[X4U] FW800 Ext drive issues waking from sleep

[Brett Conlon]

Hiya,

This email comes as kind of a question but also a warning.

I purchased an Ice-cube case (aluminium one) with a Seagate 500GB drive in 
it. When I first plugged it in the drive came up as expected. Xfered many 
gigs to it, did several hours work on it...

When I put the 15" AlBook to sleep and later woke it the drive would not 
spin up. I tried turning power off to the unit, disconnecting all 
cables... everything but could not get the drive to respond.

Pulled the case apart, disconnected everything and tried connecting it 
(with case still apart) but nothing. Rebooted the Mac and even shut it 
down and started it up still nothing. Sighed heavily and put the case back 
together.

As a last attempt I connected it once more and up she spun. I copied 
everything new I did off it and tried putting the Mac to sleep again as a 
test. Sure enough I couldn't wake it again.

Told the reseller, he tried the same with a new case & drive and it woke 2 
times with the Mac but on the third it failed to wake - just like mine. He 
tried everything, as I did but couldn't get it to spin up.

He talked with the supplier of the case and they suspect the power 
supplies that are delivered with the unit may not be responding well to 
the waking computer's "power spike" and are cutting off. They recommended 
not putting the computer to sleep when the drive was connected - I laughed 
and said, "Not a chance, you have to get this functioning under normal 
parameters."

Has anyone else had similar experiences.... got any words of wisdom?

I was thinking that perhaps the auto-spin jumpers may have to be set so 
the drive just spins all the time when the power is on, but that'll chew 
more power for me in the long run...

Cheers,

Coj