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400 and 800 firewire ports dead or low power

I am running 10.4.11. Firewire 400 will not power up or allow computer to recognize my I sight camera or power up firewire external hard drive. the 800 firewire port will not power up the external hard drive nor will the USB 2.0.... Iomega Ego 320gb. Usb 2.0 will power up smaller 80Gb drive I have but its not firewire drive.

I have reset psu with battery removal and presing start button while out and off. Have done archive and install of 10.4.11...have repaired permissions and verified disc.

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I've never seen a firewire devise powered by the firewire port. USB can power small devises. All the firewire externals I have used require external power.

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has the configuration of 800 or 400 ports changed since this model PowerBook? the Iomega external drive envisages power from 800 or 400 port. When I plug it in... nothing. When I plug Isight in, nothing.... if I plug them into pc...firewire powers up the iomega and the isight.

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similar but the 320gb version in blue:

http://go.iomega.com/en-us/products/exte...

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I read over the specs and I really can't tell. It says no AC adapter is needed with USB. This is new to me so I need to defer to someone with experience with it.

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Did you download and install the software it talks about?

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ALL the Mac's firewire ports 400/800 do power small portables external devices like external 2.5" hard drives or iSight firewire cameras. 3.5" external firewire drives need to be powered via a AC adapter. USB ports also power small external devices but sometimes they need to be connected in two USB ports to get enough power. That's why the USB cable that comes with the device often has a mini USB connector and two regular USB connectors.

It's surprising your two firewire ports stop working simultaneously. Do you have the firewire 800 to 400 cable adapter to test the iSight in the 800 firewire port of your PB cause I'm pretty sure you don't have the 800 port on your PC machine and your 400 port may be faulty on the PowerBook. Which cables do you have in hand ?

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Ive got 400 to 400, 800 to 800 and 800 to usb... I might have an 800 to fit my sony hanycam.... I will try that and see if will receive video from it via that port...ive got the iomega to powerup with two usb ports and can see it on finder and disk utility.... when I connect the 800 or 400 to it, my clone program (carbon copy?) will not recognize the 400 or 800 port and gives me a warning I cannot boot from this external drive.

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OK the PB 400 or 800 port will power on the drive but the system wont recognize it. Is it what's happening ?

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neither will power the drive though I can power it up with the two usb ports 2.0 and the 1.0

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I wonder if you've spilled some liquid at some time onto your firewire ports while the laptop was powered up...common method of short circuiting the BUS which controls the firewire ports....a question...is your wireless signal strength bar still showing on the menu bar? they are both related...if that wireless signal strength bar has disappeared and your firewires have no power...the BUS on the logic board that controls them might have shorted. If so, a new logic board or second hand one is the only way. If you do that, make sure you are careful with the ambient light sensor when you remove it...very delicate and easily damaged...it controls signal to backlighting of your keyboard...

Many of those external hard drives wont get enough power from your usb...the one on the left is high speed ....if you were to connect to both usb on left and right then there should be enough power....firewire 800 or 400 supplies power to external drive or isight camera if functioning.

The most concerning part of no firewire is that if your hardrive fails you cannot reboot from external hardrive onto which you may have backed up....would need to reinstall OS X and then copy back info...if you have firewire working...you can back up to external hard drive through it and and boot from it if you desired...very very important function for the longevity of your laptop....

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