Another Mac OS X 10.4.3 follow-up: FireWire device issues; Optical disc mounting; more
Another Mac OS X 10.4.3 follow-up: FireWire device issues; Optical disc mounting; more
We continue to wrap up Mac OS X 10.4.3 issues, following the publication of our special report two weeks ago, and a epilogue (including stability poll results) last week.
FireWire devices not mounting In our special report, we outlined a number of FireWire device/port problems, including an inability to mount drives, recognize other accessories, or even a complete lapse in function from the ports themselves.
Two workarounds have proved widely successful in most cases -- re-applying the Mac OS X 10.4.3 combo updater and updating drive firmware. Other workarounds with varying success include resetting NVRAM, and mounting drives through the Terminal
However, some users are still having problems despite attempts at all of the published workarounds.
MacFixIt reader Emily was only able to resurrect FireWire connectivity by reverting to an earlier version of Mac OS X, as also suggested in our special report:
"I read the article that you have on FireWire devices not mounting since upgrading to 10.4.3. I have tried all of the solutions suggested by people and nothing has worked. I am using a PowerMac G4 867 dual. I have a LaCie 160 GB external hard drive as well as a 30 GB photo iPod. They are both powered by my FireWire but are not recognized by the computer. In System Profiler, when I click on FireWire, I get the spinning ball for awhile and then there is no info given. In Disk Utility it also does not show up. I connected both devices to a powerbook running 10.3.9 and they connected and mounted fine. I have reverted back to 10.2, 10.3, 10.4.2 and back again to 10.4.3 and in all instances the devices were powered but not recognized."
MacFixIt reader John Prokos found that some of his FireWire-based partitions were mysteriously locked after the update. A problem remedied by simply unlocking the partitions from the Finder's "Get Info" window (John used a more complex method of logging in as the root user and changing permissions).
John writes:
"I had a similar problem with my FireWire LaCie Big Disk. I have three partitions. I could only get one of them to mount after the Mac OS X 10.4.3 update. During the update the drive was unplugged but aliases of the three partitions were on my desktop and later I noticed that two were locked. The one partition that did mount after the update was the one that was unlocked. However, that's not all. On the three partitions the privileges were different. The partition that mounted had normal privileges, the other two I had changed to prevent other users on my computer from accessing them. It wasn't until I logged in under root that I was able to see all three partitions and reset their privileges to normal that they all mounted under my user account. My problem was solved. I am not sure which circumstance contributed to the problem or if it was a combination but it's fixed now."
Meanwhile, MacFixIt reader Brian reports a conflict between devices only apparent under Mac OS X 10.4.3:
"I have a weird issue with my LaCie d2 Triple Interface drive, which is connected using FW 800. Whenever it is connected, I cannot use my DV camcorder in iMovie. If I look in the system profiler while the LaCie is connected it only shows: FireWire Bus: Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec
"Nothing else! When I disconnect the drive, everything works as expected. This began when I updated to 10.4.3. I have emailed LaCie to see if they are aware of any issues with 10.4.3."
Users experiencing problems similar to Brian's may want to try some of the suggestions listed in our tutorial "Minimizing FireWire (iPod, iSight) interference".
Disc mounting Users are also reporting continuing problems with mounting optical media after the update.
MacFixIt reader George Jaeger writes:
"Since upgrading to X.4.3 on my iMac G4 blank CD's refuse to mount on the desktop, whereas burnt or music CD's will. I have repaired permissions, run DiskWarrior and reinstalled the combo-update, to no avail. To test the issue further I then erased a CD containing some photos (which had shown up on the desktop) . As soon as it was erased with Disk Utility it disappeared and refused to remount. It did, nevertheless, continue to appear in Disk Utility."
Fan problems and re-applying the combo updater Scott Richardson reports excessive fan activity after the update that was resolved, as suggested, by re-running the Mac OS X 10.4.3 combo updater:
"I'm running a PowerMac G5 2.3GHz. I don't know if you are still tracking this fan problem or not, but after installing the 10.4.3 Combo, my Radon X800 Video Card fan started to make a lot more noise than it did before. Apple was out and replaced the drive bay sensor, but that did not fix anything.
"The problem was fixed by reinstalling 10.4.0 TIger, then applying the 10.4.3 Combo Update. I am running quiet again. The ATI ROM Xtender is not installed, because that does not come with 10.4.3, and I did not want to mess up anything by installing the ATI drivers over this."
Displays not sleeping Nick Pappas reports problems with display sleep after the update:
"Perhaps this is a coincidence, but since installing the Mac OS X 10.4.3 update, my 20" Apple Cinema LCD display won't go to sleep. I have energy saver set to:
- Never put the computer to sleep,
- start screen saver after 15 minutes
- put display to sleep after 30 minutes
- do not put hard disks to sleep.
If you are having a similar issue, please let us know.
Resources