. My instinct tells me that this a firmware glitch but I can find no way of resetting the firmware to factory default and it won't let me boot off my original Tiger DVDs so I can reinstall Tiger.

If I put this in for service I will be up for both an expensive minimum service fee and/or "repairs" that may cost me more than the iMac is worth.

This is really where you have to admit a lot of PC criticism of the Apple product model just may be right. It is fine when everything goes right, but when it goes wrong it really goes wrong and can cost far too much to fix.


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## cwolfson (May 17, 2008)

Doing the power cycle -- shutting down and unplugging EVERYTHING, then restarting and adding devices one by one -- with a long (several hour) shut down brought the ports back. There were still some hiccups but, fingers crossed, everything seems to be up to spec for now. I just hope it stays that way, since I've purchased three FW cases from OWC in the past couple weeks and I'd sure like to be able to use them.


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## rubaiyat (May 18, 2008)

I followed your advice and unplugged everything *including the power cord* for over 18 hrs and thank the gods it is up and running again.

It reports the FW400 is working, as well as the Ethernet and it booted up quickly without a blue screen and so far has not had any frozen sleeps.

Let's hope both our Macs stay that way!

Now to recover my system set-up and try and resolve the other problems that have plagued me recently.

Thanks for encouraging me to give it one more try. s


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## cwolfson (May 18, 2008)

Glad to hear it worked for you. I know just how mentally draining this stuff can be.


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## rubaiyat (May 19, 2008)

Oops, rebooted and problem is back.

Can the battery be faulty and still show the right time?

I'd like to zap the PRAM but Apple warns against it if battery is not fully charged.

What harm could zapping the PRAM do anyway, it just wipes the settings doesn't it?


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## amolecule (Feb 27, 2011)

Just wanted to thank the former posters. I was having the same problem on my imac G5 running 10.5.8. Under system info the firewire info read 
"unable to list firewire devices". I had ignored this problem for a couple of months - using my laptop when needed firewire, but decided to deal with it. Having read previous postings, the first and only thing I did, was unplug everything from the computer , including the power cord and left it over night ( about 12 hours). I just plugged everything back in - and it sees my firewire external HD. I'm so happy. Thank you.


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