Mac mini Firewire went bad?

[Microstudio]

Hi all 1st post!

Well today I did some rearranging in my studio, turned everything off and unplugged everything. About 1 1/2 hours later I had everything were I wanted it and plugged everything in and turned on like always.

No Firewire any more, it died. Call apple support and we worked over it, it's dead, no more firewire. The oddest thing, it was working fine and then died.

So were can I get a logic board for this thing, it's model A1347?

Thanks for your time.

 

[justperry]

Did you restart it, might be a glitch.

Do you have a bootable firewire disk, if yes hold option when you startup, does the firewire drive show up?

Open System Profiler, and look if it detects your FW.

 

[Mojo1]

Presumably the OP and Apple went through all the steps to determine that the FW port is dead...

Ports do die... An Ethernet port died on a 7300 I owned and the FW800 port on a MiniStack enclosure died recently. It's a bummer if it happens out of warranty.

 

[justperry]

Presumably the OP and Apple went through all the steps to determine that the FW port is dead...

Ports do die... An Ethernet port died on a 7300 I owned and the FW800 port on a MiniStack enclosure died recently. It's a bummer if it happens out of warranty.

Sure, it does happen but it is strange it happens just when he is rearranging stuff, it might be as easy as a bad connection(a not fitted well connector) or what about a bad power supply, especially the last is common if it was on for years in a row and then disconnected from mains, I've seen that happen more than once in my experience as Electrical Engineer.

The OP should at least try the above, especially rebooting and holding the Option key to see if the drive shows up, if not he should check the cable connections and the power supply if it's an external power supply.

 

[Microstudio]

Thanks for the inputs guys, Apple had me switch out cables, try other firewire devices, reboot the pram, make sure all software was updated and still no sign of firewire life.

I have built my own PC's sense 1998 and when this first happened I figured it was 1 of 2 things.... software glitch or it was dead, that electronics for you.

I run my Mac Mini pretty hard, I use all the ports and it runs most of the day everyday in my studio now with this happening I am thinking of making a Mac
Pro from Apple Parts. I have seen brand new mac Pro motherboards pretty cheap but I need to learn more about the compatibility or find part charts that can work together.

Not keen on buying a used Mac Pro thats 3-5 years old and then there is the Hack Mac....so many things to sift through

 

[Mojo1]

Sure, it does happen but it is strange it happens just when he is rearranging stuff, it might be as easy as a bad connection(a not fitted well connector) or what about a bad power supply, especially the last is common if it was on for years in a row and then disconnected from mains, I've seen that happen more than once in my experience as Electrical Engineer.

The OP should at least try the above, especially rebooting and holding the Option key to see if the drive shows up, if not he should check the cable connections and the power supply if it's an external power supply.

The point that I was trying to make is that I am sure that the OP and Apple went through the appropriate steps including the most basic i.e. swapping cables, etc.

It turns out that I was correct since the OP confirmed it in his most recent post.

 

[ActionableMango]

I believe you that it is hardware problem. I personally have had a FW port go bad on a HDD enclosure. Fortunately the enclosure had two ports for daisy chaining, so I could still use the other port.

However, I don't think you can completely rule out software unless you hooked up a bootable FW drive and it didn't show up in the boot options. Anything not working after boot could be software related.

 

[Microstudio]

Now every time I put the Mac Mini to sleep it turns off and in order to turn it back on I have to unplug it and plug it back it and then it starts up. This is odd, in that I have had this computer for 1 1/2 years with no problems, last week I upgraded to the latest OSX and everything was fine.

I then everything off, unplug everything, rearrange and then hookup everything. The one thing I know is that everything did not get hooked up into the same port..ie. I have 4 subs.

Reading about how the OSX PRAM works and now this I am starting to think it could be the PRAM battery?

 

[justperry]

The point that I was trying to make is that I am sure that the OP and Apple went through the appropriate steps including the most basic i.e. swapping cables, etc.

It turns out that I was correct since the OP confirmed it in his most recent post.

1. It wasn't until the post just under yours when he mentioned Apple.

2. As if the so called geniuses know all.

3. Two post under yours someone agrees with me.

4. Have a known to be working FW disk and right away connect it to the Mac Mini and hold Option, if it does not show up it's a HW problem, if it does show up it's software.

5. If it's an external powered device and not a bus powered one the Power Supply can be fried.

Now every time I put the Mac Mini to sleep it turns off and in order to turn it back on I have to unplug it and plug it back it and then it starts up. This is odd, in that I have had this computer for 1 1/2 years with no problems, last week I upgraded to the latest OSX and everything was fine.

I then everything off, unplug everything, rearrange and then hookup everything. The one thing I know is that everything did not get hooked up into the same port..ie. I have 4 subs.

Reading about how the OSX PRAM works and now this I am starting to think it could be the PRAM battery?

I am not too aware of PRAM batteries going bad and what problems they cause but it might be the case, you should be able to find guides on iFixit.com which shows you how to do it, I will get you a link soon, I will edit this post.

Before going ahead with exchanging I would recommend to reset SMC first.

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

There are two different A1347 Models 2010 and 2011

Installing Mac Mini Mid 2010 PRAM Battery

Installing Mac Mini Mid 2011 PRAM Battery

 

[Mojo1]

I'm not clear about what you are so worked-up about... And don't bother trying to explain it because I'm not interested.

Why don't you just let it go...