Firewire externals will not mount

J

johngaulbert

Registered
My iPod (original iPod- 6 or 7 year old machine) and my SmartDisk desktop hard drive will not mount on my G4 10.4.11 computer desktop. Opening iTunes and connecting the iPod does not make any difference. The iPod works just fine. Both these devices mounted last week. The only change in my computer of which I am aware is the addition of Security Update 2008-003 PPC. I do not know if i have some sort of system problem or if the problem is with the firewire hardware in the computer box.

Any thoughts? Thank you.
 
Join the club.

My iMac G5 lost the firewire after upgrading to OSX 10.5.2 and installing one of the firmware upgrades.

I am now up to 10.5.3 and still have the problem.

The weird thing is I can recover the Firewire after a complete power down, removal of power cord for some time and reboot with double zap on PRAM. But then after a reboot the problem is back.
 
27 July 2008

I finally gained access to my iPod and external firewire HD by shutting down the computer and unplugging everything. After about 30 minutes and a prayer to the computer gods I replugged all the cords and cables and restarted the computer. Then, I connected the iPod and turned on the external HD. The computer recognized both pieces of hardware. Since then I have had no problems with my firewire devices.

I guess the firewire gremlin in my machine moved on to a power user's machine.

Go figure.
 
When you lose the FireWire ports on your computer (ie, FireWire devices won't mount), a lot of the times resetting the computer's SMC will restore functionality.

For most Intel-based desktop Macs, you do this by shutting down the computer, pulling the power plug, waiting at least 15 seconds, plugging it back in, and turning it on.
 
Thanks for confirming the loss of firewire peripheral functionality repair procedure.

My computer, though, is not an Intel machine is it? It is a Power PC G4.
 
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