I picked up an iSight a while ago, and it was working great, then when I upgraded to 10.3.4 my external FW RAID started disappearing; literally. It didn't show up in the IO Registry at all, and I had to physically unplug it from the machine and plug it back in to get it recognized -- only to have it drop off again a few minutes later. Since the only thing that had changed was the 10.3.4 upgrade, I resigned myself to a wipe and install back to 10.3.3. After that two hour experience, I found out the problem still persisted. I then started troubleshooting hardware. Turns out, the problem was my iSight. When it was plugged-in (didn't even have to be active) the RAID would disappear within a few minutes of being connected. No iSight, no problem.
It was time to call AppleCare. They opened a case, and the tech was very nice. He walked me through a bunch of steps to confirm the iSight was the problem -- including plugging in my iPod and copying files to it. After a few hundred MB, the iSight disappeared from the machine (weird that it wasn't the iPod). He said he would pass the issue up to the next level and get back to me. That was a month ago. After I got back from WWDC, I emailed him to get the current status:
"Everything we're seeing indicates that the issues you're seeing were fixed in various OS updates. Since you're still having problems with it and are up to date regarding the OS, I'd suggest taking the computer to an Apple Authorized Service Provider for testing and hardware repairs."
Bullshit. I'd been reading Macintouch's various reports over the past few weeks about the numerous other users having the exact same problem. With the iSight connected, eventually it would cause problems for any other device on the same bus:
Macintouch Firewire report
Macintouch Panther Firewire report
So, two days ago, I ordered a FW PCI card from Other World Computing for $15 (including S&H). The card arrived around 2PM today, and I've been running since without issue. The iSight is plugged into the PCI card, and the RAID is plugged into the computer.
In addition to the RAID, I have an 80GB external FW drive, and my iPod. I can have all three plugged into the computer bus and no problems, but add the iSight and within a few minutes the RAID will disappear, stress the iPod and the iSight will disappear. This leads me to believe the problem is not with my computer but with the iSight itself. Despite Apple's claims, the problem is not fixed, and punting the issue off as a problem with the computer (which I'd loose for at least a week if I took it in for diagnostics) is not the right way to handle this.
I'll be responding to the tech's followup with my new experiences, but I'm not sure if it will actually lead to any further resolution.
For about eight years now, I have had RSI stress problems when using the computer. This started with my right hand (my mouser) and then after a few more years, my left hand joined the party. The main stress comes from using the mouse. So today, I picked up a Wacom Graphire 3 tablet to see if it would help. After tweaking the settings, and playing with it for a half-hour, things seem to be good. I still need to get used to moving around with the pen, but that should just be a matter of training (or re-training) my hand.
I have a two week return period, so if things don't work out I can still get my money back, but I hope that won't be necessary.