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Firewire Not Recognized
I have an external LaCie hard drive and a Sony DV deck that are both failing to be recognized by my G5, and despite many efforts, I have not been able to reconfigure it correctly. I’m sure it’s a simple solution, but I have not yet found it.
My firewire goes from a Sony DSR-20 deck into the back of my G5. The other firewire port in front is used to connect to my LaCie external hard drive. Capture preset is to DV NTSC. Device control preset is to Firewire NTSC. Under Playback Output in A/V settings, I no longer have a Firewire option to pull down – just None. The same for “Different Output to Tape”
Everything is plugged in, but nothing is registering, and I’m stumped. All was well a week ago, when I had to make some changes to record out from the FCP timelline to the DSR-20 deck. Not sure what I did to mess up my setttings, but would appreciate a bit of help here. Thanks very much. – Rob
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9 Replies
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Did you by any chance plug in either the deck or the drive when it was powered up? Plugging in a device to the Mac that’s powered can cause the Firewire port on the Mac to be fried.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Good God – I was not aware of that. If true. Shouldn’t there be an ‘in your face’ label telling us that? ye,s in my frustration, I probably did unplug and reinsert the firewire in the port while it was powered up. Is there anything I can do to determine whether it’s fried or not? And if fried, what is the cost to replace? Thanks, again. -Rob
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I heard it from a training instructor one time. Techically I believe Firewire is supposed to be hot-swappable, but I know I tell everyone NOT to connect a Firewire unit that’s turned on. A local VAR had one of their clients fry four G5’s with a 1200A by plugging it into each machine while it was on.
I think the only way to find out if it’s fried is to take it into a support center. If you have multiple devices to try out and it doesn’t recognize anything, then that would certainly be an indication that it’s not working.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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I have the same issue with firewire drives and a PD150. Try plugging in just the drive and power it up. If it works than you know two things. One: Your FW port(s) are not fried. Two: The Sony DV is the problem. Here’s an explanation of my problem:
If I plug in just a FW hard drive (or multiple FW hard drives) they act just as they should. No issues with mounting, swapping while the computer is on, etc. They act as normal.
Now, I add my camera, turn it on, and I get nothing from it or my FW HDs. The HDs appear to be there on my desktop, but if I try to open one, I get no response, just a beachball. If I look into ‘About This Mac’ and then look at the FW tab, no busses are listed, it appears as though FW doesn’t exist on my mac. Now, If I do the same thing without the FW HDs, I get the same response. The FW does not show up and the camera does not connect.
Unplug the camera and all goes as it was before. ‘About this Mac’ shows FW info as well as connected devices info.
The camera reads ‘DV IN’ as it should, but the ‘NS’ at the bottom of the screen flickers occasionally as if it were trying to connect, but can’t. I have attempted to connect this combo to different Macs with different firewire cables and I get the same problem. The only common thread that I can find is that both Macs are running Tiger, and I can’t say for sure, but I believe that is when I noticed the issue. Again, not 100% sure about timing.
If you can shed any light on the subject, that would be wonderful.
Jason Wietholter
(918) 381.6350
http://www.aviproductions.com -
I have the same issue with firewire drives and a PD150. Try plugging in just the drive and power it up. If it works than you know two things. One: Your FW port(s) are not fried. Two: The Sony DV is the problem. Here’s an explanation of my problem:
If I plug in just a FW hard drive (or multiple FW hard drives) they act just as they should. No issues with mounting, swapping while the computer is on, etc. They act as normal.
Now, I add my camera, turn it on, and I get nothing from it or my FW HDs. The HDs appear to be there on my desktop, but if I try to open one, I get no response, just a beachball. If I look into ‘About This Mac’ and then look at the FW tab, no busses are listed, it appears as though FW doesn’t exist on my mac. Now, If I do the same thing without the FW HDs, I get the same response. The FW does not show up and the camera does not connect.
Unplug the camera and all goes as it was before. ‘About this Mac’ shows FW info as well as connected devices info.
The camera reads ‘DV IN’ as it should, but the ‘NS’ at the bottom of the screen flickers occasionally as if it were trying to connect, but can’t. I have attempted to connect this combo to different Macs with different firewire cables and I get the same problem. The only common thread that I can find is that both Macs are running Tiger, and I can’t say for sure, but I believe that is when I noticed the issue. Again, not 100% sure about timing.
If you can shed any light on the subject, that would be wonderful.
Jason Wietholter
(918) 381.6350
http://www.aviproductions.com -
I had a similar problem with a PD-100A. The firewire connector on the camera was never very firm, and after awhile it just quit. I tried talking with LaCie about it, thinking it was a firewire chain problem. They were no help.
Recently I sent the camera to Macie video in MA, (https://www.macievideo.com/) and they replaced the connector and all is great now. I wish I had sent in it sooner. While in the shop, they said that sometimes when the camera is not recognized, the firewire chip in the camera is fried. It my case this did not turn out to be the problem. The tech said that the real problem was that the ribbon cable on the back of the connector had come loose.
The repair cost about 175.00.
Good luck,
Bill
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Did that happen to interfere with any other aspects of your acquisition? If it is not affecting shooting, it is a non-issue to me anymore as I have multiple decks I can access. I just want to be certain it does not affect the rest of the camera. I have noticed no issues.
Jason Wietholter
(918) 381.6350
http://www.aviproductions.com -
Don’t panic (yet).
First try resetting the PMU (Power Management Unit) on your G4/G5 moboard. I’ve experienced the disappearing Firewire port problem many times, and in every case, a simple reset of the PMU fixed the problem.
Chec this link out for more details:
https://g5support.com/group/viewtopic.php?t=338
Aloha,
mel -
No no problems with material acquired – just real frustrating when connecting the camera to the computer.
Bill
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