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selowitch · Mar 1, 2005, 03:39 PM

The built-in USB ports of my Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) 450MHz have starting going flaky on me. My mouse/keyboard combo is sometimes not recognized at startup (and sometimes is recognized) and I can only restore the connection by unplugging and replugging the keyboard and rotating which USB port I use. It's very annoying.

Any idea if I can fix this somehow? Maybe retighten the ports (they're a mite loose) or replace the board?

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Mar 1, 2005, 04:21 PM

Do you have an Apple LCD with USB ports?

selowitch · Mar 1, 2005, 05:03 PM

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
Do you have an Apple LCD with USB ports?

Nope. An old CRT.

bowwowman · Mar 3, 2005, 01:05 AM

Originally posted by selowitch:
The built-in USB ports of my Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) 450MHz have starting going flaky on me. My mouse/keyboard combo is sometimes not recognized at startup (and sometimes is recognized) and I can only restore the connection by unplugging and replugging the keyboard and rotating which USB port I use. It's very annoying.

Any idea if I can fix this somehow? Maybe retighten the ports (they're a mite loose) or replace the board?

You can get a PCI card w/4 USB ports for ~$20.......lotsa brands out there, Belkin & D-Link make good ones, as do many others

Captain Obvious · Mar 3, 2005, 03:07 AM

Originally posted by bowwowman:
You can get a PCI card w/4 USB ports for ~$20.......lotsa brands out there, Belkin & D-Link make good ones, as do many others

He's right, why spend the time trying to fix old failing ports when you can move up to USB 2.0 PCI card for almost nothing. Since you have a tower there really is no problem unlike an iMac or Powerbook. I spent $15 at newegg for a PCI USB card instead of getting a USB hub and I could not be happier.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Mar 3, 2005, 02:22 PM

Originally posted by bowwowman:
You can get a PCI card w/4 USB ports for ~$20.......lotsa brands out there, Belkin & D-Link make good ones, as do many others

Ya just remember if you get a 2.0 USB card that plugging in a 1.0 device slows down the whole chain.

selowitch · Mar 3, 2005, 06:18 PM

Sure, I already had a Belkin 5-port USB 2.0 PCI card installed before I posed the initial question. However, certain things only seem to work reliably through the original USB 1.1 ports soldered to the motherboard; for example, the power button on my keyboard. That's the frustrating part.

turtle777 · Mar 7, 2005, 11:15 AM

I have had the weirdest USB problems with a USB2 Hub on my Mac mini.

USB2 Thumbdrives (different brands) wouldn't mount when connected to the USB2 hub ("low power warning / error"), I couldn't even connect my Apple USB keyboard to the USB2 hub (same "low power warning / error, WTF ?).

Also, sometimes some USB devices are not recognized, all get's real flaky. It's either that freakin USB2 hub, or the Mac mini is really finicky...

-t

SSharon · Mar 7, 2005, 11:44 AM

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
Ya just remember if you get a 2.0 USB card that plugging in a 1.0 device slows down the whole chain.

I have never seen this happen. I have a USB 2 pci card with my printer, APC, and usb 1 hub plugged into it and I can still use the remaining port for one of my usb2 external drives as well as my ipod mini.