Firewire and USB as a Power Source Problem

I understand that I should be able to power an external device using just the firewire or USB ports. However, I just bought a MacBookPro (I had a PowerBook G4 previously) and it appears that when I connect my Blackberry to my USB port it no longer gets fully charged. And now, I just connected my Firebox recording interface (with Firewire)and it only works with the external power supply attached (whereas it worked fine on my G4 with just the firewire cable). Has anyone else experienced something similar, or is there a problem with the PowerBook?

Okay I got it to power by HD but It still won't power my PreSonus FirePod. I've read some other post and it would appear that the FirePod is incompatible with the Mac Book Pro. How could this be? I thought Macs were the best? Somebody please help.

Similar Messages

Firewire and USB not usable

my friends machine is no longer using devices connected to the firewire and USB ports. Here is the description of troubleshooting steps so far. Any other suggestions?
--- snip ---
suddenly my G5 tower stopped recognizing any firewire device... no harddisk no soundcard.... also the same harddisk is not recognized via USB....
BUT.... the USB ports recognize USB sticks, mac keyboard, mouse.. no problemo.
also.. at the same moment the built in soundcard (mac av) stopped working, AND the internal CD drive !!!
i tried : flashing the PRAM ... on boot up hold down command, option, P, and R until the machine reboots it's self then let off the keys...
and; resetting the PMU:
1. If the computer is on, turn it off.
2. Disconnect ALL cables from the computer, including peripherals and power.
3. If possible, move the computer to a place where you are not standing on carpet.
4. Open the case and ground yourself by touching part of the metal frame inside the computer.
5. Find the Cuda or PMU button
6. Press the Cuda or PMU button ONCE. Do not press the button more than once before starting the computer up again.
7. Wait 10 seconds, then reconnect the cables you removed in step 2 and turn the computer on.
and i tried: resetting NV-RAM
Re-start holding the O,F, option, and command keys until a white screen is reached, this will be the open firmware
screen. You will be prompted to release keys at this point.
Type in the command line, reset-nvram. Press enter, next command line type in, reset-all and the computer will re-boot.
so.... i have no more solutions at this point !!!

gromit95 wrote:
replaced battery did not fix problem
condition of new battery questanable exp date march 2010 but it was a new battery
fred
That date code was probably the build date code, rather than the expiration. This would be true for either the Tadiran or Saft batteries. The lithium batteries have a shelf life of up to 10 years.

Seeking reliable firewire and usb 2.0 combo cardbus card

Subject line says it all, or mostly so. I have an IoGear GUF202 pcmcia card with two USB 2.0 ports, one six-pin FireWire port, and one four-pin FireWire port. Its USB 2.0 services are not reliable; sustained transfers freeze my 1Ghz Titanium PowerBook G4. I've seen online several other cards from different manufacturers with the same form factor, but haven't yet found one with the preferred NEC chipset for USB services.
Can anyone offer a recommendation -- and a source? Swapping separate FireWire and USB 2.0 PC cards is becoming a pain.

Hi Jamie,
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot.
The usual reason why updates fail or mess things up, is if Permissions are not fixed before & after every update, with a reboot... you may get a partial update when the installer finds it doesn't have Permissions to change one obscure little part of the OS, leaving you with a mix of OS versions.
Some people get away without Repairing Permissions for years, some for only days.
If Permissions are wrong before applying an update, you could get mixed OS versions, if Directory is the slightest messed up, who knows!
If many Permission are repaired, or any Directory errors are found, you may need to re-apply some the latest/biggest updates.

Firewire and USB PCI Upgrade for PowerMac G5

Firewire and USB PCI Upgrade for PowerMac G5
I am looking to add more Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 ports to my Dual 2.7 PowerMac G5. I don't need a combo card (two separate cards is fine). I was wondering which brand card works well with my Mac and OS X. I had a FireWire card that I moved from my Dell to my PowerMac but had a number of problems with a couple connected HDD's and Final Cut Pro. The card which I think was from Belkin was listed as OS X compatible on its packaging.
Thanks for any guidance.
- Lou

Check out OWC/Macsales. Usually can't go wrong with Sonnet or an OWC "house branded".
http://www.macsales.com
Check out user reports for PCI G5 Compatibility
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com
I've used OWC FW800, Aaxeon PCIe, and a number of Sonnet USB2 (and combo).
Depends on how many USB2 ports, but for FW400 and USB2 combo should do fine. With FW800 I'd go for independent cards.

Firewire and USB

In my process of researching to buy a new Intel Macbook I've discovered that there is only one firewire port, two USB 2.0 ports, and no pcmcia port.
Here's my problem. This laptop will replace my old powerbook that I use for recording audio. I need one bus for audio to enter the laptop and one bus to access my external hard drive to write the audio. I currently have a firewire bus card in the pcmcia slot and use the firewire port for the other bus on my powerbook. This optimizes the amount of data that Logic can process. My worries with the new macbook is that USB 2 is typically slower than firewire. So using the firewire and USB 2.0 ports may slow me down. I know the old powerbooks with USB 2.0 had issues with the USB 2.0 bus being really slow compared to PCs. Was this problem ever fixed? Does anyone have any experience with this or any suggestions? I know I could just buy a macbook pro, but I really didn't want to spend that much money.

Actually there's more than just another FW port. It's a FW800 port, ExpressCard/34 expansion slot, faster and better GPU with more VRAM, faster CPU, more RAM, bigger hard drive, and higher resolution screen.
You're buying a business computer. That means you are making an investment. You can write off the investment which reduces taxes. Doesn't it make better sense to be dollar wise rather than penny foolish? Over a three year write-off period you're bartering over $250 per year.
The MacBook has no expansion future whereas the MacBook Pro does.
However, this is ultimately your decision. All I wanted to do was point out the benefits of the MBP over the MB. I should probably stop here lest I sound like I'm making a sales pitch - which I'm not. I own a MacBook and two MBPs. I like them both.
Why reward points?(Quoted from Discussions Terms of Use.)
The reward system helps to increase community participation. When a community member gives you (or another member) a reward for providing helpful advice or a solution to their question, your accumulated points will increase your status level within the community.
Members may reward you with 5 points if they deem that your reply is helpful and 10 points if you post a solution to their issue. Likewise, when you mark a reply as Helpful or Solved in your own created topic, you will be awarding the respondent with the same point values.

How do you reset the firewire and USB? My ports are intermittent. I suppose

How do you reset the firewire and USB ports? My ports are intermittent. I suppose it could be a hardware isssue, but still wonder if I can reinstall/reset the software without reformatting my drive.

Hello! Resetting the ports is done by resetting the pmu. press the button once with all external cables unhooked. Below is a pict of an example of the pmu location. Also an intermittent problem is often a bad cable. Tom
[IMG]http://img470.imageshack.us/img470/1623/mddlogicbd4ga.jpg[/IMG]

IPod dock connected to both firewire and usb at same time

I have 3 ipods, 3G 4G 60gb photo 5G 80gb vid. I have a 5G doc and a dual usb / firewire cable. I prefer to manage my 3G and 4G using firewire as it is oh so quicker. However 5G requires usb2 only. I have a Apple 'dual' usb/firewire port cable that at the moment to use I alternate which socket is plugged into the front port of my PowerMac G5 as they are the only spare ports I have.
I just bought an Iomega Ultra Max which comes with a built in firewire and usb hub that means i now have enough ports to dedicate one of each to the ipods but want to use only one dock and so I would like to plug both the firewire and usb iPod cable into the hub and leave them there connected to the iPod dock. I know it won't cause problems when the 5G is connected as there is no hardware for firewire connection. But the 4G has both.. will I encountering a usb and firewire conenction cause problems and possible damage to the ipod or my PowerMac G5, will the 4G ipod use firewire in prefeance to USB if it will work???

Hi iPodista;
I would recommend very strongly that you don't even attempt do this. Generally cross connecting in this fashion is a very good way to get yourself into serious troble.
Allan

Journaling External FireWire and USB 2.0 Hard Drives?

I have several FireWire and USB 2.0 Hard Drives which I have always formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
I have been told that journaling is a waste of time with external HDs and, if anything, will slow them down slightly.
What is the general consensus on this forum?

Thank you for the swift response Malcolm.
I better explain why after all these years I am having doubts.
I am awaiting the delivery of a new piece of kit - a Western Digital HD TV Media player. Basically, you put your hi-def videos (H.264) on a USB 2.0 HD, plug it into the media player which is then plugged into your HDTV.
I have got hold of the manual which says that the supported USB file systems are "FAT32, NTFS and HFS+ (no journaling).
So I was wondering whether I will have to format the HD without Journaling to make it work?

Firewire and USB ports not recognizing devices

All of a sudden, some of our MacBooks don't recognize firewire and usb devices. It's weird, but after about a week, one of the MacBooks suddenly started recognizing a video camera, again, but it's troubling because my users need to be able to import movies and pictures from digital devices.
We ran the updates, and it did not help. We have been using these devices with our MacBooks for over a year, and this happened at the worst possible time. Any ideas?
I've tried both self- and AC-powered devices, rebooted, powered off and on, made sure everything is plugged in, etc.

Try Reset SMC. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Choose the method for:
"Resetting SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".
Best.

HT2494 How do I output video to a projector from my MacPro17 with only firewire and USB ports?

How do I output video to a projector from my MacPro17 with only firewire and USB ports?

No Mac Pro only has Firewire and USB. Perhaps you've misidentified the computer:
http://www.everymac.com/ should help.

Ios7 installed on iphone 5 and then the device swtich off when battery is 10% only and never open till power source connected

ios7 installed on iphone 5 and then the device swtich off when battery is 10% and never start till power source connected ..

I have the same issue with the following setup:
Garmin 2597LMT
iPhone 5
Motorola T605 bluetooth hardsfree system
I ended up disabling the nuvi bluetooth -- I don't subscribe to any smartlink services -- so I'll guess i'll go without Weather on the nuvi for now.

FireWire (and USB?) problems with 23" Cinema display

Hello.
Whenever my G5 wakes from sleep, I seem to have problems with FireWire devices attached to the Cinema Display (and, possibly, the USB ports also). Somehow, it seems that the "wake" signal is not transmitted to them.
Specifically:
a FireWire hard drive does not spin up (a USB drive connected to the back port does, as does a FW 800 drive also connected to my PowerMac). When I try to access it, then it finally spins up.
An EyeTV 200 device fails to connect (i.e., display TV or record shows) unless the Fi cable is unplugged and reattached.
This happens WHENEVER the Mac sleeps. However, if I attach those two devices directly to my PowerMac, they function just fine, using the same port the Cinema Display is attached to.
I don't have other comparable devices attached to the USB port of the Cinema Display, except (previously) for a Plextor ConvertX DVR (a USB 2 device), which exhibted the same problems as the EyeTV 200, which is why I tried swapping it with the FireWire-based EyeTV (unsuccessfully). So I have some evidence that the USB port has similar problems, but nothing conclusive.

Hey Scott
You are not alone. I'm beginning to think there is an issue with the power supplies of the 23" displays.
In my case, my computer is set to never sleep, while the display is set to sleep atfter 30 mins or so.
It appears that the computer won't wake up in these cases, but in fact what is happening is that the display won't wake up.
Multiple re-starts are sometimes necessary to get the display up and running again.
While your problem seems slightly different, I think that the two are related in that there is not enough power being delivered from the power supply for the monitor to both your USB and Firewire devices connected to your display.
I don't really have a solution as of yet.... aside from purchasing a new power supply from Apple... But, you are not exactly alone in your misery. Should I run across a fix for this aside from the power supply, I'll be glad to let you know.
Generally after HD's spin down, they usually don't spin up unless they are accessed. If you have any open files on your FW800, that may explain why it does spin up when you wake up your system.
One thing you can try, in the System Prefs, under Energy Saver, uncheck "Put HD's to sleep". This may cause all of them to spin up when you wake your system up.

MacBook Air USB external drive power source

I have a LaCie 250GB USB external drive on my MacBook Air and the computer is not being able to power the drive without me connecting the hard drive to an external power source. when the drive was had about 80GB of data it would do it, now that the drive has about 180GB of data, it does not work. Can anybody recommend a solution or an external drive that can hold at least 250GB that can be powered by the MacBook Air without need for external power source?

I have the same time of problem. Although, it's mentioned a using a self powered hub. However, I find this did not work. Apple states that the single usb port on the MBA is high powered to give the ext. super drive they sell the power it needs to connect to the MBA. What I have noticed is no matter which USB self powered hub I use I get the same results. The MBA reports that one or more devices is drawing too much power. Although, the powered hub is supposed to provide power to those devices that require power over USB. I should also mention, all I am connecting are two USB devices. 1 ext. Verbatim 500 Gig Drive. and my iPhone. Since the MBA has only 120 gig drive I had to move all of my movies etc. to the Ext. 500 now if I want to sync my phone or move a movie to the phone I get the errors.

Old firewire/mini USB Iomega Drive, power & connectivity

Hi Sorry I don't come here often and don't know where to post this. So if it's in the wrong place apologies in advance.
We plan to do a lot of travelling now and I've ordered a Mac Book Air, my preference to using an iPad and the Cloud for managing photos.
I've got a couple of older portable hard drives inc a 1TB Iomega which is/was excellent but has firewire and mini usb connection. I understand the Firewire to Thunderbolt adaptor is useless for providing power to portables.
Does anyone know if it is possible to double connect the drive i.e. using both the one mini USB and the Tb/Fw adaptor to boost the power and performance?
Many thanks guys

Well, it turns out that somehow the enclosure was making my drive unreadable. I borrowed my brother's Pismo and installed the drive in it, and it wasn't readable the same as with the enclosure—but it let me format it, and it worked fine after that. But when I put the drive back in the enclosure, it popped up with 'unreadable' again - and it was still unreadable when I put it back in the Pismo again. For some reason using that enclosure totally scrambled the drive's directory.

Firewire and USB Transfer Crashing

Can anyone help,
I have a PowerBook G4 running Tiger 10.4.11, Almost everytime I decide to do a large amount of transfering via Firewire or USB it seems to crash and I have to restart the machine, sometimes all I do is plug my iPod Touch in, to sync and it crashes. Has anyone else had this problem before?

if it happens with different devices, could be a hardware problem with the ports
or the hard drive.
if PowerBook is under warranty, you may want to get it serviced.

Firewire and USB as a Power Source Problem

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for