iMac Core Duo, firewire-audio and firewire-hd. don't work??

BlueLakeCosmo · Post by **BlueLakeCosmo** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:11 am

Hi,

today I found this alarming post in the Apple Discussions:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jsp ... 3&tstart=0

"Well, my conclusion after two months of fighting with the Intel iMac it's that's a cool and expensive toy to have in a fancy restaurant handling the guest list. For any serious work on audio or video just STAY AWAY FROM IT!!!
The USB and FW ports are a joke. They work, yeah, sort of, but if you have more than a mouse and the keyboard connected at the same time it's not good. First I connected an MBox 2 and I could make it work with iTunes but that was it. As soon as I begin to use FCP it crashes the computer. The same with QT and sometimes even Safari. "Ok, its was the MBox", I said to myself after hardware and memory tests, reinstalling OS from scratch, wasting hours on the phone with Digidesign and Apple. I return the MBox (USB) and got an Ultralite (FireWire). I got iTunes working and FCP too, but if I use an external hard drive connected via FireWire (on the other port, of course) the sound it's full of clicks and noise and FCP simply don't run.
I took the machine to the store and the guys at Apple told me everything it's OK, that it's a problem with the hard drives... and the MBox... and the UltraLite... and everything that it's connected on any USB and/or FW port. Bottom line, the Intel iMac it's not made to handle various peripherals at the same time. It's just too much fot it, poor thing."

Well, I cannot belive that! I thought the new iMacs are faster than the old G5s.

I'm asking because I'm going to buy an iMac Core 2 Duo which I plan to use as a DAW with my 828, DP5 and GB and an external lacie harddrive.

Is it really true that the Intel iMacs have serious firewire bus problems?
You know I'm working with a PB G4 with FW-800 and 400 and it's fine . . .
The hd is on the FW-800 port, but it does work the other way round.

Is the Intel iMac different under this conditions? Not an audio pro machine?

Anyone here with an Intel iMac and external fw-audio and fw-hd?

homebilly · Post by **homebilly** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:57 am

the problem is the power of the FW ports. if you power the FW interface with it's power adapter the problems will go away.

i have a Firebox and i had problems powering it and another drive at the same time. as soon as i used it's power supply all problems disappeared.

the way to reboot the ports on the iMac is to disconnect all cables from computer and let sit for 5 minutes. your ports will come back.

this has been a problem as far back as the cube.

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:53 am

on Any mac USB port, I;ve never been able to put more than 2 items on it before I get low power warnings. I have used hubs Since 2002.

Apple didnt design the USB port to POWER all your devices. More than one non powered device on the firewire port, same issues, so i use a hub on that as well.....

BlueLakeCosmo · Post by **BlueLakeCosmo** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 3:45 pm

I'm glad to know this is only an electric power problem of bus-powered devices that need a lot of power like hard drives and audio-interfaces and not a problem of not getting enough data per second through the firewire.
Strangley enough none of the guys at the Apple Discussions found the solution!
Thanks.

4ace · Post by **4ace** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:53 pm

I have the intel 2.0ghz model with an ultralite and an external 120 gig hd connected to mine and it works perfectly.