USB ports automatically shutting down for drawing too much power

Hi there, i currently use both of my USB ports on my MacBookPro for memory sticks and a basic mouse (nothing fancy or high powered).
Even if these are not plugged in i receive an error message saying that my USB hubs are using too much power and have to be shut down. Im currently required to back my work up every hour so the loss of the hubs is very annoying.
When working, the memory sticks are often randomly disconnected and crash the programme im working on.
Any ideas and or similar experiences??

It sounds like you have a program accessing data directly from a memory stick. A much better procedure is to copy the data to the hard disk and then let the program work on it there. If you have a program crash the original data is still safe on the memory stick. When you have finished working with the data on the hard disk, only then copy the data back to the memory stick.

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WD Legacy External Hard Drive "Draws too much power from USB"

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Contact the manufacturer. I think the power pack for the drive is not functioning properly.

The device was drawing too much power and that the USB port will be shut down

New to forum, help,
Cannot add a USB hub, powered or not, keep getting message
The device was drawing too much power and the USB port will shut down.

Hi
Is your machine connected to AC power? If not, connect it, and it should work. You may also try resetting the SMC.
If it still doesn't work when connected to AC, then the hub most likely is drawing too much power (i.e you have too many devices connected to it)
Taylor

HT1338 Does anyone have a fix for the error message "Because a USB device was drawing too much power from your computer one or more of your USB devices have been disabled" - this is a brand new machine with nothing connected to the USB ports - i've done u

Hi
does anyone know how to fix the message on my iMac:
"Because a USB device was drawing too much power from your computer, one or more of your USB devices have been disabled."
This is a brand new machine and did not have anything attached to the USB ports"
Thanks for any help

If you are getting that message on a brand new Mac with nothing connected to the USB ports, take it back. It is broken.

IPod Nano Drawing Too Much Power From USB Port

My daughter plugged her iPod into the USB port of our iMac today, something she has been doing for months and months, and yet this time she was greeted with an error message telling her that something was drawing too much power from the USB port, so my iMac was shutting down that port. I moved the iPod to another port -- same error message. I moved the iPod to another iMac -- same message. So I am confident that the culprit is the device and not the computer. Any ideas on how to resolve this issue? The iPod is an iPod Nano 7th Generation (current model).

My issue has been solved. The USB cable was bad. I am unsure how to remove my question from the forum ... sorry for taking up anyone's time.

New MacBook, New ipod, "Usb port drawing too much power" message?

I just got a new MacBook and ipod Nano, and when I plugged the ipod into the usb 2.0 port, a message came up saying a usb port was drawing too much power and would be shut down. i'm charged and plugged in, is the wire messed up, the port, or the nano?
-E

strange - try the second port.
possibly a bad cable.

I plugged in my ipod and now i get the error message: Because a USB device was drawing too much power from your computer, one or more of your USB devices have been disabled" - i have a MAcBook pro and now my USB ports do not work - can anyone help me ???

i plugged in my ipod and now i get the error message: Because a USB device was drawing too much power from your computer, one or more of your USB devices have been disabled" - i have a MAcBook pro and now my USB ports do not work - can anyone help me ???

Sometimes you have to reset the SMC two or three times for it to work, don't know why. I've seen that error message before and 100% of the time it was fixed with an SMC reset. I suppose it's possible that your keyboard or mouse IS drawing too much power, do you have access to another you could try?

IPod Touch drawing too much power--disabling USB ports

Hi there,
I have a brand new Macbook, just picked it up less than a week ago. I've been hooking up my 2nd gen iPod touch to it for a while without any problems, but suddenly I started to get an error message every time I plug it into my USB port:
"*Because a USB device was drawing too much power from your computer, one or more of your USB devices have been disabled.* To prevent damaging your computer, the USB device drawing too much power has been disabled. Other devices may also have been disabled. When you disconnect the device drawing too much power, your other USB devices will be enabled again."
I've been looking all over the internet for a solution to this and I can't find a thing--it's really frustrating since this laptop's brand new and I have no other way of charging my iPod.
My laptop is plugged in while I'm doing this. The error message is instant--it seems to pop up before I've even inserted the USB cable all the way. Also, for what it's worth, I just did a test and I get the error message just by plugging the USB in, even if it's completely unattached to anything.
Thanks, looking forward to a solution.
Message was edited by: stenzelwa
Message was edited by: stenzelwa

Had the same where as soon as i Plug my iPhone into the USB Port on my 2009 "Macbook Pro"
"Because a USB device was drawing too much power from your computer, one or more of your USB devices have been disabled. To prevent damaging your computer, the USB device drawing too much power has been disabled. Other devices may also have been disabled. When you disconnect the device drawing too much power, your other USB devices will be enabled again."
(This is a Simple Fix)
Just Change the USB Cable.
I Just Happened to have a New USB/iPod/iPhone Cable Laying Around, so i Connected it and "Voila" everything was back to Normal.

Constant error message: USB drawing too much power - no USB plugged in for weeks?

Starting about two days ago, I've been getting error messages about every 30 seconds saying that a usb device is drawing too much power, and my usb device has been disabled. I haven't had anything plugged into the usb ports for about 3 weeks, well before I started getting this error message. At first the error messages came up one at a time, but now about 5 of them pop up every 30 seconds..
There seems to be no visible damage to either of the usb ports, and I've updated software and restarted it too. Can anyone help me figure out what's going on?

If SMC and PRAM resets do not correct the problem, make an appointment at an Apple store genius bar for a FREE evaluation.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
Ciao.

USB port drawing too much power. The device that is plugged into it will be

I get this strange message every so often, sometimes more often than other times. It says:
USB port drawing too much power. The device that is plugged into it will be deactivated.
There are only two things plugged into the USB-The keyboard and mouse. When I get this message, the mouse freezes. If I jiggle the mouse cable where it is plugged into the USB, it comes back and everything is fine until this message comes up again.
Ever seen this before? What did you do?
Thanks for your help.

Ahh I guess I could have figured that out by reading your hardware tag huh...
So it's giving you the message when booting up from a cold system with NO devices attached? (Not even the keyboard and mouse?).
How long before you get this message?
After you get this message, if you plug the mouse in to either USB port (As each port is a seperate bus), to clear the alert, and go into About this Mac, and More info, if you expand the USB info for each bus. Is there anything there that appears to be out the ordinary? (IE Only showing one bus, Showing a device plugged into a bus that isn't plugged in?)

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

I keep getting 'USB port is drawing too much power error'

I have an old 2010 13" MacBook Pro. Just tonight, it started giving me a 'USB port is drawing too much power' error. The only thing I had plugged in to my MacBook was my iPhone cable (without the phone) and an Intuos tablet I recently bought. At first I thought it was the tablet, because the tablet started acting wonky after that error message (it worked just fine earlier in the day).
After restarting, the tablet works with no problem so I thought the problem must be the iPhone cable. The thing is, I read in some other forum that a cable not plugged to the iPhone shouldn't draw power, and they said if it does then it's a sign for a short circuit. My iPhone cable is a little bit worse for wear, to be honest.
So my question is: Is the problem my cable and if it is is it dangerous if I use this cable to charge my phone with a USB wall charger? 2nd, Is there anyway to fix this other than buying a new iPhone cable?
Thanks in advance!

Thats a warning. if you continually get that warning with the iphone cable and you keep using it. You could eventually disable that USB port.

Does anyone have a fix for the error message "Because a USB device was drawing too much power from your computer one or more of your USB devices have been disabled

I keep getting this error message over and over when all I have plugged in is an Apple USB keyboard and Apple Mouse. Please help...this is crippling the computer!

Sometimes you have to reset the SMC two or three times for it to work, don't know why. I've seen that error message before and 100% of the time it was fixed with an SMC reset. I suppose it's possible that your keyboard or mouse IS drawing too much power, do you have access to another you could try?

Everytime i plug in my USB for my android, i get the message that the device is drawing too much power from my computer. i just want to download my pics.

Everytime I plug in my android USB, I get a message that states the USB device is drawing too much power from my computer. The only other USB device connected to computer is my printer. Even when I disconnected the printer, I was still unable to use the android. When i use a non-android USB to say charge my phone, it will charge it, but it won't recognize any of my android data. What gives?

I'm going to guess that you are plugging into either the USB port on your keyboard or an unpowered hub. USB has two both low power and high power port specifications that determine how much electricity the port can supply to a device. The ports on back of your iMac are high power, the keyboard ports are low power. If you have an unpowered hub it has to 'share' power with all the devices you plug into so it too would have low power ports.

Error message (Because a USB device was drawing too much power)

Hi Everyone,
Bought recently a new macbook pro 13 inch with Retina display with 120 GB flash drive.
Connected a non-apple CD drive to my macbook and after that started receiving this message: "Because a USB device was drawing too much power from your computer, one or more of your USB devices have been disabled."
initially I was receiving this message after I switch on my macbook but now after every 30 seconds this message pops up although I never connected anything to my macbook through its USB ports.
Will highly appreciate for your help on how to get rid of this problem.
Regards
Homayun

Try resetting the SMC
Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.

USB ports automatically shutting down for drawing too much power

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