Problem with Firewire Interface and 17" Macbook Pro

lummux · Post by **lummux** » Sat May 20, 2006 5:53 pm

Hi,

Just got a new, fangled macbook pro 17", and it's a beaut...

Trouble is, the Firebox seems to have a problem with bus power. If I plug in the firewire, no joy, but the blue power light flashes faintly. If I then plug in the power cord, it works fine. If I then unplug the power cord, it STILL works fine...wtf?

This has me beat...if there isn't enough power from the FW400, how come it manages to stay on after I unplug the mains?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

DJ VAKIS · Post by **DJ VAKIS** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:15 am

I also bought yesterday a firebox no problems here,works fine without powercord,only with FW.
I think you need to download the new drivers for macintel.
I am on mac G4 1.5Ghz.

DeadlyKungFu · Post by **DeadlyKungFu** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:30 am

Electronics can have 'inrush currents' where everything is powering up, reaching 'steady state' where all the electronics have settled, as chips are programmed, capacitors charge up, blah blah devices take the most juice, something like your car engine going through a warmup cycle. Try turning features down (volumes down), buttons off, LEDs off, anything that takes power, there might be enough margin for it to boot.

Sounds like the port is underpowered, try a different one.

Macs are supposed to be standard hardware, right? (I'm a PC guy) Try it on another box like yours, if the results are different, your new Mac might need to be sent in for help.

OR buy another Firebox, try it, return the one that doesn't work.

lummux · Post by **lummux** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:40 am

Thanks,

I have all the latest drivers for OS X and the firmware for the MacIntel. I would agree that turning things off could make a differnce, if I was running off the Macbook battery, but it's plugged in to power, so i think it has enough juice.

There's only 1 firewire 400 port on the macbook, there's an 800 as well. I could get a lead to convert 800 to 400, but I have read that they are on the same bus, so I expect that they will have the same power as well.

I did try to pulg it into my desktop PC and it was fine, so I'm starting to look sternly in the direction of the Macbook now.

Grrr....who'd be an early adopter?

DeadlyKungFu · Post by **DeadlyKungFu** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:48 am

One way or another your signature is about to get a little shorter.

Good luck!

lummux · Post by **lummux** » Sun May 21, 2006 1:53 pm

Ok, been to the Apple store today for further investigation.

I plugged the Firebox into three different 17" MBP's on display, each with the same result, no power, just a faintly flashing blue light.

Plugged it into a 15", and it was fine. So my guess now is that there is an issue with the firewire bus power on the 17" MBP's...

Guy at the shop was taken aback, he said he couldn't understand it because the 15" firewire is the same as the 17". But thinking back about that, the 15" don't have FW800, so maybe this is part of the issue?

Time to go to Apple with this one I think.

continuous · Post by **continuous** » Sun May 21, 2006 6:03 pm

Some discussion of this issue here...

http://www.bigbluelounge.com/forums/vie ... hp?t=29573

(towards the bottom of the first page)

lummux · Post by **lummux** » Sun May 21, 2006 6:15 pm

Hmm, very interesting...

So whose fault is this? Apple or Presonus? Can't help feeling that Apple must not have stuck with the FW spec on the 17".

continuous · Post by **continuous** » Sun May 21, 2006 6:21 pm

From the posts, it seems that some Metric Halo users are experiencing the same problems as you when trying to use bus power with the 17inch MacBook pro. hhmmm

lummux · Post by **lummux** » Sun May 21, 2006 6:25 pm

Yes, I've already emailed Presonus, I think I'll be getting on to Apple in the morning as well.

If this is a global problem, and it affects some portable hard drives as well, I could see it being really bad for Apple. It's a shame, it's my first Mac, and I love it, really impressed, apart from this bus power issue. One of the selling points of the Mac for me was bus powered FW, as it's hard to find on a laptop running XP.

lummux · Post by **lummux** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:11 am

OK, spoken to Apple about this. It's logged now, but they aren't going to do anything unless they get tons of complaints about it.

So I guess I just have to hope that there are other devices out there that will suffer the same issue, and that people complain about it.

I have let Presonus know, I'm sure that they will be interested that one of their products will not work as advertised on the 17" MBP...

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:29 am

lummux wrote:OK, spoken to Apple about this. It's logged now, but they aren't going to do anything unless they get tons of complaints about it.

So I guess I just have to hope that there are other devices out there that will suffer the same issue, and that people complain about it.

Oh Man, that sucks. But wa-hay! Apple have had crap FW on their rev1 Powerbooks before - ooh just a little thing like if you hot-swap a bus-powered device on a Tibook 400 or 500 you run the risk of shorting out the FW port due to an Apple design flaw that shunts 12V across a 3V circuit. Solution? just replace the main board at about $750USD Hahahahahahahahha. Not.

Can you tell I was one of the thousands to get burned? Me bitter? No? Ha! More lithium please, nurse.

dazzer · Post by **dazzer** » Mon May 22, 2006 11:37 am

Dude, that's bad news. sorry to hear that.

As the link showed, other people been having problems with Metric Halo on the 17" so the problem applies to more than 1 interface.

Maybe it'd be worth changing the name subject title of this thread or something so that not only people with the Presonus give it a look.

lummux · Post by **lummux** » Mon May 22, 2006 11:41 am

Good idea...done!

lummux · Post by **lummux** » Wed May 24, 2006 1:08 pm

Have now been in contcat with Presonus, who are very interested in this...

Hopefully they'll do some tests and get the same problem as me.

We'll have to wait and see...