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basslik

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 22, 2008
463
103
Have no idea how this quit working out of the blue. Tested all ports, front & back. Via OWC external firewire drive, which works when plugged into the USB ports.

Can RomTool fix the problem ?, thanks
 

Ludacrisvp

macrumors 6502a
May 14, 2008
797
363
Have no idea how this quit working out of the blue. Tested all ports, front & back. Via OWC external firewire drive, which works when plugged into the USB ports.

Can RomTool fix the problem ?, thanks
Why is this a warning?
what do you think RomTool is going to do for you?
id find it much more likely that the external drive has a failure in the firewire bus or even more likely the cable has a fault vs the Mac having The issue.
what Mac do you have?
 

basslik

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 22, 2008
463
103
Thanks for chiming in
Ludacrisvp

I had to ask, since I tried looking up help trying to resolve this issue. Tried everything I could find. Reset NVRAM, unplug overnight, hold button in for 5 seconds, etc.

I know it's not the OWC hardrive, cause it works on my 2010 Mac pro on the firewire ports. So I gather cable and firewire bus okay I would imagine.

Please forgive but I don't know much about Mac's.
 

Ludacrisvp

macrumors 6502a
May 14, 2008
797
363
Well that's an important detail to leave out that it works on a different Mac Pro using the same firewire cable.
Have you tried the triple pram reset boot?
(the pram reset 3x in a row without letting it boot in the middle)
Have you tried removing any optional component in the Mac to see if there is some interaction happening?
Do you have OpenCore installed?
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,455
13,602
Mac Pro Firewire and Ethernet controllers have totally separated and independent SPI flashes for firmware/option ROM.

ROMTool only can re-flash the BootROM SPI flash and it's useless for any Ethernet or FireWire firmware problems.

Ethernet can be re-flashed by an ancient and very difficult to obtain Intel DOS tool, never saw anything for the TI FireWire controller.
 

basslik

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 22, 2008
463
103
Thanks folks.

I tried something crazy, and started with a fresh install going way back to Leopard, and the same thing (Warning unable to list firewire devices). I kept moving forward and installed Snow Leopard and I be darn it populated

What's up with that ?

Missing files that were only in earlier OS >?

I'll see if it disappears when I update to Lion.
 

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KeesMacPro

macrumors 65816
Nov 7, 2019
1,453
596
I kept moving forward and installed Snow Leopard and I be darn it populated

What's up with that ?

Missing files that were only in earlier OS >?

I'll see if it disappears when I update to Lion.


It shows FIREWALL not FIREWIRE in the picture post #6.....
 
Last edited:
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basslik

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 22, 2008
463
103
Darn I feel stupid LOL.

Got to be the firewire bus fried. Odered a PCI firewire card from eBay, that should work.
 

basslik

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 22, 2008
463
103
Well it appears the firewire is shot.

Can anyone recommend a decent old PCI firewire card for my 2008 mac pro ?, thanks.
 

basslik

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 22, 2008
463
103
How about the card you ordered on Tuesday? :rolleyes:
Didn't work. The listing said Mac OS, but when I received it the packaging had all windows logos, but no Mac on the box. Didn't think much of it, but when I installed it on boot spit out alot of code bla bla bla stuff om the top left corner and wouldn't boot.

ELIATER PCIe Firewire Card for Windows 10, IEEE 1394 PCI Express Controller 4 Ports(3 x 6 Pin and 1 x 4 Pin), 1394a Firewire 800 Adapter for Windows 7/8/Mac OS with Low Profile Bracket and Cable by ELIATER
 

basslik

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 22, 2008
463
103
Didn't work. The listing said Mac OS, but when I received it the packaging had all windows logos, but no Mac on the box. Didn't think much of it, but when I installed it on boot it spit out alot of code bla bla bla stuff on the top left corner and wouldn't boot, but apple logo there.

ELIATER PCIe Firewire Card for Windows 10, IEEE 1394 PCI Express Controller 4 Ports(3 x 6 Pin and 1 x 4 Pin), 1394a Firewire 800 Adapter for Windows 7/8/Mac OS with Low Profile Bracket and Cable by ELIATER
 
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