[X4U] Firewire Target Disk Mode - Can it disable a machine?

[Stephen Lanza]

I tried to use a Titanium Powerbook G4 running Mac OS X 10.4.1 in firewire
target disk mode today. I connected it to a Powermac G4 Desktop running
10.3.9 and started up the Powermac G4 Desktop.

The Powermac G4 Desktop system came up and the startup items began to start
up. Out of the blue, I got one of those dark grey screens (kernal panic)
informing me to power down the machine and restart it. Since I have gotten
this screen infrequently in the past, I held down the power button for 5 to
10 seconds and the machine powered down.

I then tried to restart the machine by powering it up and, to my surprise,
it did not come up. I didn't even get the startup chime.

I then powered the machine down again and disconnected all of the connecting
cables to power, firewire devices, usb devises, network, etc.

Again I tried to power the machine backup to no avail. The system seems to
be dead. No startup chime or anything.

Does anyone have an idea of what happened? In reading the manual on target
disk mode it does make the point that the machine being connected to must
have FireWire version 2.3.3 installed. Is this only for Mac OS 9?

The apple web page describing 2.3.3 states:

FireWire 2.3.3 fixes three problems that may be experienced by customers who
are presently using FireWire 2.3 or an earlier version:
 Certain DV camcorders will no longer lose their connection or crash the
computer when importing video using applications such as Final Cut Pro or
iMovie.
 Mac OS will no longer hang while booting if certain FireWire hard disk
drives are connected.
 Certain systems using multiple FireWire hard disk drives will no longer
hang during heavy disk activity.

Since I am NOT getting the startup chime I don't think I am getting even
this far.

It looks like I need to bring it to a Apple Service Center.

Any ideas at all would be appreciated. Thanks.

Stephen Lanza
Software Complement