USB over current notice and other problems

I have a 17" MacBook Pro (original 2.16 Core Duo) that has a USB over current notice pop up. The pop up says that the USB hub it's attached to will be deactivated. I'm trying to troubleshoot it but can't figure out what's causing it. What exactly does this notice mean? The ports all still work. The iSight doesn't work (not even recognized in System Profiler), and I know that's on the USB bus. Could that be the problem? I noticed the pop up seemed to occur with movement. I've found that I can recreate the USB alert at any time by applying pressure to the bottom case, in the center right behind the RAM cover. This may sound strange, but while trying to figure this out, I was pressing around on the top case to the sides of the trackpad, and when doing so it made a crackling sound. It did this again when I applied pressure and the keyboard and trackpad became unresponsive. Does anyone have a clue? Thanks.

Try http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2090 to see if you can find the iSight problem.
If your iSight is still not recognized in System Profiler, you likely have hardware problems. (That hardware problem could also account for your problem "with movement" and the "crackling sound.") Contact Apple or an Apple-Authorized Service Provider for service. Tell your service provider about all your issues. My guess is that at least some are related.
If you can get your iSight working again, consider the info from these Apple technical articles:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25685
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26511
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25618
It seems possible to me that an unpowered (or possibly an underpowered) hub could be causing your symptoms. It also seems possible that a faulty power supply on a powered USB hub could cause bus current overload without your knowing that your hub is operating like a non-powered unit even though you have it plugged in to wall power. If you cannot check your hub's power supply, ask you Apple Technician to do it when you have your MBP checked.
EZ Jim
G5 DP 1.8GHz w/Mac OS X (10.5.6) PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11) iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9) External iSight

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My imac is frozen with the following notice: USB over current notice. have tried powered hub, no help. have tried unplug and restart, no help. any suggestions?

my imac is frozen with the pop up notice of "usb over current notice, a usb device is currently drawing too much power. the hub it is attached to will be deactivated". have tried unplug and restart, no help. have tried power hub, no help. my wired keyboard and mouse do not work. help.

Unplug all devices including your mouse and keyboard. Now do a
SMC RESET
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computer's power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
It is the 5 second timing that initiates the reset.
If it starts up normally plug in 1 item at a time. You may have a defective device that is drawing too much current.

Mac mini shut down with USB and USB Over Current Notice

I just spent the day dealing with my mini shutting down when I connected my iphone. If I left it connected at restart, I got the infamous USB Over Current Notice. I tried all suggestions and finally used an apple connector instead of the one I had been using. Everything OK again... Other comments? It was very time consuming and frustrating.

Do you have other devices connected to USB ports ?
Try to connect with a powerde hub in between.
and look here https://discussions.apple.com/message/7191644#7191644

Keep receiving "USB Over Current Notices" since updating to OSX 10.6.8. I have no devices plugged into my Imac and running everything wireless. SMB/PRAM resetting did not work. Does anyone have some advice or can help?

Keep receiving "USB Over Current Notices" since updating to OSX 10.6.8. I have no devices plugged into my Imac and running everything wireless. SMC/PRAM resetting did not work. Does anyone have some advice or can help?

Hi Melissa,
Pretty strange, but...
Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, does it happen in Safe Mode? Reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)

USB OVER CURRENT NOTICE

I keep receiving this error message in a dialog box, repeatedly; so much so, in fact, that it is affecting productivity: "USB OVER CURRENT NOTICE - A USB device is currently drawing too much power. The hub to which it is attached to will be deactivated".
The only thing attached by external USB is the stock Apple mouse; in fact, this machine is plain vanilla, nothing-that-didn't-come-out-of-the-box stock Apple. I have tried resetting the SMC. I have tried a different mouse. I have tried no mouse. I have tried all the different USB ports in the back. I performed a shutdown and left everything unplugged for half an hour. There isn't any relevant help on Apple's support site.
Any ideas?

I don't know if this helps but...
I have five 24" iMacs in a education lab that keep telling me "USB Current Overload," even though only the Apple keyboard is attached. It seems they starting giving me the message the first time I turned them on. However, after a great talk with an Apple Tech person, we deduced that it must be a driver I installed on the five machines. We came to this conclusion because when I boot the machine from the OS CD, the problem doesn't happen. When I reboot from the hard drive, the message incessantly pops up, even with just the keyboard and mouse (that it came with) plugged in. On one machine in particular, the message pops up so many times that I can barely use the machine.
I have installed two external devices driver's on this machine, a Novation ReMote Compact SL driver and a TC Electronics 24 D firewire driver. I also have "frozen" these machines using DeepFreeze, which keeps students from installing things or chaning settings. My assumption is that one of these drivers is causing the bogus message. Since the computer works fine when booting up from the OS CD, this is the only thing that could be happening. Some other driver is causing the machine to think a USB device is drawing too much power. At least, I think this is what is happening. I'm still working on fixing this problem, but have not been successful yet with removing drivers.

USB Over Current Notice - Nothing Connected

Hey all,
so recently i hooked back up my power mac and it worked well for the first couple months.
However, today i was not so lucky. I have a 20 inch apple monitor attached, and it has 2 usb ports. Those ports are almost always plugged in, but when i try to plug them in together, now i get the message 5 times in a row: USB Over Current Notice, A USB device is currently drawing too much power. The hub to which it is attached to will be deactivated.
After playing around with it for over an hour, I've drawn a couple conclusions. If nothing is connected: it will still pop up 5 times in a row. If I have just the keyboard in (and mouse connected to keyboards USB): the message pops up, however the hub (usb on monitor) is not deactivated. If i plug in my music streamer and the keyboard: message pops up and the hub is deactivated.
Finally my troubleshooting.
Resetting the SMU: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1436
Not sure if this is a late 2004 or late 2005 Power Mac G5, but i did it the 2004 way so far.
Resetting the PRAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
Both have not helped the problem, if the problem still exist I will take off the aluminum cover and reset the SMU or PMU or whatever else people suggest within the next couple of days.
Currently on my laptop watching it pop up every 30 seconds between me holding return (closing the 5 windows). ugh

Yes, it's likely the Monitor hub, a common failure point, disconnect the USB to the Monitor & get an AC powered USB2 hub.

My 15" Macbook pro gives me a "USB over current notice," NOTHING PLUGGED IN

My 15" Macbook pro always gives me a "USB over current notice" on startup and VERY frequently throughout use (I'm talking every 5 minutes) without ANYTHING plugged in. My computer is ****** up, and will often freeze without being charged, (and thats a whole other problem) but I'm almost certain the USB over current notices happened well before that. I'm 99% sure its the USB on the left side of my mac, because i'd tried connecting my Ipod to that side and got no response. Plugging it in on the right side worked fine.
I'm not turning it into the apple store, it would cost much more to fix than to buy a new one due to it being dropped one to many times, but most problems i don't mind except for this!
if there's anyway to COMPLETELY deactivate my left USB port that'd be awesome. i have absolutley no need for it since it's already obsolete.
ALL HELP IS APPRECIATED. and I'll try to be accepting if there's no real way to fix this, i understand how f'ed up it is already.
-i believe i've already reset my PRAM (or was it PMU???)
and i dont know how to reset any other fancy shmancy mac lingo and i'm not the most computer sauve person, so baby speak will totally help.

Maybe "dropped too many times" is a clue. Take it in for repair.

"USB Over Current Notice" - Hard drive not connecting any more??

I have an internal hard drive which I put in an hard drive enclosure and have been using as a backup hard drive for the past few months...I just bought a bigger hard drive for my Macbook so I backed all my info up to my external hard drive and now that the new hard drive has been successfully installed, I can't seem to boot my external hard drive. When I plug it in I get the message "USB Over Current Notice. A USB device is currently drawing too much power. The hub to which it is attached to will be deactivated."
I've tried repairing disk permissions, I've switched out the USB cable, and I've tried it on my mom's (brand new) iMac. This thing is no longer working, and I'm not sure why since my upgrading my macbook's hard drive shouldn't have affected my external hard drive whatsoever. My Macbook is plugged into the power adapter, and my iMac is obviously plugged in to a power source as well.
Again, I've used this hard drive to back up both the iMac and the Macbook successfully in the very recent past, and all of a sudden it's not working - I'm not even using the full amount of space in the external hard drive. What is the problem here and how do I fix it? All my old files are on that hard drive and now I can not longer access them.

Sounds like your "new" external is operating as a bus-powered drive. The bigger internal may be drawing a larger amount of current--you didn't say what size either is and even within the same size, the current draw varies a lot. Between them you may be exceeding the available current. BTW, this can happen with large flash drives, too. I suggest you put your external in a powered enclosure or a powered 2.5"/3.5" open externals--I bought one, either option $20 to $30. Once it turns off the port it will take a while to be re-enabled with the load removed. I had it happen with a new mouse on an iMac keyboard port.
-Ken

USB Over Current Notice on G5 with 22" Cinema Display

USB Over Current Notice on G5 with 22” Cinema Display
I have owned a Dual 2GHz 64 bit Power PC since 2004. In that time, it has performed virtually flawlessly (as in having no major issues to speak of). Now, all of a sudden, I'll be working away and a warning window with a large white exclamation mark in a red octagon pops-up stating: “USB Over Current Notice. A USB device is currently drawing too much power. The port to which it is attached will be deactivated.” The window repeats itself cascading down 3, 4 or 5 times. This will continue to happen even when I’ve disconnected the only 2 USB devices attached to the computer, i.e., an Apple keyboard and a Kensington Expert Mouse (#K64325). Can anyone shed some light on this problem. It is very disconcerting (not to mention annoying). Does anyone have a solution for me (other than “junk the old beast”)? The fact is it still works great with both Final Cut and Pro Tools. Last but not least, I think I’ve narrowed the problem down to my 22” Cinema display. With the computer is attached to another monitor, I’ve yet to have that warning pop up. Is that possible? Could the display be the culprit?

Yes, in answer to your question (BDAqua) my Cinema Display has a ADC connector & USB ports on the back.
Your asking that question brings another to mind. If there are those, who have figured out, wherein the actual problem lies, i.e., with the monitors that have USB connectors built in, why didn't Apple just issue a recall on those monitors rather than having so much spurious and speculative information floating around out there on the internet?
I've just for the first time tuned in to these user forums and blogs only to discover that this is a wide spread problem that has been going on for years. (???) People saying, "Oh you just need to restart the computer" or "it's a bad mouse" or "bad keyboard" or worse yet, "it's your MOTHERBOARD!!!" when in fact it appears to be none of the above. Surely this is something that Apple became aware of long ago. Why didn't they correct the problem raher than letting it persist and making their buying public jump through hoops. I've been an Apple user for many many years. I've spent tens of thousands of dollars with that company from my first Quadra 950 to my MacPro -- I find this very disappointing.
In conclusion, all I can say is, I sincerely appreciate that you've taken the time to respond in an attempt to help. Thank you.

USB Over Current Notice - Macbook Pro 2006

I had an external hard drive connected to one of my USB ports, and I think the AC Power adapter it was using flipped out. The drive no longer works at all. The port (front left) does not work with any devices (powereded or not) now, but the other two USB ports do (powered devices or not). I figured I'd have to take it in to the shop if I want to get the dead USB port working again. Or, is that something I may be able to fix? Anybody know?
Everytime I power up the computer now, I get this notice: "USB Over Current Notice, A USB device is currently drawing too much power. The hub it is attached to will be deactivated."
It must be referring to the front left port as a hub, right? And since the other ports are still working, am I correct in thinking that each port must be considered an independent hub from the others?
I find it notable that the dead USB port is reporting to continually be "drawing too much power." Maybe the circuitry is just fried so it keeps reporting it??? I have nothing plugged into the port in question.
Does anybody have any helpful ideas how I can remedy this issue besides taking it in to the shop? Anything I can do through software?
Message was edited by: Adam Berkey

time to re-think cost vis-a-vis reliability of these macbook pros
*BINGO !*
Plus,... when you live in the middle of nowhere -like me- and that the nearest Apple authorized reseller doenst give the Apple Care service ? (yes ! I swear, not a lie)
Plus, ... when calling the US complaining the bad Apple service in LatAm, there is no reply ..
Plus, ... no way to contact Apple LatAm ( its a continent, right ? ) Apple LatAm is the only location without phone number in the International Technical Support Numbers ..
I feel VERY VERY alone and frustrated. btw I bought the dearest computer in the world, in order to get the best quality and service
If someone could give me a phone number where I could complain about Apple Care in Argentina
I would be very happy
Thanks for your help/advice Apple people ! http://homepage.mac.com/rdsck/PhotoAlbum24.html

USB over current notice when plugging cinema display

Hello,
I have a 24-inch cinema display connected to my MacBook (aluminium, nov 2008). Both were running well until I suddenly got those warnings "USB over current notice" while working on my computer. I keep getting those warnings when I plug the USB cable of the cinema display to the MacBook. Note that I do not get those warnings when other USB devices (mouse, external HD, iPod) are connected to the Mac. I tried to reset the SMC and PRAM but not to avail. When I plug the USB cable from the cinema display to another Mac I do not get any warning. So, the cable seems OK. Any idea of what's going wrong? Tks

You've probably noticed this has been going on for years. I get it when I plug my iPhone into my Macbook.
Every update that comes gives me hope, but it hasn't been addressed yet.

Plugging in iPhone results in USB Over Current Notice

When I plug in my iPhone I now get the following message:
USB Over Current Notice, A USB device is currently drawing too much power. The hub it is attached to will be deactivated.
I tried powering down, unplugging the power cable and removing the battery, then waiting 30 minutes and placing everything back together - still got the message.
I also reset my SMC- still got the message.

Does the iPhone connect normally to other computers/macs? Can you try another cable?

"USB Over Current Notice.A USB device is currently drawing too much power..

...The hub to which it is attached to will be deactivated."
I can't seem to plug my iPod Touch or iPod Video into my MacBook's USB ports. I have 2 ports and neither will work, I just receive the above message. I have tried most of the troubleshooting tips from other discussions. (Ie. restarting computer and iPods, plugging in different ports, checking the system profiler, etc.) External harddrives, card readers, and mouse all work fine.
I have recently upgraded to Mac OS X (10.5.8). I still had Tiger before that. And I upgraded my RAM from 1GB to 2GB. All upgrades work fine and run smoothly. Before these upgrades, my ports were syncing my iPods just fine.
Any ideas?

I have the same issue with the same hardware (more or less), but I am using Tiger. All other USB devices work fine. Ipod charges OK with plug-in USB chargers. I even tried connecting to the MacBook through a powered USB hub and it still gave me an overcurrent notice. Once I got an overcurrent notice even by plugging just the iPod sync cable in to the MacBook when the iPod wasn't even connected. If any other USB devices were giving me problems, I might think it was a USB port problem, but it only happens with the iPod.

FOR GURUS: Over Current Notice - USB device drawing too much power

Hi,
When I plug a USB extender cable to any USB port on any Mac tested so far, I get the warning:
"USB Over Current Notice. The USB device is currently drawing too much power. The port it is attached to will be deactivated".
In fact, that freezes the Mac mouse and keyboard until the USB extender cable is unplugged, and renders the used USB port unusable until the next restart.
What is going on? Such extender cable worked fine until Virtual PC was open with Windows XP XP2 in safe mode on an iMac G5 (20-inch) with Mac OS X 10.4.3. A 1GB flash pen was inserted, and its files were seen via "My computer". Then the flash pen was taken out (without properly ejecting it via Windows) and someone inserted a 2.2 GB USB hard disk, which froze the Mac and caused the reported problem from that moment.
So it seems that the USB cable is now somehow defective, but I wonder if it could be fixed, since it does not seem to have any internal circuit but just the USB connectors and cables. So I wonder what is going on...
Thanks.

¡Hola, Gabriel!
USB Overcurrent Protection issues arise when one or more of the USB devices draw too much power or, by adding a device to a USB hub, one exceeds the current budget for the entire chain. A detailed explanation can be found in this article, where it states:"Should the cumulative current drawn by a group of downstream ports exceed a preset value, the overcurrent protector removes power from all downstream ports. Overcurrent circuits are used to protect against catastrophic device failures, software errors that lead to devices turning on when the current budget has been exceeded, and user-caused events such as the shorting out of connector pins."See also "USB: Hub Description" for important information on self-powered vs. bus-powered UBS hubs.
Your Apple Pro keyboard is a bus-powered USB hub. Some displays continaing USB ports may act as either bus-powered or self-powered hubs: one has to consult the display's documentation for details.
• If USB Overcurrent problems arise using a bus-powered, third-party USB hub, try a self-powered hub or connect the USB device directly to one of the built-in USB ports on the computer itself.
• If USB Overcurrent Protection issues arise when a device is connected directly to one of the built-in USB ports on the computer itself, then the peripheral device or its cable is either damaged or defective.
Note that you can not put two bus-powered hubs in series. In addition to the article "USB: Hub Description", see also "Apple Pro Keyboard: Devices Connected to Hub May Not Work."
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

Usb error message "USB over currnet notice" both usbs dont work.

Ive looked at many posts with my similar problem but nothing really answered it. I recently connected a digital camera with a usb cable. When I turned the camera on the error message came up that I "USB over current notice". I have a feeling that I might have burt the USB. Im not sure because i have been reading posts that say you can reset something, or might have to reinstall the operating system.
I would also like to mention that both USB's dont work. I plugged the camera in the USB closer to the user. The usb towards the back does not work at all. The one closer to me does do something. When I plug my ipod into that usb, the computer doesnt recognize it, and the ipod doesnt recognize that i plugged it in either. But when I unplug it from the computer, the ipod lights up recognizing that I have unplugged it.
It seems that it works very very little amount. Im thinking that I have a hardware problem. So does anyone know what it will cost, or what must be done to fix this problem. Not having a usb is not easy to live with.
Also, the firewire, camera, mousepad, keyboard and all that stuff works.

hi there-
the first thing i would try is resetting the macbook smc. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319 when you restart the computer, reset pram by holding apple-option-p-r until you hear two sets of startup chimes instead of the usual one. if this doesn't help and you need repair, it depends on the extent of the damage how much the repair will cost. if you phone Apple (1-800-275-2273) or take it to a store, they can give you estimates for different types of repairs, but of course no one can know precisely what parts are needed unless the computer is examined. best of luck. Sherry

USB over current notice and other problems

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