My external FW800 drives no longer mount when connected to the Mini.

I connected them via USB 2.0 which was one interface option and the drives mount fine that way.
So that eliminates the drives themselves as beeing pooched.

Until this morning, I assumed that the FW800 interfcae on the externals was gone - the FW800 cable sometimes connects by itself - but then I decided, what if the Mini port is kaput.

I had a MacBook pro with a FW800 port, plugged the FW800 cable from the external in there and the drives mounted instantly.
So that really eliminates both the external as well as the FW800 cable leaving the FW800 port on the Mini as the problem.

Tried running the hardware test on the Mini, no clue if that tests the FW800 port as well, but...

The basic test passed, then tried to run the extended test and it froze at 8 minutes 34 seconds into the memory testing.

So then I thought - don't tell me I have a memory problem as well, decided to run Rember to check the memory, but Rember doesn't even see the RAM.

Trip to the Genius Bar is in order especially since the Mini is still under warranty, but is there something else I can use to either test the FW800 port, which started all this and also the RAM which I'm beginning to wonder about since the memory test froze during the extended Apple hardware test.

Hardware test I used is the one that comes up when one holds down the "D" key when booting up.
Software is 10.6.8, Mini is a 2.53 GHz unit

Is the FireWire showing or giving any indication that there's not anything amiss in the System Profiler?

But it probably doesn't tell you if it's working or not. :(

I checked System Profiler earlier - with nothing plugged into the FW800 port, both the Mini and the MBpro show the same thing - just the bus speed up to 800 Mb/s.

If I have the external plugged in, the MBp shows the nitty fritty details of the external drive, the Mini still only shows the bus speed.

Rember btw now shows the RAM after I downloaded the latest version.
I think I'll run a RAM test over night just in case the RAM is flakey as well.

It sounds like you need to do your "Trip to the Genius Bar is in order especially since the Mini is still under warranty" thing.

can you try using the mini or macbook pro in target disk mode?

attach them via the fw800 cable. restart one while holding down 't'.

What makes you think the extended test froze? Rember looks nice, but is an intrinsically flawed program. As it runs with the full OS and UI loaded, there's memory it can't access to test; I've seen Rember report bad memory when it's not and good memory when it's not!

What makes you think the extended test froze? Rember looks nice, but is an intrinsically flawed program. As it runs with the full OS and UI loaded, there's memory it can't access to test; I've seen Rember report bad memory when it's not and good memory when it's not!

same. its like basing a diagnosis of "good" on a disk utility verification. I've seen drives that are clicking that disk utility says are ok lol

It sounds like you need to do your "Trip to the Genius Bar is in order especially since the Mini is still under warranty" thing.

Called Apple tech support today, mostly to find out if I should bring anything other than the Mini itself to the Genius Bar.
Turns out I had my years wrong - I have actually had the Mini for 18 months rather than 6 months which I thought originally - how time flies....
So it's no longer under warranty and I didn't get Apple Care for the desktop.

Probably not worth paying anyone to fix that FW800 problem I decided, I'll just limp along with USB 2.0 ports which all my externals have.

Then googled for a minute - a bit of a discussion about FW800 ports failing on Minis after a year and a half...hmmm, same as mine.
One suggestion was to reset the SMC - didn't to anything for the guys on the Apple discussion site but I thought what the heck, it's a one minute exercise, can't harm anything.
Didn't really expect the SMC reset to "fix" the problem, but it did.
So I'm back in business with firewire - great!!!

I thought I'd post this if someone else has this problem in the future.

What makes you think the extended test froze? Rember looks nice, but is an intrinsically flawed program. As it runs with the full OS and UI loaded, there's memory it can't access to test; I've seen Rember report bad memory when it's not and good memory when it's not!

Maybe I wasn't clear....
I ran the Apple hardware extended test, first thing it does is test the RAM.
Went OK for a while and then the test failed to continue - I waited for 20 minutes and when there was no progress after 20 minutes, I broke off the Apple hardware test.
I then started to test using Rember and early in the test it came up with a message that some memory address was "stuck" or words to that effect.

Now that I reset the SMC I could test the RAM again I suppose.
Any suggestions what else I could use to test the RAM.

Good fix solution. ;)

I hadn't mentioned to use the SMC reset as you were going to go to the genius bar, but I had to do the same thing with my mid-2007 iMac a few months ago when my FW drives wouldn't connect or mount using FW 800, but would with FW 400 and/or USB 2.0. And the SMC reset worked each time. So far, it's still OK, and I hope I don't regret saying that.

...
I then started to test using Rember and early in the test it came up with a message that some memory address was "stuck" or words to that effect.

Now that I reset the SMC I could test the RAM again I suppose.
Any suggestions what else I could use to test the RAM.

If everything is working properly for you, especially under any somewhat heavy intense RAM use, I wouldn't bother running any RAM tests, and save the time to do so if and only when things might go goofy.

Maybe I wasn't clear....
I ran the Apple hardware extended test, first thing it does is test the RAM.
Went OK for a while and then the test failed to continue - I waited for 20 minutes and when there was no progress after 20 minutes, I broke off the Apple hardware test.
I then started to test using Rember and early in the test it came up with a message that some memory address was "stuck" or words to that effect.

Now that I reset the SMC I could test the RAM again I suppose.
Any suggestions what else I could use to test the RAM.

Some of those tests can take way over 20m each to progress, it likely wasn't frozen. How much RAM in the machine?

Good fix solution. ;)

I hadn't mentioned to use the SMC reset as you were going to go to the genius bar, but I had to do the same thing with my mid-2007 iMac a few months ago when my FW drives wouldn't connect or mount using FW 800, but would with FW 400 and/or USB 2.0. And the SMC reset worked each time. So far, it's still OK, and I hope I don't regret saying that.

I wonder what would have happened at the Genius Bar.................

Actually, since the SMC reset on the Mini is essentially shutting it down, unplugging the power and then booting it up again, I assume that the FW800 port would have just worked there again and I would be totally befuddled.............

Some of those tests can take way over 20m each to progress, it likely wasn't frozen. How much RAM in the machine?

4GB of RAM

As to the test - would the progress bar stop as well as the time counter?
If absolutely nothing happens at all, I normally think something is amiss.
Normally, I don't even wait 20 minutes to see if there is any progress, I was just busy doing something else and didn't get back to the Mac for that length of time.

I wonder what would have happened at the Genius Bar.................

Actually, since the SMC reset on the Mini is essentially shutting it down, unplugging the power and then booting it up again, I assume that the FW800 port would have just worked there again and I would be totally befuddled.............


Not quite.

The SMC reset requires that the power switch be used while it's unplugged or disconnected from any power power source thus draining any residual power that normally holds the settings.

Not quite.

The SMC reset requires that the power switch be used while it's unplugged or disconnected from any power power source thus draining any residual power that normally holds the settings.

Not for the Mini.

I followed these instructions from the Apple website:

Resetting the SMC for Mac Pro, Intel-based iMac, Intel-based Mac mini, or Intel-based Xserve

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer's power cord.
3. Wait fifteen seconds.
4. Attach the computer's power cord.
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

4GB of RAM

As to the test - would the progress bar stop as well as the time counter?
If absolutely nothing happens at all, I normally think something is amiss.
Normally, I don't even wait 20 minutes to see if there is any progress, I was just busy doing something else and didn't get back to the Mac for that length of time.

the more ram the longer the initial test will be. i agree with g-mo, the hardware test was most likely not frozen.

As to the test - would the progress bar stop as well as the time counter?

Yes.

All right, I'll run the test over night just to convince myself everything is fine with the RAM.

Still, 20 minutes unresponsive for 4 GB of RAM is far outside of the time I would expect for AHT if the RAM was functional.

Still, 20 minutes unresponsive for 4 GB of RAM is far outside of the time I would expect for AHT if the RAM was functional.

I don't use AHT, but I've seen a single test in the service diagnostics (Hartmann, Van de Goor, M0D3, Checkerboard, etc...) take more than 20 minutes on perfectly functional RAM.

First time I used the AHT on this Mini as well but even if the test itself takes longer than 20 minutes which is perfectly fine, I expect some indication that the test is still running. That's a very basic user interface requirement I would think.