My Macbook Black's Firewire port is faulty

Hi, i'm new to the forums. This is the story:

My macbook black

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook2,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MB21.00A5.B07
SMC Version: 1.13f3
Serial Number: 4H7123X8WGM
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

Thought i'd paste this here as i'm not sure which generation or batch this one is. I have never hotplugged the firewire port and always followed safe firewire connection procedures.

I recently purchased an M-audio Firewire 410 audio interface and got my Macbook to recognize it and it was working fine. The next time i connected it then powered up by macbook, it did not recognize the 410. I did not use the firewire port nor the 410 since the last time when it was working fine.

It's not the 410 as I can get it to work on other computers and my external hdd cannot connect to my Macbook by firewire anymore but ok by usb. It's not the cable as i got it to work on other computers with that cable and i also tried a different firewire cable to test with my Macbook.A further test with another firewire device yielded nothing so i'm suspecting that my firewire port may be faulty. The thing is, i did not use it at all after that last 410 usage and safe power down and disconnection.

How do you tell if the firewire port is faulty? In sys profiler it says up to 400 mbp/s as per normal and a cmd + s at bootup shows that its fine. I've tried resetting PRAM and NVRAM and resetting the firewire bus by removing power and the battery for 20 to 30 mins.

I'd appreciate all the help, thanks so much!

Sounds like you've done your homework. I had to replace a cable that went faulty one me once rendering my external HDD invisible. I think you're at the 'take it to Apple and demonstrate that it doesn't work' part.

Hope you have Applecare or it's under warrantee, because to fix a port probably means new logic board, and they ain't cheap. My headphone jack also went on me and the repair would have cost me >$1200 had I not gotten Applecare when I bought it.

To the OP:

Run the Apple Hardware Test on the machine before you decide to take it on in to Apple. See the following Apple KB article: Link

It does sound like the FW port may have died which as the previous post indicated may require logic board work or replacement.

Regards.

Thanks for the help, appreciate it! any ideas as to why it just died suddenly? Thanks!