[Hydra]

Among the documents that came with my new 23” Cinema Display was what looked like an addendum on a small pamphlet about the USB hub built into the display . It states as follows:

“USB and Your Apple Cinema Display

Your Apple Cinema Display has two USB 2.0 ports and your Apple Keyboard has two USB 1.1 ports. You can connect your mouse to one of the USB ports on your keyboard. The second USB port on your Apple Keyboard does not work properly when the keyboard is plugged into the display. For proper operation, plug your Apple Keyboard in to a USB port on the Power Mac G5 and not the display.”

From these instructions it would appear the hub in the display itself may be flawed in some way or the Power Mac itself may be as the instructions seem to be specifying the G5 and an Apple Keyboard. I know of one other poster here on the MacNN forums who was having a Bluetooth (built in BT on the G5 is on the USB bus) problem with his new display on his G5. The wording is not very descriptive as far as “proper operation” goes and I just wonder if using the display with the Apple Keyboard plugged into it would be OK as long as you only use one or less USB port on the Apple Keyboard.

I have not had any problems with the Apple Keyboard plugged directly into the display but I use a wireless Logitch MX700 plugged directly into the display and don’t use any of the USB ports on the Apple Keyboard. The only problem I saw was when I first booted after hooking up the new 23” and Bluetooth was unavailable. It made me think, but I rebooted and all was fine. I only bothered to post this info because it occurred to me that more than 90% of users are likely to plug the Apple Keyboard into the display and then a mouse into Apple Keyboard. This could lead to problems if you plug other devices into the Apple Keyboard as well. It seems to me Apple should be a little more vocal in documenting a problem that a majority of users may be affected by with what they consider normal usage.

-Jerry C.

[Rev-O]

Feck.

So my keyboard won't plug into my intended 30" display. Not earth shattering. Survivable, to be sure. But does seem half-assed on Apple's part to release a new line of displays with screwed up USB hubs. Most disapponting.

[Krypton]

By not working properly it may mean high power (as opposed to low power) devices won't work through the second port on the keyboard, when plugged into the display.

[va3uxb]

I agree with Krypton. The wording basicaly states that when the keyboard is plugged into a USB port on the display, that only one of the two USB ports on the keyboard will function correctly, so you should plug the keyboard directly into the Mac rather than the display.

That makes me think the 'hub' built into the keyboard needs just a tiny bit more current then the USB ports on the display are capable of, so if you plug two devices into the keyboard that's plugged into the display, it overloads one of the hubs in the chain somewhere along the way.

It doesn't say you can't plug the keyboard into the display, only that if you do, you can only use one USB port on the keyboard itself.

-Stephanie

[Hydra]

I don't disagree with the above posts that say it's not a big deal, it won't affect me much, but when people see open USB ports they tend to stick devices into them. This kind of flaw and or design choice could give major headaches to people who have a couple of things plugged into their Apple Keyboard. When things go wrong they could spend a long time trying to figure out what is wrong. Maybe Apple should ship a USB cap to put over one of the USB ports on the KB to prevent it being used and explain why it should be used, kinda like those protectors they use for power outlets to prevent infants from sticking things in them

-Jerry C.

[MaxGuru]

Originally posted by Hydra:

I have not had any problems with the Apple Keyboard plugged directly into the display but I use a wireless Logitch MX700 plugged directly into the display and don’t use any of the USB ports on the Apple Keyboard. The only problem I saw was when I first booted after hooking up the new 23” and Bluetooth was unavailable.

I think the reason for Apple's warning is due to possible difficulties on using the keyboard on booting. The keyboard is probably more reliably connected if plugged directly into the Mac. The monitor USB is essentially the same as any USB hub. Most computers do not recommend using hubs for critical components like a keyboard. I have not had trouble using the monitor USB, but that may not hold true for everyone.

[Hydra]

Originally posted by MaxGuru:
I think the reason for Apple's warning is due to possible difficulties on using the keyboard on booting. The keyboard is probably more reliably connected if plugged directly into the Mac. The monitor USB is essentially the same as any USB hub. Most computers do not recommend using hubs for critical components like a keyboard. I have not had trouble using the monitor USB, but that may not hold true for everyone.

I don't disagree, but my older 20 inch CD came with no such warning I could find. Sure the USB cable is contained w/in the ADC cable but both displays are doing essentially the same thing, a powered USB hub inside the display itself with a cable coming from the computer feeding it. It just seems odd that they would do it this way.

-Jerry C.

[Synotic]

You can plug your keyboard into your monitor and your mouse into your keyboard right? Either that or mouse to keyboard to computer is what I think a majority of users will do. And it works. How many people use the additional keyboard USB port? It's too low powered for most things anyways.

[Dopey]

I had a similar problem with my GR PM and 17" Studio Display LCD. I can not use a Griffin Powermate plugged into my keyboard when the keyboard is plugged into the display and also has a mouse plugged in to it. It seems that this problem is not terribly new -- Apple is just documenting it instead of letting you waste hours troubleshooting.

[Amorya]

Originally posted by Synotic:
You can plug your keyboard into your monitor and your mouse into your keyboard right? Either that or mouse to keyboard to computer is what I think a majority of users will do. And it works. How many people use the additional keyboard USB port? It's too low powered for most things anyways.

Works fine for my scanner

[Link]

All pro keyboards will only power low power devices, no matter what the connection.. I think this holds true to all apple keyboards.

[mintcake]

*bump*

I took delivery of my new 20" cinema display last night, and I had an absolute nightmare trying to run a hard drive in an external USB2 enclosure through the screen's hub - also mounting my camera's CF card. Is this normal? We're talking total system lock-up.

[Cadaver]

Originally posted by mintcake:
*bump*

I took delivery of my new 20" cinema display last night, and I had an absolute nightmare trying to run a hard drive in an external USB2 enclosure through the screen's hub - also mounting my camera's CF card. Is this normal? We're talking total system lock-up.

Is this a bus-powered or a self-powered USB hard drive?

There's no way a passive hub like the one in the Cinema Displays will provide enough current to power a hard drive.

If the hard drive is self-powered (i.e., plugs into the wall and gets its own AC/DC power), then the port(s) on your display may be faulty.

Does a keyboard or mouse work properly off the display's USB ports?

[Link]

In the older cinema displays, the hub was meant for powering ANYTHING, including those USB pro speakers that came with cubes, this was the purpose they had in mind.. (as noted here, for example: http://www.welovemacs.com/m7963.html )..

I would have assumed the USB hub on the current cinema displays is just a usual powered hub as was the case with the older ones, where when plugging in a keyboard, you got as much power whether or not something else was plugged in.

The Apple keyboards, as I noted earlier, have a passive hub in them and are LOW power. However, plugging one into a USB hub shouldn't require THAT much power.

[turtle777]

Had a weird USB thing happening on my iBook yesterday.

I connected a new externally powered 7-port USB 2.0 hub to my iBook.
Everything (Palm, Epson printer, iMic, IntelliExplorer mouse) work fine as long as my Apple keyboard is plugged DIRECTLY to my iBook's second USB port.

As soon as I connect the Apple keyboard to the hub, nothing works and I get an error message in OS X that there is not enough power on the hub (WTF - it is externally powered ?).

So I ended up having the keyboard totaly outside the rest of the USB chain.



-t

[Simon]

My 20" ACD came with the same warning. To me it's no big deal, because I use a BT keyboard with my PowerBook/ACD setup anyway.

Nevertheless I find it rather mediocre design on Apple's behalf. Sounds somewhat like a PC-ish limitation to me. It either takes away functionality and/or confuses people. I don't understand why they don't just feed more power to the screens so the USB hub in the screen passes enough power to the keyboard. After all, the screens have a proprietary power brick made by Apple - you'd figure they spec'ed it to deliver as much power as necessary...

[MOTHERWELL]

I recently upgraded from the original 22" Cinema display to a new 23" HD. I was basically setting up the exact same thing, but now I had two new firewire ports on my display.

Everything seemed to be working smoothly when I was using the computer, but whenever I left and came back I would find a Mac OS X warning that "The Firewire HD you are using was not properly ejected...."

After much frustration I figured out that the problem happens when the DISPLAY attemps to go sleep, and is caused by the USB ports only. If any device is plugged into a USB port on the display when it goes to sleep, ALL devices connected to the monitor will lose their connection. So, along with my enternal firewire disk unmounting, the light on my mouse would flicker repeatedly. This would continnue for about 5 seconds until the display turned back on, and everything returned to normal (i.e. the FW HD would mount).

This is a huge issue for me because my music is on the external HD and iTunes always stops playing because the display has gone to sleep (and my HD is ejected).

I now keep my USB devices connected directly to the computer and everthing works fine. This is definitely not the best solution, but I guess it will have to work.

I paid $1800 to switch my two USB ports for two firewire ports.