computer woes

[gilana]

A few days ago, my power went out and then came back on.  When my computer re-booted, my external hard drive declined to mount.  It seems to be getting power just fine, and I tried switching the firewire cable to the other port on the back, but nothing helps.  Thought maybe it was just the cable, but then I noticed that my iPod isn't mounting, either, so I think both firewire ports on my computer may be fried.  Does anyone know how I can tell, and what, if anything, I can do about that?  It's an old iMac G4.  I may just take this as a sign to finally get a new computer, something I've been wanting to do for ages, but thought I'd see if the LJ masses had any suggestions first.  Thanks!

Comments

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

not mounting? perhaps they're just not feeling very frisky. ;)

[ckd]

If you can find the hardware diagnostics CD (or DVD...I don't remember which one those shipped with; it might also be on the Mac OS X disc that came with the machine), you can boot from that and run various tests. Those should include a quick Firewire check to see if the ports show up at all.

Unfortunately, if they are dead, I think it requires a logic board replacement to fix.

[lordfeepness.livejournal.com]

That's no fun! One way to tell if it's your firewire ports is to try connecting your iPod and external drive to somebody else's computer. If they mount on another system, then your iMac is, regrettably, probably fried.

What's with the power out here, anyway? I fried an entire TiVo a while back under exactly the same circumstances.

[johnromkey.livejournal.com]

Try resetting your PRAM ... hold down CMD-OPTION-P-R when you reboot. There's something else you can try to reset when you reboot, too, but I can't remember what right now...

[gilana]

Good thought, but no dice. Sigh. Let me know if you remember the other one...

[earthling177.livejournal.com]

This may be too late either because you fixed it or because you got a new machine, but PowerPC machines (I don't think it works on Intel Macs) let you get into OpenFirmware by pressing command-option-o-f when you boot. You get a prompt and you can type commands to it, I believe that reset-all might work. Then you type reboot, I think. I'd reboot the machine after that anyway.

Also, try to unplug everything (power, peripherals) from the machine for a couple of minutes, then put it back up and reboot. That tends to reset some fuses in the laptops at the very least, it wouldn't surprise me if it worked on the desktops too.

(Sorry for this late response, but I'm way behind my reading, just saw this.)

Good luck!

[gilana]

Thanks! As it turns out, I ordered a new machine (designing on this one has just been too painful, and that was the last straw that made me say it was time), but I also managed to fix the old one -- the Apple genius suggested I unplug it for a minute, turn it back on and hold down the power button until I heard a long tone. When it came back up the firewire drives mounted just fine!

[earthling177.livejournal.com]

Yay on both counts (new machine and fixed machine)!

And it's a neat new (to me) trick to know, thanks!