Recognising USB and Firewire works only on startup

A short while ago I noticed that none of my USB or FireWire devices were recognised if I plugged in the cable while the computer was on. The devices are listed in System Profiler but not mounted/usable.
If I plug devices in before powering up, everything works fine.
There have been some recent posts about similar problems with USB and FireWire, however, I haven't seen one with the exact same symptoms.

Reinstalling the 10.5.4 update fixed all of my problems. Apparently something had gone wrong the first time.

Similar Messages

  • 20" Cinema display with USB and firewire ports not working

    I have a new 20" display and was wondering why my USB and fire wire ports at the back are not working. I have an external drive that is powered hooked up to the fire wire port and a no powered piano keyboard to a usb port.
    Any help please

    Verify that the display’s USB and FireWire cables are firmly plugged in to the
    computer. Do they show in your profiler?
    Try different ports in the computer.
    Verify that your computer ports are working with other known problem free device.

  • What is wrong with my 30" Cinema Display?  The USB and FireWire ports still work, but the screen is pitch black. When you plug it into the computer, it detects that it's a Cinema Display.

    When you plug it into the computer, it detects that it's a Cinema HD but the screen is pitch black.
    For some reason, the USB and FireWire ports still work.

    If you shine a really bright light directly into the screen can you then see a faint image on the screen? If so, that would indicate the backlight has died (hardware failure) and the unit needs repairing.

  • Testing speed of usb and firewire cables?

    I have a bunch of usb and firewire cables that I would like to test somehow to determine if they are usb 1 or 2 and firewire 1 or 2. Some cables are labeled as high speed usb, some are not and some have no labels at all.
    1. Is there a way to do this in Tiger?
    2. For transfering data to an external drive, is Firewire 400 or usb 2 faster?
    Thanks!

    Hello kat.hayes,
    Let's take your three questions in the same order:
    Question #1: Technically, No, USB cables have the same termination ends. However, not all cables are made to the same standards and quality (shielding has a lot to do with how well they work/last). Quality cables are at a minimum double shielded but that does not stop mfg's from making claims about "high-speed". If there is a problem with the cable, you will know it in that the device connected will not work. Period.
    The 2nd part of your question #1 regarding "bottleneck" is that if the USB2 port receives the slower USB protocol from a connected device, it will negotiate to the lower speed. Not a "bottleneck" exactly, as the external device you have connected will determine the speed. Not the USB cable.
    I don't know why you are trying to figure out the speed of the USB cables.
    It really comes down to what you want to do with your computer and what type of external device you need to connect. If you have a choice of which type of device to use, choose FW(See below #2 for a brief explaination).
    Question #2: The issues and technical debate about which protocol is better(faster) really are meaningless as the final speed determinate is controlled by the chip/interperter that the manufacturer of your external device choose to use. If the device uses inferior chipset design, then no amount of "maximum rated transfer speed" for either FW or the USB-2 is going to make a bit of difference.
    FW is usually faster. It comes down to the protocol used by the two designs. The one major diffence that benefits Firewire users is that it is isosynchronus. That means that if you have for example 3 devices, that all 3 would get 400mbps bandwidth to use, while USB2 is shared between devices. This is the ugly side of using USB2. If you a want an in depth technical explaination let me know.
    Regarding your question #3:
    Your Power Mac G5 has one FireWire 400 port on the front (rectangular shape with one pointed end), one FireWire 400 port on the back, a FireWire 800 port on the back(square,blocky shape), and four USB 2.0 ports—one on the front and three on the back. There are also two USB 1.1 ports on the keyboard. See this link:
    http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/PowerMacG5Late2005_TechBrief.pdf
    If thats not clear, here is a card showing two FW800 ports (square) and one FW 400 port (rectangular w/pointed one end).
    http://www.1394store.com/eshop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=42&pf%5Fid=1225
    Technically, FW400 is refered to as 1394a and FW800 as 1394b.
    So, plug any USB2 into the computer only. USB1 devices can be plugged into either the computer or the keyboard.
    And FW400 & FW 800 into the correct, differently shaped recepticals.
    If you let us know what you intend to do with your external devices and I'm sure there will be a number of excellent suggestions, hopefully based on personal experience, on which protocol would best fit your situation.
    Hope this helps.
    Respectfully,
    Bill Gallagher

  • Connecting via USB and FireWire at the same time...

    Hey all,
    I have a 3rd Generation iPod (with the play/pause, menu, next track and previous track buttons between the screen and the touch wheel), and I just bought a new Nano.
    Obviously, I want to keep them both synced with my MBP, but there's a problem. The 3G will sync via the Dock-to-USB cable, but it will only charge and sync with Dock-to-FireWire. The Nano, on the other hand, doesn't support FireWire.
    So, in order to sync/charge them both, I have to use a different cable for each.
    Or, do I? Apple sells a Dock-to-USB-AND-FireWire cable (one Dock Connector with two wires coming out). I'd love to plug both the USB and FireWire connectors to the MBP and then just plug the Dock connector into one iPod and then into the other. But, in the documentation for the cable, it says not to connect both the FireWire and USB ends to the computer at the same time, or it might result in "unexpected behavior."
    Does anybody out there have any experience using this cable with both ends connected at the same time? Does it work? Have you noticed any "unexpected behavior?"
    I wanted to check before I go defying Apple's instructions.
    Thanks,
    Chip
    MacBook Pro 2.0Ghz   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

    Bueller....?
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  • I have an old iMac and am thinking about getting an iMac intel do I need a different kind of usb and firewire cord?

    I have an old iMac and am thinking of getting an iMac intel. Do I need a different type of usb and firewire cords to work with the new one?

    What type of Firewire cable do you have?
    If our not sure then first look up your computer with the serial number here,
    http://support.apple.com/specs/
    Then take a look at the specs for the new iMac here and see if you have compatible cable,
    http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html

  • Disconnecting all USB and firewire cables before upgrading OS X?

    Hello,
    I would like to confirm my understanding of some empirically effective advice provided in this previous Post about disconnecting USB and firewire cables before doing a Software Update and I presume also a Download update. What is gained by disconnecting the peripherals connected to the USB and firewire ports?
    I'm getting ready to update from OSX 10.2.8 to 10.3.9 (using full Retail CDs, of course).
    1. So it would NOT be a good idea to do the update in an external firewire drive? I had done this previously to leave my original OSX 10.1.5 in my internal drive alone while I tested the upgrade to 10.2.8 in a firewire drive. (I have since added a second internal drive.)
    2. That I should disconnect my two printers from their USB ports.
    3. If I'm doing a Download update vs. Software Update (from System Preferences), I guess I should also disconnect the cable to the modem?
    4. Run Repair Permissions before and after each software update step?
    Thanks in advance.
    Raymon

    Browsing through the Apple instructions on installing updates I do see in the section on Troubleshooting... to "Disconnect or remove anything that did not come with your computer" including removing any non-Apple RAM -- although this is recommended after an unsuccessful installation. Disconnecting the devices seems like an easy and prudent enough precaution.
    I do wonder now about again doing an update on a volume in an external firewire drive. This did work for me twice before in upgrading from OS X 10.1.5 to 10.2.8 (which is markedly better than the former). I suppose I could try it again although this time in a Panther upgrade; if it fails I could upgrade in an internal drive.
    Raymon

  • Expanding USB and Firewire

    Anyone have a good recommendation for expanding my USB and Firewire capability on my iMac 5gen (isight). I keep reading mixed reviews on belkin.
    Thanks,
    Jim

    Oh dear, it is one thing after another for you, isn't it Jim!
    +DLX-182 Dual Link Hub front view+
    +4 FireWire ports on the front of the hub. Connect one to your computer and have 3 additional FireWire ports conveniently located on your desktop! Connecting FireWire cable included.+
    It looks, once again, as if you have done everything correctly. Are you saying that the red power light on the hub isn't lighted? If that's the case, check the power cord and if it has a power brick, see if that's lighted. It sounds as if the hub itself is faulty (just what you needed to hear). You did connect the hub to the computer using the far right-hand port? Check your firewire cable and see if it's working properly. Also, try switching the ports on the hub that you have your 2 externals connected to. In addition, make sure that if you plug each of the externals directly into the computer, they show up.

  • Some colors in the HP tri-color cartridges dry up and stop working only a few weeks after purchase

    HP Deskjet 4180
    Genuine HP Tri-Color #22 ink cartridge and Black #21 ink cartridge
    Windows 7
    Test printing from Photoshop, Windows Picture Viewer and GIMP.
    Some colors in the HP tri-color cartridges dry up and stop working only a few weeks after purchase.
    The experience that I'm having currently contradicts very good, accurate color from HP cartridges in the past from RGB images that I've printed successfully with this printer.  I've previously got excellent color from the true HP ink cartridges on this Deskjet 4180 printer.
    But today it is obvious that the yellow is not flowing from this cartridge that was installed only a few weeks ago.  And my ink levels are at 50 percent, and they were even higher when I started today... see the screenshots below.
    I'm printing from Photoshop, but for some tests I tried printing from two other applications today but I'm always getting these results that indicate that there is no yellow printing... this is much worse than just a bad color profile.  I'm an experienced photo retoucher and I have a long history of dealing with inkjet printing in the work place with all kinds of printers.
    I know that inks can dry up in their cartridges if they don't get printed with every few weeks and if the printer isn't maintained.  I purchased these new cartridges only about three weeks ago and the first test prints and some prints two weeks ago came out perfect.
    But today this is the result I'm getting... screenshots below show the original RGB image and an actual scan of the bad print results I'm getting, indicating that no yellow is flowing from the HP tri-color cartridge.  And a screenshot of the ink level indicator panel is at the bottom.
    Why is the yellow ink drying up and not flowing so quickly?  How can I prevent this besides doing semi-weekly prints to keep the inks from drying up?  I'm in a fairly humid climat, so dry air is not the problem.  The contact points on the cartridge are clean.
    Does HP guarantee their cartridges for this kind of thing?
    Good color - original RGB image...
    Bad color - actual scan of bad print with no yellow, below...
    Ink levels after test printing...
    Thanks for any help.
    digi

    Well, here is the answer I was looking for, only arrived at by way of my own further investigation and experimentation.
    It seems that no matter who I asked about this problem, I always got the same questions and answers.
    For example, the people at the HP 800 number for consumer help, where it seemed I was not talking to someone who was actually familiar with the product, because they came to the conclusion that I need to buy a new HP printer... wow, isn't that a big surprise for an HP employee to say, "Just buy a new one!".
    No one, and I mean no one, would seem to be able to listen to or understand what I wrote in my original question on this thread about how this printer prints fine when I first put in a new ink cartridge, and then just a few weeks later one or two of the colors seem to be dried up and they won't print.
    And it seems that somewhere I read that you need to print a test maintenance print every month or so to keep the inks from drying up... but the inks seem to be drying up in less than three weeks now, even though I used to be able to go for months without doing a print and the inks would still be fine.
    So when I was talking to someone in India, Malaysia or the Philippines at the HP 800 customer phone support number, after going through so much crap about whether this printer was still in warranty just to have a simple question answered you'd think I was trying to launch nuclear missiles and my launch codes weren't current.
    And it was much the same situation to get on HP's "Live Chat" customer service on the net, and then they'd go through the same line of questions and answers as the support people on the HP 800 phone line...
    Q: "Do you have dirty nozzles on your ink cartridges?"
    A: "No, like I said in my original statement, I cleaned those and they weren't dirty to begin with."
    Response: "Because you need to clean those every so often, you know."
    Q: "Did you try cleaning the contacts on the cartridges?"
    A: "Yes, like I said in my original statement, I already did that."
    Response: "Because you need to clean those contacts every so often, you know."
    Q: "Did you try putting in a new cartridge?"
    A: "Yes, like I said in my original statement, this cartridge is nearly new and it shows a 90% ink level."
    Response: "Because you need to put in new cartridges when the ink runs out, you know."
    Q: "Did you do a test print?"
    A: "Yes, like I said in my original statement, I did a test print and that's what is telling me that the yellow and magenta are not printing any longer."
    Response: "Because that's how you can tell if any colors aren't printing, you know."
    So is anyone else seeing a pattern here?  It's not like I'm talking or live chatting with a real human being, but maybe an automated voice prompt system that only has an A, B, C   or   1, 2, 3   type of response system that it's working from. 
    The people hear a answer, and regardless of what that question was in the troubleshooting category that they are in, they just have a stock response that seems to bypass what the customer's answer was, so it's like I'm talking or live chatting with a machine that is uttering its responses in a fixed pattern, regardless of what I'm saying.
    HP customer service is like talking to someone who isn't listening, so often they ask their next question, but I just answered that question with my previous answer.
    Like I said, the way it used to be, HP or even after market ink cartridges could sit for months without doing a maintenance print and I would still get a perfect print every time.  And that's pretty typical for maybe an older person who isn't printing prints that often, but they just want to print one every few months or so, like my mom, with her HP printer, who I've been troubleshooting this problem for.
    Or even with my own large format Epson printer or any of the pro level inkjet printers and even IRIS printers that I've used in the workplace over the course of the last 20 years... you could do a print every two months and there was no problem with dried up inks.
    And I know somewhere in the past  I read that the maintenance print that the instructions was recommending be printed only needed to be done every 4 to 6 weeks to keep the inks from drying up, although when I go through the entire full blown PDF instruction manual now I can't find ANYTHING about how often a maintenance print needs to be done... that's right, nothing!
    But on Christmas eve I once again exchanged my last, dried up HP tri-color ink cartridge at a Walgreens store where my mom had purchased it months prior (and the guy was nice enough to exchange it even after 5 months)  which was yet another HP tri-color ink cartridge that had at least two of it's colors dry up after only a few weeks.  At that Walgreens they had been nice enough to replace three prior HP tri-color ink cartridges with the same problem in the last year, and before that three different after market, off brand tri-color ink cartridges from another store had dried up after only a few weeks.
    So the guy at Walgreens told me that now  with HP cartridges you need to do a maintenance test print EVERY WEEK in order to keep the inks from drying up... THAT'S EVERY WEEK YOU ARE NOW SUPPOSED TO DO A TEST PRINT FOR MAINTENANCE.
    Now, you DO NOT need to do one of the test prints where it prints a photo of a pear, which uses quite a bit of ink, but you can just do one of the self test prints where you hold down on the CANCEL button and then press the COLOR COPY button and it prints a quick test page with just a little color and a lot of B&W text, and that's apparently enough.
    And that seems to be enough to keep the ink cartridges from drying up, the way they seem to be otherwise doing so quickly now, as opposed to how HP and other brand ink cartridges used to.
    And in fact, now after about a month, after doing weekly self test prints, the ink cartridges are still flowing well and they just did some full color prints quite nicely... ALERT THE MEDIA AND ANYONE WHO CONSIDERS THEMSELVES HP PRINTING EXPERTS!
    So the questions I would ask myself are these...
    First, why is it that NO ONE at HP customer service knew this, whether it be on the HP 800 phone support or on the HP "Live Chat" with people in India, Malaysia and the Philippines, or even here on the HP Help Forum with so-called EXPERTS from HP?
    Second, how have the inks changed so that in the past, you didn't need to do maintenance prints every week, but maybe every two months at the most, in order to keep the inks from drying up, but now the inks dry up in a matter of less than two weeks unless a maintenance print is done once a week?
    Have HP and other ink makers changed the formula of their inks so they dry up much faster, forcing people to buy new cartridges when the last ink cartridge is still at a 90% level with dried up ink?
    And as a result, are people on the HP 800 customer phone support line and on HP "Live Chat" telling people that they need to buy a new printer, when in actuallity their ink cartridges are just drying up within a new record short period of time?
    You tell me, HP experts.

  • Hi! Does photoshop and Lightroom work only on Ipad, or does it work even in Android plate too?

    Hi! Does photoshop and Lightroom work only on Ipad, or does it work even in Android plate too?

    Hi Dave!
    Thanks for your answer. Now I know what to do, bye me an Ipad also..

  • USB and Firewire Card for Mac Pro 3.0

    I am running out of USB and Firewire Ports. Any suggestions on expansion cards for Firewire and USB??
    Thanks
    John

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  • (MacOSX Lion 10.7.4) The problem of connecting the audio interface (USB and FireWire), grained acoustic distortion!?

    When you connect the audio interface to usb or firewire grained acoustic distortion, there is no loud noise in the acoustics! In the old "iMac24 Snow Leopard" was not like this!
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    Well, it's been a few days and with no response I thought I'd look for another solution. I've been trying this software called iVPN, apparently it's like a front-end to OS X's built-in VPN server. Anyway, I disabled the VPN Server from the Server app, turned on iVPN and was VPN-ing from my iPhone over 3G in notime. It's a great app, though it kinda ***** that the server can't do what it's built to do. Since VPN was the big reason I got Server in the first place, I'll probably uninstall it and stick with OS X's built-in file sharing and iVPN.

  • Is it safe to plug and unplug USB and Firewire cables with the computer on?

    Is it safe to plug and unplug USB and Firewire cables with the computers on? I have a Mac G4 and a newly purchased IMac and I use one printer for both computers. Should I shut down the computers when I unplug the printer and connect to the other computer? How about when switching firewire drives.
    Is there an easy way to have both computers connected to the same printer? I have an Epson 1280 printer.

    Yes, you can unplug a printer without shutting down the computer, but if you are switching the printer to another computer then you should first turn off the printer, unplug it, re-connect to the other computer, then turn on the printer. This will assure that the printer will be properly recognized.
    If you have your computers networked via Ethernet then you can leave the printer connected to one computer and share it with the other via the network connection. Printer sharing is turned on using the Sharing preference in System Preferences. You will need to Add the printer on both computers so you will need the appropriate printer driver installed on both computers.
    See the following articles for more:
    http://members.cox.net/18james/osxprintersharing.html
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58028
    http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/network/
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106658
    Also select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search on "printer sharing."
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    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.

  • Is it safe to plug and unplug USB and Firewire cables with the computers on

    Is it safe to plug and unplug USB and Firewire cables with the computers on? I have a Mac G4 and a newly purchased IMac and I use one printer for both computers. Should I shut down the computers when I unplug the printer and connect to the other computer? How about when switching firewire drives.
    Is there an easy way to have both computers connected to the same printer? I have an Epson 1280 printer.

    USB/Firewire ports were designed to be "hot" plugged. You can safely plug and unplug devices without usually having to shut down the computer or the device. Some devices, such as external HDs, digital cameras and iPods need to be "ejected" first, so as not to damage their formatting or data.
    You can network your Macs wirelessly or with an ethernet cable and then set the printer connected to one computer to be shared with the other computer.
    Here are a couple of links;
    Connecting two computers using Ethernet
    Sharing your printers with other computers

  • MBPro w/Mini DisplayPort to Cinema Display w/only USB and Firewire ports?

    I've searched the threads for something that will explain what kind of cable I need to use my Cinema Display with my MacBook Pro, and I'm not finding anything. The MacBook Pro has the Mini DisplayPort for video out, and the Cinema Display's only ports are two USB and two FireWire.
    All of the video cables I've seen in the online Apple store are either Mini DisplayPort to DVI or Mini DisplayPort to VGA, neither of which would work. Tech support told me that the computer and the display are compatible -- can anyone tell me which cable I need?

    I have been using the display for several years, connected to my G4 PPC Mac Pro. Now that I have a new MacBook Pro, I was thinking of getting rid of the tower and simply using the laptop.
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