<blockquote>Hi - new here - hope I can help others, as the errors I always have appear to be insoluable - yet one lives in hope...

After downloading Mac OS 10.4.6 Tiger update onto my Powermac G4 Quicksilver Dual 1 GHz, I discovered I could no longer read or write data to or from an external FireWire Drive, giving the error:

The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "NAME OF FILE(S)" could not be read or written. (Error code -36).

The FireWire Drive and all its contents could be seen. I could mount and dismount, just no copying. Not even a 4 kilobyte file would copy.

After running Tech Tool Pro, Disk Warrior and Disk Utilities from Boot Disc, and seeing no problems, I decided on a Clean Install.

My Powermac G4 Quicksilver has three Hard Drives, one for Mac OS 9.2.2, one for Panther 10.3.6, and one for Tiger 10.4.6. As no external FireWire Drive would work with any of them, I erased all with a 3 pass ASCII wipe and a 7 Pass Tiger wipe to make absolutely certain there could be no stubborn Bad Blocks, and then reinstalled each Mac OS.

After installing the basic Mac OS 10.4 on the third HD, I tried plugging an external FireWire drive in, and it reappeared with exactly the same error:

The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "NAME OF FILE(S)" could not be read or written. (Error code -36).

The same error occurred with second HD running Panther 10.3 - and Mac OS 9.2.2 simply froze.

FireWire Cables were replaced. No change. Same error.
External FireWire Drives tested on my other machines: No problems.

Then I tried another test. I had split my LaCie d2 250 GB External Drive into two partitions, one for storage and the other with a full Tiger 10.4.2 OS on it. Plugged this external FireWire Drive into the Powermac and told it to Startup off Mac OS 10.4.2 on the LaCie Drive. Then plugged a 20 GB LaCie Pocket FireWire Drive into the Powermac G4... no problems! No errors! No I/O Finder error!

But naturally... this is useless. I couldn't keep booting up off my LaCie's Tiger Partition just to copy something.

I then unwittingly discovered that if I pulled out the iSight Camera, everything worked perfectly. No errors. Read / Write - perfect!

Uh huh!

It's something to do with the iSight Camera. Tested iSight's FireWire Cable: No Problem! Must be the iSight Camera itself?!

Used in iChat, Yahoo and Mercury, the iSight Camera certainly does its job, as it always did... before Mac OS 10.4.6 was loaded and installed.

OK - fine - I can live with plugging my iSight Camera in only when I'm conferencing, if that's the problem... yet - if I plug the iSight and one of my external FireWire drives into another machine - there's no error code -36. It will only occur with the Powermac G4 QuickSilver.

What's the conclusion?

All external FireWire drives, FireWire cables, FireWire ports and the iSight Camera are fully functional.

Pure speculation: What has Mac OS 10.4.6 done to my Powermac G4's logic board? New firmware? Something that once installed can't be changed, regardless of what one does?

:blink:

Any comments would be appreciated.

There's a second problem, possibly connected with this - under Title: Dual Layer SuperDrive Problem.

Cheers,

ClockWork </blockquote>[indent]

Are you using a FireWire PCI card? If so check firmware updates for that, and unplug & reseat it. Try unplugging power form the machine for 15 minutes. Zap the PRAM. Update iSight firmware.

Good luck!

Are you using a FireWire PCI card? If so check firmware updates for that, and unplug & reseat it. Try unplugging power form the machine for 15 minutes. Zap the PRAM. Update iSight firmware.

Good luck!


Hi symean,

No PCI Card. All usual tests including zap. iSight Update 1.3.1 only available to Panther. Problem occuring on all HDs in Powermac G4: Mac OS 9.2.2, Mac OS 10.3.9, Mac OS 10.4.5 (and yeah - I got paranoid when Clean Installing and didn't put Mac OS 10.4.6 back on Tiger HD again).

PS: Uploaded an image when I joined the AppleTalk forum. How do I make it appear in my posts?

Cheers,

ClockWork

Firewire ports in older G4's are notorious for wearing out and eventually burning out. Get yourself a powered Firewire hub. When you have the iSight plugged in, you're pulling too much power from your FW port. A powered FW hub will cure this. And in the unlikely event it doesn't get yourself a FW PCI card as well.

Hi,

Yes - installed PatchBurn - for both Panther Drive and Tiger Drive - no bananas.

I still haven't carried out a test with a DL DVD+R, as I noticed iLife '06's DL DVD Installer
uses that - but I have to wait as I'm some distance from a store and have a flu coupled
with no transport.

What I'm really afraid of, is that Tiger Update 10.4.6 has actually altered firmware irreversably.

Am I paranoid. Well naturally!

The Powermac G4 is solely used for graphics. I don't even collect e-mail from there, and it's used constantly,
so when Update 10.4.6 went in, several things were noticed. DL DVD burning not compatible with any other
machine. FireWire Ports go strange when iSight Camera is connected. Ooo! One more: attached Logitec Speakers don't work anymore. This was all discovered in one day - the day 10.4.6 went in.
Since then, I've Clean Installed and won't go over Mac OS 10.4.5 - but if what's done is done, I'm in a certain canoo going up a certain creek.

Do I appear to have it in for 10.4.6?

Is Bush an "intellectchurral"?

Will get back after DL DVD+R Test.

Cheers

CW

Since installing 10.4.6 on my G4 1.67 PB I've had problems with Firewire too. My iSight no longer works at all in this computer and it just so happens that my firewire laptopdrop enclosure not longer works either...

Not happy

but are they similar FireWire / iSight Camera problems?

ie: does your external drive mount on your Desktop, and does your iSight do it's job in iChat / Yahoo?

I am trying to find a pattern of events here, and as a Mac Troubleshooter in Sydney, so far - customers who do the upgrade to Mac OS 10.4.6 have expressed the following "new" problems:

• AirPort Express stops transmitting
• Abobe Photoshop CS 2 won't open any more.
• Excel in Microsoft Office 2004, suddenly vanishes after 5 minutes without error mesage.
• Mouse cursor won't appear.

And there would be plenty of profit if the solution were to down-grade back to Mac OS 10.4.5, yet as I have tried this with my own Powermac G4 Quicksilver, it does not appear to make a scarp of difference.

I am beginning to strongly suspect that Mac OS 10.4.6 adds new FirmWare to a logic board, and no amount of Clean Installing or down-grading is going to change this.

Could you kindly elaborate on the errors you are having regarding FireWire and iSight?

Cheers,

ClockWork

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ClockWork @ May 31 2006, 03:44 PM) [snapback]177712[/snapback]</div>Hi - this was a problem I had a while back - now reposting to bring closure to the problem, which was that I could burn Dual Layer DVDs on my PMG4 but then these data DVDs couldn't be mounted on any other machine except for my PowerMac.

Answer - it was the DL DVDs - in my case anyway! Was using "Verbatim DVD-R DL". Success with using "TDK DVD+R DL". Very likely nothing to do with brands though - only DVD+R DL verses DVD-R DL.

Positive out-come with Disk Utlity (Image from Folder -> Image Format: DVD/CD Master , Encription: None -> Save) + PatchBurn 4.0.1 + Toast Titanium 7, and of course - DVD+R DL.

Have not addressed the issue with my FireWire Ports - regarding FireWire Hub or FireWire PCI card - as I am too slack, yet none of it has been forgotten.

Yah!

Cheers,

ClockWork

What chipset is the firewire drive? Some, such as the Oxford 9XX series can be firmware updated. This is actually necessary if the drive is to continue working properly in the future.

It's possible, though, that the firewire ports have blown. Hot-plugging drives in G4's often killed the Firewire.

Hi Currawong,

Not a FireWire Drive. I removed the former SuperDrive, and replaced it with a Pioneer DL SuperDrive - which now appears to be burning decent DL DVD+R data discs.

The twin FireWire Ports do work - but not if an iSight Camera is plugged into one of them and an External FireWire Drive plugged into the other. iSight finctions perfectly - and External FireWire Drive does mount on the Desktop, yet - if I try to copy info to or from it, it comes up with an I/O error -36: Corrupted Data.

BUT... if I pull out the iSight Camera, external FireWire Drives work perfectly and flawlessly, hence the former references from Spectre, that I should either purchase a FireWire Hub or FireWire PCI Card or possibly both.

(iSight Camera works dandy as lion too - either on its own or with another FireWire device plugged in next to it).

cheers Currawong,

ClockWork

Another problem they had - they tended to be flakey, even up to the MDD series, when you had bus-powered deviced plugged into them. Two bus-powered HD's simply wouldn't work reliably.

Check what chipset the external FW drive is, either in the System Profiler or by opening the case. Maybe it needs a firmware update.

Firewire is really serialised SCSI, so it can have conflicts and issues just like SCSI can, but since you can't manually fix it, a bad device can make life hell. Most of the time it's either dodgy cheap Chinese brands or old firmware.

Okay - if I attach one of my two FW external Drives to either of my FW Ports - do I then go into System Profiler and look under FireWire - to see the chipset?

cheers Currawong,

CW

Correct - it should be indicated. If not, it's possibly one you can't update.

Currawong,

System Profiler has this to say when connecting my LaCie d2 - (note, it has two partitions - Storage and Tiger):

LaCie d2 Extreme LUN 0:

Manufacturer: LaCie Group SA
Model: 0x0
GUID: 0xD04BF10502FECD
Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec
Connection Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec
Sub-units:
LaCie d2 Extreme LUN 0 Unit:
Unit Software Version: 0x10483
Unit Spec ID: 0x609E
Firmware Revision: 0x102
Product Revision Level: 3.01
Sub-units:
LaCie d2 Extreme LUN 0 SBP-LUN:
Capacity: 186.31 GB
Removable Media: Yes
BSD Name: disk4
OS9 Drivers: Yes
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
Storage:
Capacity: 126.19 GB
Available: 80.17 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk4s10
Mount Point: /Volumes/Storage
Tiger:
Capacity: 59.87 GB
Available: 50.66 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk4s12
Mount Point: /Volumes/Tiger


Chipset - or no go?

cheers,

cw

They edited the firmware to say "Lacie" instead of the chipset. Looks like you're pulling open the case. Though I gather Lacie use Oxford 9XX chipsets usually, unless they've changed.

In the case, you'll hopefully see something like this: