[G4] External firewire device surprise unmount

[Harry Freeman]

Greetings ( + )!( + )

What is your console log file saying when this happens?
Open and monitor the console and system log files.
You'll find the "console" in ~disk/Applications/Utilities

Harry
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On Jul 19, 2008, at 12:15 AM, Robert Pearson wrote:

> Recently my Quicksilver 2002 (upgraded to 1.4 ghz, 1.5 GB. 10.4.11)  
> has started some peculiar behavior. First, the mouse and/or keyboard  
> would suddenly not be connected. I use a crappy, cheap USB hub, so  
> that's not a problem. I unplug and replug the hub. Problem solved.  
> Now, though, my external firewire drive has begun disconnecting for  
> no reason I can see. I will hear a click, and then I get an error  
> message that a device has been removed without unmounting it. I  
> didn't know what was happening until yesterday when I caught the  
> drive's icons (I've got it in two partitions, one backs up my  
> system) disappearing and then reappearing.
>
> I unmounted the drive, turned it off, unplugged the cable and the  
> power cord completely and then carefully re-seated both at both  
> ends. Then I turned the device one. A few minutes later, I got  
> another unmount error. .
>
> The conjunction of these disturbs me. Have I got a mac that's about  
> to die, or could there be another culprit? The firewire drive is  
> plugged into one of the mac's own firewire sockets: even though I've  
> a Suite Multiport, it and the drive don't get along anymore. I have  
> no idea why; their disagreement started eight months ago when I had  
> to move the multiport card to another PCI slot to put in a 'deep  
> case' fan that fits in a PCI slot when I upgraded the video card to  
> a Geforce 6200 to handle the heat. The multiport uses jumper cables  
> to hood to the mac's system and I've had to disconnect the firewire  
> one. The USB jumper is with all my other devices on a USB 2.0 card I  
> have installed.  I have sleep turned off, since my quicksilver  
> didn't do well with it before the GeForce card was installed, and  
> now it can cause drives to hang, and the monitor absolutely refuses  
> to sleep ever since I moved the PCI cards around to install the fan.  
> (Monitor sleep worked when I first put the new vidcard on. Go  
> figure.) Ordinarily the unmount seems to happen about once a day,  
> and usually at night, or when the drives are idle
>
> The drive is currently sitting atop the mac. Could this cause a  
> problem? (I hope not, as I've no idea where in hell else I'd put it,  
> but I may try moving it anyway.
>
> I have no other firewire device, period. The conjunction of this and  
> the USB failure is what I find particularly disturbing. Is this  
> coincidence or is something very, very wrong? Is there any sort of  
> hardware test that could help me work this out?
>
>
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