Firewire 400 workaround

[mucmacian]

Some people may be experiencing issues connecting Firewire 400 devices to their new Aluminum iMacs.

At least for me, I've been messing around with an iBook G4 and my new 24" iMac, beeing unable to get the iBook connected to the iMac in target mode.
After a long lasting call with a very kind person at Apple Support, they contacted some cupertino based third level support guys and came up with a workaround:

As they stated, few users are having problems with Firewire 400 devices, even when connecting several Apple computers (depending on model and revision) in target mode to their new Aluminum iMac.
As far as I understood, the issue is related to low voltage input (diverging from Firewire specification?!?), meaning, the connected device is not able to deliver enough power through Firewire to work properly.

Simply connect the device using a Firewire hub with its own power supply, and things will work fine. At least, they did for me.

I hope that helps somebody.

 

[mkrishnan]

That's interesting, thanks! USB and Firewire have a lot of these power headaches. On the one hand, I wish my FW400 drives could run off bus power, at least in a pinch (they're Icy Docks, and they only run with dedicated power). But then again, I'll put up with the more cables for safety of my data, you know?

But now... you're plugging an iBook into an iMac in target disk mode. Why on earth does the iBook need to draw power from the iMac?

 

[mucmacian]

But now... you're plugging an iBook into an iMac in target disk mode. Why on earth does the iBook need to draw power from the iMac?

Yeah, if only I knew. Even the Apple Support guy seemed a little bit embarrassed at all.

 

[whistler72]

when my iMac crashes, I boot it back up and it NEVER seems to find my FW WD external drive. It will only work when I boot it into windows and then back into OSX.