Technical Support
Date: October 31, 2003
Subject: FireWire 800 and Mac OS X 10.3 Panther

Apple has identified an issue in which an External FireWire 800 Drive may no longer mount or function on any computer or OS after a reboot on Mac OS 10.3 'Panther'.

This problem only seems to appear with Mac OS 10.3 and the external Firewire drive if it is connected to the computer during boot up. It is suspected that the problem is related to Panther and an earlier firmware version of the Oxford 922 chipset (v1.02). This is not confirmed yet by Oxford Semiconductor but to prevent any future data loss we recommend following steps:

  1. Backup all your data now
  2. Upgrade the firmware (Oxford 922 chipset only)
  3. Always disconnect the external hard drive before shut down/start up of Mac OS 10.3
  4. Only connect the external drive after the system has booted up
  5. Do not connect any external drives when installing the new OS 10.3
  6. Check for OS upgrades frequently

Firmware Upgrade

To see what firmware version is used on your device and to upload the latest version, we have prepared an updater utility for Mac. A few points before downloading this utility:

  1. Upgrade has to be done via Firewire, 1394a (9-6pin cable) or 1394b (Firewire 800) connections are both OK.
  2. Hard Drive does not have to be connected, bridge board and power supply is sufficient for the firmware upgrade.
  3. Follow the installation instructions on the Readme file after you have downloaded the file below.

  • Download 922 updater for Mac