[G5] Firewire Kernel Panic - 1.8 Ghz. G5.

[RR]

Seems my G5 tower has a nasty little problem with the front panel 
firewire port.

- I plug in my iPod (20gig) and perform a sync using the firewire port, 
everything goes fine.  Then, eject the iPod and disconnect the cable.  
After about 5 seconds... kernel panic.  The logs clearly implicate only 
the firewire driver.

- If I eject the iPod but leave it connected to the firewire port, it 
doesn't crash the G5.

- Interestingly, I recently updated the firmware on the iPod using 
firewire.  When the iPod shutdown and rebooted (while still connected 
to the G5), the G5 crashed with the same kernel panic.

- I can leave the iPod mounted or ejected-but-connected on the G5 all 
day.

- This behavior does not occur when I connect the iPod using USB.

Since the reboot of the iPod crashed the G5, I'm thinking the firewire 
port is probably physically damaged and is sensitive to sourcing power 
to external devices. When the power draw from the port is "removed", 
the chipset gags.  I've read where the firewire chipset apple uses can 
be blown, however I haven't read about this failure mode before.

Anybody familiar with firewire problems like this?

OSX 10.3.9
1.25Gb
single processor Tower (late 2004 model)