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USB Problem?
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MARINEOSX
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Apr 7, 2006, 12:22 PM
 
I just got my replacement PowerBook from Apple. YAY! I have an issue though. I can't mount an external hard drive to it. I can mount it to my friends 4 year old iBook but not a brand new 17" PowerBook. What gives? Is this a serious problem or is it an easy software fix? There are no drivers for the external it is a standard protocall. When I plug it in it sounds like it powers up and then shuts off and it reapeats the proccess over and over never mounting the drive. I have no problems with mice and thumb drives. I am going to see if I can mount a wall powered drive to it later any help would be great. Thank you in advance.
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ibook_steve
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Apr 7, 2006, 01:53 PM
 
You're not using external power for the drive? I'm sure that's the problem. The USB port isn't giving you enough juice to run the drive bus-powered.

Steve
     
MARINEOSX  (op)
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Apr 11, 2006, 01:13 PM
 
I think that is what it is too. But is this normal for the PowerBook cause my iBook will run it just fine. Even the usb 1.1 on the dell in my work will run it. I think that there is something wrong with the ports. Is there anything that I can do to reset it other than the PMU? Or is this something I am going to have to send back to the states?
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ibook_steve
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Apr 11, 2006, 01:27 PM
 
Originally Posted by MARINEOSX
I think that is what it is too. But is this normal for the PowerBook cause my iBook will run it just fine. Even the usb 1.1 on the dell in my work will run it. I think that there is something wrong with the ports. Is there anything that I can do to reset it other than the PMU? Or is this something I am going to have to send back to the states?
USB was never meant to supply enough power to power a hard drive, only keyboards, mice, and the like. You don't mention which Powerbook you have, but newer ones seem to not supply as much power on USB, which makes sense since that power can be used in much better places elsewhere. Personally, I would never trust running a hard drive (other than my nifty little 2.5" Firewire case) on USB bus power.

Steve
     
MARINEOSX  (op)
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Apr 11, 2006, 01:42 PM
 
Actually I do say that I have a BRAND NEW 17" PowerBook. And it should supply the same power as anything else. There is a standard for USB 2.0. If it can power a 500ma mouse then it should be able to supply power to a 500ma 20 gig drive. It I do not think it is operating the way that it is suppose to. I can live without it for now but what happens when I need a crucial peice of equipment that requires USB Power and I can't? I will have to send it to them.
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mhuie
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Apr 12, 2006, 09:38 PM
 
Try buying a USB cable with 2 heads. That will guarantee that the drive is getting enough power.

Better to be safe than have your data get messed up because of a dip in power.
MBP 1.83
     
MARINEOSX  (op)
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Apr 13, 2006, 08:31 AM
 
What about firewire? I have been looking and macsales.com and they have some firewire/usb. I would like that a lot but will I run into the same problem? I cant buy it unless I know because I will not be able to get it back to them within the 30 days. Any one with an issue have anything like this happen and use a firewire instead? Thanks again.
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