MBP won't re-start with full USB hub

Sometimes, when I choose Re-start from the Apple menu, my 2012 15" MacBook Pro w/Retina Display just shuts down.
I have done a PRM reset, and a CMS reset, and that didn’t solve it.
I did an Apple Hardware Test, and it reported “No trouble found”.
So I unplugged the the Satechi USB 3.0 hub and re-started, and it worked.
Then I plugged the USB hub back in and removed all the peripherals from it, so its ports were empty, and Re-start worked.
Then I started adding peripherals one by one, and discovered when they were all plugged in (USB modem, printer, label printer and scanner), that's when the problems occurred. Re-start would shut the computer down, I'd hear the start-up tone, and then it would sit there, black, with no Apple logo. As soon as I unplugged the USB hub, the Apple logo would appear and re-booting would finish.
So my fix is to remove one peripheral (the USB modem) from the hub, and leave the hub plugged into the MBP. So far, it's working fine. Re-starts work great.
Here's my first question: is having "too many" USB peripherals plugged in at once known to cause start-up or re-start problems?
Second question: during all this testing, I found that the MBP's power button sometimes did not shut the MBP down until I held it for ten seconds. And sometimes (but not always) holding it down - even for ten seconds - would not start the MBP. I'd have to try 2, sometimes 3 times, to get it turned back on. This hasn't happened since I lightened the USB load, but might this be indicative of a power supply problem on the MBP, or is it likely related to the USB load?
Thanks in advance for any advice or answers.

Yes, having too many devices in the hub can definitely be a problem. The ports are not powered so they take power from the computer. Too many devices causes the computer to try and shut down the ports which it can't do properly in the middle of a restart. The total power the USB ports can draw is around 15 watts - 7.5 watts per port for two ports.

Similar Messages

Mac won't boot, starts with white apple screen and spinning wheel. Also has grey loading bar which disappears after loaded then stays at white apple screen.

Mac won't boot, starts with white apple screen and spinning wheel. Also has grey loading bar which disappears after loaded then stays at white apple screen.

Hi cybertoof,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities.
It sounds like you're seeing a startup issue with your Mac, it's booting to a gray screen with an Apple logo. Try the suggestions in the article linked below, they will resolve most issues related to starting up your Mac.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
I hope this helps.
-Jason

Using with a USB Hub

Hi. Right now I have an old iMac, and I use a USB hub (I have way too many USB devices that I like to have connected at once). If I were to switch to a Macbook along with one of the new 24" LED displays, would I still be able to connect the USB hub to the back of the display, or should I not do this since the display technically functions as a USB hub itself?

USB hubs can be used with other USB hubs as long as the hub they plug into has power, such as the display hubs.

MBP won't fully start up...

I was using my 17inch MacBook Pro with no problems, shut the computer without turning it off, and when I reopened it it wouldn't wake up. I forced it to shut down by holding the power button, and now it won't fully start up. I press the power button, the sleep indicator light comes on, there's a few disk noises, but no fan or chime, and the screen never turns on.
I have tried booting in safe mode, smc reset, and pmu reset and none seem to have done anythin
I just got a new logic board about a month ago because of wifi issues.

Sounds like hard drive failure or your new logic board.
There is usually 90 day warranty on parts.

Boot problems with Belkin USB hub

I can boot to my internal drive with the Belkin 7-port hub connected. But I can't boot to the System Start-Up Disk or to my external with the hub connected. And once I try, I can no longer boot to the internal until I disconnect the Belkin hub.
I have heard their may be hub problems with the MBP and also with the Belkin hub. Any insight would be appreciated.

These are interesting problems. I have a Belkin hub and have been having long boot times (sometimes 5 or 6 minutes) with a blank blue screen for most of the time. I get partial relief by disonnecting the hub. I also have an SD card reader attached to the hub (Memorex brand), so I'm going to try disconnecting that to see if it helps. One noteworthy thing is that these problems are new, whereas the Belkin hub and the Memorex SD card reader have been attached to my MBP for a long time.

Share usb hard drive with a usb hub

I have a USB Hub connect to the AEBS with a Dymo Label Writer and a WD USB drive connected. While I see the drive and the printers in the Airport Utility, I can't seem to connect to them from either WinXP Pro computer.
Any idea what is wrong that I can't see them

Hey guys, thank you all for your replies!
Given actual price of hardware, I went for a totally different solution...
I bough a used PC which I boosted with 4 GB of RAM... it's a intel dual core... and I plugged in a Terabyte SATA drive.
It's much less expensive than a mac mini.
Then I installed Ubuntu Server LTS and Samba for file sharing... FREE of course
All that to get a very great file server that acts in PDC (security=domain) mode so it's totally great
None of the NAS I reviewed gave me enough freedom for the file sharing management that I wanted, and the mac mini + leopard server solution where too expensive.
Once my little company grows, imma get a Xserve fo sho but for now, this setup is the best for me
once again, thank you for your replies

Satellite M300: speach recognition works only with external usb hub

Hi All
I have the Satellite M300 which I was able to operate the speach recognition program prior to having the motherboard replaced due to the usb's failing.
I have found using the headset I cannot achieve high enough quality to operate it.
The only way I can operate the speach program is use an external usb hub with its own power supply.
Would the problem relate to the audio card or just simply not enough voltage?
And is there na fix?
Cheers
Craig

Hi
The notebooks USB ports provide a standard power of 500mA.
As I said this is a standard but in different cases the external 3rd party USB devices need more power.
For example one of my external USB 2.5 HDDs must be connected to two USB ports at the same time to ensure that the HDD would get enough power to work properly.
Your external card is not known to me but possibly it needs more power as usual.
Greets

10.5.2 - Frozen Grey Boot Screen with Powered USB Hub -

Hey guys I upgraded to 10.5.2 and after I did, I found my powered USB hub was causing a hanging grey screen when I turn the power on. Anyway does anyone know how to make it not lock up on a grey screen? If I unplug the hub it boots, but until I do it is an endless hanging grey screen. If it is a bug can you guys please fix because I find it really annoying to have to unplug and replug my hub every time I boot.
System.
20 inch iMac (new one with black back)
Generic 7 port hub
Ipod, USB Mic, and Mighty Mouse plugged into the hub.
Message was edited by: Computer Junkie
Message was edited by: Computer Junkie

Update: IT only happens when I plug my iPod into the hub that is plugged into my iMac. If I plug my iPod into the Macs USB directly it boots fine. Kinda a crappy bug or maybe a setting I need to change to be able to keep my iPod plugged into my powered usb hub when I boot so it doesn't hang.
Message was edited by: Computer Junkie

Time Capsule compatibility with Wireless USB Hub

Is it possible to use a wireless USB hub with the Time Capsule? I am thinking of using a Belkin wireless USB hub, which would have the USB receiver/antenna for the hub connected to the TC, and my printer connected to the hub.
Below is the link for the Belkin Wireless USB hub that I wanted to use:
http://shop3.frys.com/product/5845573#detailed
My reason for doing this is because I want to keep my wireless printing capabilities, but I want to move the TC downstairs and "bridge" it with my AT&T U-Verse wireless router/modem. At the moment I am not able to have my TC and router/modem in the same room.
My thinking is that this will not work because the TC will not recognize that type of USB device (i.e. the USB receiver/antenna for the hub). But if this works this would solve a great deal of logistic problems.

I still have questions about how to connect the Brother printer through ethernet. When connected does the airport utility have some area where you can identify the printer as a network printer as opposed to USB?
The AirPort Utility would only come into play if the printer was attached to the TC's USB port. Printers, attached by Ethernet, would have to "network-ready." Controlling these types of printers would be through the printer driver that you would access through the operating system interface.
In my HP example, the HP printer driver does provide access to a number of features particular to this printer model. Most manufacturers include an installation CD that provide useful utilities ... albeit most are written for Windows. I would suggest checking out the Brother support site to see if they have Mac-specific drivers or utilities.

Laptop not powering off with powered usb hub attached

I have an external powered USB hub which I have attached to my G60 running Windows 7 Home Premium. When I try to shut down the G60 with the hub attached and powered on, the shutdown sequence goes through Logging Off to Shutting Down but never fully powers off. The power and wireless lights stay on and the fan continues to run.
Is there a way around this apart from powering off the USB hub before shutdown?
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi @Andrew_c51 ,
I saw your post regarding the problems with your notebook not shutting down all the way when the powered USB hub is connected. It almost sounds like your notebook is going into sleep or hibernation. I would recommend contacting the manufacturers of the powered USB to see if there is a way of stopping this or just disconnect the hub.
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue.
Click the “Kudos Thumbs Up" on the right to say “Thanks” for helping!
Thank you,
BHK6
I work on behalf of HP

IMAC won't start with external USB drive

I've been running Leopard for a few weeks now and decided to connect an external USB hard drive to use with Time Machine, it did the backup fine and seems to be working fine... however, every time I start my imac in the morning I get a gray screen that just hangs. I have to unplug the USB drive then reboot again.. that salves the problem.. but is annoying to have to do that each time.. I also noticed today that my ipod when plugger in via USB will not mount on the desktop.. I have to unplug the USB hard drive then plug the ipod in again.. that solves the problem..
Anyone have this same issue..??? It seems to be USB related or Time Machine related.. maybe both..
Cheers
D.

The Disks are formatted with Ntfs as i am using Bootcamp with Windows 7. So repairing disks would not work in Mac OSX, and is not needed as the disks are ok. I would be a strange coincidence that both disks would be corrupted at the same Time.
I have tried three different other USB disks in the meantime and the Macbook could Boot up everytime with no problem. I found the answer in another forum. The controllers (USB to SATA) in the enclosures of the disks are not compatible with my Macbook, they are rather cheap WD disks and a lot of other users reported the same problem. ist might be possible to upgrade the firmware, but i will rather look for some other disks and try them first before i buy.

New MBP won't back up, disc full

I've searched around here and although I found similar question, never really found an answer:
I have a new MacBookPro and want to use Time Machine to back it up. I get a message that there is insufficient space on my 1Gb TC. I thought it would automatically delete old b/u's to make room for new.
There are b/u's of my old MBP on the drive. I would like to retain at least the latest one as my son is using the old MBP, but remove most of them to make room for the new guy.
I open the Time Machine, I get the window with the stacked b/u's showing, arrows up and down, and a time bar on the right side of the screen but I cannot navigate through the pages. It is stuck on today.
Is there a way to remove older b/u's manually to make room. I do not need 500Gb of old b/u's sitting there. I've already got 5 externals,(photographer) I'd like to NOT get another.
Thanks for any guidance.
...bob...
MBP15, i7, 2.2GHz, Lion, 500Gb, 8Gb

About TM "Backup Drive is Full"
Alert TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Time Machine "thins" it's backups; hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first of the day; those "daily" backups over 30 days old, except the first of the week. The weeklies are kept as long as there's room.
So, how long a backup file remains depends on how long it was on your Mac before being deleted, assuming you do at least one backup per day. If it was there for at least 24 hours, it will be kept for at least a month. If it was there for at least a week, it will be kept as long as there's room.
Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.

IMac starts with full sound despite changing it in properties

I've had this problem with my iMac every since 10.7.2 update. It doesn't matter how many times I change the volume in system properties or using the volume keys on the keyboard, or using Shift Option etc, when I next boot up, the audio is on full.
It's really annoying! Can anyone give me some way to change this - I'm assuming it's something in the startup that does this.

Thanks RRFS. The problem is with general sound NOT startup sound. That irritating BONG however, (essential though I know it is) is louder because the general audio resets itself to top volume each time the system is shutdown. On my MBP's it's very quiet because I rarely have the sound above 3 bricks.
Re leaving it up all the time? Not a great recommendation - all personal computers should be rebooted about once a week depending upon usage, it clears out cache's and refreshes the computer. Plus, I only use my iMac a few hours a week - 4-5 at most, so it saves the power bill.

Help! iPod won't work - started with iPod updater

Hi,
I tried updating my iPod nano today as suggested. It installed and everything fine. But when I tried updating it, it gave me an error and I couldn't use my iPod. So I tried restoring it with the updater.
Nothing worked. The "Do not disconnect" sign is up all this while. So I try restarting my computer. The DNDisconnect sign is still on but now.. nothing works. I can't do anything with it and iTunes does not even recognize it. I don't even have the iPod sign on My Computer. So I disconnect it, against my better judgement. And it gives me the exclamation sign and tells me to go to the Apple Support site.
I do.. and I follow the 5 Rs. I start by resetting it. This brings me into the Disk Mode which is where I'm stuck at now. It won't exit even when I try restarting it. I've reinstalled the updater AND iTunes and nothing seems to work still. Everytime I connect it to try to restore it with the updater, it says Service error.
Help.......?

If you get a message with iPod Service Error please see if either of these two links are helpful:
iPod for Windows: Fast user switching in Windows XP is not supported
iPod appears in Windows Explorer but does not appear in iTunes
Regards
Colin R.

S3270y Slimline won't boot/shutdown with External USB

I have a s3720y that was behaving just fine. It has Windows 7, 4 gb ram etc. I replaced (via image) the hard drive. Nothing else has changed on the machine. After putting in the new drive, the computer wouldn't boot past the HP splash screen. I unplugged the USB devices 1 by 1...when my Seagate external was pulled out it continued to boot. Let it boot, made sure all drivers installed etc and shut it down WITHOUT the external USB drive attached. Booted back up without it attached and it booted just fine and fast.
Plugged in the Seagate, it installed and showed up just fine. Shut down the machine and it just hung at the Windows 7 shutdown screen. Unplugged the external USB drive and it finished shutting down. Plugged the USB external in again powered on and yep it just sat there. I unplugged and yes...it booted.
First I have no idea why the Bios would suddenly decide it didn't like having an external drive attached. The drive that was replaced was a SATA and it was replaced with a SATA (SSD). The bios are version 5.21 and according to the wonderful and overly informative (notice my sarcasim) HP support site there aren't any BIOS available for my version (again I'm running Windows 7 64-bit).
I've run into this in the past but just not out of the blue. I went into BIOS and I don't see any reference to USB support. But the revision on these BIOS are like 2007 it seems. I don't understand how HP doesn't keep BIOS updated for machines that are running a current OS.
Anyway if anyone has any idea, I would greatly appreciate it.

Hi,
Check with Seagate and see if there is a firmware update available or issues with the particular model USB drive.
Check at the HP site for a QFE that pertains to your issue. I do see one available.
If the above fails to solve the issue then try the below.
Power up your PC. Now insert the USB drive (be sure to remove any critical data).
Open up the RUN window and enter the following commands:
cmd
diskpart
list disk    ----> note the drive # for the USB external drive
select disk #
clean   ---> this will totally clean the drive format, all partitions and data will be lost
exit
Now uplug the drive and plug it back in. You might get prompted to format the drive but ignore it for now.
Go to Disk Management expand the screen and locate the USB drive. Now click on it and initialize it as mbr and then then format the drive and assign a drive letter such as Y.
Now perform a windows shutdown and see if it hangs.
HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT

MBP won't re-start with full USB hub

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for