[X4U] iSight Camera And Other FireWire Devices

[Randy B.Singer]

revDAVE said:

>A while back I heard the disturbing news about using an iSight FireWire
>camera along with other external FireWire drives. It said that using the
>iSight camera could actually damage other external FireWire drives - YOUCH!
>
> - So basically I stopped using my iSight camera ever since that time.
>
>-  has anyone else found this to be true?
>
>-   have there ever been any updates that fix this issue?
>
>- Can anyone point me to any actual information that either confirms or
>denies this issue?


See:

http://www.macattorney.com/panther.html 
Item #2

Apparently an iSight has quite an appetite for power (it draws all of its 
power from the FireWire connection) and bandwidth.  I've heard that the 
problem can be ameliorated by variously:

1) Using a higher quality FireWire cable than the one supplied with the 
iSight
2) Using a powered FireWire hub
3) Isolating the iSight on a different FireWire bus than your other 
FireWire devices (which may require that you install a FireWire PCI card, 
assuming that you have a Mac with PCI slots)

I can't tell you if any of these, or all of these together, is a total 
fix for the problem.

I have an iSight myself.  I would never plug it into my Mac at the same 
time that I have a FireWire hard drive attached and turned on.




Randy B. Singer
Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

Routine OS X Maintenance and Generic Troubleshooting
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html